A “Designated Dryer” for Growlers

As avid readers of this column probably have deduced by now, the adage “necessity is the mother of invention” couldn’t be truer: Each month, “Innovation” explores how beer fans have created numerous gizmos and gadgets that help beer lovers better enjoy their favorite beverage.

This month’s subject is no exception—and the first “Innovation” entry in the world of growlers, those ubiquitous jugs that are used to transport fresh draft beer for consumption away from the brewery or bar where it’s served.

One of the glories of the growler is that you can reuse it, making it not only a cost-effective vessel, but also a pretty darn environmentally friendly one, too. But there’s one downside to the typical growler, one that inspired this month’s column. Its traditional shape—a heavy, wide body and a narrow neck—make it hard to clean and dry.

“Bringing home a 64-ounce growler of delicious craft beer presented a problem once it was empty,” says inventor Staton Lorenz. “The growler couldn’t be washed in the dishwasher, and it wouldn’t dry simply standing on the counter—no air could circulate through the growler and it was very unstable, almost skittish, [upside down] on the countertop.”

“After breaking three growlers either in the kitchen sink or after crashing on our granite counters, I’d had enough of that. After numerous ideas rolled around in my mind, I literally woke up one morning at 4 a.m. with the solution.”

Lorenz’s early morning vision involved a simple disc that would screw onto the lip of the growler where the cap usually goes. The disc would be large enough and heavy enough to serve as a base, safely supporting the freshly cleaned growler upside down.  It would feature short, non-slip pads that worked as “feet,” elevating the disc and the supported growler off the counter so air could circulate and water could easily drain from the vessel.

Lorenz says he “knew from the start” what the size needed to be for his growler-supporting disc—about the same size as a compact disc or DVD. And he wanted the product to have a “decent heft or feel … it had to look like something of value—not a cheap gadget.” The plan also was to have the disc be able to support a logo on the top, so breweries would want to buy them to use in-house and sell to customers along with their similarly branded growlers.

At first, Lorenz wanted to craft the discs out of wood—Michigan maple from his home state, to be exact.

“But water and wood don’t like each other,” the Traverse City man says, adding that the next round, a variety of plastic-sheet goods, proved to be too pricey. With help from his engineer son, Chad, he discovered that Corian, the kitchen and bathroom countertop material, provided the ideal weight he was looking for while also staying close to his price point of $10 retail.

Lorenz says picking a good name—The Growler Collar—took longer than creating the product. But daughter Brandy, a graphic designer, helped develop the logo, which, along with contact information, is embedded on the bottom of each Growler Collar, making the venture a true family affair. And the family pledges to distribute 10 percent of net proceeds to local, regional, national and international aid or missions each year.

Lorenz already has a few breweries using the Growler Collar as their “designated dryer,” but he hopes more breweries and pubs will choose to go “bottoms up” with his unique product. More details can be found at growlercollar.com. ■