Notable Releases - DC/NOVA/MD

Not that I'm a brewery business owner or anything, but doesn't it make more sense to have brewery staff come in a few hrs. before opening on these limited release days, and pre-fill a whole bunch of crowlers for a lot more efficient purchasing turnaround times? Get people in & out a lot quicker?

 

They can't. They don't have the proper license to do so.

 

I'm assuming that means they don't have the bottling license on top of their other ABC licenses. that's the only thing I can think of (a pre-filled crowler potentially being considered a "bottled beer")

 

. I'd love to see the regulation preventing Crowler fills a few hours before purchase. Something sounds wrong about that.

 

I'm sure its not explicitly stated as "no pre-filled crowlers", but there is probably language that defines what is packaged beer and what isn't. Pre-filled crowlers probably falls into the category of packaged beer.

 

Interesting, we were wondering the same thing. Especially with one crowler machine and one employee filling the crowlers.

 

if I had to guess, they probably don't have the 'Beer Bottler' license on top of the 'Brewery' and 'Brewery, Retail Off-Premise' license they have. like @beernuts says, pre-filled crowlers are probably considered to be bottled beer.

https://www.abc.virginia.gov/licenses/get-a-license/industry

 

which is a lot more $$. Might be worth getting now. Crowlers are a pain to fill, maybe they just go straight to canning like Veil does.

 

This kind of what I do these days, you really just have to pick your battles.

There is just a lot easier ways to enjoy beer from a brewery instead of always trying to chase the latest and greatest "perceived" thing.

I already had an Aslin and an Ocelot beer the same day with no lines no problems.. simply by going to Meridian Pint.

Like you I will probably go some day to either of those places at a time period I don't expect it to be so crazy (you always hope).

 

Aslin: 60 crowlers total, one per person for Double Orange Starfish Thursday release.

 

I've never gotten a crowler so I don't know, but according to a DC Brau employee I talked to, they have a very short shelf life - a day or two at most - since the way they fill them lets in more air than traditional canning. So filling crowlers 3 hours ahead means it could already be 5-15% degraded by the time it's in the customer's hands, as opposed to <1% if filled on the spot.

 

Crowlers last pretty long from my experience, easily a couple weeks

 

I had someone bring one to a bottle share at my house - was a 2015 Mexican Cake - while not being able to compare to a bottled version, the beer was fantastic. Just like canning, they overfill the crowler so there is foam on the top. The foam keeps oxygen from entering between the time when they fill it and when the seal it. Exactly the same as canning. I think this would last just as long as a can, to be honest.

 

I popped a three-week old crowler I got from Aslin and the beer was drinking as if it were fresh. I think it was a Champion of the Sun. Plenty of carbonation, prodigious nose emanating from the can, hops alive. Sometimes their beers actually get a little better after a week or two of conditioning in the can.

 

IIRC, the Aslin boys say most of their beers peak ~10 days after cranning.

 

90 cases of Master Shredder remain going into today at Veil. Both new cans sold out last night. Calculated Risk is back on tap at The Answer you could grab a Crowler. Champion Fruitless should be landing on RVA shelves sometime this week.

 

I had a crowler of A Small Town in Ontario at about 10 days after. It developed into a totattly different beer, in a good way

It has nothing to do with that. Aslin purges their crowlers, so they can last for weeks. The amount of air that those crowlers are exposed to are so negligible that it's not going to make a difference filling in advance. From the TTB website:

When is a growler a “bottle?”
A growler is a bottle when the brewer fills the container in advance of sale. The brewer may fill the growler prior to removal, on the brewery premises, or after tax determination on the brewpub premises.

VA requires a separate bottling license as ncaudle said above, thus pre-filled crowlers would cause Aslin to be in violation of the regs. It's a license issue and nothing else.

 

The longest I've had one last in my fridge has been Neutrino purchased Thursday, consumed by the pool on Sunday. It was still great. The fact that they CO2 purge, fill it to the rim, and cap it on foam gives it the best chance of survival.

 

the cans that got filled on Saturday, then sat for an hour or more waiting to be sealed due to the crowds may not fare quite as well, though.

 

Wow, now that would definitely be an issue if they aren't sealed right away. Thursday should be fun.