Best Reason to "Save the Growler” - Fitger's Starfire Pale Ale - Best of MN 2013

A new campaign is brewing under the banner "Save the Growler" to change another of Minnesota's arcane liquor laws, the one that prohibits anything but the smallest breweries from selling their beer in 64-ounce jugs. Surly, for instance, has gotten too big to do so. One brewery forced to stay under the cutoff capacity is Fitger's Brewhouse in Duluth, which doesn't sell in cans or bottles. Their growler sales are so popular — you didn't think people were going to pick up Budweiser on their way up to the North Shore, did you? — they opened a separate store downstairs to accommodate sales. Few Minnesota beers have a cult following like Starfire, their hoppy and earthy but highly drinkable American ale, named after a local musician known from a pirate radio station. It's already built on a tradition of fighting the law. 600 E. Superior St., Duluth; 1-218-279-2739, brewhouse.net; savethegrowler.org