OK, I’m probably just out of it. This may have already been discussed to death on various beer forums. Perhaps under Innovation, as in “Is this more are less innovative than Green IPA for St. Patrick’s Day?”
Anyway, opening Ale Street News today I sure was surprised to see a full page advertisement for take home beer cartons.
Nothing much at the Crafty Carton website right now (don’t bother with the “how it works” link; I tried), but apparently there will be March 20.
Ale Street has partnered with British ex-pat Luke Dolby to create Crafty Carton, so there is a story in the brewspaper. “The take-home disposable carton has been part of the British pub for over 20 years and I always feel proud when I see one of our cartons on sale there,” Dolby says for the story.
So think of it as a cardboard growler that holds 32 ounces.
Oh, and the advertisement indicates it is bio-degradable and recycalable.
This is funny because I just saw an old episode of “The Drew Carey Show” (maybe season one or two) the other day that brought up this as a gimmick for the brewery Drew was starting in his garage. Everyone made fun of Kate for bringing it up.
If the beer is consumed in a short time, I see no issue. I think it would loose carbination faster because it is not ridged enough to hold pressure.
The story indicates it will have an adhesive seal to satisfy closed container laws. That doesn’t mean it will hold carbonation as well as a growler, but it is a start.
never seen it in the uk!
steve,
Same here, never even heard of it.
Think about how easy it will be to get beer to school children now.
I don’t see how a single use container is more environmentally friendly than a growler that I clean and re-use many times.
Craig – And there could cartons with pictures of missing husbands.
You used to be able to get take away A+W Root Beer poured at the restaurant from the tap in a carton back around 1980.
@Alan:
I remember the cartons of root beer from A&W and Stewart’s as well!
In the 1960’s a number of the local bars in Central NJ where I grew up used to sell cartons of draft beer for takeout. My older brother would drive to the Liberty Tavern in our hometown of Fords, NJ every couple weeks and bring home a pizza and a quart of draft beer for dinner. There were other saloons in the town that did this sort of takeout as well. Some used paper cartons, some used plastic ones. The Liberty’s pizza was great, and enjoying the draft beer at home was definitely a treat.
I guess the modern improvement to the idea is that fact that one can probably take home more interesting beers than one could in the mid 1960’s (although we never certainly complained about the draft quarts of good ol’ Ballantine Ale from the Liberty Tavern).
The Sheffield Tap in the UK used to use these for Thornbridge beers when I was there. Perfect for takeaway, as the pub is on the train platform and you’d have a couple of pints to nurse on the way home.
Work well for cask ale for sure. They weren’t self adhesive, but had a little clip that would hold it together.
Still in use at the Sheffield Tap and as Kelly said, an ideal way of fitting in a couple of extra pints for the train home.
I see them in a few pubs around Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. One of our local brewers, Amber Ales, uses them for takeaway when they have a stal at farmers’ markets.
I have seen these in English pubs, but not for a long time.
“You used to be able to get take away A+W Root Beer…”
Dog N’ Suds too. Funny how it took so long to come back around.
What’s next, JuicyJuice style packs? With the little punch straw? 😉
Those “milk carton” type containers were used previously for draft beer to go for a few decades, at least. There’s a Pearl branded one on my webpage https://sites.google.com/site/jesskidden/ab from the ’70-80’s, as well as an example from an mid-1980’s Anheuser-Busch draught beer guide.
In NY State in the 80’s when their bottle deposit law went into effect, A-B was encouraging the use of those containers for bars which didn’t want to bother with bottle returns for their take-out beer in what had been “throw-away” bottles.
The older cylindrical containers with slip-on lids -similar in design to some Chinese restaurants’ soup containers-, once very prevalent in NJ (as note above by “The Professor”) before the Blue Laws were changed in the ’70’s, are even older – I’ve found reference to them in the pre-Prohibition era.
As Simon mentions above, the Sheffield Tap offer these; and the pub in the village we lived in for most of last year did so, too. We tried it once and found the beer went flat very quickly, i.e. by the time we got home, ten minutes after leaving the pub.
Stan: Thanks for noticing the Crafty Carton ad in Ale Street News. Seems like a worthy cause…safe nightcap at home…and the timing seems right…more draft beer to go, right?
Anyways after 20 years of shoulder to the wheel, we’re still here…maybe a link on your website list wouldn’t be too much to ask in return for your sub.
Cheers!