Clear growlers?

At my brewery's taproom, it took a long time for our health inspector to approve of our glasses, even though we had a three compartment sink for washing. I can't remember what the reason that they weren't approving at first. We opted to serve our beer in clear plastic cups until our health inspector finally gave us the green light. I would cut the guy some slack.

 

There are two main reasons most places would choose clear over amber. Clear growlers cost the brewery markedly less than amber glass. And the clear glass allows more options for the color of inks you use to print on the glass. Many colors don't contrast well with the amber glass and thus limit the options. That may not be the justification you wanted to hear, but there it is. Furthermore, I've compared a fresh growler fill in each side-by-side. With all other things being equal, if you're drinking that beer within 24 hours (provided you're not silly enough to leave it sitting in direct sunlight) I guarantee you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Once you get to 48 hours and beyond, then the clear glass is at a distinct disadvantage. Personally I would never purchase a growler I wasn't going to consume within 48 hours, so it's a non-issue for me.

 

Hill farmstead won't fill them at all.
I don't use them because they let light in. that being said, I don't usually hold onto my growlers too long for that to be an issue anyway.

 

The Tetra hop extract is a modified Alpha Acid that is light stable.
http://hopsteiner.com/pdf/20092/13_07_Tetra.pdf

 

Miller is not the only large brewer using the modified hop extract, according to AB brewer George Reisch:

"SABMiller, Anheuser-Busch, MolsonCoors and other major brewers use light-stable hop extracts in most beers packaged in clear glass bottles to prevent the light-struck note and preserve the beer’s shelf life."
​

(That obviously does not include some well-known "major brewers" in Mexico or Europe and their infamously skunked clear and green-bottled beers)

But I've never read of any craft brewer using the "light stable" hop extracts for their beers they serve in clear growlers.

Don't remember a lot of "clear/brown" debates during the AB-Miller "beer war" of that era (but with so much back 'n' forth, ad battles, FTC complaints, etc., it's hard to remember them all) but Schlitz slugged it out with every major brewery of the era 100 years ago over the topic, in their long-running series of Brown Bottles ads...

Of course, a century later some feel "light struck beer" is still a myth, going by many posts in this thread .

 

We very much want to promote the growler culture in our community so we go way out of our way to make it easy on people. To that end we will pretty much fill any growler as long as it has the government warning on it. To comply with local law we have gone as far as eating the expense of making a paper version of our growler label, that easily comes off, to stick on other growlers so as not to deface a particularly cool growler while being compliant. All that being said it kills me when someone hands me a clear growler, and i try very hard to dissuade them from putting Boat or any of our other hoppier beers in it.

 

I don't know of any breweries down here that use clear growlers, but Fort Myers Brewing uses plastic cups at their tasting room and it really hurts the experience, in my opinion. I know glasses can be an extra expense, but it's really part of the deal when you're running a tasting room. I know several people who don't go there because the beer is served in plastic cups. They will allow you to bring in glassware that you've bought from them, but I never remember to keep one in the car.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Ultimately I come back to how long do you plan to have a growler out and exposed? Personally, growlers should be used not long after purchase and I do not foresee them sitting out in the sun that long. The growler cases are great and help keep them insulated, but ultimately I just do not see having a growler exposed long enough to have the beer go bad. Growlers are for sharing and great draft beer, not sitting around waiting to be drank.

 

The thought of someone putting Boat in a clear growler just made me tear up.

 

It's this 'form over function' and 'make it as cheap as we can to maximize profit' mentality that has put us where we are today. Most of the products you buy today are pieces of shit from electronics to cars. It's sad. Sorry, this is not aimed at you personally glass_house, just sick of the way money and greed have shaped the world.

 

From jesskidden's post above:
"A surprising fact is that beer in the regular amber bottle will begin to be noticeably 'lightstruck' within about two minutes, while beer in a clear glass will begin deteriorating within 30 seconds."
---An Introduction to the Brewing Process: Comments on Bottled Beer - R.G. Black

 

I agree with your comments above about it being about dollars and sense for the Brewery for sure.
Ultimately I am not getting beer in a growler in order to have the best tasting experience ever. I am typically getting a growler to enjoy with friends in the backyard/ house to enjoy the beer. Yes it might be "off", but we aren't rating the beer as much as we are enjoying the time together.
Side note: I own a clear, amber, stainless steel, and another metal growler I have acquired over time so I use whichever one I feel is appropriate for the amount of beer I need.

 

Lots of craft breweries use hop extracts. I don't know if they are using tetra or not, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. If you are going to use them, you might as well use the most stable extract there is if the flavor is the same.

 

Yeah, did not mean to suggest that there aren't some craft breweries which use hop extract, only that I'd never heard of any using light stable extract because they're filling clear growlers. IIRC, Langunitas is one of the larger brewers known to use hop extract and, according to posts above, people are getting light struck beer from their clear growlers.

Hopsteiner and Barth both make a number of different extracts, hop oils and other hop products, not all of them "light stable" so someone must be buying them, as well?

 

Piece in chicago used to have clear growlers. i have a few.

 

They are good for making yeast starters in homebrewing.

 

I work for an insurance brokerage, and see many hospitality risks. I have yet to see any specific subjectivity or endorsement that specifically states a bar cannot serve in glass. Depending on carrier, there may be a discount caveat, but if said bar had an outright exclusion, they need to get a new broker.

The only bars I've seen serve in plastic cups are the true dives of the world. Places that serve BMC on tap and that is just about it. Places that cater to liquor specials and getting shitfaced. I would be very underwhelmed if I ordered a saison and got it in a solo cup.

 

I get where you're coming from. In a perfect world I would want all my beer in amber bottles, too. However, I hope your world view is not as bleak as you make it sound. Let's put things in perspective here--we're complaining about the fact that we can go get a huge jug filled with great beer, and said jug may sometimes be...[gasp!]...clear.

 

Corona does not do this though?

PS: That's really awesome to know. Thanks for the info.

 

No, I totally agree, first world problems. And I love life and people in general. But bottom line is, if you were a brewery and you were deciding which growler to choose to sell your product in, hopefully you would have the integrity to choose the one that gets your beer to your customer as fresh as possible.