Plastic Growlers

It's a co-op store. Anyone can shop there. It's a one-time, lifetime fee to join, but you get a 10% rebate at the end of every year. They sell Nalgene bottles, and pretty much any other outdoor item you might want, except guns.

 

Assuming these are somewhat similar to the PET bottles that you can use for homebrew. The homebrewing sells growlers like this, along with the 500ml bottles. They even sell one with a Carb Cap. All reusable. Great thing is no broken glass

 

Not only do I have a plastic growler but I also have a CO2 fitting (like the above post) I got from a home brew supplier that allows me to force carbonate any beer that may go flat. It's all easy to clean and maintain and works great.

 

We used to have plastic 64-oz growler bottles at Total Wine years ago, good for the boat, beach pool, etc, and they were only a dollar, so people who forgot their growlers at home would spend the extra buck if we had something they couldn't live without

 

Glass is best- No point in taking chances of leaching BPA-

Also plastic gets pitted on a micro level,leaving nucleation points which are unwanted-

 

There's the triplets Imogene, Nalgene, and Margene, but that's an old story. Nalgene was an early hip hard plastic vessel with a great re-screwing closure. The bottles were very tough and we still have 2 from about 15 years ago. Ours are 32 ounces.

 

Glass also gets pitted with use. Shrug.

 

I’ve got a Coleman double wall insulated growler that I really like. Keeps beer cold for 8-10 hours easily with no refrigeration, good tight seal, etc. best of all it won’t break if I drop it like the glass one I had before I bought the Coleman.

 

I drank a homebrewed cucumber ale from a plastic root beer bottle once and it tasted great. So I guess I'm somewhat open-minded about the idea.

 

The growlers I prefer are ones that I don't need to clean. I get pretty much all of my growler fills at a liquor store that fills their branded glass growlers which you pay a fully refundable deposit on. They steam clean the growlers and each gets a new cap every time. I still have my own growler but never seem to use it. Plastic would be OK if they switched to that, and Nalgene reportedly tolerates steam cleaning (autoclaving).

 

I don't lose my mind about the BPA stuff, but in general I find glass and stainless vessels to just be nicer and longer lasting anyway, so I favor those.

I don't know any breweries around here using plastic growlers, and I don't particularly want any of them to start, but if there was a beer I really wanted and that was the option, I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

 

I put homebrew stout in diet Pepsi plastic bottles for ninja drinking in public. Never a problem with taste.

 

Beer Boutique here in NYC does plastic 1L growlers. Only gotten them a time or two but they worked great, with the caveat that I only kept them sealed for ~an hour before consuming. Being able to recycle them was nice as well.

 

Plastic is okay for many uses, but as a warmed drinking vessel has always concerned me. It's a phobia I have issues with, but nonetheless.. it's a ****le I can't shake.

Man, I'm glad I still have options.

 

Locally the latest trend in 'take home' from a tap is the 32 crowler can. Provides much longer shelf life than even the tightest cap on a glass growler or crowler.