Kum & Go Adds Growler Fill-up to New Stores

The c-store chain will build new locations with room for beer-on-tap stations.

May 13, 2016

CORALVILLE, Iowa – The new Kum & Go convenience store in Coralville boasts the usual convenience store fare but with a twist: a bar with eight beer taps for growler filling, KCRG-TV reports. The chain said that all new stores will have beer-on-tap stations to dispense national and local/regional craft beer.

A law passed last year lifted a prohibition barring Iowa convenience, grocery and other retailers to fill growlers with draft beer. Kum & Go already has a growler station in a Johnston location. “It’s another experience customers can have with beer outside of their tape room, or maybe an on-premise location at a bar or restaurant. I think it’s a great way for people to try great, local Iowa beer,” said Jake Hafele with Kum & Go.

Stores with fresh beer can provide small beer samples for customers to sip before purchase. Hafele said that Kum & Go plans to hold tastings at beer-on-tap stores in partnership with craft breweries. Currently, Arkansas and Iowa are the only two states with Kum & Go locations that allow the chain to install beer taps for growler filling. But the company will add a fresh beer area to all new stores, anticipating changes in laws in other states.

Kum & Go is using these two locations to gauge interest in growlers before branching out to retrofit current stores with on-tap beer. Convenience stores have expanded their growler programs as states loosen regulations to allow for such sales. In 2013, NACS Ideas 2 Go profiled the Stop and Go Mini Mart in Bend, Oregon, which had an extensive beer and growler program. Triangle Stop in western North Carolina has taken craft beer on tap one step further by installing bar areas in several stores as permitted by state law.

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