Are growlers dead?

Yes. Beachwood Pizza & HB taproom still fills growlers along with crowlers. I threw out all my 20+ growlers a few years ago. I kept a few for nostalgia. Smog City’s 1st white label growler and Beachwood BBQ’s first growler along with RiiP’s first growler as they were the first ones to deliver growlers to your door from the very beginning. Pretty cool. They delivered to Home and businesses in HB & FV. I think I have a ABC and KRBC growler along with Hanger 24 very cool growler

 

I like that Highland Park Brewery still has their broken crowler machine behind the bar as some kind of relic to craft beer past.

Monkish still fills them, don’t they? They were available when I was there last year at least.

 

Places do still fill them, but as the only beer drinker in my house it's hard to want to bring home 2-4 pints of something that needs to be drank in a day or two. And there tends to be no price benefit by volume, usually when I see growler fills it seems to just be the same price as the retail pint times however many it is, and my default mentality is that there should be a price benefit for buying larger quantities (that you're not going to be enjoying quite as fresh and not at the source).

 

I wish there was some secondary use for them - I have at least 20 in my garage (including a handful from Pizza Port from the '90's that are clear (untinted) glass and only have Solana Beach and Carlsbad listed). I remember bringing one to PP San Clemente about a decade ago and being told that they can't fill it because it didn't have the San Clemente location listed (not to mention that the clear glass apparently would have skunked the beer sooner than tinted glass).

 

Anyone remember these days?

 

I feel like they are dead mostly, which is too bad.
I really liked to advocate for them previously due to the environmental benefit and nostalgia.
However I only have 1 local brewery that I ever used them for. They previously had 32oz growlers which was cool. Now only offer 64oz.
The main drawback is that it’s essentially the same price per oz for cans.
And the choice between 64oz of beer in a glass jug or 4pk of cans is a no-brainer, if it’s the same price.

 

Instead of asking if growlers were dead, I wanted to know where growler culture was still alive and kicking!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/where-is-growler-culture-still-thriving.673285/

tl;dr: not looking too good for our beloved growlers.

 

Nope.

 

I remember going the opposite direction to Kernville for Citra DIPA release. Growler fills & bombers to go. I remember them long lines.

 

Not in Hawaii. Alive and well.

 

Oh yeah! Years ago, i had my fridge stuffed with Alpine bottles and growlers and when my son opened the door a growler rolled out and crashed on his foot (he was ok but a little shaken up and still mentions it today). I used to like the Duet/Pure blend they would do in a growler.

 

I lived close enough to Kern to often just show up 45 min after opening and the line had been served and was often still able to get my 6 bottles of Citra while working remotely from the OG brew pub. Some good days those were.

 

I miss growlers. I felt special filling up my dark brown vessel with beer from a tap. Then I felt special again pouring that into a beer glass (usually with some brewery's logo on it.) I feel less special pouring from a can.

Some places around here will still fill it but they almost always offer cans for the same price or cheaper, which boggles my mind (as I would think cans require more material and labor than filling up a growler...but maybe not more labor?) But mostly, it's just me not being able to justify paying a few extra bucks (or even the same price, but at a loss to convenience) to feel special.

Some of the price differences have been completely mind-boggling...Cellarmaker used to charge $38 to fill a growler with Imperial C&C, whereas their 4-packs are $22-24.

Fieldwork I think is a touch cheaper to fill a growler, but I don't remember the last time I brought a growler there.

I only remember two times in the past few years where I filled a growler...once at Marin Brewing right before they closed, and once at Alpha Acid because I wanted to get the Boa Stout which they no longer had cans of. (I think the growler fill actually was slightly cheaper per oz than the cans, $28 vs. $32).

 

I just noticed today that alocal brewery still has a "growler day" on Sundays. Years ago that meant $8 growler fills. I should check out what that means these days.

 

Man I remember when Karl Strauss had 8$ growler fill Thursday

 

I remember those, too.

And I remember asking my wife to get me a growler of Sculpin at the Home Brew Mart and her coming home with that plus a growler of barrel aged Piper Down.

 

They still do that with Crowlers.Can get Wrexk Alley crowler for the low

 

For those that have an abundant of growlers, just donate them, those days are long gone.