Generosity Stories from Breweries

Probably a very cool story, but can you edit that and type it out a little more clearly?

Somewhere in the middle there, you totally lost me:

 

I'm reading it as "my girlfriend picked up the smaller pieces of broken glass, and placed them into what was left of the glass" - some important context no doubt.

OP - was nice of the bartender to hook you up. I honestly don't have an amazing brewery story. The most recent cool thing that happened to me alcohol-related, was I went to one of my favourite bars (Owl Farm) and tried a cider which I really loved. The guy who served me was new (to me at least), I was only there for one drink, and as I was with my wife I didn't really speak to him other than to order the drink, make a comment on how good the cider was, and pay the tab. Anyway I went back in about a week later and sat at the bar to wait for a couple of friends. The guy came straight over with a bottle from the same cidery and poured me a free glass - said he remembered I'd liked the other one, and he thought i'd like this too. I love the place anyway, but this was a nice touch.

 

About 3 months back I met a English brewer from London who was in town visiting. I heard he was back last week asking if I was around and I was bummed to miss him. He came by the other day right before he left town to say hi and give me this:



Made my day for sure and it's great to know cool people in London for when I visit.

 

I've been volunteering for this beer festival in the city where I live. We get only Norwegian breweries there, and my favorite of those has always been Nøgne Ø. The past two festivals they've donated a keg of Horizon Tokyo Black, a 16% ABV RIS, specifically for the volunteer party afterwards. That amount of beer would go for about $1.3k sold in individual bottles, so that's the first that comes to mind as far as generosity.

 

I know it is a little bit off topic, but I remember the first time I went to the HUnter Valley (big wine region in New South Wales) I ended up on a pretty posh winery (sorry can't forget the name) and while our friends were tasting at the front, a friend and I went for a walk and got chatting to a bloke working round the back. Turns out the guy was the master wine-maker and owned the whole place. Because we showed a genuine interest in wine and wanted to learn from him (or perhaps just because he was a really good bloke!) he gave us each a case of 12 bottles for $40 each. Each bottle would cost $25 from the cellar door. Top bloke!

 

For a busy brewery owner, time can be a very precious resource.

I want to thank Shane (@Sixpoint) for being very generous with his time and participating on numerous BA thread discussions. Shane is a true Beer Advocate!

Cheers to Shane!

 

I flew out to RR this year for the Younger release. Got kicked out by one of the bartenders in a misunderstanding (we were seated with some folks that got super trashed, and he kicked us all out together instead of verifying that we weren't all shitfaced). Talked to the manager and he could see we weren't trashed and apologized profusely and gave us wristbands for the next day, allowing us to come at any time and skip the line, got a tour of the brewery, and some pours of Younger on the house. Made me happy

 

Was at Rapp brewing in St Pete recently with a group of friends from out of town (homebrewers). We had a couple brews and before we left we asked if we could take a quick peak at the brew system (awesomeness). They said, "Sure, hang on." Next thing we knew the owner had left his group of friends across the brewery, when he wasn't even working, and gave us a full tour by himself. Walked us through all his yeasts, brews, rooms, stories, introduced us to all the brewers. Really just a class act of an establishment. Shout out to Greg, he is the man!

 

Shane is an all around great dude. I'm fortunate to have experienced his generosity first hand.

 

Another quick one actually because turns out we have been really lucky! Walking around St Pete with some friends the other night. Stopped by Green Bench. Had a fire going outside so we sat out there with a random dude. Turned out the random dude was the owner! And the fire he had was the barrel staves from his recent release! Talked to us for a long time about all that went into the beers (two BA sours) then when he found out we hadn't tried the beers yet he went and got us a bottle of each and cracked it. Tell you what, sitting by a fire made from the staves from the barrel the beer you are drinking was aged in while listening to the guy who made it tell you about his hopes and dreams for his brewery. Beyond epic!

 

I arrived at one of my local spots after work not knowing that Lagunitas had a tap takeover going on. Once I talked to the bartender he informed me and pointed out the brewery rep. I went over, shook hands and complimented them on their products. We talked beer a bit and I mentioned that my girlfriend was obsessed with them so he got me some shirts and took care of my drinks, saying they were on Lagunitas. Very cool that a brewery I've always respected showed that same personality in person.

Side note: The Lagunitas rep had nothing but stellar things to say about their competition, even saying Stone was like their big brother and paved the way for places like them to expand. Good on them for that.

 

Two pretty similar stories from me. I purchased a bomber of revolution's "a little crazy" from a local binnys, opened it and it was infected. Not, "this tastes a little off", full blown sour champagne. Since I'm a fan of rev brew I decided to email the brewery and let them know they may have a problem with that dated batch, not expecting anything (it was only $8) in return I just wanted to bring it to their attention. A customer service rep promptly emailed me back and offered to send me a gift card to the brewpub. Awesomeness, I didn't expect anything but they insisted.

In the same vein I bought a bottle of regalia from perennial at another small local shop, turned out that it was completely flat. I wasn't really upset, not an expensive bottle or anything so no sweat. I just emailed perennial to let them know there could be an issue and they responded by asking for my address so they could replace the bottle, pretty generous. They not only replaced my regalia (which was carbonated and very good) but included a hopfentea in the two bottle shipper they sent.

I really appreciate that smallish craft breweries take care of their customers, and these experiences taught me that some good people are in this industry.

 

This one is more from the Dogfish Brewpub, and it meant so much to me.

So I recently moved out to California from NJ, drove straight across the country. During my drive I went to bed one night wearing my favorite t-shirt, the Aprihop one from this year (its my icon currently). The next morning I woke up and my girlfriend and I hopped in the car and drove off. I got to the next hotel and found that my shirt and a few others were missing, I had left them in the hotel room. I called the hotel awhile later (it was quite awhile and that was my mistake) and they told me it was gone, that it had been thrown out. I checked the Dogfish Head website and emailed them, they said they were all out. I called the people who made the shirt and they said they did not have any either. I ended up emailing one of the brewpubs and they said they did not have any they could sell either. So I had all but given up, decided to just repeatedly check eBay for one to go up.

A little while later I get an email from the brewpub asking for my address, they state one of the servers had the shirt in my size and offered to send it to me. A few days later it came in the mail and I have held onto it since! It was one of the nicest things and it has meant SO much to me. Just another reason why I love Dogfish!

 

Holy crud those are long stories.

The bartender at the original Hopcat gave me a feee growler of a batch of thier barley wine once.

 

Do you think maybe he was burning the staves to get charcoal to filter a distilled sour mash whiskey from the sour beer that was aged in the barrels that where used to make the charcoal used to filter the whiskey that was aged in spent wine barrels made by the winery that used to occupy the brewery that where also used to brew that sour beer before they aged the whiskey which was inside a duck stuffed inside of a turkey then put in a pig which was also put inside a cow that was deepfried who travelled back in time to become the owner of the brewery who started a fire from the staves of the barrels used to age the sour beer which you where drinking?

 

Last October I was in San Francisco my buddy and I hit up the Bay Area's finest. First at Russian River, after racking up a lunch tab of about $130+tip and spending another $160+tip the bartender loaded us up with some merch for free..a couple bottle openers, key chains, a few patches, bunch of coasters. It was a nice gesture. The next day we were at Mikkeller and bought a couple bottles of a 2001 gueze and a bottle of cantillon and the bartender came over to chat with us for a solid 15 minutes, and treated us to a few glasses of the sours they have on draft. Yeah we spent alot of money at both places and never expect anything for free..but it was really cool for the bartender at both places to slide show their appreciation. I guess the moral is be nice, have fun, don't be obnoxious and show appreciation and it will be returned.