Growler Refill Laws???

I know in CA it is not legal to fill growlers from other breweries. However, in some states.. ID for instance.. they'll fill anything.

Can anyone cite the law that prohibits this in Calif?

Tnx, Bill

California Business and Professions Code § 25200. Label; Contents.

All beer sold in this State shall have a label affixed to the package or container thereof, upon which shall appear the true and correct name and address of the manufacturer of the beer, and also the true and correct name of the bottler of the beer if other than the manufacturer. No manufacturer, importer, or wholesaler of beer shall use a container or carton as a package or container of a beer other than such beer as is manufactured by the manufacturer whose name or brand of beer appears upon the container or carton, or use as a package or container of a beer a container or carton which bears the name of a manufacturer of beer or the brand of any beer other than those of the manufacturer of the beer contained in the container or carton.

The really irritating part is what I was saying in your other thread where they will only put the same beer in specifically labelled growlers, which doesn't seem to appear in that law.

You'd think a label with a really evil glue would work.

Ha, they'll even fill corny's here. You leave it overnight, and pick it up the next day.

Oh wow this is interesting. I just read that MI has a law that a location must produce beer to fill growlers. So on one hand you can fill a growler with any beer on tap at a place with a brewery, even beers they don't produce but have on tap. And then on the other hand, if a brewing company has something like an additional restaurant where beer is not made, growlers cannot be refilled with any type of beer though pre-filled growlers may be sold.

I always thought it was interesting that some places in Michigan will refill any growler, some will only refill their own, and then a few will not refill at all (maybe just to sell another growler?).

Interesting, in NY recently ive found that a alot of the bars i go to are starting to sell "to-go" growlers. Same taps you can drink in the bar but with the growler you can't drink on premise. Im sure its some-sort of self-serve law.

Az just changed laws from brewery only to pretty much any bar being able to fill them. Most bars aren't though. Ill try to find the article on it

It is such a dumb law!! As a side note a friend gave me a bunch of growlers from NorCal breweries since she can't fill them anywhere in SoCal. So why do guys think the law was ever put on the books? It seems like only small breweries have growlers and I don't think they much care what the container says.

I know at least a few breweries have growlers. I picked up a growler at Deschutes this summer. However, it's useless until I go back to Bend next summer. Stone isn't a small brewery and they have them, as does Firestone Walker. I consider all of them at least rather large breweries. Certainly not on the order of BMC's.. but.....

Be interesting to see if that law can be changed. Heck, when I brewed my first batches back in the 60's, brewing beer was illegal. I think it was one of the only things Jimmy Carter did that was worth a cr@p.

a_hard said:

Az just changed laws from brewery only to pretty much any bar being able to fill them. Most bars aren't though. Ill try to find the article on it

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Interesting, now I know why Total Wine just added taps and growler filling stations...

I've been to a brewery here in the Bay with growlers from other breweries and all they do is put a sticker with their logo on it.

Any growler, any beer...love WA laws in this respect, many other laws here that are just as retarded as Calis though.

Despite all the blue laws we have, any growler works at any brewery here in CO. The guys at my local brew co always talk about the different breweries that I bring growlers in for refills from

I'll be moving to California next summer. Learning this makes me very, very sad.

Being from Oregon, we have some of, of not the best beer laws in the nation: any brewery or brewpub can fill any container provided by customers for consumption off premises so long as it is closed, and holds two gallons or less. Anything bigger than two gallons can also be filled for consumption off premises, but must be sealed by the brewery. So yeah, you can bring your own keg in to have it filled...

God I'm going to miss that!

Maybe we need some legal expertise on how to persuade the lawmakers to change the 'rules'.

Lobby. Lobby, lobby lobby. It really helps to have an active and economically viable business community behind the effort. That's how Oregon got started back in... 1986, I think? Small breweries lobbied the state legislature to change the laws to permit on-premises sales for consumption. The resulting legislation gave rise to the state's brewpub industry.

Perhaps someone should inform California's legislatures that, as far as beer production and sales go, Oregon is more progressive?

HbgBill said:

Maybe we need some legal expertise on how to persuade the lawmakers to change the 'rules'.

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I don't know how many small brewers would be on board to change the law. As it stands now they get to sell the growler AND beer. Some of those growlers go for 8-10 dollars empty even though they are only 2-3 dollars to buy wholesale.

maryland growler laws: http://bayinghoundales.com/about-us/faq/ (see question #4)

MI supposedly is looking into changing the law to allow for bars to also fill growlers, not just breweries. Some breweries are interested in keeping it just for breweries, citing the desire to have control over the quality of the container and pour.

However, according to the article I read it seems as though this is not a high priority bill and likely won't come up for consideration any time soon.

andycr said:

Interesting, now I know why Total Wine just added taps and growler filling stations...

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Yup! Cant find the article but the short of it is there are now 6000 plus locations which can sell growlers, with the establishments being able to opt out without penalty to their license. As I understand it any establishment which is primarily alcohol sales, bars, liquor stores, etc can now sell them. Ive noticed most places don't care. I believe it came about from local breweries opening satellite pubs not licensed as breweries and people not able to fill growlers even though the location was owned by said breweries.

HbgBill said:

Maybe we need some legal expertise on how to persuade the lawmakers to change the 'rules'.

Click to expand...

There actually have been bills introduced to try to change the law in CA but it hasn't made it to any votes yet.

In the meantime, Stone keeps opening their Company Stores where you can fill growlers or kegs, as well as purchase bottles. Besides the brewery in Escondido they have one in North Park and one in Oceanside. They just opened on in LA somewhere and they are planning to open several more.

About the only brew pub around where I am is my house so no one has growlers.
That being said, I know that a few years ago at least it wasn't legal to sell beer to go in a tavern in Washington unless you were selling bottles or cans of beer.

Back in the 70's, you could bring in any jug and they would just fill them. It was probably not legal, but times were a little more relaxed back then.

HbgBill said:

I know in CA it is not legal to fill growlers from other breweries. However, in some states.. ID for instance.. they'll fill anything.

Can anyone cite the law that prohibits this in Calif?

Tnx, Bill

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Yup. What's really annoying is calling to check cause I vaguely remembered something like that and being told "nope, we can fill any growler". So I take down my larger, cool one from deschutes only for the bartender to say "I can't fill that".

When I asked why they said they could over the phone he just said "sorry, she's not a bartender" and walked away.

The last time I was there, Rivertowne Pour House in Monroeville, PA (outside of Pittsburgh) would take other people's growlers and replace them with their own (basically, you trade in someone else's growler for one of theirs). The brewer offered "prisoner exchanges" to the other breweries.