Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/658171
www.beveragedynamics.com March/April 2016 • Beverage Dynamics 59 Growler fi lling stations are an inexpensive investment for many retailers, with a high rate of return. moves all the oxygen out because carbon dioxide's heavier. Then we bring the liquid in and it travels down the side of the vessel and fi lls from the bottom up—no foam—and it's under pressure, just as if you were fi lling a beer bottle on a bottling line. It's the same principle." Not only does Creech believe this delivers a better fi ll, but it also cuts waste. "When you pour a pint, you get a nice head on the beer because it's releasing that pressure," he explains. "But if you're pouring the beer into an already-pressurized environment, all of that carbonation stays in solution: it stays in the beer. That's good for us, because there's less waste—you're not foaming out a lot and pouring it down the drain—and it's good for the customer, because all the carbonation stays in the beer [until they're ready to pour a pint to drink]." The Pegas system is designed exclusively for fi lling growlers. In order to pour pints or fl ights for customers, The Glass Jug also stocks its 16 growler selections in a separate, standard tap system. The cost of a counter-pressure system is higher than con- ventional taps. "Those Pegas units run in the ballpark of about $5,000 each," Creech says. "That's set up for four beers plus a carbon dioxide line for purging." O'Connell's company promises to make the process easy. "Every single build we do is custom-built to the retailer's wants and needs, and space availability. We deliver a full turnkey solu- tion." Since launching in 2010, The Growler Station has set up over 200 locations, some as stand-alone beer specialty stores and others within larger grocery or liquor retail outlets. THE IMPORTANCE OF CLEANLINESS Mulvihill opted for a tap system in part because he was wary of the potential for cross-contamination between different beers in more complicated systems with shared lines. "Our fi ller is 16 individual taps, so the beer coming out of that tap is specifi cally that beer," he says. There is no chance that a little porter from a shared line ends up in a growler of pilsner. Creech, using the counter-pressure system, takes an extra step to avoid mingling beers. "All the beers coming into the fi ller are on their own line. There's only about a foot of shared beer line. What I do between fi lls is put an empty growler in and blow CO2 through the line. It will knock out whatever beer was in there last to make sure the next person is getting the beer they ordered and it's not contaminated with whatever the last person ordered." The cleanliness of the growler is also paramount. All three retailers check customers' growlers before fi lling with the most basic technique: the sniff test. The retailers have limited facilities or time to sanitize empties thoroughly, although all three will give growlers a quick rinse. Daniels will sometimes swap a dirty growler for clean one, gratis. New customers are given helpful tips: "Don't leave them in the back of the car, don't leave them in the sun, don't leave the cap on. After you've told somebody once, they pretty much get it." TRAINING AND RESULTS Operating a growler station requires staff training, both on oper- ating the equipment and on answering the questions that come with this personalized service. Daniels fi nds that "if you're at the growler station, you're having a blast. You're attracting a crowd around you and everybody's amazed that you know that much about the beer." On the revenue side, a growler station is a plus. "The profi t margin's better for the growler, for sure, so no complaints on my end," says Peco's Mulvihill. "One thing that worried us at fi rst was if we would we have increased growler sales and lose pack- age sales, but what we see more and more is guys come in with their growler and decide what they want to fi ll up with it. We fi ll it for them, and in the meantime they pick up a six-pack." BD JULIE JOHNSON was for many years the co-owner and editor of All About Beer Magazine. She has been writing about craft beer for over twenty years. She lives in North Carolina, where she was instrumental in the Pop the Cap campaign that modernized the state's beer laws. put an empty growler in and blow CO2 through