What Makes A Crowler Different From A Growler When It Comes To Beer?

As craft beer continues to grow more popular, with more local breweries popping up around the U.S. and beyond, it makes sense that we're beginning to see more creative ways to package and sell beer. If you're buying some beer to-go from a brewery, they might ask if you want crowlers. Assuming you were planning to leave with some beer cans, what exactly is a crowler and does it share any relation to a beer growler?

It's similar, and the word "crowler" is short for "can growler." A crowler is essentially just a 32-ounce beer can, making it larger than both the standard 12-ounce can and the 16-ounce "tallboy" can often used for craft beers in grocery stores. Like any other can, it's aluminum and it's got a pull tab so you can pop it open and drink it, although it's hard to preserve that carbonation for long once you open it. Despite the similar name, it's very different from a growler, which is a 64-ounce jug made of glass or ceramic (or even metal) which can be refilled and resealed with an airtight cap. You might find a 32-ounce jug, which is sometimes called a half-growler or even a howler, but it's still more of a tiny keg than a beer can. Consider a 32-ounce can is a crowler instead.

The "can growler" is a creation of the Oskar Blues brand, a Colorado restaurant-turned-brewery which is notable in the beer scene for being the first to sell canned craft beer. Not content with the usual, tiny cans, the company worked with the Ball Corporation manufacturer to make what's now called the crowler for its biggest product: Dale's Pale Ale, named after the Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis. Dale's is still around and fairly popular and can still be found in its signature crowlers. Oskar Blues even makes resealable lids for crowlers now.

Even though crowlers are sealed the same way as a regular beer can, they do require special equipment to manufacture and seal up. These machines are becoming more and more common, but it does limit how often you'd see them, and usually they're meant for breweries to offer larger to-go options for customers. They may be smaller than growlers, which can hold five beers or so, but crowlers tend to be a less cumbersome and less fragile means of transporting lots of draft beer at once. As with any beer can, though, make sure you didn't shake it much before you pop the tab open and let out all that pressurized, carbonated beer fizz.