Clear growlers?

A few brewpubs in my area used to sell clear growlers but most of them went to all brown 4-5 years ago.

 

The only benefit to clear glass that I know of is that they are easier to visually inspect that they are 100% clean. As jesskidden said though, beer in clear glass can become light-struck extremely quickly.

 

There are certain situations where I can understand the use of plastic cups (some states have restrictions on glass being taken outside and glass on brewery tours could be a workplace hazard, although I have been on many tours and I have never had plastic cups) but the clear growler thing I just can't wrap my head around. It's not the seventies anymore. Like jesskidden said above, beer can be lightstruck within a minute so I'm walking to my car with my clear growler on a sunny day after just leaving the brewery and my beer is ruined...that's just stupid.

 

The OP's comment that "The owner responded and said there was some sort of permit process hindering him from serving beer in glasses..." makes it sound like there could be a local/county health department permit or restaurant inspection needed to be able wash glassware. Since this is not a brewpub or bar but a commercial brewery, they would not necessarily be licensed or have the correct permits or commercial cleaning equipment for washing used glassware. Plastic "single use" glasses for samples might be a way around the legal sanitary requirements.

 

You'll definitely need that bag for a picnic as well- either that or a growler cozy (they make those, right?).

ETA: yes they do

 

I can find plenty of bars who refuse to serve in glass for very practical reasons. There are numerous times I've been to bars and taprooms where you were not served in a glass because said place knew it was a logistical impossibility to stay clean on their scene and understood full well that if it went glass. Some knucklehead was going to make a mess of things, and yet again. This all points back to the insurance and what it covers and does not cover.
Also, it's going on to be festival season, perhaps they want to test drive some neat new sample size plastic cups that cost them a bunch.

 

I keep a large sheet of heavy canvas in my truck to throw over my case beer purchases that I put behind the front seats in my extended cab pick-up, to protect the beer inside the cases from light that might get in through the hand hole slots or those cases were there's a space between the top flaps .

Sixpack or single purchases:

"Do you want that in a bag*?"
"Damn right I do - it's a good 25' walk to my truck outside --- in the bright sunshine!"
​

* For any other purchase I say "No!", and will often take my stuff OUT of their bags and leave the bag there for their re-use when not asked. And I compost all my paper bags, and recycle those annoying plastic ones.

 

Impressive. That's very practical, yet hardcore at the same time.

 

Nobody steals plastic cups

 

"Hardcore" or lazy? Buy a new truck every 10 years or so, and throw the canvas back there. Done.
(Damn, now that I think about it, the canvas was originally one of the "beds" in my '68 VW Camper, sold in 1980.)
And it does do "double duty" as a security factor so the beer isn't visible when parked, etc.

 

For the heavy drinker on the go haha they are so expensive but I want it

 

You dirty hippie jkjk

 

When I visited Naples Beach Brewery the beer was in plastic cups was due to wanting to avoid needing to clean up broken glass. Not ideal but the beer was plenty delicious.

 

Odell's glass growlers are clear. Haven't personally noticed much impact on my beer experiences drinking from them, personally, but I have bought a replacement growler from another local brewery, which is brown, to use instead.

 

I would honestly like to hear some justification for the clear growlers from anyone who sells or uses them. Seriously. Just one person tell me why and I will tell you why you are disrespecting beer.

 

First of all, considering how many people go to Brooklyn Brewery, and how much beer they serve, plastic cups are more logical. Especially from a cleaning stand point.

Second of all, they don't sell growlers: http://www.bonappetit.com/columns/the-foodist/article/why-beer-growlers-are-bad-for-your-brew

Third of all, I really doubt a Master Brewer like Garret Oliver who is the editor-in-chief of "The Oxford Companion to Beer" would tell anyone "if you knew about beer then you'd know why they opted for clear growlers."

 

As stated earlier, Lagunitas uses clear growlers. And they're absolutely terrible. Had a friend bring a growler of Hop Stoopid to a gathering by the river and the darn thing was light struck and skunked almost immediately. I haven't purchased a growler from them since. If I have to be so worried about my growler seeing the light of day for a few minutes, it's not worth the hassle.

And yeah, if a brewer gave me the condescending response you received here, I'd be taking my future business elsewhere.

 

I know the light struck thing has been discussed before, but what makes beer so fragile that a quick dose of light can make a great beer instantly a drain pour?

 

here is a good concise and accurate description (from: http://byo.com/stout/item/2263-lightstrike-advanced-brewing )

When light (especially UV light) hits beer, it provides the energy necessary to drive a chemical reaction that cleaves an iso-α-acid into two pieces. The smaller of the two pieces gets modified — losing a CO residue and gaining an SH+ — to turn it into 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol. The “thiol” part of the name indicates that there is sulfur present. Sulfur compounds often have strong, offensive aromas — think rotten eggs or, in this case, skunk spray. The flavor threshold of 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol is so low that a concentration of even a few parts-per-billion is enough to irreversibly spoil the beer and impart the characteristic “lightstruck” flavors and odors. And for the record, 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol is very similar to one of the main chemical components of skunk spray.