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“What the hell is a Crowler?”
That’s what went through my head after my friend in California said that he was going to send me a couple Crowlers from his local brewery about a year ago. At the time, I considered myself pretty well-versed in all things craft beer. I assumed that he was talking about a common glass Growler, pointed out his typo, and told him not to send me anything because they’d leak all over the plane. He assured me that he said what he meant and that large, machine-sealed, aluminum cans do not leak on planes. My interest was piqued.
It’s 2016 and craft beer is everywhere. At this point, you’ve probably had a beer poured from a growler. Maybe you fill (and refill) your own growlers regularly, or maybe your annoying friend always brings one filled with a “double dry-hopped black IPA that is so-sublime-and-life-changing-seriously-you-need-to-try-it-it’s-bitter-but-its-malt-backbone-totally-keeps-the-hops-in-check” whenever he shows up to your apartment (apologies to my friends). The growler has permeated today’s beer culture so far that you can have personalized ones made for your groomsmen.
But what about when that specialty craft brew you crossed five states with goes flat in the fridge? Or gets too shaken up in your backpack? Or breaks on the bus ride home? Enter: The Crowler.
Essentially, a Crowler is a giant, 32 oz. can. These oversized containers can be filled on any ordinary tap line, but the catch is that you have to have a Crowler sealing machine to cap it. There are over 600 machines being used in America, more and more breweries are offering Crowlers as a takeaway beer option (though there are only a handful of companies making Crowler machines). In the current craft beer landscape, brewers and beer drinkers alike are accepting cans as the premium in beer packaging, and it makes sense that this trend would grow—quite literally.
Most beer drinkers credit Oskar Blues’s Dale’s Pale Ale as the pioneering brew of the canned craft beer movement, which the Colorado-based brewery has been canning since 2002. If there was a brewery to expand on the opportunities that canning brews had to offer, these guys would be the ones to do it—and they did.
“We get off on pushing the limits, doing things differently, and the Crowler is another step of innovation to take advantage of what the can package has to offer from behind the bar,” explains Jason Dan, the head of the Crowler program at Oskar Blues.
They worked with Ball Corporation, a manufacturer that produces machines that seal steel food cans (and those things called Ball jars) and modified the existing seaming machine to seal Ball's new 32 oz. to-go beer cans.
After implementing the machines at their breweries and tap rooms, OB decided it was time to get other breweries involved, making Crowler machines available for purchase by other beer makers. Helping the competition may seem a bit counterintuitive, but craft beer truly is a community. Albeit, sometimes a community that loves to argue about hops in forums online—but a community no less.
According to Dan, more than 400 Oskar Blues Crowler machines and 1.3 million Crowler cans were sold in 2015, a 1000% increase in sales from 2014. Buying the blank cans in bulk and slapping on their own sticker labels makes it convenient for breweries to adapt their designs to the Crowler and explains why such a staggering amount of cans were sold.
Other companies, like Dixie Canner Co., have developed Crowler machines for their clients including Cigar City Brewing and Sierra Nevada Brewing. Whether your Crowler is coming from an OB machine or a Dixie canner, the result is the same. Fresher, longer-lasting brews. “More beer, more accessible, in more places,” says Dan.
Beer’s least favorite things are UV rays and permeating oxygen. Cans offer protection from both, whereas glass bottles and growlers let light touch your beer, and even if you can’t see or hear it, they let oxygen both in and out of your beer through small gaps in the cap, flip-top, or screw-on. But don’t worry—there’s a cure.
“Aluminum packaging helps keep our beers fresher for longer and maintains the quality by creating an absolute barrier to light and oxygen, preventing off-flavors from developing,” says Chris Carroll, of San Diego’s Stone Brewing. For IPA-heavy breweries like Stone, keeping hops in their most flavorful state is of the utmost importance. If you’ve ever cracked open an IPA only to find a malty, bitter mess, you’ve been the victim of damaged hop oils.
Crowlers also keep the beer fresher for a longer amount of time than a growler does. The typical growler keeps beer fresh and carbonated for about three days before it really starts to degrade. Crowlers keep their brews fresh for about a month, unless you decide to play football with it. The seal, pack, and go aspect is a big one for Hardywood Park Craft Brewing in Richmond, Virginia. “Craft beer drinkers are our best ambassadors, and Crowlers offer an extended "shelf life" allowing our fans to take our beer further,” explains Hardywood’s Matt Shofner. “If an out-of-town visitor finds something they really want to take home, they may need more than five days to travel home and share a taste of Hardywood with their friends and family. It's important that what they taste is a true representation of the product, and those cases the Crowler can deliver.”
“I’m big on form following function," says Chad Rich of Prohibition Pig in Waterbury, Vermont, and with Crowlers, he can control the environment in which his beer is consumed as tightly as he possibly can. “Once they open it, they have to commit to it, and that’s another huge thing for me. Knowing that the beer is going to be served fresh and as we intend to serve it.”
The Crowler gives breweries serving their beer exclusively on tap at the brewery, like Prohibition Pig, a completely sanitized container to fill with their beer, unlike a reusable growler, that if not cleaned properly, can harbor leftovers from previous fills. Brewers are obsessed with cleanliness in all stages in the life of a beer. It’s all about control and Rich realizes that and acts on it, “I don’t want unfavorable reviews on the beer. I want my beer to be presented in the best possible manner.”
And then there’s the portability angle of the can versus the glass growler. In states like Oregon, craft beer is synonymous with the outdoors. “We live in a place where biking, hiking, paddling, skiing, and snowboarding are part of everyday life,” explains Kate Fleming-Molleta, of Oregon’s Boneyard Beer. “Crowlers are much lighter and easier to pack in and out on these types of adventures.” The Crowler is the answer for the active beer drinker’s adventuresome woes.
Craft beer enthusiasts like Crowlers. Well, most craft beer enthusiasts. Those who don’t must have their reasons. Maybe they’re non-conformists. Maybe a Great Uncle died in a freak Crowler filling accident (my condolences). Maybe they’re allergic to aluminum. Regardless, after polling 160 Beer Advocate users, I found that only 15% of them didn’t have any interest or didn’t have a great experience with Crowlers.
If my stats don’t stand up to your rigorous mathematical standards, take it from the breweries themselves. At Boneyard Beer, 64% of customers are choosing Crowlers in which to take their beer home, and the percentage is rising every month. At Stone, about 40% of customers are using Crowlers, which is a staggering amount for a brewery that helped fuel the popularity of the glass growler over the past five years. Stone also reports that its Crowler usage is increasing with each month. At Prohibition Pig, the amount of Crowlers sold is “substantially more” than the amount of Growlers being filled. Chad Rich at Pro Pig says that he actually needs to get rid of a few of his own growlers that are sitting and taking up space.
When it comes down to it, craft beer drinkers are a stubborn breed. Although tastes vary and brewing mentalities can differ, there is one overarching importance that binds all craft beer enthusiasts. They, well, we, care about the quality of our beer. Freshness and intact flavor profiles are mandatory. We want to drink the beer in the exact manner that the brewer intended for us to drink it, and over the past year or so, brewers and tap houses have started to adopt a packaging system that caters to that exact need.
Somewhere between a 24oz. Tall Boy and a Forty lies the future of your craft beer consumption. It’s made of aluminum, you can get it filled with some of the best beers in the world, and it’s called a Crowler.