Guys,
You might like this story about how things are done in Wisconsin.
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Brewski from heaven?
Kegs fall from truck; finder gets to enjoy contents
By Jessica Bock
Wausau Daily Herald
jbock@wdhprint.com
The beer gods were looking after Patrick Troyer on Wednesday when three kegs of Wisconsin Amber lager crossed Troyer's path on his way to work.
The beer, brewed by Capital Brewery of Middleton, had fallen out of the back of a delivery truck and onto a Wausau street because the driver had failed to secure the back door. But in Troyer's mind, he had experienced divine intervention.
"I think the clouds parted a little bit and the sun was shining down on me at that moment," Troyer, 29, recalled Thursday.
He was driving west Wednesday morning on Bridge Street and approaching Sixth Street when it happened. The beer truck had been en route to Scott Street Steak & Pub. When the driver of the delivery truck, owned by Central Beer Distributors, rounded the corner at North Sixth and Bridge streets, the 5-gallon slim kegs fell out.
Troyer put the car in reverse and the barrels, plummeting from the back end, narrowly missed his vehicle. He pulled over and got out to inspect.
Troyer moved the kegs off the road and waited for the driver to come back before loading them in his car and driving around to search for the truck. The two apparently just missed each other, because when the driver came back, he didn't see Troyer or the kegs.
In Wisconsin, beer that literally falls off the back of a truck isn't going to be left in the street for very long. So the driver called Wausau police and reported the missing kegs.
The driver was mostly just concerned that the incident had occurred and was glad that no one was hurt, said Mike Fischer, general manager of Central Beer Distributors in Rothschild.
Capital Brewery President Carl Nolen said it was a compliment the kegs were picked up so quickly.
"Some other brands might have stayed (on the street) longer," Nolen said.
Meanwhile, back at work, Troyer made arrangements to keep the beer cold in a relative's extra refrigerator and searched the Internet for Capital Brewery, the name he found adorning the kegs.
He faxed the company in Middleton a letter to report the incident and to inquire how to return the kegs, preferably after he emptied them.
Capital Brewery officials gladly obliged and canceled the police report they had filed on the missing kegs. They plan to mail Troyer a company shirt to enjoy with his free beer.
The Wisconsin Amber will be tapped for Troyer's two softball teams and a family reunion next week.
"I've got a family with a pretty strong German background, so I will be the hero this year," Troyer said.
Typically, Troyer enjoys weiss beers, the microbrews at Hereford and Hops in Wausau and the occasional Pabst Blue Ribbon. But since finding the kegs, he has sampled a glass of Capital Brewery's award-winning Wisconsin Amber at a restaurant.
"It was damn good," he said.