Would you like to share a few pints of Birmingham’s local Good People Brewing Co.’s beer at home with friends? Perhaps some of the new Snake Handler Double IPA or Fatso Imperial Stout?
An unusual opportunity for doing just that is on the horizon.
You may not be familiar with the term “growler” as beer sales in growlers are illegal throughout most of Alabama. That’s actually one of the laws that Free The Hops would like to address at some point — legalizing growler sales. A growler is glass jug (typically 1/2 gallon) which is filled from a tap of draught beer, to be consumed at home.
While this form of beer sale is illegal in most places in Alabama, it was once legal and a handful of establishments were “grandfathered” in under the old law. Those places can still legally sell draught beer to go in half gallon and gallon containers. One such place is Dee’s Package Store on Greensprings Hwy in Birmingham. And Dee’s has jumped head first into craft beer in the wake of FTH’s success with the ABV bill this year.
Dee’s has started selling some high gravity beer by the half gallon, such as North Coast Old Rasputin. And they’re ready to sell Good People if we’re ready to buy it. At long last, our chance to enjoy Good People beer at home.
To really do it up right, Good People are going to order a bunch of half gallon growlers with their logo on them to sell to you and me for our beer to go. And to make sure they don’t sink a lot of money into ordering more than they can sell, they are doing pre-sales right now. Here is Jason Malone’s explanation:
Ok, I got my quote back and put the growler “pre-sale” up on the GPBC store:
http://www.shop.goodpeoplebrewing.com
$5 per growler. I’ll shut down the orders on the 25th, order them, and then work out distributing (meet at the brewery or Clyde).
Note that when you order your growler you may get a confirmation email telling you it will be shipped to your house. That is not true; it’s a generic email intended for other merch sales on their site. Shipping these puppies would be cost prohibitive. If you buy one, you’ll need to pick it up either at the brewery or at some pre-arranged meetup which will be announced on this blog.
I’ve ordered mine.
17 Comments
Ordered 2!
You know, $5 is not bad IMO considering a four pack of pint mugs are like $15. They are not logo either!
Absolutely brilliant. I love a good loophole…
Got mine ordered!
Is it known if any other locations around the state have been similarly grandfathered in? I imagine bottling equipment is expensive compared to dropping off a keg every once in awhile. I bet this could give a real boost to Alabama brewers.
I have spoken with Charles (the owner) of Mr. P’s in the Bluff Park area of Hoover. He has been selling macro’s in plastic containers for many years. He has a couple of macro’s on tap at present, but stated that he did not have any plans at this time to add the micro 6> beers because he did not think he would have enough demand. He does carry a select few of the 6> beers in bottles. If Dee’s and Mr. P’s has a license to sell in containers “to go”, I am sure others in the area could have the same type situation.
I hope that a unified growler law would be up on deck, when it comes to future legislation. The free market…decides whether “suck-ces” or “fell-your’e” is bestowed upon the business world.
It might be the case that some businesses might not know yet that they’ve been grandfathered in to a market that didn’t previously exist and will exist even without another beer law update. They’ve got a really killer opportunity to sell beers that no one else in the state can. (I’d like to see this become a way to get certain beers prior to a container size change e.g. Rogue XS series in growlers anyone?)
Wrt to who these businesses are, it seems like a this is something the distributors would know.
Ordered mine, and ready to get some snakehandler IPA asap, when will we be able to pick up the growlers & get them filled?
There are a couple of places in auburn that i know sell draft in half gallon and one gallon milk jugs, the gas station on opelika rd across from the bowling alley sells them, or at least use to.
They have changed owners and companies a couple of times, went from Conaco to Snackers,etc.
Just picked up a plastic 1/2 gallon of Snakehandler from Dee’s and unless the folks at GP know something Dee’s doesn’t, it is not yet known whether they will be able to fill up anyone’s personal growler. I ordered a GP growler regardless but just an FYI for those ordering one with that expectation…
Not yet known? … health department “please use a new plate for each trip to the salad bar” type law or ABC board type law?
No idea…I think they just haven’t clarified the legality of such.
Lame… well, now that I know the Snakehandler’s there I’ll go by today and do my part to help establish that there’s demand for such a service.
After seeing how their system works (and contemplating it over a few excellent pints of Snakehandler) I believe the issue to likely be one of open container laws. When they snap that little red cap on the jug there’s a tamper-seal in place making it easy to determine whether or not the jug has been opened. We might need something akin to Louisianna’s “tape the straw to the side of your daiquiri to go cup and it’s not an open container anymore” law. Maybe an official sticker put on by the proprietor?
I just ordered 5 of these. Hope it’s not too late to make the cut. My friends are going to love me.
One Trackback
[...] even more info check out the Free The Hops blog post on the Good People [...]