Happy New Year everyone!!!! 2025 is officially here and we have a lot to look forward to over the next year. As we are continuing our celebrations on New Years Day, maybe you are looking to get your growlers filled to hang out with friends or to watch the college football playoffs with. So, today I will talk about how to properly care for your growler after all the beer has been emptied out of it.
One of the biggest issues that I see on a daily basis working behind the bar at a brewery, is people who want to get a growler fill but don’t care for their growler properly. In order for a brewery to ensure that the beer that is going into your growler tastes as fresh as possible, it is imperative to pour it into a clean vessel.
After 6 years of working at a brewery, I have seen some really nasty growlers. Growlers have come in the door that look like someone has been growing a science project in them, covered in mold. One time a guy brought in a growler that still had beer in it, and he told me it might need a “rinse” before I filled it because he stored it in his hot garage for 2 years. It needed to be blown to pieces, not rinsed. I can’t even describe the smell, but the minute I smelled it, I needed a trash can to lose my lunch in.
If you bring in a dirty growler chances are almost any brewery is going to refuse to fill it, or you will have to buy a new growler. Or even worse, they won’t pay attention and just fill your growler, and your beer will taste subpar and possibly be infected depending on how dirty the growler is. But any bartender who cares about the taste of their product should always be inspecting every growler before they fill it.
In order to provide you the best tasting beer possible to take home with you, we need you to help us out by cleaning your growler properly after each use. That is the best way to ensure that your beer is going to taste fresh when you get it home to enjoy it.
Today I will explain how to properly care for your growler once it is empty so that you can continuously bring home great tasting beer out of it for the long life of your growler. I will give you multiple ways to clean your growler, starting with the most optimal way and going to less recommended ways. But sometimes the most optimal way isn’t always feasible.
Optimal technique for cleaning your growler-
This is the easiest way to care for your growler, and only takes about 2 minutes worth of time, and your beer will be as fresh as possible everytime you fill your growler. The minute you finish your growler:
Make sure your growler is empty
Triple rinse with hot water
Air dry upside down overnight on a wire rack
Once dry, store upright with the cap OFF.
Second best way to clean your growler-
Now sometimes you don’t have access to hot water immediately when finishing your growler. Maybe you’re out on a boat fishing, or camping in the woods, or doing various other activities with your growlers that take you away from hot water access. So maybe you have to wait a while before you clean it:
Store your growler cold until you have a chance to clean it, this will help with not creating a musty, old beer smell in your growler
Make sure growler is empty
Triple rinse with hot water
Air dry upside down overnight on a wire rack
Once dry, store upright with the cap OFF.
These are the two best ways to make sure that your beer will taste clean when you get your growler filled next time. Now I know some people will think, the growler isn’t cleaned, you didn’t use any soap or cleaning products. If you feel the need to use cleaning products, which I will say I DO NOT recommend. But if you absolutely have to for your piece of mind follow these steps:
Make sure your growler is empty
Insert your desired cleaning product (please don’t use bleach)
Rinse with hot water until you have nothing but water coming out, do not leave any soap or cleaning products inside your growler. This will be a lot more time consuming than the two previous ways listed of cleaning your growler.
Air dry upside down overnight on a wire rack
Once dry, store upright with the cap OFF.
Soap and cleaning product residue are the easiest ways to ruin a perfectly good beer that you take home in a growler. Dawn Dish Detergent Dunkel does not sound like a very appealing beer to me, how do you feel about it? So I will reiterate again, if you use cleaning products vigilantly rinse your growler out so that I can put the best tasting beer possible in your growler.
Now through every technique of cleaning your growler, you probably noticed that every technique ended with storing the growler with the cap OFF. You might be saying but won’t dust and debris possibly get into my growler if I leave the cap OFF? The answer is yes, dust and debris will most definitely get into your growler, but that will rinse right out with some water. If you put the cap back on and there is even the tiniest bit of moisture in there, you have created a perfect environment for bacteria and mold growth. Mold and bacteria do not rinse out and will lead to you having to purchase a new growler. Or even worse getting a fill from a bartender who didn’t check for mold or bacteria and you end up with some really nasty beer. So that is why all techniques ended with an emphasis on storing your growler with the cap OFF.
As bartenders since we don’t get to follow you home and make sure your growlers are cared for properly, we do need your help to be able to give you the freshest beer possible to take home with you. These tips will help you keep your growler in tip-top shape for years to come. By following these simple steps, you might even be able to pass along your growlers to your grand-children and great grand-children so they can get your Bearded Lamb growlers filled with space beer on the moon someday. MMMMM……..SPACE BEER…….. Cheers!
#DrinkLocal #craftbeer #michiganbeer #Cheers #brewery #beer #BeerLovers #growler #brewerylife
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