Growler fill $

Tims Michigan Mud

 

In my experience, growlers are often more expensive and less enjoyable than bottles. There are exceptions (like Hop-15), but I don't quite understand the fascination with growlers.

 

Support your brewery and buy directly from them to maximize their profits to hopefully lead to expansion so they can brew more.

 

What if your local brewery sucks?

 

As mentioned above, a brewer has zero control over what a bar charges for a fill of their beer. Your gripe is really only legitimate if you're talking about buying growlers at a brewery or brewpub. As for "what price is silly?" that's up to you. I'm not a big growler guy, because I don't normally want drink 64+ ounces of the same beer over two nights, so most of my growler purchases are for gatherings, but I use those more as opportunities to get some beers out of the cellar. Anyway, I'm personally OK with any price that is some sort of discount (preferably 20% or more) over the per ounce cost per glass.

 

Growler pricing at my bar is easy and straight foward. Whatever a pint costs, we multiply by 3 and round down. So $4.50 a pint equates to $13, that is the cost of a growler fill. We sell the growlers for $4 and give them away on Tuesdays when you buy a fill. So effectively you buy 3 pints and get one free.

 

Burn it down obviously.

 

I don't think the OP is comparing bar prices for pints vs growler fills - he's comparing bar prices per pint to brewery prices per growler fill.

I think his his question in more simpler terms is: Why do breweries charge so much for their growler fills?

And the obviously answer is - because they can. The market supports the price per pint a bar might charge - why shouldn't the brewery make that money as well?

If people justify the price by paying it, they might as well keep selling it for that price. And It certainly isn't self service straight from the tank. They've already packaged it in a keg (labor cost) and now they have some staff member filling it (more labor cost).

I'd really only buy growlers of stuff that I can't get bottled from a liquor store to be honest.

 

I recently purchased a 64oz growler of Founders Breakfast Stout for $17.99, which is steep for me, but it was Founders, so I could not pass it up. a four pack went for $12. I try to go growler over bottles if I can. Smart purchase?

 

Point A: Your premise that retailers charge a ridiculous mark up is False. Do you see many bar owners driving Ferrari's?

Point B: Growlers are still the cheapest way to enjoy draft beer - generally at half the cost of an individual pint. If you find more value in drinking bottled beer, so be it.

I don't have unlimited funds. I also don't complain about prices. I've never been involved in a transaction where I didn't 'agree' to pay the price the vendor asked.

 

Growler logic is like fuzzy math.

I don't like thinking of my growler fills in terms of pints since I'm not drinking it at the brewery, but I do think of them in terms of bombers. For some reason that makes the price comparison less of a contrast.Roughly speaking, a six-pack (72 oz.) and 3 bombers (66 oz) provide an easy reference when thinking of costs associated with a growler (64 oz).

(Unless I'm getting something that is sold in sixers just about anywhere and it's a cool looking growler but for some reason it only comes in clear glass--I'm looking at you, Lagunitas!)

And, yes, this thread has been beat to death but I think it keeps popping up because there's such a wide discrepancy across the board.

 

Growlers are almost always too expensive IMO. I would (do on occasion) buy a growler of something I cannot get in a bottle or can. But, most of the time any beer around Chicago you can get a growler of you can get it in a 22 oz or 6 pack format. So why pay $15 for a 64 oz growler, when you can get a 6-pack of the same beer at $10?

 

Exactly, and you are technically getting less beer out of the growler.

 

Isn't it typically the case that breweries try to avoid undercutting the stores and bars that carry their wares, and therefore you're unlikely to find appreciably reduced prices buying direct from the brewer?

 

If you get a good growler fill, it is more than 64oz. With that said, I will only get a growler of something not in bottles, and even then, it has to be a really good beer. Paid $11 the other day for a 32oz growler of Fat Head's Hop JuJu IIPA. Considering it's 6.50/12oz at the pub, and probably my second favorite beer they brew, it was an easy purchase for me.

 

I buy growlers of draft only beers. Period. I see no purpose at all of buying a growler of something that is also available in bottle format for cheaper per oz costs.

I have kids and I usually don't have time or an evening to sit around for hours at the bar. Usually the growlers I get are in the $10-$15 range, depending on ABV, at a brewery that charges $4-$5 a pint or snifter. So a growler is cheaper than having 4 at the bar. But it's still more expensive than a $8 or $10 six pack, so if the beer is in bottles I will choose bottles every time. My wife likes craft beer two, so it's much cheaper for us to get a growler and have it at home than it is to pay for a babysitter for a couple of hours to go sit at a bar. Even if the growler did cost more than 4 pints at the bar, we'd still come out ahead because we won't be paying a babysitter $30 for a couple of hours.

Also, when I visit my brother out of town I buy draft only growlers of our local breweries to share.

 

Sounds like you're complaining that you don't get a big enough discount for buying beer to go from a restaurant or pub. But you don't get a discount on food if you order it to go, why should you get one for beer?

Or maybe you're saying that breweries' on premise sales should be significantly discounted compared to the markup you'd pay at a bar or liquor store for the same beer. But in practice brewers all seem to honor their MSRP for on premise sales because they don't want to undercut the bars and stores who are, after all, their direct "customers." And why wouldn't you be happy to let the brewery have a larger share of the profits when you buy from them directly? Don't you want them to be successful?

 

It's a good thing I read the whole thread before commenting because this is exactly the point I was going to make. I imagine it would be pretty hard to get local bar owners and store owners to sell your beer if you're just going to sell it for less than they ever possibly could.

 

I've only ever gotten growlers of beers that were draft only, so I don't have a good comparison for their shelf price, but I can tell you if I can get a beer less $\ounce off the shelf, that's the route I'm going over a growler.

 

Here's just a quick (local for me) comparison. Boundary Bay sells 22s of IPA for about $4 + tax, so out the door about $4.30. Multiply by 3 brings you to 66oz and $12.90. A growler fill is 64oz and $10 and change with tax. If you need to buy the glass, it's another $4 for the growler. If you're going to kill it in one night, the growler is a better deal, if you want more flexibility, the bottles would be the choice.