Much to my chagrin I went to a brewery with the growler of another brewer and was told they would not dare fill said growler. Nothing personal they were just following the rules and regulations laid out by the ABCC, or whatever state regulator. Does anyone know if I was to remove the label of the existing brewer on the growler it can be filled by another brewer? I din't think of asking this till I walked away... with my head held low... in shame.
No, this will not work. Breweries can only fill growlers with their logo on it. And even if you were to slap a logo on a blank growler the brewery in question would be wise to it.
IIRC there are some attempts to change the regulations of this sort of thing - to allow breweries to fill growlers, and put their own sticker on or some such, but it's not going anywhere fast. This has been the law in Massachusetts for as long as there have been breweries selling in growlers. It is kind of frustrating, having a few dozen growlers around, and it seems like I either forget to grab a growler on the way out or stop on a spur-of-the-moment whim and end up with a whole bunch from any one brewery.
Ok, a thought: what satisfies MA's labeling requirements for bottles? A paper label adhered to a blank bottle with whatever info the ABCC requires. Well, then shouldn't a brewery's sticker on a blank growler satisfy the labeling requirements? Suppose Trillium took the exact same labels they use for Fort Point bottles, change it to say 64oz, and slapped that on a blank growler supplied by the customer. Isn't that exactly what they do for 750mL bottles, save the supplier of the bottle? What am I missing here?
I feel this is a conversation we have way too often and the 20 or so glass growlers at my house agree that this should needs to be fast tracked at the state house!
