The Growler Station’s system boasts foam-free and fresher pour
Taking a growler filled with a favorite craft brew on the go is becoming a favorite activity of beer lovers, evidenced by the proliferation of places to fill the often 64- or 32-ounce vessels. Typically filled from a tap and sealed, experts recommend a growler be consumed within three days (or less) for the best taste.
Offerings at The Growler Station in Greenville include growlers to go. However, beer buyers can also get one of 24 brews poured through a clear and illuminated growler-filling system called the CrafTap. The Growler Station holds the North American rights to this unique technology, which keeps oxygen from touching the beer and commencing the slippery slope toward spoilage. The growler’s contents will reportedly stay fresh for up to one year.
Jon Richards and Pierre Goulette of The Growler Station demonstrated their six slick-looking CrafTaps made by Pegas for UBJ.
How does the CrafTap work?
JR: It’s a system that pressurizes the bottle with carbon dioxide. Then a two-way valve allows the beer to run down the inside of the bottle, filling it from the bottom and displacing the carbon dioxide. The beer only touches the bottle.
PG: We pressurize the bottle, counter-fill it under the pressure and cap off with foam, much like a bottling plant.
How was the system developed?
PG: The Growler Station has the exclusive North American rights to the Pegas technology developed in Siberia [by Novosibirskprodmash]. Our founding partner Mark da Silva had noticed spillage from the kegs [during growler fills at a pub] and was looking for a way to prevent that. He learned of a system in Siberia and asked the designer to send one. Sergei, the designer, insisted on cash, so da Silva sent it and –amazingly – received a unit a few days later.
What difference does the system make?
PG: When you take a growler and fill it from a standard wall tap, the pour is oxidized –basically putting a cap on a glass of draft beer. The oxygen is breaking down the carbonated beverage and within a few days, the beverage is going to go flat. The Pegas system gives you a deoxidized pour.
It provides people with an option. If you have a ball game on Saturday, but you’re out on Tuesday, you can get your growler then. When you open it on Saturday, you’ll have your intended purchase.
How does the oxidation affect the beer’s taste?
JR: Brewers say you should drink a growler within 24 hours of pouring, and there are brewers who won’t sell growlers. People put them in the fridge for a few days, open it and say, “This beer is horrible.” The oxidation gives the beer a papery, leathery, cardboard taste.
PG: Brewers feel that horrible impression comes back on them. We’ve gotten a lot of our brewers excited about this technology.
What kind of feedback have you gotten?
PG: Most people don’t wait very long to open a growler, but [the longer shelf lives] are accidental discoveries … where people have forgotten about the growler and opened it six days later. When that’s happened, the feedback has been amazing.
JR: We have some people who come in with six growlers, fill them all at once and open them one at a time. When a winter beer came out in August, I brought a growler home and kept it to enjoy three months later.
How does the system benefit the business?
PG: It reduces the amount of waste spillage from the kegs up to 35 percent. And we get the chance to explain the system. We want to create an environment like a coffee shop where we can help people learn and get excited about beer.
