The Muskoxen

After the Muskoxen held Quest for the Best 1: Muskoxtoberfest in Spring: Feats of Beer '09, the Brew-tastic Challenge, we decided to contact the top three breweries and let them know how they had done in our little contest.

Without thinking much about it, I put together a standard email congratulating the winners on Thursday, April 16, and let them know that they were free to use the appropriate badge on their website to show the world that they are very highly regarded by the Muskoxen. We didn't figure much would come of it.

Being the largest and most widely-known brewer of the winners (second place), and not to mention that Sierra Nevada is pretty much the brewery that put micro-brewing on the map, we didn't expect too much from them. To our surprise, however, within a few hours I got an email back from quality control thanking us for the kind words, telling me that they enjoyed our video, and that they had forwarded my email to the CEO and brewmaster. We thought that was the end of it.

This past Tuesday, though, I got an email from Laura Harter (who said she thinks our website is pretty cool: Go Muskoxen!) in the administration offices at Sierra Nevada. She thanked us for the second place and let us know that although they don't put links up on their site, they'd be happy to send us some swag. SWEET! She actually responded to emails, and over the next couple of days we were let know that we'd be receiving 4 hats, 4 t-shirts, 4 pint glasses, 2 aprons, and a Sierra Nevada woven banner. How awesome is that? We figured maybe we could net a case of beer or a couple of t-shirts or something, but nothing like that. Cool, right? They even sent the tracking number for the package (addressed to the Muskoxen and arriving next Thursday, April 30).

But they weren't done yet.

Yesterday, I arrived home and in the mail was a little yellow padded envelope from Sierra Nevada. In it was a hand-written note from someone completely different (I think her name is Barbi, I can't really read it) in customer service:

Seriously, either no one communicates with anyone in other departments at that company, or they're the coolest people ever. Either way, it's fantastic.

So in this package, we received four pens, four sets of coasters, four Sierra Nevada stickers, and four keychain bottle openers. Check it:

I almost want to  give them the Grand Prize retroactively.

So thanks Sierra Nevada, you have some big fans in the Muskoxen. We've all decided to start drinking more of your products, and anytime you want to send us more stuff, feel free. In fact, if any company ever wants the Muskoxen to try their products and give us free stuff, we're more than willing to accept it.