Back In The Day
Before bottles and cans took over as the dominant container for off-premises beer consumption, people commonly used half-gallon tin buckets to transport beer from the local saloon to drink wherever they pleased. These tin buckets were commonly referred to as growlers. There is much speculation about the origin of the name, but my guess is the name came from the sound buckets made when bubbling with carbonation from a fresh pour of beer.

It was estimated that at the beginning of the 1900s, (roughly) two-thirds of beer sales at saloons went to off-premises consumption in growlers. Growlers were extremely popular because they were about half as expensive as drinking in the saloon and they allowed you the freedom to drink anywhere you wanted.

Growlers made beer drinking a very social activity. The large half-gallon size made them best for sharing. Men, typically during lunchtime, would hire children to fill up their growlers at the saloon, what they called "rushing the growler." Women during the day were known to have "growler groups" where they would socialize over a growler.

The saloon keepers resented growlers because they were not very profitable, but popular demand forced them to sell growlers until bottles and cans took over.


The Modern Growler
A modern reincarnation of the growler is becoming increasingly popular with the rapid growth of small craft breweries in the US. The modern growler is a half-gallon glass jug with a resealable cap. An increasing number of beer stores and bars are offering growler fills. We currently list the beer menus of 15 places that offer growlers, but there are many, many more out there.

People decided to reincarnate growlers, because growler beer is typically fresher and has a different taste from bottled beer. With bottled beer, you never know how long a beer has been sitting on the shelves in a beer store (some breweries date when their beer is bottled, many do not). In addition, many small breweries and small brewpubs hold off on investing in a bottling machine when they get started. Growlers enable you to buy beer from these "up and coming" breweries in a store.

Modern growlers typically last about one week unopened, or a few days once opened. With more and more places selling growlers, it's becoming more and more convenient to just pop in a store or bar to pick up a growler the day you want to drink some fresh beer, similar to the way it was "back in the day."

Growlers are still approximately half as expensive as drinking in a bar, and in NYC, growlers even compete with store-bought bottled beer in price. A typical six-pack of beer in a store costs over ten dollars and a typical growler costs about $10-$12.

Conclusion
Some beers are best bottle-conditioned, or matured in a bottle, and some beers are best served in cask-conditioned form. However, growlers are an economical way to drink fresh draft beer from some of the most exciting local and regional brewers.

Places on BeerMenus that offer growlers