In a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, Penguin Tap Inc. raised a jaw-dropping $668,343 from 1,793 craft beer enthusiasts for the Growler Chill, a groundbreaking new product.
Growler Chill is a countertap that can hold up to three, 64-ounce growlers at a time, keeping them cold, purging oxygen and extending the craft beer’s life for up to three weeks – effectively solving the much-lamented growler perishability problem.
Fittingly, this revolutionary new appliance is set to debut in Milwaukee, the beer capital of the world, at the eighth-annual Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference.
Creator Randy Hollister said the idea for Growler Chill came after he and his son discovered that there was not a product like it on the market. He went all-in – hiring engineering talent, figuring out what the product needed to do and determining what the features would be.
Any craft beer enthusiast will agree that no product can revolutionize home consumption if the beer goes flat or stale too fast. The one problem that has inhibited the use of growlers is perishability.
“We solved it,” Hollister said. “We think Growler Chill going to change the way people experience craft beer.”
He added that there are easily 100,000 craft brews that are only available on tap.
“They never hit a bottle or can, and there are these interesting local brews that you can’t get any other way – and we know that a lot of folks don’t want to sit in a bar to drink. They want to take it home and enjoy it at home.”
We have all opened a growler after it sat in the fridge overnight. Flat. No taste. Not fun. Not the magical elixir it was intended to be.
Growler Chill enables craft beer consumers to enjoy the variety they seek without having to run around town for growler fills.
“How much milk would you buy if it went bad the day you brought it home? The idea was – if we could solve perishability, many more people will buy more beer and bring it home. We think that number is going to change a lot – because of the growler and because of Growler Chill,” Hollister said.
Get ready to meet the Growler Chill team at the Beer Expo tomorrow evening and all around the conference.