Growler Fill Prices: Pricing Growlers and Crowlers

Charge for a fill the way you charge for a pint: container ounces times your cost per ounce times a fill multiplier, plus the can on a crowler, rounded up. At $0.12 an ounce and a multiplier of 3.5, a 64 oz growler refill is $27 and a 32 oz crowler is $14. Below are the worked prices, the checks against the pint, the refill policy and the board.

Where does a growler fill price start?

A fill price starts from the cost per ounce on your draft cost sheet: what the keg cost you, divided by the ounces you actually sell. Build that number once with the guide to draft beer cost per ounce, and fills use the same figure as every pint and taster.

Beer that foams over while you fill a growler never gets rung up, so it counts as loss like any other foam. The Brewers Association's growler best practices note that a filling tube may reduce that waste (at the cost of more oxygen in the beer) and a counterpressure filler may reduce it further. If a lot of your beer leaves in growlers, measure a few kegs that sell mostly to go and check your loss allowance.

How do you price a 32 oz crowler and a 64 oz growler?

Multiply the container's ounces by your cost per ounce and a fill multiplier, add the can on a crowler, and round up to the whole dollar.

Fill price = container oz x cost per oz x fill multiplier
             (+ can cost on a crowler), rounded up to the whole dollar

Price on the container's full ounces. A glass goes out with a head on it: the Brewers Association's Draught Beer Quality Manual (page 56) calls for about a 1 inch collar of foam, which is why the cost sheet counts about 14 oz of beer in a 16 oz pint. A fill has no collar to subtract. It goes to the container's fill line and gets sealed, so a 64 oz growler is priced on 64 oz and a 32 oz crowler on 32.

Set the fill multiplier on purpose and write it on the cost sheet next to your pour multiplier. Going below the pour multiplier makes sense because a fill washes no glass and holds no seat for an hour. Holding it makes sense because filling, sealing and labeling take counter time, and the Brewers Association says faucets and filling tubes should be rinsed, cleaned, sanitized and air dried after each growler fill.

The numbers below are a made-up example for a 16 tap taproom with a pour multiplier of 4 and a fill multiplier of 3.5. Crowler cans and lids cost $0.50 a set here; use your own invoice.

Tap 16 is crowler only in this example. The can goes on after the multiplier, which passes it through at cost. If you'd rather mark the can up, add it to the beer cost before you multiply.

Check that 2 crowlers cost more than 1 growler of the same beer, since they take 2 cans and 2 fills. Here 2 helles crowlers come to $28 against a $27 growler, and 2 IPA crowlers to $34 against $32. Check every row after rounding, because rounding can close that gap without anyone deciding it should.

How should a fill compare with a pint, per ounce?

A fill should cost less per ounce than a pint of the same beer, because a guest who does the math will notice. Divide each price by the beer the guest actually gets:

At $7 each, 4 helles pints cost $28 and hold about 56 oz of beer, while the growler holds 64 oz for $27. If a fill ever comes out above the pint per ounce, decide whether you're fine with that before a regular points it out.

What does a keg bring in as pints versus fills?

Sold entirely as growlers at a fill multiplier of 3.5, a half barrel of the helles brings in $140 less than the same keg sold as pints. A half barrel holds 1,984 fluid ounces, according to the keg table on page 6 of the Brewers Association manual. The example keeps the cost sheet's numbers: $216 a keg and 1,800 usable ounces, which is the $0.12 an ounce used above.

No keg sells only 1 way, so read the table as a rate. The pint brings in $0.50 an ounce and the growler $0.42, so each 64 oz refill earns about $5 less than the same beer poured as pints (64 x $0.50 = $32, against $27).

At a fill multiplier of 4, the growler goes to $31 and the crowler to $16, and a keg sold as growlers brings in $868, $28 under pints. If your growler guests would otherwise drink pints at the bar, 3.5 gives up about $5 a fill. If they're taking home beer they'd never have drunk at your bar, the fill is an extra sale, and the multiplier only has to clear your costs and counter time.

How do you price the first fill against the refill?

Sell the growler glass as its own item and charge the fill price for the beer, so a first fill is the glass plus the fill and every refill is the fill alone.

64 oz growler glass, sold empty:  $____  (your cost plus your markup)
First fill = glass + fill price
Refill     = fill price

A first fill of the helles is the glass plus $27, and every refill after that is $27. A separate first fill price for each beer doubles the prices on the board and gives staff a second number to ring wrong.

A crowler has no refill. The Brewers Association manual (page 57) describes crowlers as single-use aluminum cans that need their own equipment to seal the lid and can't be capped and reused. The can is a cost on every crowler you sell, which is why it sits inside the crowler price above instead of on a line of its own.

What should the growler refill policy say?

The refill policy says which containers you'll fill, how they're cleaned and sealed, and how long the beer keeps, and its guest-facing part fits in 1 line on the board. Write it before the first argument at the counter.

Start with your state. The Brewers Association's growler best practices say local and state laws often dictate growler filling and selling, up to requiring pre-filled or pre-sealed growlers, labeling and licensing, and that the rules can vary greatly. The manual (page 60) adds that some states only let an establishment fill growlers with its own logo or that it sold. Ask your state alcohol regulator before you promise to fill another shop's glass.

Then write the house rules, all drawn from the Brewers Association's guidance:

• Fill clean containers only. The retailer is responsible for making sure a container is "beer clean" before filling, and some retailers run an exchange, where a guest swaps an empty for a growler the shop has cleaned and filled.
• Inspect every container. The manual's safety notes (page 60) say not to fill glass or ceramic growlers with cracks or chips, engraved growlers, or older growlers with pitted glass, because their pressure strength is reduced.
• Fill to the line, then seal and label. Growlers should be filled to the manufacturer's fill level, since an overfilled growler can become dangerously overpressurized. The manual (page 59) says to seal a filled growler with tape or heat shrink and label it with the beer's name, ABV and IBU.
• Tell guests how long it keeps. Growlers should be opened within 24 to 72 hours of filling and finished within hours of opening.

On the board, that becomes 1 line at the bottom of the to-go block: "64 oz growler glass $__. Refills are the fill price. Clean growlers only. Best opened within 3 days."

How should growler and crowler prices read on the board?

Give fills their own to-go block, below the draft list or on the screen over the fill counter, and keep them off the drink-here lines. Counting a taster, a pint, a pitcher and 2 fills, tap 1 would carry 5 prices, and no line reads well with 5. The guide to ABV, IBU, style and pour size on a draft menu uses the same rule: a pour that guests don't order to drink here moves to its own block.

TO GO
1   Helles lager     4.9%   32 oz crowler $14 / 64 oz growler $27
6   West Coast IPA   6.8%   32 oz crowler $17 / 64 oz growler $32
16  Dry cider        6.2%   32 oz crowler $18
64 oz growler glass $__. Refills are the fill price. Clean growlers only.

Rules for the block:

• List only what you'll fill. A limited keg that stays in the building stays off the block.
• Put the container word and the ounces on every price. The Brewers Association manual (page 57) puts growler sizes anywhere from 32 to 64 fl oz, so "growler" alone doesn't tell a guest how much beer they're buying.
• Use 1 label everywhere. If it's "64 oz growler" on tap 1, it isn't "64 oz fill" on tap 6.
• Put the glass price and the policy in 1 line at the bottom instead of repeating them on each beer.

How does a bottle shop's tap wall list tastes and fills on 1 line?

At a shop where most of what leaves the taps goes out the door, put the taste and the fills on the same line. With 2 lists, a guest has to match each beer across both. With the same 3 beers, the shop's list reads:

ON TAP: TASTE HERE, TAKE HOME
1   Helles lager     4.9%   5 oz $3 / 32 oz crowler $14 / 64 oz growler $27
6   West Coast IPA   6.8%   5 oz $3 / 32 oz crowler $17 / 64 oz growler $32
16  Dry cider        6.2%   12 oz $8 / 32 oz crowler $18

Build it in this order:

1. Set 1 size order for the whole wall: the pour they drink here, then the crowler, then the growler. A line that can't offer a size ends early, and a tap you won't fill says "here only" in words.
2. Lead with the drink-here pour. It's the smallest price, and with it first, nobody mistakes a $3 taste for a fill.
3. Keep the cooler off this list. Cans and bottles on the shelf get their own list, and this one covers only what comes out of the taps.
4. Count the prices on your longest line. The example tops out at 3. Before you add a 4th, run the across-the-room type test with that line on the screen.

When should a low keg stop selling growlers?

Stop selling growlers of a beer when its keg drops to about 100 oz, which is 5% of a half barrel and 15% of a sixtel. A growler that kicks the keg at 40 oz leaves a guest at the counter holding a partly filled growler while you choose between a refund, a top-up from another beer, or a wait for the next keg.

The keg sizes come from the Brewers Association manual (page 6):

Keg levels are estimates, which is why the cutoff leaves about half a growler of margin. Below it, keep selling crowlers and pours until the keg kicks, and take the growler price off that line. Write the cutoff for each keg size next to your low mark, the way the guide to keg levels on the board sets one, and fold it into your routine for a keg that kicks mid-shift.

How do fills show on a TapDisplay board?

On a TapDisplay board, each tap shows its name, brewery, style, ABV and a price per pour, 2 pours by default and up to 4. That is room for a taste, a 32 oz crowler and a 64 oz growler on 1 line, the bottle shop layout above. You can add any pour size, growler and crowler fills included, with its own price, and each pour's label is its size. A list can be split across several screens, or each screen can show its own sections, so the screen over the fill counter can carry only the to-go section.

Staff type keg levels in by hand, from 0 to 100, along with prices. When a keg is marked kicked, its line stays on the board struck through and labeled KICKED, the word keg menus get from their business type. You change prices and levels from a phone, a tablet or a computer, and each connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds, so a new fill price shows within about 30 seconds.

The bottom line

A fill is priced from the same cost per ounce as a pint: container ounces times cost per ounce times a fill multiplier, plus the can on a crowler, rounded up. At $0.12 an ounce and 3.5, that is $27 for a 64 oz growler refill and $14 for a 32 oz crowler. Sell the glass separately, check every fill against the pint per ounce, and keep the refill policy to 1 line on the board.