The Bar Towel

Just saw that Amsterdam has those fliptop growlers. Anyone know what they're filling them with? Just the regular stuff?

Just the regular stuff when I was there about a month ago. Don't know if that has changed.

apparently the empty growlers are $25 "deposit", which seems insane.

J343MY wrote:apparently the empty growlers are $25 "deposit", which seems insane.

Why is that insane? It's a deposit. There's no money ever lost if one is responsible. And if anything, I'm surprised more breweries don't have more expensive deposits on their growlers, it seems like common sense to me.

Why is that insane? It's a deposit. There's no money ever lost if one is responsible. And if anything, I'm surprised more breweries don't have more expensive deposits on their growlers, it seems like common sense to me.

Its a growler not a keg. There shouldn't be a deposit. You buy your own growler and get the same one filled each time you go back. and they should be priced reasonably.

The concept of "growler fills" is often mentioned by those of you who travel regularly to the U.S. for beer, but as far as I can tell it is foreign to Ontario. Perhaps illegal? No one does it to my knowledge. Buy a growler, yes. Fill your own, unheard of.

midlife crisis wrote:The concept of "growler fills" is often mentioned by those of you who travel regularly to the U.S. for beer, but as far as I can tell it is foreign to Ontario. Perhaps illegal? No one does it to my knowledge. Buy a growler, yes. Fill your own, unheard of.

The fill your own thing sounds crazy to me, and I am surprised how many breweries allow it. I mean if I were a commercial brewer there is no way I would let my beer go out into the world in containers where I had no control over how clean they were. Since even if it is the growler owners responsibility to make sure the container is clean, it is still the brewers reputation that is on the line when beer is being served. I would hate to think my beer was getting a bad reputation because it went into a growler that was full of dust, mold or unrinsed soap. And if you are going to allow that, why not allow people to fill used pop bottles or milk cartons?

How about a drive-through growler fill?

midlife crisis wrote:The concept of "growler fills" is often mentioned by those of you who travel regularly to the U.S. for beer, but as far as I can tell it is foreign to Ontario. Perhaps illegal? No one does it to my knowledge. Buy a growler, yes. Fill your own, unheard of.

Just a guess, but perhaps breweries won't fill growlers that aren't theirs as the packaging labelling will not reflect the liquid inside and is therefore violates a whole bunch of laws. Now I realize this could be rectified by a sticker, so perhaps there's other regulations at play.

J343MY wrote:Its a growler not a keg. There shouldn't be a deposit. You buy your own growler and get the same one filled each time you go back. and they should be priced reasonably.

I was told by one of the brewers that these things (the extra fancy bowed swingtop style growlers) actually cost more than the $25 deposit, so consider it getting a discount on buying it (as you suggest). "reasonable" is another question - it's certainly not outrageous for a nice growler and if you're actually getting it cheaper than what the brewer is paying for them in bulk, I'd say that's pretty reasonable. I'd also say it's rather unreasonable to expect the brewer to "sell" (or deposit, whatever) them for far below their cost.

Personally I figure it doesn't matter what the cost is as I'll pay it once and swap it every time (and if I really need that $25 back, just bring in the empty and don't ask for a refill). The only reason I don't have one already is they didn't have any boneshaker available the day I was at the brewery.

midlife crisis wrote:The concept of "growler fills" is often mentioned by those of you who travel regularly to the U.S. for beer, but as far as I can tell it is foreign to Ontario. Perhaps illegal? No one does it to my knowledge. Buy a growler, yes. Fill your own, unheard of.

even in the US it varies greatly state to state. in MI they only do fills at the brewery, and I've only seen one occasion where they filled someone else's glass. In NY, they'll fill any glass from anywhere, including growler fill stations at stores and the like. In CA, I believe it's only their own glass and only at the brewery.

In ON it's even more strict, because I believe the fills must be done in the brewery and sold in the store, no fills in the store. that's why you see pre-stocked shelves at amsterdam/mill st/etc and many others that don't do it at all.

grub wrote: I was told by one of the brewers that these things (the extra fancy bowed swingtop style growlers) actually cost more than the $25 deposit, so consider it getting a discount on buying it (as you suggest). "reasonable" is another question - it's certainly not outrageous for a nice growler and if you're actually getting it cheaper than what the brewer is paying for them in bulk, I'd say that's pretty reasonable. I'd also say it's rather unreasonable to expect the brewer to "sell" (or deposit, whatever) them for far below their cost.

Personally I figure it doesn't matter what the cost is as I'll pay it once and swap it every time (and if I really need that $25 back, just bring in the empty and don't ask for a refill). The only reason I don't have one already is they didn't have any boneshaker available the day I was at the brewery.

I find it a little hard to believe that these growlers cost Amsterdam more than $25. Hill Farmstead uses the exact same ones, and they sell them for $10. Being such a small brewery I doubt they are taking a loss on each growler they sell.

I don't expect Amsterdam to lose money on each grower either, so if they really do cost as much as you say they do, I'm fine with them being $25.

J343MY wrote:

grub wrote: I was told by one of the brewers that these things (the extra fancy bowed swingtop style growlers) actually cost more than the $25 deposit, so consider it getting a discount on buying it (as you suggest). "reasonable" is another question - it's certainly not outrageous for a nice growler and if you're actually getting it cheaper than what the brewer is paying for them in bulk, I'd say that's pretty reasonable. I'd also say it's rather unreasonable to expect the brewer to "sell" (or deposit, whatever) them for far below their cost.

Personally I figure it doesn't matter what the cost is as I'll pay it once and swap it every time (and if I really need that $25 back, just bring in the empty and don't ask for a refill). The only reason I don't have one already is they didn't have any boneshaker available the day I was at the brewery.

I find it a little hard to believe that these growlers cost Amsterdam more than $25. Hill Farmstead uses the exact same ones, and they sell them for $10. Being such a small brewery I doubt they are taking a loss on each growler they sell.

I don't expect Amsterdam to lose money on each grower either, so if they really do cost as much as you say they do, I'm fine with them being $25.

Junction Brewing in the Junction has the same style growlers (also custom screen printed) for a $10 deposit. I mean, they are pretty small, so if they can make economic sense out of it...

Until this week, I'd never actually purchased a growler, so I don't know what a typcial deposit is for screw-top. On my way home from holiday travel earlier this week, I stopped by the Publican House Brewery in Peterborough and paid a $3.50 deposit on a growler.

My guess is Amsterdam is flirting with new customers at their new location and is unsure if enough will return and bother to bring their growlers back. It's a SUV neighbourhood up here after all. Most people throw their empties in the blue box rather than bother to bring them back to the BS when they go for more Stella. I kind of agree with them overcharging the douchebags, even if its unfair to some of their regulars. Whatta ya gonna do after all?