Tired Hands (January 2018)

I still can’t beleive we haven’t seen bottles of HandFarm in a few years.

 

Popped a Through the Emptiness for the game yesterday. Spectacular. The peach came through in waves and it complemented the Emptiness yeast perfectly.

 

I'm with you here. The smaller TH growler is actually 1L, which is 33.8oz so if they counted the fill the same, then you actually get more beer.

I really don't think this is a common problem. Between most people remember to bring their growler, cost of a new one is just $5, and most people tend to be environmentally conscious, I don't think people mind paying for another empty if on the rare occasion they forgot.

While I've had very few issues shipping growlers, this is pretty much the ONLY reason that I found crowlers to be more advantageous.

I'm curious how you came to this conclusion. @NiceBeerCans 's post (#101) in this thread rationalized pretty well why growlers are more likely to hold up better than crowlers. I'm not really sure how you can go about filling a crowler wrong. That said, I'd love to see some actual #forscience comparisons, i.e filling a bunch of crowlers and growlers of the same beer to test how well each holds up over a period of a few weeks, cracking 1 of each over that time.

 

I think there are two things that might constitute as "wrong", basically not filling up all of the way and also not filling from the bottom via a hose from the tap. While they just poured from the tap into the crowlers when I was there I definitely did not have to worry about it not being filled all of the way, the lid when placed on the crowler pushed it to overflowing before sealing.

 

So, basically they filled it up like they would in filling up a pint of beer?

If that is the case that beer has been generously mixed with air (which is 20% oxygen). Oxygen/oxidation is the enemy of beer; it makes the beer taste stale.

Cheers!

 

Al, a more objective way to assess this is to measure the TPO (Total Packaged Oxygen) of these two packages. You know lots of folks, do you know anybody who owns a DO (Dissolved Oxygen) meter and would be willing to conduct this science?

Cheers!

 

This is correct and what I have seen most places do.

 

Also I noticed that the bartender went over and purged it with CO2 from the hose on the wall which is great but I'm not sure how effective since it's just a large mouth can? Either way I appreciated that amount of effort. Both crowlers held carbonation and freshness, one opened that night after I got home and one opened the next night.

 

In my opinion crowlers are best consumed quickly due to the issue of oxidation that I made mention of previously. Continual cold storage will mitigate the effects of oxidation but even then the beer is best consumed sooner rather than later.

Growlers are also best consumed soon but if they were previously flushed with CO2 (like Tired Hands does with their new growlers) and bottom filled via tubing they will contain a lesser amount of oxygen vs. a crowler.

Cheers!

 

FWIW I agree with you here - with such a large opening I really do not think the purging is doing much (if anything).

Cheers!

 

Keep in mind that Tired Hands does not use tubes to fill growlers either. So we are all properly fucked one way or another, I guess.

 

I did not know that; thanks for the education.

Cheers!

 

1) Some Tired Hands beer DOES cost a lot for takeaway (higher gravity) which I never truly understood.
2) Many Tired Hands beers use a ton of fruit, and/or a lot of vanilla beans in many of the beers that people deem to be price gouging when comparing to similarly quality breweries, yet do not give consideration to the price of the ingredients. Not sure why this is so difficult to grasp.

 

I'm not sure anyone in the thread is unfairly comparing the price points of fruited, vanilla' Shakes etc. to standard IPAs, are they? I think that sort of discussion is usually quarantined to Instagram comments which have a whole 'nother level of... um... discourse.

$20 for a 32oz crowler of a DIPA is a lot, no matter what it's compared to. I personally don't think it's that egregious of a business practice, I still bought it and liked it! I'll be back to Tired Hands many times in the future, but almost certainly not for $20 crowlers.

 

I think it is $2.50 for the can. Same price for a fill.

 

$2.50 for the crowler can? LOL! As if they don't already rake in enough money. Do any other local spots charge for the can? I know Wilco over in Jersey charges a penny, so these things can't be that expensive.

 

lol, you really think the can actually cost a penny each for them to buy the blank crowler cans?

 

The one time I bought crowler at World of Beer in Exton they charged me about he same for a crowler. That was when it first opened so I'm can't comment on whether or not they still do. All other places I've bought a crowler have not.