Michigan Growler Laws

This bill was first introduced last year and I had a big problem with the labeling language. They have cleared that up. I just wish they had gone further so retailers could fill growlers.

 

Honestly, that does not bother me at all..

 

You don't think it would be pretty convenient to go to Meijer for groceries and walk out with a growler as well?

 

Nope, as I dont trust them to clean their lines...Its bad enough that some good bars dont do it enough..I dont trust some guy at a grocery store making 8 bucks an hour to care...I dont mind grabbing a 6 pack of a beer I want.

 

so will beer stores be able to sell growler fills?

 

Class C liquor licenses with SDM designation is how the bill read last time I took a look. Don't know if the passed bill had different wording attached to it.

 

Stoked for it for sure! Even though I know a couple beer bars that sell growlers already...

 

I feel ya man. If I could have a growler station at my store I would be stoked! I just started working on getting an on premise license so I can carry some of these awesome kegs I have access too but it's not an easy task.

 

i'm really excited for this. now as a bar, we will be able to sell them. we sell a lot of stuff not bottled and this will be great! we've wanted to do it forever, but it's not worth getting caught.

 

Curious--what kind of beers are you (anyone) looking to get in a growler from a bar?

 

I prefer getting non bottled beer, like odd side and shorts beers. We carry quite a bit of both and it'd be so much easier to sell growlers to rotate stuff in and out

 

Schlitz

 

I'm sure most peoples preference would be to beers not bottled, well that would be mine anyway.

 

...or limited batch size and distro on the bottled stuff.

 

Limited releases from breweries not in the area. Case in point, 7 Monks in Traverse City often gets some great special taps from Dark Horse or Founders or Shorts or whomever. I'd love to be able to get a growler of stuff from them since I'm already there instead of having to make a road trip to the breweries.

 

So happy to see some legislation worth a damn. Been pushing for this for awhile. Will be happy when it goes in effect.

 

Can anyone clarify if breweries can/will fill growlers that are not theirs? i.e. can I bring a Growler from Mason City Brewing in Iowa to New Holland and get it filled?

 

Call the brewery. Some do, some don't.

 

Founders, New Holland, Greenbush, Vivant?

 

I've filled other growlers at both Founders and Vivant with no issues, Founders explicitly says they're ok as long as the growler is clean. Haven't filled at NH or Greenbush.

 

Technically it is illegal to fill a growler from another brewery because it would not comply with current labeling laws. To comply they would have to put a sticker on the growler covering up the logo of the other brewery and which would include things like brewery and the name of the beer. I don't know of any breweries that actually go through the trouble and most fill growlers from other breweries.

 

I have gotten growlers from other breweries filled at all of these places with no issues.

 

The only brewery I've gotten a fill from that does that is Right Brain in TC. They just stick a RBB sticker on the growler.

 

Cool, thank you everyone. Cooler full of growlers is added to the packing list.

 

How about a cooler full of beer for the locals with the good advice?

 

Sadly we have next to nothing in packaged form that you can't get there, and I'm not risking having full growlers when I need to fill mine there, sorry! If there was a specific request I might be able to do something for a little trady trade.

 

I saw your other thread and it looks like your schedule is really tight here. If not for that I would probably take you up on this.

 

I am with The 8th Street Grille in Holland, MI. We are the ones that did the work to have the law changed. I worked with Founder's Brewing, Mark Sellers of Hop Cat & Grand Rapids Brewing with some other Class C license holders in Grand Rapids and Senator Hildenbrand to get this done. We did not get much help from any of the places you would expect but we worked hard behind the scenes to get this done. Senator Hildenbrand took this on when others did not want to. He should get most the credit, he is the one that wrote the bill and lobbied to have it passed. He told us he could get it done and he did. We have 28 taps of craft beer and we fill growlers 7 days a week. Tuesday all fills are $5 off, Thursday $3 off. We have a great selection, the best in Holland. Check out our facebook page for our current up to date selections. We do takeovers regularly and have Shorts coming in Oct, Founders in November. We fill growlers 7 days a week. We are one block from New Holland Brewing so stop in if you are in town visiting.