Breweries filling only "their" growlers, what's up with that?

Alright guys and gals,
I've encountered a serious problem, on more than one occasion, and it's rustling my jimmies. I've been to multiple craft breweries, growler in hand, only to be told, "I'm sorry, we only fill our growlers. You'll need to buy one from us for twice the price of a fill for you to take some home."
What's the deal with this? Are they just trying to make a buck or is there a state law (California) that says thou shalt not use thine growler?
Cheers guys.

 

It's because of laws.

 

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2215991-181/lawmakers-pass-bill-allowing-beer

Not state law, however I have heard of breweries not filling screw top growlers due to quick beer spoilage (valid IMO for non-immediate consumption).

 

Not sure what the deal is in California, but way up in the great white north of Ontario there's a province-wide legislation that only allows for the exchange of empty growlers for pre-filled ones from a given brewery, rather than bringing in an empty one to be filled on the spot.

However, on my trip to Vermont in July, Hill Farmstead had no problem filling my armful of Ontario growlers!

 

I remember seeing a growler self-filling station at the Steamwhistle brewery in Toronto, Ontario.

 

The law requires obscuring completely all previous brewery markings in a manner not easily removable by the customer. Basically covering it in tape. Most breweries don't want to deal with it. Stone will fill other growlers (swing top only) provided the customer brings them in already obscured (but they disallow duct tape and say, "keep it classy.")

EDIT: Saw that this law in particular does away with the tape requirement. I think at this point it's more a matter of most people and breweries having no idea what the law requires.

 

Yes the growler law in CA has to do with labeling, not with filling growlers per se. So it is possible to fill another brewery's growlers if you completely cover up any labels from the other brewery, then affix your own label to the growler which meets the CA labeling standards.

There are some breweries in CA which will do this, but in my experience most don't because:

1. It's a total pain the in butt for the servers. In some cases you could be looking at minutes of labor to do all this extra covering up and labeling, which is especially problematic if you have a huge line of customers waiting to get their beer.

2. Growlers can come in all shapes and sizes. So the first question you'd have to ask is, "does this growler's shape and size match our existing growlers?" Otherwise you may have to come up with pricing and sales infrastructure (e.g. in your point-of-sale, in your reporting for tax purposes, etc.) for growlers you don't even stock. It is often easier to just say "no 3rd party growlers" than to spell out which growler shapes & sizes are OK.

3. If you have to use a growler from THAT brewery, then that brewery benefits from selling the container, and also from a customer being more likely to go back for refills on that growler.

 

NC will fill growlers that are both screw top and not their own but they cannot do so by law unless they have a way to clean and sanitize the growler. Without a cleaning station, breweries are supposedly not permitted to re-fill a growler. There were places that did not fill growlers before that now do. Also, in the RTP area we have had two growler joints open up in the last 6 months, The Glass Jug just opened and Growler Grlz. I haven't been to the Glass Jug but Growler Grlz is cool, has a ton on tap but their pint prices are excessive and not worth the pint. Just grab a growler and go is the key there. Regardless of price, those two places fill growlers from anywhere.

 

I would rather have someone walk out of my brewery with my growler instead of some taped monstrosity. Besides, at the end of the day it is a business and branding is a huge part of that.

 

It's cause filling growlers from other breweries is known to cause cancer in the state of california.

 

This is getting a bit off of the original OP, but given that the question seems to have been answered...

Yes, the growler filling store seems to be a thing in the South- Tennessee has them, and last time I was there I even saw a few grocery stores where you could fill up your growler, or even buy a Piggly Wiggly growler for whatever they had on tap.

I presume that makes it easier for a small start up to sell package beer without needing to invest in a bottling or canning set-up right off the bat.

 

The whole thing is pretty ignorant. A growler is a vessel for transporting liquid... Beer is liquid.

 

Herb - Big Beer will get wind of that and pay politicians to change laws to make it easy to buy fizzy yellow in cans and hard to buy craft beer in growlers.

Well - that and the 'known to cause cancer' bit ....

 

I brought my growler in to have it filled with beer. But I wasn't sure which end I was supposed to fill it with. So I guessed. I tried one end but it was slow. I had to stop several times to keep the beer from spilling out. I tried filling through the other end and the damned dog bit me.

 

Three Floyds won't even refill their own growlers.

 

As others have pointed out, it's *technically* legal in CA to fill another brewery's growler, but only if you obscure the labeling and relabel it with your own label.

But hey, if you're in Sacramento, go find some legislators and get this changed for us!

 

Fairly common practice in Michigan up until recently
NONE of them would refill someone else's growlers

There was a change in the law, now most will re fill each others growlers

- This new change also allows the consumer to purchase an "NO BRAND" growler
and get it filled
Prior to the new law, that was out of the question

Steve

 

Some breweries refused to refill other breweries' growlers because they are required by law to have specific information on the package. They felt the right to refuse since they could not guarantee the growler you brought in had the proper information.

Kind of a cop out IMO, but they could get away with it.

I begrudge them the prerogative, but then I may have ever refilled a growler once or twice in my life. I don't live near enough breweries to make it an issue. I can see it being a bother if you lived near several good breweries. Heck, our nearby brewery has a small collection of other brewery's growlers up on their wall!

 

Growler filling shops are a recent phenomenon here in Memphis. The law used to require such places to also serve food. The law was rewritten and we've had several places pop up in the past year. The best of which, should you find yourself in Memphis, is the 30-tap Madison Growler Shop located within the Cash Saver grocery store on Madison Ave.

 

I have no idea if this is true, but I bet the original law was about fees and licensing. I presume that you need a special license to sell to go beer, and pay a fee for that license. The label (be it etched on the growler or written on the tape covering the label on the growler) is supposed to be proof that the beer came from a brewery that had paid the proper fees for the proper license.

But I may be wrong.

 

in VA I've gotten growlers from other breweries filled. Twist top and flip top. Whole foods will even fill your growler. If you get it filled from another brewery they usually slap their sticker on the growler somewhere. That I'm sure has all the needed info on it the state requires.

I would think CA wouldn't care as long as it got the sticker on it. You can go buy pot openly but "nope, can't but my beer in their growler..."

 

Note to self: Never move from the Pacific Northwest, a growler for every brewery I go to? No thank you.

 

My experience at Three Floyds was so bad, I have vowed to never buy any product of theirs. Plenty of down to earth gracious micros that appreciate the business.

 

A Piggly Wiggly growler sound awesome. In fact my number one priority right now is obtaining a Piggly Wiggly growler.

 

Yeah, I have about 15 growlers sitting around. Everytime I make a trip to San Diego, I have to pack about 5 of them in my car to make sure I have the right one just in case I decide to stop at that brewery. Even though CA laws have been changed or amended, most breweries still won't fill any jug up.

 

I suspect that a lot of it everywhere is a grey law description. Here in Minnesota they have changed the law somewhat supposedly but there are so many different laws and rules depending on the size of the brewery that its difficult at best to keep up with. Hell, the brewery down the road from me has three different brands produced in the same building and all working in cooperation. They brew each other's stuff, and share the equipment costs. But yet the brand "owner" of the facility is the only one by law that can sell growlers on the premises. Even though it is a cooperative effort for the other two brands to be brewed there they apparently can't sell the other two. Go figure.

Though the brewers here probably may not mind growler fills, all the ones I've seen pre wash the growlers and you do a one for one exchange. They don't seem to clean them on the spot.

I suspect a lot cop out of it because they don't want their beer being free advertisement for other brands out there. And frankly I can understand that. If I take the time to produce a product I'm proud of I want everyone to know who's product it is, mine and not some one else.

 

The places I have been to in Alabama will fill anyone's growlers as long as it has the government warning.


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What about simply using a "blank" growler and throwing a sticker/label on it when you fill it? Little harder to find, but I think most LHBS have them.

 

VT breweries get the option to fill any growler. However retailers have to fill their own labeled version.

http://www.vtbeer.org/2013/07/23/guide-vermont-growler-policies-practices/

 

My buddy just came back from a CA beer trip. He was rather disappointed that he couldn't get any of the growlers, he brought with him, filled.

AZ has finally opened up the growler laws. You can pretty much get any closable container filled at any place willing to do it and most places I go are more than happy to fill.
I got my Stainless Brauler with Great Divide logo filled at Arizona Wilderness Brewing last weekend. 67oz of Trippel, mmmm.

 

In MD, it seems to vary from place to place.

One place is only their own.
One place will put a sticker of their brand on it.
One place will fill anything.
One said it had to have a sticker saying the surgeon general's warning, and they'd stick a sticker on with that blurb, but didn't care where it came from.....

It's a crapshoot, and I can never remember who will fill what.

 

Similar experience here. Side note is they don't do growler fills anymore anyway.

 

Mass has that law. Vermont doesn't. that's all I know.

 

Since you are in the NC RTP area, I will mention that they are re-doing the lowes foods in Apex, and they will now have a growler filling section with local brews (0.25 miles from my house ) I saw a finished one in Winston-Salem last weekend and it was pretty neat... it was a counter-pressure growler filling station. I asked, and they said they would fill any growler you bring in as long as it is clean. When I asked what clean meant, they said that they will give it the "sniff test".

 

haha gross. Sniff test. Hope they sanitize their filling equipment. They're redoing all Lowes and I know your Lowes pretty well...I can't wait to see what they have on tap.

 

We went to a place in AL that will fill empty milk jugs.

 

I'm not the leader of a labor union, so I have no say over anything here.

 

This link will take you to the BAs list of state be state growler laws. I'm glad to live in WA, where we just passed legislation to also also cider to be dispensed in growlers.

 

Whoops: http://www.brewersassociation.org/government-affairs/laws/growler-laws/

 

I haven't run into many issues here in AZ. Which is nice because I only have room to store a couple different growlers. I could understand breweries not doing it because of state law, but if it was because they refused to put their beer in another breweries vessel, that would irritate me. It would be ignorant to the fact that most of us are going to drink from more than brewery. So I'm assuming (hoping) that's rarely the case.