Pre-Filled Growlers

I wonder if they have a growler jug collection from other breweries on display.

I've only see a couple of places in Michigan with pre-filled growlers, so it does not seem to be a wide-spread thing. (Walldorff is the only one that I can recall right now.) I stay away from any pre-filled growlers unless I'm told they were filled that day.

 

Good timing for an example. My local growler station is doing prefilled plastic growlers of Stone Arrogant Bastard today

Growler Special
Stone Arrogant Bastard - American Strong Ale 7.2% ABV
64 oz - $9
32oz - $4

http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=99c4ca153434502cc7a406352&id=8f2f63f9c6

 

I didn't know that was a thing. You learn something new everyday.

 

I've certainly bought 64 oz. silk-screened growlers/bottles of Dead Guy in the past. Rogue is the king of reformating their beers. Beer was just fine, btw, I just wouldn't bother buying Rogue these days.

 

I don't care the plastic, but for 4 bucks out the door for two pints I can deal with it

 

A properly filled growler can, indeed, house beer that will last a couple weeks before opening. I, personally, wouldn't want to wait that long to drink it, but your mileage may vary. The most that I'd wait to drink the beer inside of a growler is a couple days, not a couple weeks.

I would not trust this brewery either. Even with counter pressure fillers, the seals on growler vessels are not the best. Crowlers, on the other hand . . .

How was it different?

 

I knew of (they still might) a brewery that did prefill but they only did 3-5 of a couple flagship beers. I have gotten a few in the past and didn't have any issues that I remember. I think if a place does prefill growlers they better be seeing those things fly out the brewery/store or just have a handfull of ones to keep things fresh as possible and help during busy times. Definitely check the fill date if they have one on it.

 

I was at a brewery this evening that had these plastic 'growlers' but they called them browlers. Maybe it's a bicycling thing (hence the 'b') because this brewery offered a free empty browler to bicyclists if they paid the refill price, which I think was $6. These containers looked like a quart size.

 

I still have a few of those hanging around. Filled one at Lost Nation and it cracked and spilled Gose everywhere. LN was great and replaced it for free, and now I don't use them anymore.

Agree that it was a crapshoot but even funky Mountain Ale was exciting and interesting. I learned pretty quickly to skip the IPAs though.

 

Growlers are one of the worst ways to store beer. Pre-filling a growler with intent to sell later or distribute or store for awhile is a bad idea in general. It just reeks of incompetence in finding a way to bottle or can or keg your beer, all of which are better alternatives.

There are plenty of short term reasons to justify pre-filling growlers though. Breweries generally go through peak times during open hours, and filling a few growlers ahead of time can speed things up quite a bit when things start to get busy. Hell, even Tree House has done it in the past. There is really no difference between a a growler filled earlier in the day vs a growler filled on the spot, so I see no reason to have a issue with that.

 

What about pre-filled crowlers? I've noted some local breweries that don't otherwise can or bottle will send crowlers to local liquor stores.

 

I never saw this with a Growler, every time I get one its fresh pour. Now on the other had with a Crowler they are pre-canned but date is always written on side so no issue.

 

I agree with you, and honestly all my local breweries always tell me to consume as soon as possible to keep it fresh. Getting anything 2 weeks old is bad in my book.

 

my buddy got a pre-filled growler once, basically you traded your empty for one of their pre-filled ones. Well the one he go had a bad gasket (was a flip top), so the beer was flat and actually leaked a bit when traveling with it full.

I learned from his mistake and never got a growler from that place.