Ah, yes. Fresh, craft beer is pure joy. If you follow @TailgatingIdeas on Twitter, you have been subjected to a number of tweets expounding the pageant and majesty of craft beer via the Untappd mobile app. It is well documented our love of the craft beer. And the best craft beer is fresh craft beer directly from the brewery usually transported in a growler. But traditional glass growlers are typically not welcome in tailgating parking lots due to many stadium rules banning glass containers of any type. This is the problem craft beer lovers face each weekend.
We recently discovered the Portland Growler Company which is solving this problem for craft beer loving tailgaters everywhere. Portland Growler Company makes hand poured ceramic growlers in 32 oz and 64 oz sizes. Ceramic is not only a great insulator and keeps your craft beer colder longer, but ceramic is not glass, thus circumnavigating many parking lot glass bans.
We tailgate at Qualcomm Stadium for the San Diego Chargers games. Qualcomm Stadium has a strict “No Glass” policy and the San Diego Police officers patrolling the parking lots take it very seriously. In our experience, if they even see a glass bottle, even a glass jar of salsa, they will issue a ticket. No warning, just a ticket and they will confiscate the remainder of the glass bottles in your cooler. And for the record, the ticket they issue is not light. Upwards of $250 and if you think about fighting it in court, you better think again. In our experience tailgating in San Diego for 10+ years, we have never heard of anyone getting their ticket overturned or waived.
Now that we have scared you to death about even thinking of bringing glass to a tailgate, we offer you the solution.
Wikipedia defines Ceramic as: An inorganic, nonmetallic solid material comprising metal, nonmetal or metalloid atoms primarily held in ionic and covalent bonds. The crystallinity of ceramic materials ranges from highly oriented to semi-crystalline, and often completely amorphous.
That sounds like a lot of technical science speak but ceramic is not glass. So if a police officer wants to ticket you for glass in the parking lot, let him/her know it is a ceramic growler. We would suggest contacting the stadium you plan to tailgate and find out if ceramic materials are considered glass and if they are allowed. Better to be safe than sorry.
Now that you have a way to bring fresh craft beer tailgating, you should pick up a personalized ceramic growler from Personal Creations.
Portland Growler Company began in the summer of 2010 as a collective of designers and ceramicists that came together to create hearty, handmade ceramic growlers for beer in a city known for its microbreweries. Each of their unique growlers are slip cast using a high-temperature stoneware clay body and fired to an extreme temperature of 2,232 Fahrenheit. Each growler is handmade and is truly unique in every sense of the word. The bottom of your stoneware growler includes the initials of the artist who made it. Now that is unique.
Once you fill your growler, you want to keep that beer as fresh as it came out of the tap. Wide-mouth, porcelain flip-top lids and rubber gaskets seal in freshness and carbonation, while thick, ceramic walls prevent light contamination – keeping your favorite beverage tap fresh and cold to the last sip.
And since you are not your average tailgater and you want to personalize your growler, you can even order it engraved with your initials. Personal Creations offers these growlers for sale and you can personalize them. You can see the growler we chose came personalized with the founder’s initials.
After taking the Portland Growler tailgating and enjoying some fresh craft beer in the parking lot, these personalized ceramic growlers are definitely “Tailgate Approved”. (And that’s not the craft beer talking.)
The Portland Growler is $79.00 and includes your choice of one to two initials engraved. Color choices are black or grey and each unique growler is handmade and made in the USA. To order a Portland growler for your next tailgate, visit: Personal Creations.