It seems like lately I’m seeing growler prices for some beers creeping up quite a bit, but the one that put me over the top the other day was a local IPA that was going for $45. Beer was Platform brewing Hubris which is a decent brewery and nice beer but holy &$?! that’s a bold asking price for a beer even most beer geeks in Cleveland wouldn’t know about.
I’ve started seeing some things like Even More Jesus variations at close to $40, and it’s nice to have that available. But at that price it’s basically the same per oz as the bottle and I don’t have to drink it all at once. maybe it’s a trick to make me think that $15 bomber was a good deal after all.
what kind of growler prices are you guys paying for the premium in demand stuff locally in your area?
$45 for a growler of IPA?! Dang. Out here we can get growlers of Fremont Interurban for $8 and Georgetown Lucille for $9 at the brewery. Local tap house gets me Boneyard RPM for $9 and Boneyard Hop Venom for $12. Hell, the local tap house has Black Butte XXVII for $28 for a full growler.
Haven’t filled a growler in almost a year. Came to the conclusion that they are THE worst value in terms of cost per ounce. Add to that, the fact that you have to ideally consume it pretty much immediately and they just don’t make much sense (more so when filled with a beer that is also available in bottle).
What Jorge said. The per ounce cost is almost always higher for growlers. I only buy growlers from one local place (3 Stars) and only things that they don’t can.
Growlers at most of the places I’ve gotten them are about $13 and that includes the $3 refundable deposit for the glass bottle. In general I’m not a huge fan for the reasons stated above, but if going out for pizza or over to a friends house where you know the whole thing will be finished within an hour or two of opening…then fine.
Growler fills at bars=bad deal, generally. Prices are usually determined by glass fills with maybe a small volume discount. Draft fills are the big $$$ for bars, so they aren’t going to cut people a break that are going to walk in just to get a fill and leave. They want you to sit down and consume. Some places may have discounted growler nights early in the week to generate ore sales, and do probably 80% of their fills those days.
Growler fills at the brewery=good to great deals, especially places that don’t have attached restaurants. Great for turnover, because they are usually a much better deal than by the glass so people will come by and get 1-2 for a weekend at home. They also encourage repeat business to come by and try new draft only releases and take them home to enjoy. All this while not having to spend the additional tens of thousands of $$$ to make a packaging run.
As an example, one local beer bar (quite good, about 40+ taps) has had one of the local brewery’s special one-offs available, the growler fill on their 50% off night is still $2-$3 more than getting the growler at the brewery every day about 2 miles away. I’ll go to the bar every once and a while and try some draft only things over an appetizer, but never for growlers or bottled options.
in CA we can’t fill growlers at bars so we only have fills at the brewery and they tend to be decent deals and you get ultra fresh beer. Usually I’ll fill growlers of things I can’t get bottles of.
I’ve always thought the same thing. I can’t figure why growlers of mediocre beer go for $20 when you can grab a six pack of it for around half. I think it’s generally the novelty and certainly not the qpr.
The only storage containers for beer that are worse than Growlers are an open conainer of beer in your refrigerator and a keg with a standard air pump tap. At our brewery we don’t sell kegs to individuals because of the air tap issue, beer doesn’t leave the brewery in any open container, and we don’t fill growlers. I’ve seen too many online reviews where people complain about beer quality out of a growler. No thanks.
Seems kind of severe on no growler fills. The only brewery I can think of (that are open to the public) in the Mid Atlantic to New England regions that won’t fill growlers at their brewery is Transmitter. They strictly brew Farmhouse/Saison and like to bottle condition.
What are you losing in quality if you use a counter pressure system to fill growlers?
Every beer we make is available in 22 oz bottles, and three bottles costs about the same as what we used to charge for a growler fill. I know the bottles are filled in an oxygen-less state, we didn’t waste a bunch of beer filling the container, and I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for a special dispensing system. I’m actually more concerned about what happens to the beer when the purchaser takes it home, has a glass, and then leaves the rest in his/her refrigerator to oxidize.
We have thought about putting in a “crowler” machine because we think the 32 oz size is more usable, and the container aren’t resealable (which solves my main concern). All that being said, we are a production brewery, and about 2% of our business comes from our tap room. If most of my business came from people wanting to have growlers filled, I might have a different attitude, though it’s more likely that I wouldn’t be making beer.
Thanks for the explanation Rick. I can definitely see how it makes sense in this kind of operation. I think here in the Northeast we get so used to having breweries operating tap rooms as a larger part of their income stream, with a greater number of different beers in a smaller footprint. It is easier for them to have their taproom kegs in the coldroom and fill on demand growlers even though it might be more labor intensive. I’ve seen firsthand from these self distributed breweries how they want any packaged beer delivered or sold very quickly to maximize space constraints, freshness, and definitely profits. While breweries of the same size with distributors can rely on having product picked up and maybe have fewer employees to offset a lower income.
Rick mentioned crowlers and I love them, but they are only available at one spot I know of here in Cleveland. I can’t understand why it hasn’t caught on further, any ideas why?
On another thought, why is it impossible to fill a 32 ounce growler correctly? I’m assuming that’s why many don’t like to sell them, but there has to be an invention that will let a tap smoothly fill such a bottle just waiting to happen.
In Texas I think there were legal issues about what a crowler was considered, or how it was defined. It was grey area between growler and retail packaged beer/cans. I know at least one bar in Houston that invested a lot in the crowler and then had to stop selling them to go, they could only sell them for on site consumption which defeats the purpose.
Price I would guess. It costs money for all the cans and then the machine costs even more. Some places just don’t think there is a return on investment for it.
Most growlers are made with a small opening at the top. When you fill a growler, you don’t have a smooth side to pour beer down, so you either pour beer down the middle of the growler which creates a lot of foam, or you use a tube which helps somewhat. When the growler gets close to being full, there is always too much foam because of the filling method and the fact that the foam gets forced up and out of the small opening. So most fillers just let the beer run until the growler is full, which is a huge waste of beer and server time. When the tube comes out of the growler, air goes in. Air is really bad for beer.
There are machines out there that will fill a growler under pressure. They work great but you basically need to have one for every beer you’re serving, and they are significantly more expensive than a crowler machine (crowler machines cost between $4,000 and $7,000, including a pallet of can blanks) and require you to rebuild your bar to accommodate them.
I’ve had three month old crowlers that were totally fresh, and I’ve never had a growler stay good anywhere near that long (these are the kinds of experiments you run if you own a brewery).
I don’t want to keep track of deposits, and we’ve had too many kegs walk out the door never to return. If an individual brings in their own keg (and not one they stole from another brewery) we will gladly clean and fill it for them.