You’ve probably seen those ads, usually written copy, where some shithead marketer entitles the piece “Free beer!” Then he launches his pitch with “Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about anything but free beer.
This isn’t that. This is really about free beer. It’s available, people! It’s really out there and I know how to get it. Over the next few days I’ll be sharing with you the strategies that I’ve found over the years to get free beer. Some are easy and some take real commitment but in the end you will have free beer.
First, though, let’s talk about what free beer means. It means beer that you don’t pay cash for. Most of these strategies will require that you spend time but not money. Got it? Good.
Probably the easiest way to score free beer is to take a brewery tour. I have toured dozens and dozens of breweries all over the US and in only one instance did I encounter a brewery that didn’t offer me free beer at the end of the tour.
The time commitment in this free beer strategy isn’t much, usually 20 minutes to an hour. Breweries like Anhueser-Busch in St. Louis, MO offer very rote tours led by college kids who don’t actually know anything about brewing except what they’ve memorized for the tour. At the end, you get one or two small beers then you’re herded out. That’s fine for what it is.
The best tours that I’ve been on have been to smaller breweries, especially those that don’t offer tours during set times of the day. Usually their website says something like “tours available by appointment.” So, you call ahead and arrange a tour with one of the brewers at a time when the brewery isn’t running. You show up, do the tour, and then retire to the taps. This is when it’s really fun. The brewer will drink right along with you and the more you chat the more you drink. There’s not really a limit, it’s based on the brewer’s discretion. I’ve tasted beers the brewery doesn’t actually sell, I’ve tasted beers that are in development, once I even tasted a beer that wasn’t done fermenting because the brewer was so excited about it.
As with most of these free beer strategies, this isn’t really a good thing to do if your only goal is to get loaded on free beer. You can and I’ve seen it plenty; people stumbling through their third tour of the day to get to the free beer at the end. But, you’ll end up making an ass of yourself and that is against our policy here at Boozin’ Gear.
So, that’s the first way to score free beer. More strategies coming soon.No Tags
