New law expands sales of beer growlers

PHOENIX — It’s a big day for Arizona beer lovers.

As of Thursday morning, a new Arizona law is on tap that allows restaurants, bars, convenience stores and even drug stores to sell and fill up glass “growlers” of beer to take home.

Lee Hill with the Arizona Liquor Department said this means customers no longer have to visit microbreweries and beer pubs to get a growler.

“Prior to this, you could not fill a refill a bottle,” he said. “What this is doing is allowing licensed establishments to refill a growler with beer.”

Hill said this is a win-win for the state’s economy and craft-beer industry, which will be able to pump out their product to stores statewide.

“This stimulates the economy with an outlet of getting fresh beer made in Arizona directly to the consumer,” he said.

Whole Foods is among the supermarkets to install taps and bars to serve their customers.

Spokeswoman Theresa Sarna said Whole Foods has seen customer interest in craft beer grow and now they’ll be be able to fill up the growler on the trip to the grocery store.

“People can purchase their own growler here for $4 and a cap for $1, or they can bring in their own growler from home and we will refill it for them,” she said.

Home state beer makers will be well represented at Whole Foods.

“[We have] Four Peaks in Tempe, we have San Tan Brewery out of Chandler, we also have Dragoon IPA, which is a Tucson brewery,” said Sarna.

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