So this weekend I went out of town to Madison, leaving my partner at home. It was a short trip, and we didn't talk much with my busy schedule. On Saturday I pulled up Facebook and noticed that one of our localish liquor stores was congratulating her for winning a contest. "Winning what?" I thought, and the post just below revealed that she had won us $70 worth of beer goodies. The best part? The store was giving away a FW four-pack. She won Parabola '11 and '12, Abacus and Sucaba, and two sweet looking snifters. All she had to do was comment first on the store's status to win a plethora of awesome beer. Needless to say, I was more than a little excited, since I've never had any of these beers and didn't think I would anytime soon. Morale of the story: Free FW is awesome, especially when it's their top-rated beers. I'm really glad I got my partner into craft beer, otherwise we would have totally missed this. And the store is really cool to offer giveaways like that -- to my knowledge, no other place around us would do it. It definitely makes me want to give them a big chunk of my business. A quick question tacked on the end of this: If we were to drink one now and cellar the others, which would you recommend? Thanks!
Since you got them for free, I would drink the pairs side-by-side (Parabola '11 & '12 together, Abacus and Sucaba together). Assuming there's still some Parabola '12 hanging around the stores where you're at, this will give you a frame of reference for whether you want to drink them fresh in the future or let them sit for a while. Personally, I have preferred FW's barrel aged offerings fresh, rather than aged, but I know some people feel differently.
Free Parabola and Abacus/Sucaba is awesome! Since she won the beers, I'd let her decide which one she wants to drink first. In all honesty, you can't lose by drinking any of the 4.
I've never had free Parabola, but I've had the kind that costs money and it is delicious. I bet the free kind is even tastier - enjoy!
Thanks! Looks like I'll be asking her opinion and getting back to you. OneBeer, you could win via Twitter as well, there are options for you .
If I didn't have Facebook/Twitter I'd miss out on some bottle releases in my area. As much as I hate social media, it has its purpose.
You should try making friends with the owners/managers, then they will hold releases for you without asking until your next visit...
How are they to know I am interested in a particular beer that comes in? Or are you saying they'd hold it in the off chance you'd be interested enough to buy it? I have it where they Tweet/FB new releases, then I ask them to hold whatever, it works great. I mean some things like Parabola they just tell me about personally but its nice to see the other goodies they get in without having to make a trip to the store.
If you make friends with them, you can bring up in conversation, "Hey when you get Beer X, could you please hold me a bottle". They also might bring it up to you that a certain beer is coming in soon and if you'd like some. Sometimes the personal touch is a lot better than being connected via FB, Twitter, etc.
That is also how it goes at times, they've told me things and held things without my asking, but my point was sometimes a beer comes in I don't know about ahead of time, and they don't know I'd have interest in it. So I see the tweet and give them a ring...
Free Parabola must be awesome. Congratulations and enjoy to the OP. For those of us who have to utilize legal tender and who live local to Poughkeepsie, Half Time has Parabola as of this afternoon (6/26). $21.66 for the privilege. Good luck folks.
