Who else does this: you have empty growlers, roll up on a new or questionable brewery, and leave them in the car until you sample the goods? I've actually gone into some very respected breweries with an empty growler and wound up hiding them by my feet because there wasn't anything there worth filling up for. I feel funny walking into a brewery with an empty growler and telling them I'm fine and will walk out without a fill. These days I just leave it in the car until I'm sure. What's your policy?
MA is the land of shitty alcohol laws, especially when it comes to growlers. No generic growlers; each growler must be brewery specific and can only be filled at that brewery. Thus, the only growler I have is a Trillium growler. I have never once not considered filling said growler at Trillium.
Well after hanging around their table at EBF I can understand why. Travel around the country though and you quickly discover that the Trilliums are few and far between, unfortunately. I have had some very awkward moments recently where I simply could not bring myself to part with hard-earned dollars for brewery only/growler only beer that was not up to the level of my fairly rudimentary homebrew .
Depends on how far the walk is, and if the brewery has their empty stock in a public access area. I have no problem leaving with an empty.
I do the same thing, unless i have to park far away, but no problems with leaving with empty at all even though employees usually smirk
The worst is when you ask to buy an empty growler to later fill with homebrew. "You sure you don't want me to fill it for only $8 more? "No Thanks"
I generally take mine along when I visit breweries, but I almost always leave it in the car until I see what they have to offer.
I always have 2 growlers in the car. I also feel a bit bad leaving with an empty growler after bringing it inside a new brewery. Here in Montana, growlers are king. Fills are rarely more than $8 (unless it's a barleywine or other special release) and you can fill them anywhere with any brewery's growler. I have been seeing a lot of half-growlers lately. These 32oz canisters are great for just one person! Off to finish my growler! Cheers
Not enough breweries in NJ to not know if they're worth filling or not. Walked out with 3 different 32oz growlers tonight from Kane. Too good.
You worry too much. I don't give a crap what anyone thinks about me walking out with an empty growler. Am I supposed to buy something I don't want just so I don't hurt someone's feelings? Life is short my friends.
If you want to try another good NJ beer, try Cricket Hill Small Batch Smoked Rye. Phenomenal. Unfortunately the place I went to had such a small supply of it that they weren't filling growlers
MA is the land of lots of shitty laws - alcohol laws are even preceded by its tax laws. I have 3 Trillium growlers and am constantly filling them up with anything Trillium does - which prevents me at the moment from going to Night Shift, Idle Hands and any number of other new and great MA breweries to try their beers. So because of MA laws, Trillium gets most of my business, the others get none. Good for Trillium, but not fair for the rest. Oh, and now that I'm on my soap box, I'll aim a bit at those breweries that only offer 64 oz. growlers - if they would wake up so morning and realize that most solo beer drinkers whose wives / girlfriends drink wine - would prefer a more manageable 32 oz growler, they might sell more beer...
If enough people leave with empty growlers then perhaps the brewery will start making better beer. Then you'll get better beer and they'll get money. Everyone wins. Hooray honesty.
I have walked in with empty growlers and walked out with them. The important part of the growler policy is that there is always an empty clean one in the trunk.
