Schwechater Bier - To my anonymous contributers

Dear beer enthusiasts,

I have many people to thank for the diversity and size of my collection. Many good friends remember me when they see a new beer. They go through the trouble of packing full bottles in their luggage, carrying extra weight around in their backpacks during their trips or even bothering their friends and relatives to bring me some beer from their region.

While these good friends (it would be unfair to cite names here, I'd unavoidably leave someone out) have a special place in my heart, today's post is not about them...

This post is about all the strangers who, upon hearing about my collection for the first time, felt compelled to contribute with something, and effectively did it!

Although my mother told me many times not to get candy from strangers, when it comes to beer, I tend to trust the generosity of people, as you might already have realized when you read the San Miguel story at a jazz bar in Düsseldorf, ... besides, no one would try to kidnap a broken grown-ass bearded man...

Even better than in that jazz bar, this time, instead of a massively distributed Spanish beer, I got a much tastier brew from a local Austrian brewery in Schwechat, in the vicinities of Vienna.

Schwechater Bier - Accepting beer from strangers

Although this brewery has been standing there since 1632, it was only last time I visited my sister, for 2015-16 new years eve, that my brother-in-law made me aware of the existence of this 500ml bottle of 5.0% lager beer . Needless to say that I felt immeadiatly compelled to get one for the collection...

Once in the brewery's shop, I was made aware that I could not purchase individual bottles, only crates. Faced with indecision in between the two options available and with the inability to carry one crate of each back home, I told the store clerk the reasons behind my request for a mixed crate.

His first reaction was to make me repeat the number of bottles in my collection, so to be sure he heard it right. After that, and also after inquiring me "where the hell do you keep all of those?" he offered me a quite generous deal: 

- I can't sell you a mixed crate, but you gotta go back home with both of them, so I will just throw in an extra bottle to whichever crate you buy... call it a new years gift!

This small, kind gestures are priceless... gifting me a bottle of beer definitely doesn't bring the clerk anything, and it's just a small sacrifice from his side when compared to the value that a new bottle has to my collection

The fact is that he heard my story, judged it to be honest and true (and not only me trying to get things my way) and was happy to help as he could.

As of me, happy with the two newcomers (the other beer will feature a different post, in the future), I also told him about this blog, gave him the web address and told him he'd probably feature in a post.

To all my friends and strangers who contributed, your post will still come, I promisse :)

To the clerk who went the extra mile and threw in a free beer: Thank you! I can't remember your name, but I hope you read this!

Cheers!