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MYRTLE BEACH Take note of this, beer-thirsty beach vacationers: A Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Myrtle Beach is becoming the first in South Carolina to sell 64-ounce glass containers that you can fill by using in-store beer taps.
Once the operation is up and running, customers will have a choice of four selections to fill the capped containers, known as "growlers." To start, the store will offer Founders Breakfast Stout (marketed as a "coffee-lovers" beer), Bell's Best Brown Ale (a fall and winter seasonal), Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial IPA (a triple-hops brew) and Hercules Double IPA (a 10-percent high-gravity developed by the Great Divide Brewing company).
The growlers will range in price from $11 to $20. Considering a 22-ounce bottle of the Hopsickle normally sells for $9.99 plus tax at Piggly Wiggly, the increased volume should appease the consumer already set on that beer, said Michael Byrd, assistant store director at Piggly Wiggly in Market Common, off U.S. 501.
The store already had possibly the nicest store set-up for beer and wine on the Grand Strand. It's adding the taps in the next few days. The growlers are intended for home consumption.
Byrd is getting plenty of praise from his beer peers, especially Jeff LeVine of Carolina Craft Distributing in Rock Hill. According to LeVine, the spectrum of what Byrd is doing is even wider than Myrtle Beach or even the state of South Carolina.
"It's the first grocery store in the Southeast - that's seven states - to run with the beer growler station," LeVine said. "He's blowing our minds, and we're proud to have him as a customer. We've begged customers to do it."
Myrtle Beach restaurants such as Gordon Biersch and Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery at Broadway at the Beach already have similar projects set up. Because his store is the first in the state, Byrd is unsure how the addition to an already successful section will turn out.
The store has no plans to start pumping standard domestics such as Bud Light or Miller Lite into growlers. The major-brand beers can be purchased cheaply enough without selling them in 64-ounce containers.
The taps have to be secured and poured properly in order to maintain the ordinances associated with the store's off-premises liquor license.
