Beer bottles tend to get thrown in the recycling bin when they're empty - unless they happen to be a growler.
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A growler is a 1.89-litre refillable beer bottle - which roughly equates to a six-pack's worth of beer. They've been in use in the US for more than a decade but really only began appearing in Australia a few years ago.
Here's how it works. You go to a brewery - or a bottle shop that has a filling station - and buy a growler for about $10. Then you get them to fill it with the beer of your choosing, which will cost between $15-$30.
Then comes the fun part - take it home and drink it (within two days is recommended). Once empty, you rinse it out, let it drain and take it back and get it filled again and again.
The South Coast's two breweries - HopDog at Nowra and the Illawarra Brewing Company - both use them.
Tim Thomas, the brewer at HopDog, says they fill a few dozen growlers a week.
"It works with those products that we're doing just for growler fills, and also when we do those special runs where we do something as a single run and we're not going to bother packaging it," Thomas says.
He says it's not just the beer geeks who opt for a big bottle full of beer.
"It's completely across the board," he says.
"We get everyone from newbie geeks who go 'oh this would be really awesome' who we never see again and then we get the sort of person who is loving the fact that it is fresh.
"We even get some old guys who come in and they'll get a fill and we'll see them next Friday.
"There's even a guy from Albion Park who comes down once a month and fills 11 growlers and we see him again the next month."
Thomas's policy is to make a growler fill cheaper than buying a six-pack in part because it's much less labour-intensive.
"We do make it cheaper than buying a six-pack because we don't have to put a cap on it, don't have to put a label on it, it doesn't have to spend extra time hanging out in the cool room and doing its thing and doesn't have all that extra packaging that goes with it."
For David McGrath at the Illawarra Brewing Company, growler fills at the brewhouse in Montague Street have been popular since it was introduced earlier this year.
Tuesday and Friday afternoons are growler days and McGrath says there are some Fridays where there as many as 100 of them.
McGrath says it's important that the fills happen at the brewhouse.
"It's about getting more people here to see where the beer comes from," McGrath says.
"People don't realise that the Illawarra Brewing Company beers start in a grain bag here and two weeks later you're drinking it at the brewery bar."
While they're offering the same beers as are on tap at the bar, McGrath doesn't see growlers as cannibalising schooner sales.
"There's a time and place for everything," he says.
"If you want to go sit in a venue and drink craft beer, you can go to the brewery. But people also still enjoy a beer at home or having a beer when they go to someone else's house.
"So for us, it's just increasing things. Our beer is mobile now."
There are a wide range of people turning up for growler fills and McGrath says it's largely to do with people appreciating the freshness of the beer.
Also, there's the idea that a growler is something a little bit different.
"They like the novelty of it, the story behind the growler.
"Also, it's a logical step for us to go on the way to packaging product."