{"id":20291,"date":"2016-04-25T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=20291"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:11:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:11:06","slug":"growler-buyers-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/growler-buyers-pledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Growler Fills in Illinois, and The Growler Buyer’s Pledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should Illinois bars and restaurants be allowed to fill growlers of beer for their guests?\u00a0It’s a simple\u00a0question…but there’s\u00a0a long list of things to think about.<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Begyle

The fancy-pancy counter pressure growler fill machine used by Begyle Brewing.<\/p><\/div>\nW<\/span>e started thinking more deeply\u00a0about the legality of growler fills\u00a0a little over a week ago, when the Mash Tun Journal published this piece: The Growler Standoff<\/a>. Zak Rotello at the Olympic Tavern in Rockford has been a passionate advocate for the freedom to fill growlers for a long time, and Chris Quinn of the Beer Temple is probably one of the leading thinkers in the Chicagoland craft beer community, so if you haven’t read it, do so — both sides make great cases.<\/p>\n

A little bit of background for those of you playing catch-up and are too lazy to click through to that other link. Many other states allow bars and restaurants to fill growlers of beer for their patrons to take home with them. I’ve\u00a0happily taken a growler of beer home from a restaurant\u00a0in Miami, for example, when a convenience store wasn’t available and I wanted some Cigar City for a bit later. I was also thrilled to see a crowler machine show up at one of my favorite bars in the country, Traverse City’s\u00a07 Monks<\/a>. And quite famously, there is even a gas station<\/a> known for its growler fills in Bend, Oregon.<\/p>\n

At the moment, however, Illinois does not currently allow anyone other than breweries and brewpubs (manufacturers) to put beer in anything other than a single-serving glass.<\/p>\n

Why is that?<\/p>\n

Back in April 2014<\/a>,\u00a0the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois (ABDI) and Illinois Craft Brewers Guild (ICBG) formed a unified front against bars, restaurants and bottleshops filling growlers.* \u00a0The ICBG sent a letter to members from its Board of Directors which stated:\u00a0\u201cThe Board is not in favor of non-brewers selling growlers to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

From that letter:<\/p>\n

\u201c[F]illing growlers is a well-established right or special privilege in Illinois that brewers (manufacturers) have in order to guarantee and protect the integrity and freshness of their product.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As we reported at the time<\/a>:<\/p>\n

While the ABDI is not named in the letter, spokesperson Carol Shirley tells Guys Drinking Beer they met with members of the ICBG and discussed the issue in February. \u201cABDI stands with the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild on this issue, as we too believe the integrity of the product may be jeopardized,\u201d said Shirley.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Besides the issue of the “integrity of the product”, restricting growler fills to taprooms and brewpubs builds in some\u00a0financial benefits\u00a0for a brewery — if you really want a growler of one of their beers, you can’t go to the corner bar. You have to go to the source.<\/p>\n

Even with this natural advantage, a number of\u00a0breweries don’t want to fill your growler. \u00a0When we talked to Solemn<\/strong> Oath<\/strong>\u00a0co-founder and president John Barley last year, he said this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I hate the idea of the growler. We do \u2018em at Solemn Oath, but I don\u2019t like the idea of a growler, period. We put all this money and effort and time in to QA and QC and then someone brings in their dirty growler for me to put my beer in? It\u2019s not my favorite vessel, I would say.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least one brewery — Blue<\/strong> Nose<\/strong> in La Grange\u00a0— does not fill growlers and only fills crowlers, the 32oz. sealed-can version of a growler. When I\u00a0spoke with head brewer David Kelley during research for my forthcoming Beer Lovers Chicago<\/a> book, he told us that when they learned about the advantages of crowlers over growlers, they decided to only fill cans, not bottles.<\/p>\n

No less than Larry Bell had the same QC concerns about growlers, when legislation allowing fills went through Michigan in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bell eventually supported<\/a> the move towards growlers.<\/p>\n

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\"GrowlerFillStation1\"<\/p>\n

We reached out to a number of\u00a0Illinois breweries for their take on the growler situation.<\/p>\n

Half<\/strong> Acre’s<\/strong> Gabriel Magliaro responded in favor of the restriction on growler fills at breweries only. “Every license type has its set of advantages and limitations,” Magliaro said via email. “While one may feel certain elements are confining in any license, it\u2019s these differences that set us all apart and provide a unique way to connect to people interested in the world of beer. \u00a0If everyone could do everything, then I\u2019d argue that we’d all become a little less unique and specifically relevant.”<\/p>\n

“Each license type has privileges,” Magliaro adds. “There are privileges that I don\u2019t have as a manufacturer, the same goes for brewpub owners and bar\/store owners. \u00a0As a brewpub or a manufacturing brewer with a retail license, one can sell\u00a0growlers<\/span> of their beer. \u00a0If a bar or restaurant wants to sell growlers<\/span>, they can, but they need to go through the process of securing a brewpub or manufacturing license and live with the set of advantages and limitations that go with being a brewer and having that license.”<\/p>\n

Some were strongly in favor of selling growlers outside breweries. Josh Gilbert of Temperance<\/strong> told us, “there are lots of places around the country where growlers<\/span> are sold outside of breweries, and consumers love it. Personally, I\u2019m in favor of selling more beer and getting our beer into the hands and gullets of more consumers.”<\/p>\n

Mikerphone’s<\/strong> Mike Pallen pointed out a recent conversation he had<\/a> with the Pour Man site, where he stated “I do not distribute kegs very often, but if I did, I would not be opposed to establishments filling growlers<\/span> with my beer. First off, I trust the owners of these establishments to not only represent my beer properly, but also to properly take care of their lines. Most, if not all, have their lines cleaned weekly. This is incredibly important when discussing pouring beer into growlers<\/span>. Second, I see a growler<\/span> as another form of package\/vessel. Maybe someone cannot get a can or bottle of Mikerphone beer but has the opportunity to get a 32- or 64-ounce container of fresh beer to go home with. I am all for it.”<\/p>\n

Others were mixed, like Cesar Marron<\/strong> of Sketchbook Brewing, who told us: “Since in our case filling growlers<\/span> is a huge part of our business, we take it very seriously and have a huge number of customers that love it. Opening this up for bars and restaurants has its pluses and minuses. On the plus, it creates another way for customers to enjoy our beers even if they can’t come to our taproom. On the minuses, bars and restaurants would need to be\u00a0equipped\u00a0to properly fill growlers<\/span> and for the most part, they would take a big cut on the profits if they were to be competitive with taprooms (12-15 dollars per growler<\/span>, instead of selling 4 pints equivalent).”<\/p>\n

Marron adds,\u00a0“for the breweries that are local, there could be a competitive disadvantage. A customer who is introduced to a new beer in a restaurant, may want to go visit the brewery’s taproom and grab a growler<\/span>. Another disadvantage would be with large retailers that use beer as a way to get customers in the store, where they would be able to sell growlers<\/span> at such low prices that it would dilute local craft brands.” All fair points.<\/p>\n

*** UPDATE (4\/27, 9am): We asked Metropolitan Brewing’s<\/strong> Tracy Hurst\u00a0to add\u00a0her voice to the conversation, and spoke with her yesterday afternoon. Her comments — which are in very much in favor of allowing growler fills — were better included in their own post, which we recommend you read in full here<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em>END UPDATE ***<\/em><\/p>\n

Others responded simply with an “absolute yes” on filling growlers at bars and restaurants, or conversely, simply simply stated that\u00a0they agreed with Chris Quinn’s assessment of the situation. As we said — a mixed response, but certainly not anything approaching\u00a0uniform opposition to the idea of a bartender pouring their beer into a large bottle.<\/p>\n

Of note:<\/strong> During the research process for this piece, we learned that the ICBG will be\u00a0revisiting and addressing the issue of growler fills sometime in the near future.<\/p>\n

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\"The

Growler fill station at DryHop Brewers.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s my\u00a0stance:<\/strong> Growlers are a thing that bars and restaurants should be free to fill and sell if they like.<\/strong> If a bar or restaurant is entrusted to run the product through their draft lines and pour it into a pint or tulip glass, it should be able to do the same for a 64oz. bottle. (If there was a special license that were to specifically allow permission to fill growlers but also\u00a0made draft line cleaning mandatory every two weeks? That’d be just about perfect.)<\/p>\n

*** UPDATE (4\/26 9am):<\/em> The folks at Solemn Oath<\/strong>\u00a0kindly let us know<\/a> that the ILCC already mandates regular line cleaning. (Language about that cleaning regimen and a link to the ILCC page has been linked at the end of this post.) A new license could certainly\u00a0be able to help fund some more oversight of those\u00a0who want to fill growlers, though, to ensure that the lines are being cleaned as required by law. \u00a0This is why we’re talking about this, too – to figure out what can be done, and what should be done better. END UPDATE ***<\/em><\/p>\n

At the same time, we should all\u00a0acknowledge that growlers aren’t a great way to transport beer, and there still needs to be a lot<\/em> of education when it comes to growler beer.<\/strong> And it’s education that needs to be done mostly on the drinker’s side. No one should really think that a growler is the best vessel for a beer, but sometimes, it’s the only option. As such, I see no harm in allowing it as long as we all agree that there should be some ground rules about drinking growler beer.<\/p>\n

We concur that this\u00a0stance is\u00a0certainly conflicted at best. Basically, it’s a thing we\u00a0should be able to do, that we should very rarely actually\u00a0want to do<\/em>. Packaged beer, from the brewers hands to your fridge, is preferable in nearly all circumstances. But if someone wants to take a growler of the newest Spiteful home from The Green Lady, or if\u00a0the Hopleaf is standing-room-only but I still want to take a nice hard-to-find Belgian somewhere else to BYOB, or if I’m in town on business staying a downtown hotel and I want to take a howler of something\u00a0local back to my hotel room…how is any of that a bad thing?<\/p>\n

Brewers — we recognize this may take away\u00a0a bit\u00a0of the magic from a visit to your taproom. We’re sorry about that.\u00a0Here’s the thing, though — you’ve still got an extremely\u00a0important advantage when it comes to filling growlers. You’ve got the freshest beer.\u00a0<\/em>That alone should be reason enough to visit your location, along with things like the greatest\u00a0variety and exclusive brewery-only offerings.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting at this point that according to Brewers Association data<\/a>,\u00a0in the\u00a0five states with the\u00a0highest number of breweries per capita — Vermont, Oregon, Colorado, Montana\u00a0and Maine, in that order —\u00a0\u00a0three allow retailers to fill growlers, two do not. So although it’s not a straight line between brewery success and legal growler fills, it’s certainly not a brewery killer either.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>
\nWe recognize that growlers are imperfect at best.\u00a0That’s why we’ve come up with something we like to call:\u00a0The Growler Buyer’s\u00a0Pledge.\u00a0<\/strong>If we expect bars and restaurants to be allowed to pour us growlers, we drinkers need to recognize the many issues with drinking growler beer.<\/p>\n

Repeat after me!<\/p>\n

I, the purchaser of a growler of beer, understand that<\/strong>:<\/em><\/p>\n