Growlers, because Boneyard…
Seriously though, if you find a place that fills from counter pressure stations, it holds up as well as any bottle outside of Sierra Nevada.
What percentage of growler stations use counter pressure fillers? I suspect it is rather low.
I think of the unattached fill station as the male version of a cupcake bakery.
BTW, I’ve talked to a number of other brewers about growlers, and I haven’t found one who really likes them yet. Most dislike them because of the difficulty (in some cases impossibility) of filling and capping in the absence of oxygen.
While true that many fill stations don’t use counter pressure, my local shop does & it has really changed the way I buy hoppy beers. I generally use 32oz swing top growlers & they stay intact after the fill for a few weeks & will drink fine for 2-3 days after opening.
My perspective differs from brewers I guess, but I simply won’t buy bottled beer that has either sat unrefrigerated, is 90 days old before it even hits the shelves, or doesn’t have any date information.
Well documented in discussion here, but Firestone Walker, Ballast Point & Green Flash are the worst offenders.
I know it isn’t apples to apples, but Chuckanut brewing up here makes similar beers as you & fresh growlers are an amazing way to enjoy their lagers & pilsners.
Anthony,
I don’t think any of the brewers I’ve been talking to have any issue with growlers besides the oxidation issue. In Oregon there are dozens of new “growler stations” opening up that are glorified tap rooms, with no special equipment -just taps on the wall (for those in PDX, Tin Bucket does have the proper equipment to sell growlers).
As for stale beer, that’s why we try to self-distribute as much as possible, why we are picky about the distributors we use, and why we don’t plan on selling our beer outside Oregon, California, and Washington. I’ve had inquiries from distributors in more than 15 other states, and we just have no interest in selling beer that far from home. This all puts limitations on how big we can grow, but we’d rather sell a great tasting beer than be a mega-brewery.
Rick - are you in Washington now, or is that a future plan? Wife and I are camping in Champoeg over Memorial Day and plan on visiting if you are open that weekend.
Growlers are awesome for a night with one or two friends. saves on packaging waste as well.
I’d love if more places would refill growlers.
for freshness off the tap? Shrug. I’d only buy a growler if 1) more than I am drinking it 2) it’s cheaper than buying bottles.
I’ve regularly fill up a 2L growler of Stone Enjoy By at the Stone shop, but that’s cause it’s $14. Basically getting one free btl! 
Charlie,
Having beer on tap isn’t a guarantee of freshness. It’s possible that the keg being poured has been more poorly handled than the bombers in the store’s refrigerator. I seen it more with imports than with domestics, but it does happen. I don’t think freshness would be an issue at the Stone store!
To me, the benefit of a growler is getting a beer that isn’t available in bottles. This happens a lot up here, where a brewer will make 15 barrels of something and sell it all in kegs just to see the market’s reaction to the beer. For example, we only sold our Mediator Dopplebock in kegs. Last year we made both a Sticke Alt and a Kolsch that we offered in keg only. This year the Sticke will be in bottles as well, but the Kolsch will still be a keg-only deal, as we have several bars that are going to take pretty much all of it.
Rick - I’ve got quite a few growlers that I cycle through. Generally consume within 24 hours if shared or over 2 days, if not. The growlers that have sealed stoppers (Russian River, Hair of the Dog, etc.) seem to fair better over time for me. There are quite a few local places that fill, but our Bellevue Total Wine is now positioning growler fills as a loss-leader, like protein at a grocery store. Selection is generally pretty stellar.
Laughed audibly at Lombardi’s note - the growler I brought in this weekend had a big piece of masking tape on the cap with “ROJO” written on it 
As in Diablo Rojo?
Yep. We get a fair amount of the Boneyard beers on the East Side. I’m pretty sure I killed-off 25% of the Notorious keg at the Pine Lake Ale House (home away from home) 
You had SkunkApe yet? Heard that its a muscled up version of Rojo. We get RPM & now Hop Venom as regulars at my shop in West Seattle. I heard somewhere that they are now interested in bottling in the future despite the fact that they abandoned the canning idea a couple of years ago.
Firestone and Ballast Point now have bottling dates on their labels. Green Flash has a Best By date printed on their bottles.
Now, whether they’re getting product on shelves quickly is a whole 'nother matter, and may have more to do with distributors and stores than it does the breweries.
Anthony,
Part of the reason that we self-distribute over two thirds of our beer is because we can 1) get it to market quicker after bottling, and 2) make sure that the beer is refrigerated as long a possible before purchase. If we are selling our beer through a distributor, I would much rather under-supply the market so I can be sure that it all sells very quickly. So even when we start distributing in WA (hopefully this Fall), I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of our beer around. BTW, we date-stamp all our bottles when we bottle.
I actually got to speak w/ the FW rep (brewery not Distro) about it once. I have him what I thought was simple feedback “Double Jack is one of the top 5 beers on the shelf when fresh, but it is never fresh”. His answer was so convoluted that it was impossible to follow.
Oddly, we seem to get fresh kegs from all of those breweries.
They kinda missed the boat w/shelf space now that Fremont has more offerings, Bale Breaker is canned, Black Raven is bottling more.
Bale Breaker Topcutter has been a hell of surprise, especially at the can price point. I’ve been hitting TW for growler fills on it when I can.