I don’t know about you, but it hurts me—really hurts!—when I have a growler filled and the bar attendant lets several pints of perfectly good beer go down the drain in the process. Yes, I appreciate not being handed 64 ounces of foam, but is all that waste really necessary?
Perhaps a little extra overflow is acceptable when you move as much volume as a pro brewery. But when you’ve invested hours of your own labor and love into crafting a keg of homebrew, to paraphrase Monty Python, every drop is sacred. So if you keg and need to fill a growler, here are nine tips to avoid growler grief.
1. Start with a chilled growler jug.
Note that I said chilled, not frosty. A few minutes in the fridge will do just fine, but don’t even think about putting the growler in the freezer. Freezing the growler just promotes more foaming thanks to ice crystal development.