You are responsible for caring for your growlers to make sure you have an enjoyable experience with each fill. Good news - it's EASY! In fact, usually people's biggest problem is over-complicating cleaning their growlers. Here are some easy steps for cleaning and caring for your growlers between fills:
Store it cold until you have time to clean it. The best thing to do is to clean a growler as soon as you finish drinking it, but we know that's not always possible. So, to limit bacteria's ability to take hold, keep the growler in a cooler or in the fridge until you have a few minutes to wash it out.
- Triple rinse with hot water. Make sure your tap water is nice and hot, then fill, swirl and rinse your growler about 3 times. This should knock out anything that has started to develop in your growler.
- Air dry upside down. Allow your growler to sit upside down and air dry completely. A damp growler can harbor bacteria, whereas a dry growler will not.
- Leave the cap off. Don't cap your growler once it has been cleaned. Capping the growler will result in stagnant air, which could promote bacteria growth. Allowing the air to circulate will reduce this risk.
When you bring in your growler to be filled, we will visually inspect it and take a sniff to make sure it is clean. If we can see mold or if we pass out from the smell, we will first poke fun at you for your growler transgressions. Then, if we aren't busy, we may clean your growler for you while we make you memorize the 4 steps above. However, if we have too much going on to spend the time necessary to sufficiently clean your growler, or if you are a repeat funky growler offender, we may ask you to purchase a new clean growler.
As long as you are bringing in a clean growler without any visible grossness or pungent aromas, then we'll gladly sanitize it for you and provide a new cap when we fill it!
Here, Katy will show you how to do it:
