For a Roaring Good Time, Try a Growler

If you noticed an increased number of gigantic beer bottles turning up at late-summer BBQs and recent tailgate parties, congratulations: You’ve been keeping company with this season’s “it” drinking accessory—the growler.

A glass jug with either a screw-on or hinged gasket cap, the growler has been a fixture of breweries and brewpubs in England, Australia and the U.S. since the late 1800s.

With Americans becoming ever more besotted with beer culture in recent years, it was only a matter of time before these super-sized carriers found a new following in the fashion-conscious brew lovers of Park Slope.

Lore has it that the bottles were so-named for the “growling” sound ales made as they sloshed around inside during transport. But the ironic machismo of the word “growl” probably doesn’t hurt its reputation among beer geeks and ironic hipsters either.

Nevertheless, the growler’s value goes beyond just aesthetics.

"I didn’t even know these things existed until a month ago,” said Pat Pacelli, of on Seventh Avenue. “You can take beer home with you!? But besides looking cool, they’re also environmentally friendly: They cut down on waste materials and are reusable. So that’s why I like them.”

Zito's offers 64-ounce growlers of Brooklyn's own Sixpoint Brewery drafts (Brevity, Brownstone, Signal, The Crisp and Sweet Action) for $18, which includes a $3 bottle deposit. “You can come back and refill it at any time for just $15,” said Pacelli.

On the other side of the Slope, also offers Sixpoint brews to go in 60-ounce growlers for $21 (including a $3 bottle deposit). Choices include the proprietary Bark Red Ale, Bengali IPA, Righteous Rye and Harbinger Saison.

For a more diverse—and hard-to-pronounce—selection, on Seventh Avenue between 14th and 15th streets features imported pours such as Aecht Schlenkerla, Hopfenstark LouLou Porter and Gueuze Tilquin. But it will cost you. Most run above $21.

“These are meant for a special occasion,” said Beer Table’s Tim Bullock. “They aren’t available everywhere. Truthfully, some are very costly in growler size but they will be delicious at a party.”

Across the street, has a decidedly more wallet-friendly growler menu. A bottle costs $4.95, and most fills range between $10.95 and $15.95. This week’s popular choices from the board are Pretty Things Baby Tree and Southampton’s Double White. Plus, with the money you saved you can pick up some cheese and fig jam to pair with your jug.

To maximize the experience of a growler, Benjamin Stutz, owner of Brooklyn Homebrew on Eighth Street—which sells a wide array of bottles and growlers for fermenting and storage—recommended drinking the contents the same day as purchase. “After a day, the beer becomes much flatter and will have reduced flavor because of oxygen trapped in the bottle,” he said.

The one exception, Stutz noted, is if the growler is from Fifth Avenue brew emporium , which built a very special system for filling the bottles. He explained that when a beer is carbonated, the gas pressure inside causes it to foam out when poured. But no one wants foam trapped inside of a growler. So Bierkraft designed a counter-pressure filler, which purges the growler with carbon dioxide and flushes the oxygen out.

Then, using a small hose, they push in the beer, thus preventing it from foaming up, oxidizing and losing carbonation. For this reason a Bierkraft growler, as long as you keep the cap tight, can last for a week as opposed to growlers filled from a tap.

This is a good thing because, in fact, Bierkraft’s menu features 16 ever-changing drafts available in 22- or 60-ounce growlers currently ranging from $6.95 (Kelso Nut Brown Lager) to $49.95 (Terrapin BFM Spike and Jerome’s Barley Ryne). So you might want to buy more than one on your next visit. 

Although the fall may not be officially growler season, it sure feels right walking home with a big brown bottle of delicious brew.