Saturday, January 28, 2012

Growlers!

Isn't that a fun word to say? I didn't even know what a growler was until I was contacted last year by someone representing a micro-brewery. They were looking for a potter to make growlers with their logo stamped onto them. So if you didn't already know, you probably figured out that a growler is a re-sealable beer bottle. Long story short, this company had no clue what handmade specialty items would cost, so we didn't get an order from them.
Since then, Jeff has had growlers on his mind. The challenge is making them and getting the stoppers to fit securely. You definitely don't want your home brew to lose it's carbonation! The other challenge was finding a quality ceramic & rubber stopper supplier. There aren't any in this country so I think the shipping cost was more than the stoppers.

This one is my favorite and one of the larger that he has made


These are a little smaller, above with ash glaze & shino, below in shino and photographed with two of my tumblers.

Clicking on the photos will bring you to Jeff's Etsy shop, where these growlers are for sale. If you are a home brewer you will enjoy and appreciate having these... we tested them out and they pour really well.

Hey it's Saturday, so "BOTTOMS UP"!

15 comments:

  1. Those are wonderful growlers, I would have thought a growler was a wolf or mad dog in the night,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those are really nice.
    Growler is something entirely different in Britain. You certainly wouldn't want to go around there saying your husband has growlers on his mind.
    I learned this the hard way from none other than Doug Fitch (if course)

    Hum, my word verification is 'tater' .

    ReplyDelete
  3. those are nice and you should get some hits from those home brewers.
    Do tell Ron...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks...My friend Rob has the first one I made...I made it 15 years ago and reused the flip top from a German Double Bach bottle I emptied. I AM using NEW ceramic flip tops that I found online for the new bottles.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Jeff, Grolsch Premium Lager in the 15 oz bottle comes with those flip tops. You could buy several to drink and have the tops for your bottles. May as well get something good out of it instead of just buying the tops. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. ok Ron... so what's a growler in Britain? my imagination is running wild...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think a growler in Britain is just a bucket!

    ReplyDelete
  8. OH, and about the home brewer or microbrew and price--they prob. figured you would sell each one to them for 5 bucks or less, not 50 bucks or more, hmm?

    ReplyDelete
  9. YES, old fashioned English growler = a tin pail, read down here :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_bottle

    ReplyDelete
  10. YOU KNOW I ran out to get me some Grolsch...and as I was putting them into my fridge I realize they have Grolsch printed atop the stopper...rats. Wonder what I can do to cover that...oh well, still gonna try JEFF'S GROWLER CHALLENGE. He didn't even realize he had gotten that started, did he?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Go Gary! See how you make out re-using the Grolsch stopper, if you are successful and want to make more we can send you the link to company Jeff bought his from.
    Thanks for the official definition... something tells me there is a slang def too that isn't polite in public...
    come on Ron... fill us in!

    ReplyDelete
  12. You can buy those bottle stoppers here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/wire-bales-for-flip-tops.html
    I had to ask a brewer friend of mine where to get them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. OK, grolsch stoppers, the next step: emptied out a bottle ;) and the stopper comes off easily, but it is printed red grolsch BUT using the kitchen sink green scrubber, voila, clean and perfect white stopper---I made a bottle shape too, but I am only doing this on a lark and am already almost bored with the project, sorry! Gawd...what is it with me....get excited about one project for a day then ready for the NEXT idea...anyway, hopefully next week I can show you an awesome growler bottle :)

    ReplyDelete

I welcome and appreciate comments. Lately I have had a lot of spam and therefore have had to turn on word verification as well as comment moderation for posts older than 14 days.