Bamf Beer

I went to the Glendale Liquors store in Kendall Park, NJ yesterday. I spent $23.11 (if memory serves) on beer there. I bought one large bottle each of Bluebird Bitter, Sly Fox Saison, Stone Ruination IPA, and I also bought a six pack of Stone Pale Ale. I bought the Bluebird cold, for sure, but I believe I bought everything else warm. After my purchase I went straight home and opened the Bluebird. It was skunked. I also opened one of the Stone Pale Ales. Also skunked. I gave up for the night, and today opened up the rest of the beers – ALL SKUNKED. However, this is not even the real reason I’m saying not to go to this store or any of its branches.

When I called to see if there was any refund, exchange or any kind of store credit type policy for bad beer purchased at the stores, I was completely lambasted by two different employees there. Note that I wasn’t pissed off or aggressive when I called – I was pretty matter-of-fact about the whole thing. I didn’t even have any expectations when I called because I have never returned beer before, and didn’t think it was something that would be taken back, because if you leave beer sitting on the seat of your car in direct sunlight, it damn well *could* be your fault that the beer got skunked! And why *should* they be held responsible for that?

Anyway, after the first person started telling me that there was no return policy on bad beer, I was abruptly put on hold, and then someone else came on the line and basically accused me of not knowing Stone products. Of course, this doesn’t explain why the Bluebird was bad or the Sly Fox was bad. It also is a little detached from reality because oxidation tastes similar no matter *what* beer you’re drinking. If you know what oxidation tastes like, you can pick it up in things you’ve never had before. However, I’ve had *plenty* of Stone products in my day, and I’ve had it in several locations, I’ve had it on tap, and I’ve had it in bottles.

Nevertheless, I was willing to gamble that there was more bad beer in the store, and so told the guy “look, just go open a bottle of it there in the store. It’s bad”. I figured if nothing else I’d help him get the bad beer off the shelves and avoid more phone calls. I don’t know why I’m doing him favors at this point, but whatever.
So at the end they guy says to bring in the bottles and if *he* thinks they’re bad, he’ll give my money back, and we hung up. Of course, his tone was so overly defensive, and he treated me like I was such total pond scum that I decided to write of the $23 as the cost of finding out where *not* to go for beer.

A few minutes later, the guy calls me back and wants to know when I’m coming and says he wants to call me out because he doesn’t think I know my beer. At this point I couldn’t resist telling him that I BREW BEER! In fact, not only do I brew beer, I have, in the past, brewed beer that has been oxidized during the bottling process, and it tastes (gasp!) just like the bad beer I got at Glendale Liquors.

So the Glendale Liquors representative (he never gave his name) is clearly not buying this whole “I brew my own beer” thing, and tells me I’m a “fucking asshole” and never to come back into the store.

So, I will happily not be returning to the store. Unless you’re buying BMC products in cans, I recommend you stay away as well. These people need to understand that business is not about insulting and berating your customers. They need to realize that I have family, friends, and fellow brewers (who spend *lots* on beer *weekly*) who will *also* not be returning to any of their branches.