We often spot some of the old folk down on our allotment supping from cups filled by tartan thermos flasks in between bouts of slow-motion raking, and secretly yearn for a flask of our own. All be it a cool, space-aged one that’s acceptable to be seen in public with, and not something that might smash into a thousand pieces if you accidentally kick it over with a misplaced wellington boot.
As luck would have it, one such flask has made it’s way onto our testing bench, shining resplendently in stainless steel. Better still, it’s not a flask in the traditional sense, but a ‘growler,’ specifically designed for the portage of booze.
‘Growler’* is the name given to an oversized vessel used for transporting beer home from the pub or offy. Or in our case, from brewing shed to allotment. They are a common sight on the US boozing scene, but their use is not so widespread over here, although our spies tell us of their existence and usage in certain beardy-hipster parts of London**
Most growlers are essentially just oversized glass bottles with lids, but the advantage of decanting your boozy takeaway into a Klean Kanteen Growler is that it’ll keep the contents nice and cool and won’t smash should it slip clumsily from your fingers on the way home from the boozer. It also sports a thread-less flip top lid that keeps your carbonated contents fizzy and fresh and has a wide mouth for easy filling. Or for easy guzzling, directly from the bottle. Like a slob.
The Klean Kanteen comes in two sizes, 64oz and 40oz which means you can fit just under two pints of booze into the smaller of the two – the perfect amount for quenching a raging garden thirst without affecting your ability to dig in a straight line.
Decent weather is forecast at the weekend, and there’s some extreme weeding to be done down on the plot. Fill her up, landlord***, gardening is thirsty work.
Large Klean Kanteen Growler (64 oz), £39.95
Medium Klean Kanteen Growler (40 oz), £35.95
Available from: The Outdoor People
* No one knows for sure the origins of the name, but the general consensus is that the word ‘Growler’ originated from the sound 18th century beer containers made when opened. Grooooowllll.
** The Camden Town Brewery have a ‘growler station’ in their brewery bar, where you can buy and fill your own.
*** As it stands, requesting the landlord of my local to ‘stick two pints of Bass in my growler’ would probably result in a black eye and a barring.
Thanks to The Outdoor People for sending us this growler to review
