Sometimes, things just happen. Like Kronenbourg 1664.

Question: What’s that Kronenbourg 1664 currently on tap at the Public House?

Last week I ordered a 30-liter keg of Monk’s Café Flemish Red, but received a 50-liter Kronenbourg 1664 instead. Mistakes happen, and in this case, I needed something to put on tap and decided to keep it. Subsequently, a credit was issued for the price difference.

None of this is unusual, except that as many of you know, Kronenbourg 1664 isn’t the sort of beer I’d usually seek out to be on tap at the pub. It’s a serviceable Euro Lager from eastern France, near Germany, and has “interchangeable, multinational corporate golden beer” written all over it. Not that it’s bad, mind you. It’s just that dozens of other pale lagers occupy the same ground, and I’ve never seen the need to have very many different ones on tap unless Spaten Lager runs dry (as it does from time to time).

I concede that brand loyalty is a strong factor in consumer behavior, even in a business like ours where we’ve tried to decrease blind allegiance and tout the notion that one can be sufficiently educated to make his or her beer choices from a diverse position of strength. If the wait staff knows to translate consumer requests for big selling yellow beers into “you’ll like German beer called Spaten,” then 90% of the time, all will be well.

Besides, almost any beer will deplete at the right price point. Also, on two separate occasions within the past month, a customer recently returned from Europe asked about the availability of Kronenbourg.

To both of them: I bought it for you.

Enjoy.