An Ode to The Crowler on Bon Appétit

Damn those Stone Crowlers are sexy.

 

I had a 1968 Chrysler Crowler, it's in the backyard on blocks! I like taking draft away from a nice brew pub, but as a regular retail offering, growlers, to me, are a big pain in the ass. I honestly think lots of the growler business will dry up in not too long a time. Crowlers make more sense to me.

 

I may be mistaken but I thought I read somewhere if it not filled properly it wont last as long?

 

The aspect of "not filled properly" can be a debatable subject.

Below is a video of a crowler fill. As you will see the bartender is pouring the beer from the tap into the 32 ounce can. During that pour two things are happening:

• The beer is mixing with the air that is inside the can. Oxygen is the enemy of beer and as we all know air is about 20% oxygen.
• Some carbonation is being 'knocked out' of solution. This is evidenced by the foam on the top of the beer in the can.

The bigger issue with respect to beer stability is the aspect of oxygenation.

In the Bon Appetite article one brewery stated that their crowlers are 'good' for one month. Given the packaging method illustrated in the below video I would be skeptical of keeping a beer for one month out of concern of effects from oxidation.

Cheers!

 

Awesome. thanks ^^^

 

Oscar blues fills the crowlers with CO2 before they fill them with beer.

 

And that probably helps a little bit. The theory is that CO2 is heavier than oxygen but the agitation of the beer filling the can will generate a lot of agitation of the gases so to expect that the layer of CO2 will keep out air (oxygen) on a tap fill is not realistic.

Cheers!

 

Lots of on line cooking blogs and such also feature beer or parings with wines and beer. =) Good for them.

 

It's not a theory- CO2 is heavier than AIR (not oxygen). I believe they also use a sanitized tube to fill from the bottom as opposed to just pouring the beer from the tap to the bottom of the can. If you've ever worked with visible gasses it would surely work to some degree of effectiveness.

 

Are there any crowler filling machines like the below Growler Filling machine which performs a dual evacuation of the growler with CO2 and then uses counter-pressure bottom filling of the beer?

Cheers!

 

I fully understand that. That doesn't change the fact that agitation during a fill will mix the gases of the CO2 and air.

That would be helpful as well.

I agree that using CO2 and bottom fill from the bottom will provide some degree of effectiveness. In other words it would be better to do these things than not. A 'better' solution would be a double evacuation using CO2 followed but a bottoms up counter-pressure fill. See the video in my above post.

Cheers!

 

Great, well-written article explaining the process and benefits of Crowlers over Growlers. Oh, and they're a LOT lighter in weight too.

 

If I had to vote on the one most awesome beer related invention in the past 16 years, I'd vote for the crowler without a doubt. If I had to pick between two equally good breweries to visit, the one with crowlers would be the no brainer choice for me.

 

With the trend towards what we're seeing in so many NE micro-distro breweries last couple years, going to the source and getting a few Crowlers to take home to share or ship around the country easily, will expand the availability for more people to acquire and sample the good nectar that can only be obtained from the source of production. The article points out pretty much all of the benefits of the Crowler as well.

 

First saw these in action down in Raleigh last year and thought they were great. I'm surprised they aren't popping up more in NYC and the boroughs. Can only think of Keg & Lantern and 209 Station that are using them. Anywhere else you found @alex_delany