Crowler vs. Growler: Which To-Go Container Fits Your Taproom?
Liner Notes
Crowler vs. Growler: Which To-Go Container Fits Your Taproom?
A crowler is a 32 oz aluminum can seamed shut at the tap; a growler is a refillable 64 oz jug, usually glass. Crowlers hold freshness longer because aluminum blocks light and oxygen. Growlers cost less per pour if customers actually bring them back. The right pick comes down to your fill workflow, your customer traffic, and how you handle labels for a rotating tap list.
The two containers, and how much beer each one holds
Both formats live on a bar top and both leave with a customer, but almost nothing else about them is the same. A crowler is a 32 oz aluminum can filled to order from the tap and closed on a seamer that looks a bit like a sewing machine (developed by Oskar Blues Brewery and Ball Corporation, widely offered from around 2015).
A growler is a refillable 64 oz jug, most often glass, sometimes ceramic or stainless (Charlie and Ernie Otto reintroduced the modern glass version in Wilson, Wyoming in 1989). A howler is the 32 oz half-growler and shows up wherever a smaller reusable makes sense.
The size math is the part most guides skim past, and it's the thing customers actually ask at the counter:
- Crowler (32 fl oz): two 16 oz pints, or roughly 2⅔ standard 12 oz beers. That's one person for an evening or two people sharing a pizza.
- Growler (64 fl oz): four 16 oz pints, or roughly 5⅓ standard 12 oz beers. That's a small party, or one household across a weekend if it stays sealed and cold.
| Crowler | Growler | |
|---|---|---|
| Container | 32 oz aluminum can, seamed shut at the tap | 64 oz refillable jug, usually glass |
| How much beer | Two 16 oz pints, or roughly 2⅔ standard 12 oz beers | Four 16 oz pints, or roughly 5⅓ standard 12 oz beers |
| Freshness while sealed | Up to about two weeks with a proper purge, kept under 44°F | Three to five days if filled well from the bottom up |
| Once opened | Drink it that session | 24 to 48 hours |
| Upfront cost | A new blank runs a few dollars over the fill | A $20 to $30 deposit that may not come back |
| At the counter | One person at the tap, roughly a minute per seam | A sanitize, a deposit conversation, and a bottom fill |
| Best for | Travel, gifting, shipping, and rotating tap lists | Local customers drinking it tonight who return the jug |
Freshness has less to do with the container than with the fill
Walk behind the counter at a well-run taproom and you'll see a small canning setup near the tap: a purge line running CO2 into the empty can, a fill head that reads dissolved oxygen, and a seamer that closes the lid the moment the can is topped. That whole sequence is what freshness actually depends on. Breweries that purge twice and monitor dissolved oxygen at the fill head do it for a reason: oxygen picked up during filling is the fastest route to stale beer, whatever the container does afterward.
The container matters. The fill matters more.
Storage is the other half. A crowler that leaves the taproom at 40°F and rides home in an insulated bag is a different beer from one that sits in a warm trunk for an hour.
Most brewers who care about this recommend refrigerator storage between 38 and 44°F and drinking within a week if you can't verify how the beer was filled. Aluminum helps once the beer is inside the can: it blocks light and oxygen entirely, and glass doesn't.
Honest ranges, with the conditions attached. A sealed crowler holds up to about two weeks if it was filled with a proper purge and stayed under 44°F; assume three to five days if the fill practice is unknown. A sealed growler runs three to five days if it was filled well from the bottom up with CO2 displacement, and 24 to 48 hours once you break the seal.
The "about a month" figure that circulates for crowlers is misleading for an operator making a decision. If you can't verify how the beer was filled, plan for a week and be pleasantly surprised.
What each format does to your counter during a Friday rush
The crowler workflow is a case of blank cans stashed under the counter, a seamer that takes about the footprint of a bread machine, and a warm-up period before the first fill of the shift. Once the seamer is at temperature the sequence is short. Pull a blank, purge, fill, place the lid, seam.
One customer, one seam, roughly a minute at the counter with a practiced hand. The bartender stays at the tap the whole time, which matters when the line is ten deep and everyone wants the DIPA that just tapped.
The growler workflow puts more of the labor upstream and downstream. A returned growler sits upside-down in the sink for a chlorine bleach sanitize and a cold rinse before it can be refilled.
Even a clean growler needs the deposit conversation at the register, a tag or a note on who owns it, and a fill from the bottom up through a foot-long extension tube while CO2 displaces the air. That's a person at the sink and a person at the tap instead of one person at the tap, which is fine at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday and painful at 7 p.m. on a Friday.
Cost per pour, and who's actually paying for what
The receipt math looks simple and the operator math doesn't. A new crowler blank runs a few dollars over the price of the fill. A new growler carries a $20 to $30 upfront deposit that customers may or may not bring back.
The reusability advantage only exists if the growler comes back, and taprooms that stopped tracking returns usually stopped because the deposit was covering fewer than half the jugs walking out the door. Aluminum is made from a high share of recycled content, which is the honest counterpoint to the waste complaint that trails crowlers around.
Where each container actually travels, and where each one fails
Aluminum wins the trip. Crowlers go to beaches, pools, campsites, tailgates, and anywhere glass is banned; they gift well, they ship, they don't shatter in a cooler. Growlers win the four-blocks-away customer who wants tonight's beer tonight and will bring the jug back on Saturday.
Anyone who's lost a growler in the back of their car for three months will happily buy a crowler for the same beer today, which is worth remembering when the sustainability argument comes up. That argument assumes a return habit most drinkers don't have.
Both formats fail in specific ways. Crowler seams occasionally leak, and resealable lids from Oskar Blues and the Twistee Can complicate the single-use story but don't fix a bad fill. Growlers break, they get left in warm cars, and once opened they lose carbonation within a day or two.
A small California brewer who declined to stock crowlers put it plainly: they can create a false sense of package quality when the fill isn't up to the container. That's a real critique, and it points back at the fill head, not the can.
Labeling a crowler at fill time, without slowing down the counter
Rules on what a to-go container must show vary by state. Check with your state alcohol board and the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) before you print anything. With that settled, there are two label workflows that actually work for a rotating tap list:
- Per-release full-color: the beer earns its own artwork. Best for flagships and named seasonals where the label is part of the brand and the beer will be on tap long enough to justify a dedicated SKU. Full CMYK plus spot colors, printed digitally so you can order in the dozens or hundreds instead of thousands.
- Brand shell with a variable field: a preprinted shell carries your logo, style category, and required text, with a blank field for beer name, ABV, and fill date. Fill the field with a thermal overprint at the seamer or a fine-point marker for smaller taprooms. This is the fit for a taproom rotating four IPAs a month, and it keeps labeling from becoming a project every time a new keg blows.
Before you commit to either workflow, there are four questions worth asking a label supplier:
- Minimum order quantity per SKU: a 1,000-piece minimum kills a rotating list. If the supplier can't quote a run of a few hundred, the workflow decision is already made for you.
- Adhesive family: a crowler label goes from a warm bar to a 38°F cooler to a bag of ice to a car ride. Ask specifically about all-temperature or cold-temperature adhesives; a general-purpose acrylic that lifts at the seam in a cooler will burn your Monday morning.
- Turnaround on reorders: when a beer returns to the tap list, how fast can you get labels back on the shelf? Days matter when the tap is already flowing.
- Will they help you spec the label, or just quote what you upload: a good supplier asks where the label lives before quoting. That's the difference between a converter and a broker.
A short decision guide for your taproom
Four read-outs based on how your customers actually behave and how your counter actually runs:
- Drinking it tonight, lives nearby: growler. The deposit works, the beer gets drunk while it's fresh, and the jug comes back Saturday.
- Traveling, gifting, or shipping: crowler. Aluminum handles the trip, the seam holds through a cooler, and nobody's coming back for a deposit.
- Tap list rotating weekly: crowler, paired with a labeling workflow that doesn't require 1,000-piece minimums. Brand shells with a variable field usually settle it.
- Can't guarantee a clean, purged fill: neither format saves you. Fix the fill first. A well-designed can with an oxidized beer inside disappoints more customers than a growler ever will.
Questions taproom operators keep asking
Is a crowler or growler better?
Neither is universally better. The container is downstream of two things: how far the customer is taking the beer, and how well your taproom fills. A local customer drinking tonight is better served by a growler; a customer traveling, gifting, or shipping is better served by a crowler. Rotating tap lists lean crowler for freshness and for simpler labeling.
How many beers is a crowler?
A crowler holds 32 fluid ounces. That's two 16 oz pints, or roughly 2⅔ standard 12 oz beers. A growler at 64 fluid ounces doubles it: four pints, or about 5⅓ 12 oz beers. Useful math when a customer asks how many people the container will feed.
Does anyone use growlers anymore?
Yes, at breweries with a loyal local base and a working deposit system. Adoption has shifted toward crowlers as more taprooms added seamers, but reliable current market-share numbers aren't public. The strongest figures floating around are from about 2015 and shouldn't be read as today's picture. If your customers ask for growlers, they're still a fit.
How long does beer last in a crowler can?
Up to about two weeks if the fill was properly purged and the can stayed under 44°F. Assume three to five days if the fill practice is unknown. Once opened, drink it that session; a seamed can isn't resealable in any meaningful sense, and carbonation drops fast.
When your labels need to keep up with your tap list
Liberty Labels has been independently owned since 1969, and the team that answers the phone is the team spec'ing the label. For a rotating tap list, that means short runs with no minimum order quantity, help picking an adhesive that holds through a cooler and a car ride, and a conversation about the two workflows before you print a single label. If your tap list changes weekly and your current supplier only quotes runs of 1,000, request a quote and we'll talk through what fits.