Will 2022 mark the return of the growler?

This week, Ball Corporation, a major provider of cans, announced major changes that affect small breweries who can. Without warning, Ball raised their minimum order to five truckloads of cans per SKU for printed cans. 

This change will force many small producers to stop ordering from Ball, as five truck loads equals more than 1 million cans. If the aluminum can shortage weren’t enough, now brewers will need to store tons upon tons of cans to buy from Ball.

So, the question begs, will brewers package their beer differently? We’d like to think so.

With the advent of crowlers, reusable growlers went the way of the dinosaur— we’d like to see them make a resurgence. It's true if someone doesn’t clean or store growlers properly, the beer quality will suffer— that's on the consumer to decide if they value their beer. If cans are going to be so hard to get, why not?

Why growlers? 

Growlers are the true epitome of reusable packaging. Cans, for all their great qualities, really aren’t all that recyclable. If there’s a plastic shrink wrap or sticker on the can, many of the recycling sorters will see the can as plastic or trash and not actually recycle it. While breweries have gone the extra mile to include methods to remove labels, how many consumers actually take the time to follow through? With Growlers, the average consumer can clean them with a dishwasher. Before you complain about beer going flat— if your growlers are losing carbonation, maybe large-format beer isn't for you. 

So, if you’re trying to figure out how to order a million cans for your upcoming beer release, maybe order some refillable growlers instead—you won’t have to order a million, that’s for sure. Here’s hoping that 2022 will help usher in a new age for the glass growler. Speaking of—time to dust off that glass sitting in the garage.

What other alternatives to cans do you see becoming the new gold standard for craft beer? Let us know in the comments!