Dr. Ali and I had quite a crafty weekend, visiting several of my favorite local breweries in Pennsylvania, a new brewery in NJ, and topping it all off with some antiquing and pottery. During this expedition we had a realization. As avid lovers of craft beer, we are chronically faced with an uncertainty on a certain aspect of proper brewery etiquette. Can you bring your own growler to a brewery?
Many times I have visited a brewery and have wanted to take some of the freshly poured brews home with me. I would love to have a continuously filled growler at my house, where it hosts a 'beer of the day' (or so); a taste of somewhere I recently visited or just a rotating fill from one of my local hangouts. But there are two major things preventing me: buying a new growler at every location is neither cost nor space effective. I mean, let's face it, at the rate I tour breweries it would be similar to collecting empty milk gallons - they'd kind of just be lying around all over the place. That might be cool if I were a dude with a man cave, but I am not.
I'd love to simply be able to pack my one trusty growler and get it refilled. Is it proper/appropriate to do so? Or is that a brewery foul? I'm not saying bring one brewery's growler to another brewery, but maybe if the New Jersey Craft Beer scene marketed ad-free growlers, I could tote that around the state instead. And collect their stickers. I seem to be obsessed with brewery stickers.
2 comments:
Hi Carinne,
I laughed when I read your post--we, too, have amassed a great collection of growlers. I don't know if it's proper or not, but Eric often takes a growler to get refilled. (In fact, the only reason we seem to have so many is because Eric sometimes forgets to take a growler) While he usually takes the brewery-specific growler to each particular brewery, he sometimes does not--for example, while most growlers are 1/2 gal., he has a full gallon one from Bullfrog. We've taken it to other breweries and the bartenders don't even bat an eye--and sometimes they even comment on the artwork or the quality of particular Bullfrog brews! :)
I can only imagine how many growlers you have around. You probably recognize the one in the photo too. Anyway that's awesome that they let you do that. I'll definitely have to experiment, now. Thanks Jackie!
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