where do you sell growlers?

[gallon]

I was wondering if any of you sell growlers at the local stores around the brewery. I am just a distributing brewery, no pub, and would like to get the most out of my retail/tasting room. If the local retailers carry them for the same price, and have more hours of operation, why buy them from the brewery? If they are only sold from the brewery then I might miss out on sales. Anyway the title of the thread was "stupid stuff" so what do you do?

Tim

[beermkr]

Part of the growler thought is FRESH beer. If you were to package them and send them to your distributor who leaves them in a warehouse and sells them whne he gets ready, I think you will have lost a significant amount of the FRESH thought pattern there.

My old brewery does a brisk business in growlers out of the tasting room. The locals and tourists tend to seek us out for that fill.

R/

[Gordie]

If you sell it off your premises, it isn't considered a growler by The Man.

The distinction is that a growler, being not filled until a customer (buys the vessel and) asks you to fill it, is legally considered the same as a large draft pour or a pitcher. If you fill the vessel before someone orders it on your own, its considered the same as a bottled beer and you have to get label approval, observe recycling regulations, etc...

So basically, yes you can sell growlers at other locations, but you would have to basically treat them like 1/2 gallon bottles of beer in the stream of your state's alcohol beverage commerce. And, as posted above, it looses some of the purpose for which growlers are loved and adored.