We’ve discovered a trick for getting free beer.

In fact, last week we had a whole free tab open on one of the hottest days of the year.

Here are the steps:

One. Locate the brewery of your choice. For us, it was the Left Handed Giant in Bristol – a B-Corp and living wage employer. They make cracking ale.

Two. Launch a clothing company in the same city as your chosen brewery.

Three. Eventually catch the eye of a co-founder from your chosen brewery. Hopefully, they’ll ask if you can collaborate on something.

Four. Design some hot new graphic T-shirts with the brewery.

Five. Throw a pop-up event at your chosen brewery to celebrate the launch of the T-shirts. 

Six. Hopefully, by this point, the brewery will be generous to open a free tab for you while the pop up is happening.

Seven. Retrieve a refreshing beer from the bar, and say something along the lines of “Put it on our free tab.”

Admittedly it’s a long winded process, but it does get results.

We’ll talk about a shorter route to free beer (and new T-shirts!) below.

But first we wanted to tell you about our first ever pop up at the Left Handed Giant (LHG) last Saturday.

It was the first time we’d ever met the friends of Yes Friends in real life.

That’s right. We weren’t just sending emails or talking on customer support. We were actually having in-person interactions. It almost felt like coming out of covid. 

And five years after we launched Yes Friends, it’s a relief to know our customers aren't just a figment of our imagination.

Some of you came all the way from Oxford and Cardiff and Malmesbury. In a heatwave of all times. And you were pretty cool folks.

One of you was a professional dancer. Another worked for the RAF. And another had made it their mission to make their entire wardrobe Yes Friends clothing. They told us they were just missing joggers – and we were able to tell them the good news that joggers had been part of our photoshoot that same week and would be launching in a little under two months.

So thank you friends, for coming out to see us, for wearing your Yes Friends clothing, and for getting a first glimpse of our new graphic T-shirts collaboration.

Speaking of which…



New graphic T-shirts: The quicker way to get free beer

If you don’t want to play the long game of setting up a clothing company in an attempt to one day collaborate with your favourite brewery, there is another option for nabbing a free beer.

And it comes via our new limited edition T-shirts.

Based on our original best-selling organic Tee, they all feature Leftie, the mascot of LHG. The first is pretty minimalist. The second has a dreamlike off-to-the-pub scene. And the third shows you what you might see if you have one too many.

A couple of the T-shirts also display Generous Life phrases, like “Fancy a beer?” and “This one’s on me.”

So now your steps to free beer go like this…

1. Get a LHG collab T-shirt for a friend.
2. Stand near this friend when they next wear the gifted T-shirt in the vicinity of a bar.
3. If they require further encouragement, nod in the direction of the writing on their back.

It’s a pretty surefire plan.

Of course, you could always grab a T-shirt for yourself and become the one handing out pints.

Originally, one of the T-shirts was going to say “This round’s on me” in big letters but we figured that might attract too many thirsty friends. So we made the letters smaller and switched them to “This one’s on me”, so the T-shirt doesn’t fasttrack anyone to bankruptcy.

The graphics are made by James, a generous LHG designer. He hung out at our recent pop up on his birthday. And he even made time to show us around the brewery and, crucially, let us cool off our sweaty bodies in the big fridge where they chill all their beer.

For people looking forward to a pint this summer – or handing a few out – these limited edition T-shirts are freshly brewed, and likely to go fast.

P.S. Here's a few photos from the day...