Brewpub refused to fill my growler.

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Here in San Diego, I walked into Karl Strauss Brewery with a Rock Bottom Brewery growler and asked for my favorite on tap, they tossed the growler in the can, gave me a brand spanking new KS growler for the price of a fill. That is customer service AND effective advertising.

Toy4Rick
 
Here in San Diego, I walked into Karl Strauss Brewery with a Rock Bottom Brewery growler and asked for my favorite on tap, they tossed the growler in the can, gave me a brand spanking new KS growler for the price of a fill. That is customer service AND effective advertising.

Toy4Rick

No, that's BS. That growler they pitched costs money. You could have had two growlers (one empty) and now you have only one. I'd be pissed off.
 
Either way he still got a beer fill,and a new growler at only a beer fill price.He could have left empty. It is bs that they tossed a growler you may have liked away.
 
Sure if I wanted to pay 4.00 for their growler. In with one empty, out with 1 full for the price of beer, which was my goal. I'm good

Toy4Rick
 
Which place are you talking about? I get down to Eugene/Springfield regularly and usually hit the Bier Stein, but they have fewer taps... I gotta check your favorite place out!

It's called Sixteen Tons, about two blocks south of the Stein. The Stein has a much bigger bottle selection but if you want to have a pint or fill a growler or jar, Sixteen Tons is a nice place to hit up.
 
Here in San Diego, I walked into Karl Strauss Brewery with a Rock Bottom Brewery growler and asked for my favorite on tap, they tossed the growler in the can, gave me a brand spanking new KS growler for the price of a fill. That is customer service AND effective advertising.

It could be that the microbreweries cooperate on this and exchange growlers. I'm sure they find that this works well for them. I'm sure Rock Bottom gets a number of Karl Strauss growlers from other customers. If they get together a few times per year and do a "prisoner exchange" they both win.

Overall it sounds like the wise thing to do would be to simply use unlabeled growlers and slap a paper/plastic label on it before handing it back to the customer.
 
My only experience with this (since there are no brewpubs in houston to get a growler filled.. horrible laws), wife bought two growlers from river city brewery in wichita. It was not labeled on the glass in any manner, they just wrote the type of beer on the cap.

seems like an easy work around. just print the brewery on the glass.. then write on the cap, which can be replaced every refill at minimal cost.
 
I like my local brewpub's setup. You walk in, buy a growler for $13.90 CAD, $3.50 of that is a deposit.

Next time, you bring back the empty and they exchange it for a full one for $10.40 (which here in Ontario is a pretty darn good price)
 
yeh i know. I was specifically talking about brewpubs (Houston doesn't even have any) and breweries.
Rockwells is just a bar.
You go there often? We're there all the time.. I'll be there friday in fact:)
 
yeh i know. I was specifically talking about brewpubs (Houston doesn't even have any) and breweries.
Rockwells is just a bar.
You go there often? We're there all the time.. I'll be there friday in fact:)

Im actually thinking about going to the Karbach friday 5-7 Happy hour tour? You been there yet?
 
Yeh we just went about 2 weekends ago on a saturday. (After I met eric at rockwells the night before no less)
He's a nice and knowledgeable guy. (He's from Flying Dog.)
We went the last tour on sat., 2:30, it was me and wife and one other couple, so very enjoyable. He says the first tours of the day are by far the most crowded.

Great time to go now as they have no A/C.
 
I recently took two growlers (Roof Brothers and Schlafley) to the Yazoo Brewery in Nashville and they told me they could not fill the growlers, but would be happy to trade me my growlers for two of theirs at no charge. As long as you aren't attached to the growlers you take in there, it's not a bad deal. I'm not sure if it's a marketing ploy, or law, but I think that is a fine way for them to handle it. i just wanted the beer, I don't care if I have take it home in a shoe!!
 
Yeh we just went about 2 weekends ago on a saturday. (After I met eric at rockwells the night before no less)
He's a nice and knowledgeable guy. (He's from Flying Dog.)
We went the last tour on sat., 2:30, it was me and wife and one other couple, so very enjoyable. He says the first tours of the day are by far the most crowded.

Great time to go now as they have no A/C.

oh yeah i remember the st arnolds days of no AC so no stranger to it. As long as the beer is flowing. I will try to catch up with you guys at Rockwells some time.

I wish there was a homebrew club in NW houston!
 
Here in San Diego, I walked into Karl Strauss Brewery with a Rock Bottom Brewery growler and asked for my favorite on tap, they tossed the growler in the can, gave me a brand spanking new KS growler for the price of a fill. That is customer service AND effective advertising.

Toy4Rick
Similar experience... Yeup, they rock! Been a loyal customer since then, which was about 5 years ago.

Additionally, I had actually driven far to get there after being really pissed that Oggies was out of Hef for the umteenth time, and it's quality has been lacking for years.

After dinner at Karl Strauss, the manager Kurt, came over and asked how dinner went and that he had would be glad to fill my growler, but couldn't do it in other breweries bottles, and that he'd just swap me if that was okay. I said sure, no problem, makes sense. Told him I had only come the farther distance from home after having a most crappy experience at Oggies, where they were out of Hef and that I was done with them, and that my evenning was awesome with great food and exxcelleeent Hefeweizen. He said, "well I appreciate you visiting us. I'm sorry you had such a miserable start and I'll tell you what... the beers on me. Let me go reverse it from your bill."

I've had other awesome experiences there with Tobasco sauce and food items etc. They are top notch on customer satisfaction and always one of the first places I look to go with friends for a great time. They are also a huge reason for helping me fall in love with homebrewing.
 
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