Clear growlers?

No earthly idea about why anyone would want clear glass over brown glass for their growlers.

 

All signs point to the fact the guy's full of shit. Of the dozens of craft breweries I've been to, none have had clear glass and I'm reasonably certain there is not a single benefit to clear glass other than seeing what colour your beer is before pouring it.

As for pouring into plastic cups, that's just sad.

 

Never really had a problem with any beers I purchased with clear glass growlers. Mind you, they were pretty much all consumed within 6 hours of purchase & never exposed to light or warmer temps

 

Agree that in some fill systems you need to be able to see the beer level, but the standard brown tinted glass will allow you to do that just fine.

It's rarely going to be an issue either way with growlers since they are so short-term as you say, but I was put off by the guy saying "if you knew about beer you'd know". That's just dumb.

 

Any one that said to me "if I knew anything about beer I would know why they used clear growlers" without explaining why is a douch bag, and I would have told him to shove his clear growler up his ass, regardless of the quality of his brew.

 

What scares me more: Growlers with no bottled/sealed on date...

 

Because you weren't there to verify?

 

Was this Brooklyn Brewery with their bullshit beers in plastic cups? Santa Fe Brewing sells clear growlers too. The truth is, a beer in a growler, to my thinking, should be drank pretty quickly so the fear of light damage from a clear growler isn't a factor.

However, a clear growler is a sad, sad, sight. They remind me of that old perv on Family Guy.

 

Does anyone know if Alesmith still serves their beer into plastic cups? That always bothered the crap out of me, but I haven't been back since I moved out of California a year ago.

 

See them in stores/brewpubs in various states. We're not all up in the center of the universe...

 

I have never seen a growler I couldn't get the same beer of it another form at at a bottle shop. If this isn't common, then the center of the universe is pretty sweet.

 

Well, there is this:

“Lightstruck - While this defect is well known in both odor, taste and origin, it is sometimes not realized how little exposure can produce a noticeable lightstruck character. ... Bottled beer can become lightstruck in less than one minute in bright sun, after a few hours in diffuse daylight and in a few days under normal fluorescent light.”

---The Practical Brewer, Master Brewers' Association of the Americas [1977]
​

So, for those above claiming they drink their growlers fast enough to prevent skunking, that "less than one minute" in direct sunlight makes for quite of chugging.

OTOH, that can be easily prevented by putting the growler in a paper bag for the walk to the car - really paranoid people (like me) might want to keep it in the bag once home and in the refrigerator - while most fridge lights are incandescent bulbs, all that opening and closing of the door that goes on in some households, letting in more light, could mean trouble .​

 

Lagunitas uses clear, which in my book makes it ok.

 

Honestly. Learn the other side of beer as a business and then make your informed decision.
From an insurance perspective. Having the beer served in plastic, non breakable cups is certainly a reality that could simply be a coverage issue which permits some things and will not allow others. Remember, you are consuming alcohol in a light industrial area with moving parts, chemicals and things that can kill you or cause serious bodily harm if you happen to be the type of idiot that gets into things they are not supposed to because you refuse to listen to the tourguide, or are burped out of a beer bus and think it is your beer entitled right.
From a safety perspective as a worker, I do not want the possibility of breakable MOOP left in my work area where moving machinery can vibrate them off.

 

How do you explain the 99% of other breweries who serve their beer in glasses? Or almost every bar who serves their beer in glasses?

 

Nobody likes the plastic cup thing. There has to be a valid reason he can't use glasses. Clear growlers, I can't wrap my head around. Since everyone charges the customer for glass, cost shouldn't be a factor, unless they are trying to squeeze a few cents extra profit into glass sales.