Tag: growlers

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Aftermath – Part 3

The American shipping and distribution system is amazing. You can get something in under an hour. But as we have seen with the run on toilet paper, it doesn’t take much to hobble that system.

This will extend to breweries, and not just with ingredients but with items like the beer container. Kegs are not in vogue. But boy, the amount of Crowlers and sixteen ounce cans needed are rising higher.

But that means that a system built for just in time delivery and expecting only a certain quantity of sales now has to pivot to new market conditions and then will have to change again when this is all over.

Meanwhile, the growler, which has completely lost favor, has had a tiny renaissance as breweries have opened up the taps to any container that they can put beer in.

Supply and demand is in cans already and it will soon be hitting other ingredients too.

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Growler Recycle

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I didn’t intend to have as many growlers as I do but even without buying one, I have a medium/small collection. If you have an even bigger one, then you may want to head to Beachwood because they have a Growler Exchange Program.

Here are the details: Beachwood Brewing “will exchange any growler from a corporately owned “craft” brewery for a free unfilled Beachwood growler and a $5 dollar gift card – redeemable at Beachwood BBQ and Brewing Long Beach.

Give us your Golden Roads, your Ballast Points, your collective brown jugs looking for a recycling bin.”

*Limit 20 growlers per person through the month of September*”

#IndependentBeer

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To Your Door

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Just when I thought that growlers were on the way out, what with crowlers and other keg-esque alternatives multiplying on Kickstarter, out comes a business tacking against the curve with a growler delivery service.

Hopsy, based in the Berkeley area , will deliver fresh filled growlers from the tap room to your doorstep.

The new company has a stable of 10 breweries currently with names like Moylan’s and Magnolia on the list of NorCal breweries to choose from. You (beer fans in the Bay Area) will pay a premium plus delivery for the privilege but that is the cost of sitting in your jim-jams and not moving your butt.

Hopsy promises temperature-controlled protection for your precious cargo and a three-hour delivery window. But don’t expect same day delivery. Currently they are serving one market and it is on a pre-order basis. If you want a beer for the weekend, best order by Tuesday.

They have fifteen other cities on their future list for expansion though I doubt L.A. with its long distances will be tackled until all the kinks are worked out in smaller more delivery oriented cities first.

Delivery is a super tough game to be in with wild costs so I don’t know how the numbers crunch out but maybe it is the start of a new gig economy idea. Uber for Growlers. Grubers. The logo can be a picture of Alan Rickman or Nakatomi Tower.

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Go over the Chart, before you Go

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File this under extremely helpful for the growler set and then cross reference, things Sean should have posted about much earlier than this.

Not only do the Maltose Falcons know home brew, they also have an online repository of who fills – what growlers with an introduction as to why California brewers do what they do, that is so completely spot on, that I wish I had written it.

So bookmark this site and check it before you randomly grab a growler for your next beer trip. It will save you from coming home empty handed or ending up with even more containers to store.

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Growler Cleaning

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I should have known that something like this had been invented and I probably should have blogged about it before this.

Growler get gunky. I have seen horrified faces at breweries when a dirty growler has been brought in for more beer. I have heard tales of some growlers so bad that they were immediately put into the recycle bin.

Now those people, and me, can simply drop Growler Tablets from Craft Meister in a tablet add water and let sit for a nice clean piece of glass.

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#LABW5 Pick of the Night – Tuesday 9/24

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Each morning throught L.A. Beer Week, I will give you my Pick of the Night.  The ONE event I think rises to the top of the list.  Some days that choice will be harder and there might be 1A and 1B’s (if I get wishy-washy).  I will endeavor to pick events you can just head out to.  But if tickets are required, I will mention it.  But expect crowds.  Craft beer and craft beer in L.A. is popular.

Growlerfornia, Here We Come!

Tuesday, September 24th 2013 7:00-10:00 pm

Frustrated, relieved or just confused over the current state of California’s Growler Laws? You’re not the only one. Join moderator Tomm Carroll of Celebrator Beer News at Chloe’s Pub at Golden Road Brewery as he leads a panel of professionals to help explain the situation, including the recently amended AB-647 (California’s ‘Growler Bill’), presently awaiting Governor Jerry Brown’s signature. There will also be a Q&A.

Panelists will include State Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro (D – North Coast), who introduced and was the principal author of the bill’s amendments; Jeremy Raub, President of the Los Angeles Brewers Guild, as well as brewmaster and co-owner of Eagle Rock Brewery; and Lori Ajax, Deputy Division Chief of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC).

The discussion will include the history of California’s Growler Laws, the state of the legislation currently, future plans and considerations for Growler-sale policies, and other related topics.

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Growler Action

..inaction?

Check out this article on the excellent BrewBound site, HERE then come back for my thoughts

AB-647 would make this a possibility, “An empty Stone Brewing growler cannot just go to Sierra Nevada to be filled, Sierra Nevada would need to obscure all of the information that is on it and affix the proper labeling that is required from their brewery before sending it out the door.”

Sorry, but this is going to create two types of breweries.  Ones that can and have the time to do that nonsense and the others who will find it too cumbersome.  Compare that with Portland that will fill practically any water tight container with beer.  I found TWO grocery stores.  TWO that had self-serve growler stations.  One at New Seasons had two specialty Widmer offerings (and two wines available to fill as well.)

Zupan’s had six taps.  Two from pFriem, a cider and two from Firestone Walker. Amazed?  Here’s the photos to prove it….

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The cleanest way to do growlers is to have two containers that can be filled.  Brewery specific growlers that only can be filled at that brewery and BLANK ones that can be filled anywhere.  Put the same neck tag on them and ready to go.  Call me when that happens and I will be excited.

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Package that Beer (differently)

The fine Portland folks behind the New School blog had a great posting about the art of craft beer packaging and I thought it was so fascinating that I wanted to link to it too.

So go HERE now!

My favorite of the group is(was) the Kegless design.
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Maybe it will be resurrected. Which one did you like?

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Session # 60

The Washington Beer Blog is hosting this month and here is the topic du Jour

“These days people take growlers for granted. In my neck of the woods, growlers are a relatively new phenomenon. I don’t recall exactly when they appeared on the local beer scene but it could not have been more than eight or ten years ago. Maybe they existed in obscurity before. My memory fails me. Today growlers are everywhere. I think. Growlers are very common around the Pacific Northwest, anyway. I cannot speak to their popularity elsewhere. I’d love to know.”

Boy does this topic come at an awkward time. Or maybe it is destiny.

I have been blogging about the growler situation in California for awhile to the point where I even put a petition widget on my website. I got some interest and some offers of help but the wheels have been spinning in the same spot until earlier this month when someone influential in the Twitter-sphere mentioned it and I suddenly got a massive (for me) influx of signatures on the petition.

Which is great but I have a new-ish job and the time to work this issue the right way is just not there for me. But I do not want this momentum to wane and blink out. So here is an unpaid job opportunity for the California beer lover with connections to breweries and the tourism arm of the State of California as well as the people who govern liquor laws in the Golden state. Maybe that is one person or three (or more).

Here’s the deal: The State of California does not allow plain growlers to be filled by breweries. The growler must be purchased from the brewery who is filling it. So, you can’t take your Eagle Rock Brewery growler to Golden Road and get it filled. Or vice-versa. And you can’t have a mason jar or any other container filled with your favorite beer like they can in Portland. That means some people have second homes filled with growlers from all the different California brewers or they have to pick and choose which growlers to buy and only get fill-ups at those places.

My proposal is simple. Have a statewide “Brewed in California” growler that can be filled at participating breweries from north to south and all points in-between.

This project needs someone to take the helm and drive.