Eternal (and free) Beer tap

[Rail Paul]

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...

[Varmint]

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.

[Varmint]

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!!

[Bux]

Pan Am used to be very generous about offering free first class tickets to travel agents. Remember Pan Am?