You Can Now Get Beer To Go From Bars and Restaurants

Yesterday, Gov. Pritzker signed a bill making it legal for bars and restaurants to fill growlers (or, the much better option, crowlers) of beer for off-site consumption.

As a consumer, this is great! It gives us access to beer we perhaps would not have had access to at places that are convenient for us.

Reaction from the brewing community is mixed though, depending on who you ask!

Some brewers are concerned it will keep people out of their establishments, an argument bars have had against breweries ever since they started to become popular hangouts and not just production facilities.

A lot of brewers are also concerned bar employees won’t be properly trained on how to properly handle the beer – a very perishable product – which could end up giving the customer a poor experience which could reflect badly on the brewer. This is a very legitimate concern, if you ask me.

So, have any beer retailers been prepared for this? You betchya.

Hellllooooo crowlers!😍 We’re excited to debut our new crowler program today! 32 ounces of fresh draft beer to take home! 🍻⁣

Read more about our stance on crowlers: https://t.co/RezRWWVuZI pic.twitter.com/gY3fuUgHLB

— The Open Bottle🍻 (@theopenbottleco) August 27, 2019

Have you heard?! Growler fills at retail stores like ourselves are now legal in Illinois! We’ve been waiting patiently, practicing our fills, and making sure we’re and so tomorrow August 28th you’ll be able to buy and fill growlers from us! Get excited! #wehavegreatbeer #fillitup pic.twitter.com/edkA6xAxMt

— beeronthewall (@wehavegreatbeer) August 28, 2019

Other retailers won’t be so quick to hop on board (see what I did there?). Some express reservations about licensing costs and that filling growlers/crowlers would slow down their bartenders too much.

This GuysDrinkingBeer.com article does a nice job summing everything up.

While reaction has been mixed across the  beverage industry,