Straub Brewery has a tradition of offering free beer to visitors, as many breweries do. Up until 1960, the beer was delivered via a small pipe and faucet on the side of the brewery, by the guard shack. I'm not aware of any US brewery which had such an open policy. Since 1960, the beer has been provided in the hospitality room, at the end of the free tour.
St Mary's, in extremely rural Elk County PA, doesn't get many casual visitors. Most people are there to hunt, fish, or drink free beer...
Eternal (and free) Beer tap
Started by
Rail Paul
, Jul 04 2002 02:14 PM
3 replies to this topic
#1
Rail Paul
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Posted 04 July 2002 - 02:14 PM
Apparently it's easier still to dictate the conversation and in effect, kill the conversation.
rancho gordo
rancho gordo
#2
Varmint
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Posted 05 July 2002 - 11:10 AM
I grew up in Northwestern PA about 40 miles from St. Mary's and have very fond memories of Straub beer. My father said it was the only beer that didn't give him heartburn, and that's saying something! I believe Straub was one of the first breweries to tout their lack of the use of preservatives. Thus, for as long as I can remember (25 to 30 years ago), they dated their bottles to ensure that your beer was as fresh as possible. Now I don't know if that was a true quality control issue or sound marketing, but my dad always talked about needing to drink the Straub's before it went bad. I bring a case back to NC every time I visit my old stomping ground. Pretty tame and lifeless stuff today, but its flavor brings back fond memories.
Dean McCord
VarmintBites
VarmintBites
#3
Varmint
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Posted 05 July 2002 - 11:14 AM
The free beer reminded me of my days in Milwaukee. That was back when Pabst was still in operation -- I used to ride my bike throught the middle of the brewery complex every day. Anyhow, they used college students to conduct their tours, and they would let people drink free beer for as long as they wanted. It was an awesome way to overindulge for free. The Miller Brewery, however, was much more of a sterile and Disney-esque tour. They had videos and all functional parts of the brewery were behind glass. Thus, you couldn't hear (and smell) what was going on. Worse still was that they gave you tickets for your beer, limiting you to 2 eight-ounce samplers. But then, this may be the reason why Miller is still operating in Milwaukee and Pabst is not!!
Dean McCord
VarmintBites
VarmintBites
#4
Bux
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Posted 05 July 2002 - 02:31 PM
Pan Am used to be very generous about offering free first class tickets to travel agents. Remember Pan Am?
Robert Buxbaum
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WorldTable
Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.
My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.
