Five months ago, Dave Sills installed a portable beer tap at his Fort Mill beer and wine shop so that he could fill and refill 64-ounce bottles with hard-to-find craft beer. He was the third retailer in South Carolina to operate such a tap - called a growler station - and the venture was so popular with customers that Sill bought another station, then another.
Now, the Grapevine has five taps and fills up to 100 bottles a month - a foamy economic stimulus. "From a business standpoint, it's one of the better things I've done," Sill says.
Fifteen miles north, across the N.C. line, Mike Brawley imagines where he'd put a growler station at his popular Park Road beer and wine store, Brawley's Beverage. To the left of the register in the front, he says, or perhaps on the back wall, currently occupied by wine racks. For now, however, all he can do is imagine.
While S.C. beer shops and grocers are making draft beer-to-go one of the region's hotter craft brewing trends, such retail sales are against the law in North Carolina - and there's some serious beer envy going on.
"It doesn't make sense," says Brawley. "This would be great for everyone here."
The growler concept is simple: Customers make a one-time purchase of a bottle - usually 64 ounces - which a retailer or brewer fills for an additional amount, then seals. Customers can purchase refills of craft beers, which often contain more alcohol than mainstream brews. Growlers have a shelf life of about a week. Once open, the beer is good for about 48 hours.
Growlers date back to at least the late 19th century, when fresh beer was carried home from local pubs in covered tin pails, which legend says emitted a growling sound as beer splashed and carbon dioxide escaped from the top. Growlers died out as beer distribution modernized in the 1970s but were revived with the craft beer movement of the 1990s.
Today, brewers across the country sell growlers - including in N.C., which allows growler sales of beers that are produced in the same place they are sold. In South Carolina and several other states, retailers also are allowed to sell draft beer to go, and the Charleston Beer Exchange became the first S.C. store to do so when it opened a growler station last year. Five others have followed.
At the Grapevine in Fort Mill's Baxter Village, Sills says beer sales now make up about 40 percent of income. Before growlers, that number was 15 percent. Customers, he says, love to try hard-to-find craft beers - some of which are made in small batches and aren't available in bottles.
It's not cheap: The cost of a 64-ounce refill usually ranges from $13 to $20 for craft brews such as Southern Tier (N.Y.) Brewing Company's renowned "unearthly Imperial IPA," which costs $19.50, not including the one-time bottle cost of $6. (A typical craft beer six-pack of 12-ounce bottles goes for about $10-$15.)
But, Sill says, the draft brews taste better: "For bottled beers, it takes two years on the shelf before it mellows down to a point where it's at its best. On draft, it just tastes so different."
All of which has his N.C. neighbors pining, including Michael Habboucche, who says he was about to order growlers last fall at Duckworth's Grill and Bar in Charlotte when the N.C. Alcohol Beverage Commission shook its head. "We have no idea why it's against the law," says Habbouche, the restaurant's general manager. Says Fred Gregory, supervising attorney for the N.C. ABC: "I don't know. It's just the way the law is written."
The Rev. Mark Creech, the loudest voice against a 2005 N.C. law that allowed higher alcohol content in beer, says he objects to growler sales for similar reasons - that beer drinkers, especially underage drinkers, can get intoxicated more quickly on stronger beers. "I think it could be a disaster," says Creech, executive director of the Raleigh-based Christian Action League.
Craft beer advocates argue now, as they did in 2005, that the higher cost of high-alcohol beers make them impractical to consumers looking for a cheap, fast buzz. Growler supporters wonder if draft-to-go might actually be safer - enthusiastic craft beer drinkers may be less tempted to try one beer too many at a restaurant if they have the option to take some home in a bottle.
Advocates also note that refillable bottles are more environmentally friendly - but mostly, it's another kind of green that drives their desire. "My customers are heading down there," Brawley says of South Carolina. "That's money and taxes that should stay in North Carolina."
Habbouche is leading a group of N.C. restaurateurs and retailers who'd like to sell growlers. He's had conversations with ABC officials about the policy but has made little headway. A possible next step, says Brawley, is an appeal to legislators.
"I don't have a problem with it," says N.C. Rep. Beverly Earle, a Mecklenburg Democrat who was a primary sponsor of that 2005 law that prompted a craft beer boom in the state. That legislation was controversial, Earle says, because it invited more potent alcoholic brews to the state. Allowing growlers, she says, would merely be permitting a different way to sell a legal product.
Besides, she says: "If South Carolina is already doing it, I don't see why we shouldn't."
Neither does Sills in Fort Mill.
"Not that I
want them to allow growlers," he says. "You know how many people
I have coming down here for them?"