Serving Homebrew Via Growler Chill Question

I came across an interesting device for serving growlers on draft at home. It's meant to be for growlers you pick up from the brewery (I backed this because I built my kegerator only to the size to fit corny kegs and not sanke kegs with their couplings; it would have required the use of a collar and I just didn't need the device being any taller), but I don't always have the money to have 3 growlers where growler prices are 20 dollars for 64-oz in San Diego and don't want it going unused, so maybe I was thinking it could be used for smaller batches of experimental homebrew beer....maybe split a one-gallon batch between two growlers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ps-3-growlers-cold-fresh-and-on-t/description

What are the possibilities of serving homebrew with this device? I know it would probably work if I filled growlers from my kegerator, but what if I wanted to bottle condition using growlers? From what I have read, this device is not meant for force carbing, so I would need to have already carbonated beer.

Is there a possibility that a growler used for bottle conditioning can explode and would you recommend using a disposable mini-keg to bottle condition and then fill a growler from the device? Note since this device is advertised to purge the oxygen from the growlers, I am not worried about oxygen exposure as much regarding transferring beer and I really don't have an issue with oxygenated beer too much anyway.

Anything that can be carbed can be overcarbed, but growlers are pretty thick, so if you hit steady FG numbers, don't over-prime, and have a good cap seal then you can absolutely carbonate in a growler.

Personally, I wouldn't carbonate in a glass growler. I've easily broken too many of them to trust them. I have a few stainless steel growlers that I might use if I were in your shoes. However, I never understood the "draft beer from a growler" fad that's going around. If you have one of those things, and you have a kegging system, I'd sell the growler draft system. It just seems like an expensive way to serve commercial beer. With your homebrew on your own draft system I don't really see the need for it. If you don't feel like going to your taps every time you want a beer in an evening buy a pitcher and fill it up and bring it upstairs. You can usually get 3-4 beers out of one which is almost what you'd get in a growler but you don't have to manage 2 different draft systems or worry about how you're going to use it.
Just my .02! Fill us in on what you end up doing

NadoHawk said:

Is there a possibility that a growler used for bottle conditioning can explode and would you recommend using a disposable mini-keg to bottle condition and then fill a growler from the device? Note since this device is advertised to purge the oxygen from the growlers, I am not worried about oxygen exposure as much regarding transferring beer and I really don't have an issue with oxygenated beer too much anyway.

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Yes - having 1/2 gallon of homebrew along with broke glass in your closet or wherever you store them is not fun to clean up. I have experience with this.

bobeer said:

Personally, I wouldn't carbonate in a glass growler. I've easily broken too many of them to trust them. I have a few stainless steel growlers that I might use if I were in your shoes. However, I never understood the "draft beer from a growler" fad that's going around. If you have one of those things, and you have a kegging system, I'd sell the growler draft system. It just seems like an expensive way to serve commercial beer. With your homebrew on your own draft system I don't really see the need for it. If you don't feel like going to your taps every time you want a beer in an evening buy a pitcher and fill it up and bring it upstairs. You can usually get 3-4 beers out of one which is almost what you'd get in a growler but you don't have to manage 2 different draft systems or worry about how you're going to use it.
Just my .02! Fill us in on what you end up doing

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Well the main use will be for brewery growlers and for emptying my kegs when I need to push a new batch through, but the last idea was already a plan with just keeping the growlers in the fridge.

Since I don't like broken growlers, I may pick up a couple extra mini-kegs (have one dispensing system for it already meant for picnics) and use them to carbonate the beer and then filter them into the growlers, though it's not the easiest to transfer out of the mini-keg, maybe use my mini-siphon or something similar.

When I used to bottle, I would carbonate in growlers all the time (fewer bottles to clean)
BUT...
They were always the high quality, heavy German growlers with the flip-top, and not the lighter-duty commercial growlers with the twist-off cap.

Never had a single issue with the good ones, but never trusted the ones from the breweries.

Cavpilot2000 said:

When I used to bottle, I would carbonate in growlers all the time (fewer bottles to clean)
BUT...
They were always the high quality, heavy German growlers with the flip-top, and not the lighter-duty commercial growlers with the twist-off cap.

Never had a single issue with the good ones, but never trusted the ones from the breweries.

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This device only works with those screw-tops versions, so I would run into the same issue of having to transfer if I carbed in one of the flip-top growlers.

What does this thing cost?...IMO it is a novelty item for people that dont brew and "Only" would ever buy commercial growlers and also want that on tap cool factor.
Go with mini kegs...you can get them on sale for 75 each and way more versatile.

I just bought two 2.5 gallon ones...for taking to parties, BBQ at friends and stuff like that. You only have to fill them as much as you want but have a decent volume capability available if needed. I personally dislike even carrying glass growlers around...my favorite and go to growler is a SS Stanley but those baby's aren't cheap ether at 40.00 a pop.....just my 2 cents

Stillraining said:

What does this thing cost?...IMO it is a novelty item for people that dont brew and "Only" would ever buy commercial growlers and also want that on tap cool factor.
Go with mini kegs...you can get them on sale for 75 each and way more versatile.

I just bought two 2.5 gallon ones...for taking to parties, BBQ at friends and stuff like that. You only have to fill them as much as you want but have a decent volume capability available if needed. I personally dislike even carrying glass growlers around...my favorite and go to growler is a SS Stanley but those baby's aren't cheap ether at 40.00 a pop.....just my 2 cents

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When I backed it, it was 339 plus shipping (it will retail for 430, but is currently being offered for 379). I got it because of the extra tech like the companion app and real time data on the beer. I want to see how much I like it on a small-scale before I make the investment in upgrading my kegerator for the same. Cost really isn't the concern; it was the amount of hours it will take me to pull the kegerator apart and put in the upgrades; don't want to waste my valuable time if I don't really end up liking or using the extra features in the first place.

But I also got this because I get a growler a month from a brewery and have 130 others breweries to get growlers from....during our beer week, White Labs (yes they serve beer) discounts growlers for 50% off....I mean you can get a 64oz growler fill of a double IPA (if it's on tap) for 8 dollars.

NadoHawk said:

When I backed it, it was 339 plus shipping (it will retail for 430, but is currently being offered for 379). I got it because of the extra tech like the companion app and real time data on the beer. I want to see how much I like it on a small-scale before I make the investment in upgrading my kegerator for the same. Cost really isn't the concern; it was the amount of hours it will take me to pull the kegerator apart and put in the upgrades; don't want to waste my valuable time if I don't really end up liking or using the extra features in the first place.

But I also got this because I get a growler a month from a brewery and have 130 others breweries to get growlers from....during our beer week, White Labs (yes they serve beer) discounts growlers for 50% off....I mean you can get a 64oz growler fill of a double IPA (if it's on tap) for 8 dollars.

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That's a good price on a growler fill of good beer alright. I guess I can see where an individual like yourself may have use for it being an avid consumer of other peoples beer on a monthly basis. But out of all my acquaintances and friends I have no one such as yourself doing that so just dont see the business model succeeding personally. But that's probably why Im not a millionaire.. go for it.

So I missed the whole interface thing with your normal Kegerator, whats that all about?

Stillraining said:

That's a good price on a growler fill of good beer alright. I guess I can see where an individual like yourself may have use for it being an avid consumer of other peoples beer on a monthly basis. But out of all my acquaintances and friends I have no one such as yourself doing that so just dont see the business model succeeding personally. But that's probably why Im not a millionaire.. go for it.

So I missed the whole interface thing with your normal Kegerator, whats that all about?

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When I was building my kegerator, I wanted to hook up a raspberry Pi to it and have the three taps fitting with flow control monitors to check on how much was left in the kegs. The tech was not ready when I built my kegerator....well it was ready in a way, but all the equipment was sold out or not in full production.

NadoHawk said:

When I was building my kegerator, I wanted to hook up a raspberry Pi to it and have the three taps fitting with flow control monitors to check on how much was left in the kegs. The tech was not ready when I built my kegerator....well it was ready in a way, but all the equipment was sold out or not in full production.

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Seems like a sclae would be a simpler way to tell how much is left in a keg.