Pre-Filled Growlers

Perhaps not applicable to your problem (but maybe if you wanted to get them in trouble...) but the TTB considers a "pre-filled" growler a brewery-bottled product and should be labeled according to Federal and state laws.

 

I purchased a pre-filled growler once from a brewery that uses a fancy counter-pressure filling station and the beer was completely flat when I opened it the next day.

I don't go to that brewery anymore.

 

In South Dakota, liquor stores can do growler fills. When they get down to the end, they'll fill 32oz or 64oz growlers to finish off a keg. I actually like that since I might be able to pick some up that I would otherwise have missed - and the price is usually several bucks off. I haven't noted any issues with it myself.

 

Any brewery that feels beer filled into a growler is "best" up to 30 days in the container shouldn't be trusted. I bet their quality program is just fantastic!

 

Great service. Spill the beans. Where was it?

I have seen Rogue pre filled growlers at stores but at the prices they were I never even bothered to look at any dates on them. Pre filled seems a bit odd.

I'm with Jesskidden , report them. The issue will not happen again. Had their reply been more friendly I would not report.

Enjoy

 

I've been to breweries where they've got pre-filled growlers/crowlers ready to go but I've only ever found them to be up to about 5 days old with the one exception I'll mention later. In general my thought on that practice is that they're just trying to stay ahead of the game for when it's very busy, or they're trying to kill off a keg so that they can put something new on. However, as jesskidden has pointed out, that is illegal. My only bad experience was with a brewery from New England, and I forget the name, sorry, but the beer around the cap where it had foamed over had soured and turned quite nasty (it must have been much older than a week or two), and anytime I opened the growler and poured a glass I got some of that nastiness.

 

I don't even look at pre filled Growlers. I want them hours old not a week.

 

Climax Nrewing used to self distribute per filled Growlers to a Liquor store near me. them came about once a week left 10 growlers. .

 

Lander Brewing used to send them to Casper. They were in the cooler, just like Dead Guy.

 

The original shed brewery before otter creek bought them used to do this also. Most of the times pretty fresh but you could occasionally catch one in a convenience store that was pretty rank. Long time ago now though. They were also clear glass

 

Ten Penny Ale, from Olde Burnside in Conn. used to be ubiquitous around here in pre filled growlers.

 

Nope. Unless I see it being filled. I don't want it. Period.

 

Of course, the brewery-filled* "jug" of unpasteurized beer was once pretty common along the West Coast in the decade after Repeal:


* The Hamm's was actually distributor-filled by the "Blue Eagle Beer Co." of SLC, Utah.

Mid-west and northeast brewers tended to use the classic "picnic" bottle for their half-gallons of unpasteurized beer.

Yeah, I used to pick them up regularly at the old Marketplace Liquors on 18 in East Brunswick when I lived in Middlesex county. They were a bargain, too, compared to price of retailer-filled growlers these days - and their price included the bottle. There once was an online video of a homemade 64 oz. bottle filler (3 or 4 at a time) Climax used.

IIRC, Climax bought a used 12 oz. bottling line - from a eastern PA brewery, maybe?- that was a lemon and they went back to the jugs for a while. Not sure what their deal is these days - don't see any Climax - bottled or kegged - down here at the junction of Middlesex/Monmouth/Mercer counties.

From the website, they seem to be strictly self-distributing in NJ these days (a Facebook page is used pretty much exclusively for announcing weekly "open house" nights.) Hard to tell from pics on the website if they're currently bottling in 12's or 64's.

 

I would have asked for a refund OP

My local growler station does pre filled growlers at HUGE discounts when they are trying to kill a keg.

They just sell them the day they fill them, there have been some good deals there

 

I've seen this at a brewery with a Crowler, but the one I got was filled that day.

2 weeks would make me mad. Could you see the date on the cap before you purchased/opened?

 

Remember that growler regulations vary by state.
What may be correct in one person's response may not apply in another's locale.

 

I've never seen it personally and would never buy one if I had. Even 48 Hours (as my local breweries recommend for growler consumption) is pushing it, how in the world did they come up with 30 days?!?

 

Yeah I remember Climax doing that. 1 Bought online, iirc.
Edit Yep. The IPA and ESB were especially good. The Anniversary bottle leaked...

 

I live in Union County and haven't seen their beer in a bar or retail store for a few years. I still have 2 Growlers from them with the labels on an Oktoberfest and an IPA. Both were/are fine brews.