The Beer Growler Take-home jugs of beer in Avondale Estates

The concept of a growler is pretty new to most Atlantans, unless of course you’re Whitney Houston, and gave that guy you hooked up with in Waiting To Exhale another piece. Become fully aware of how awesome the other kind is, starting Friday at The Beer Growler.

Built up in Athens by the guys who pioneered the sale of take-home beer jugs in Georgia, TBG is Metro ATL’s first growler-only brew shop, where tapped suds can be hauled off for home enjoyment, all set up in a former dance studio that now features a stained wood-paneled bar counter in front of a beer list blackboard that frames a silver tap system -- which, for Donna Martin, was “don’t ever, ever, ever do it.” Purchase a logo-stamped 32 or 64oz-er, then order from 40 wide-ranging, always-rotating beers which’ll include the locals (Sweetwater, Terrapin, Wild Heaven), and rotate faves from the Athens location, like Smuttynose Pumpkin, Laguinitas Pils, and smoky-sweet Scotch ale Old Chub, which was presumably facilitated by some of those Pils. Other choices range from lighter guzzles like Crispin Cider and Abita Honey Rye, to high-ABV heavies like 8.2% Southern Tier 2XIPA, 10% St. Bernardus Abt 12, and 11% Allagash Curieux, which was aged in bourbon barrels, much like Rip Torn between 14 and 73.

Be there for the official grand opening Aug 20th, where they’ll be giving away free t-shirts, brewery pint glasses, and other swag, though likely not the self-admiring kind Lionel had that reduced Whitney to a keeper at the damn zoo.