It’s a significant development for the state’s growing craft brewing and distilling industries, which have been pushing for years to expand what they can sell directly from their operations. Distilleries want to be able to sell larger bottles, and the state’s biggest craft breweries have wanted fewer restrictions on the sale of growlers, the large glass bottles typically used to carry draft beer poured from taphouses.
On Tuesday, Minneapolis-based Indeed Brewing Co. will begin selling its own beer in Castle Danger’s growlers. Tom Whisenand, Indeed’s CEO, says it’s a playful workaround designed to raise awareness about Minnesota’s cap on growler sales. Under Minnesota law, breweries are prohibited from selling growlers, crowlers, or other off-sale products in their taprooms once they begin producing more than 20,000 barrels a year.
Indeed hasn’t hit that mark quite yet, which means the brewery can continue selling any growlers it wants. But Whisenand is well aware that that the state’s cap on growlers will eventually impact his operations.
Free-the-growler legislation appears dead at Minnesota Capitol Minnesota s largest craft breweries have pushed to end a cap that prohibits them from selling 72-ounce jugs. April 28, 2021 6:52pm Text size Copy shortlink:
DULUTH – A proposal to allow Minnesota s largest breweries to sell 72-ounce growlers appears dead after the measure failed to gain significant support in the closing weeks of the legislative session.
Hurt by the pandemic, several of those breweries formed an alliance last year to lobby for a change in the law that says breweries that produce more than 20,000 barrels of beer in a year are prohibited from selling growlers or other to-go containers. Several of the breweries, including Surly, Fulton and Castle Danger, have said the cap penalizes them for their growth.