Russian River growlers - bottom or top fill?

Bottom

 

Do any breweries top fill a growler? This seems like it could not happen.

 

It would become a massive growler of foam and then they would have to keep overflowing foam forever to make it all beer and thus waste a shitload of beer. I doubt any breweries do this. Midwest Dive bars filling cool Bells shit like Black Note or GI BCBS though...yes, straight off the tap.

 

I'm sure there's someone somewhere that incompetent. Certainly wouldn't expect it of anywhere decent or established, though.

 

what the hell is a top fill

 

I had a growler of Unfiltered DBA filled at FW Buelton that was top-filled. They wasted a lot of beer to fill it but at least it was literally filled to the top.

 

Societe was top-filling last time I was there. Lots of head space in the two growlers I opened.

 

Strange. The two times I had growlers filled there, not only did they bottom fill, but they also purged the oxygen out of the growler.

 

How long ago? I haven't been there since Janurary-ish. I thought it was weird.

 

I got a growler of the first batch of Pupil at the end of May 2012. I recall them purging and bottom filling back then and that's all I've seen since.

 

My two visits to Societe there was head space in glass growler and filled to head with SS growler. I have no luck with Bootleggers. Head space.

 

wait what the fuck is the difference? i was at russian river last week and they filled my growlers straight form the taphead.

 

The difference is using tubing that attaches to the faucet and is roughly the length of the growler. So when the faucet is engaged, beer flows directly to the bottom of the vessel, ie: bottom-filling. Some breweries don't use tubing and fill the growler straight from the faucet, thus causing more foaming (excess loss of carbonation) and often results in head space in the growler itself allowing CO2 to leave solution more readily.

 

It is possible to get a good growler fill straight from the faucet, it just results in more wasted beer due to foaming.

 

Heard! (Yes then RR fills from the bottom.) *leaves thread*

 

Surprisingly, Alesmith top fills their growlers. I asked them about it once and they said they don't think there's a difference

A lot of places still top fill.

 

On the other hand, a plastic tube that's handled throughout the day isn't necessarily what you want in your growler either...