When Fifth Street Growlers started pouring for the first time at noon on May 3, the line of people at the bar to fill reusable jugs with their favorite brew was 15 deep. And some local beer lovers couldn't even wait till the new taproom officially opened its doors.

"We had a couple people waiting outside with empty growlers," co-owner Bob Van Vleet said. "We let them in a bit early."

Located inside the University Hero sandwich shop at 211 S.W. Fifth St., the new business is the first dedicated growler fill station in Corvallis, but it won't be the last — a second, called Beer:30, is slated to open by the end of the month at 1835 S.E. Third St.

And in Albany, Lakeshore Lanes owner Roger Nyquist has been doing growler fills since March 8 in the coffee shop of his bowling alley at 5432 Pacific Blvd. S.W.

Oregon microbreweries have always been happy to fill growlers to go, but the concept has enjoyed a surge of popularity in this beer-mad state since The Growler Guys opened their first store last year in Bend. As it turns out, growler fill stations fit pretty neatly into the Oregon Liquor Control Commission's existing regulatory structure, and the Central Oregon venture's success opened the tap for a flood of imitators, including here in the mid-valley.

"We knew it would just be a matter of time before it came to Corvallis because it's a real beer-drinking town," Van Vleet said. "So we decided to just get ahead of the wave."

Old is new again

Growlers are nothing more than refillable containers for draft beer.

Before bottling became commonplace, the word was applied to the galvanized or enamelware pails used to transport beer from the bar to the drinker's home (or workplace, in those thirstier and, to some, more enlightened days).

The origin of the term is unclear, but there are several competing theories derived from sound: the sound of the beer sloshing in the pail, the sound of a hungry working man's stomach, the sound made by bartenders and customers arguing over how much to pour.

These days a growler is generally a glass jug with a screw-on cap or swing-gate stopper, often decorated with the silkscreened logo of a brewery or pub. The most common sizes are 64 or 32 ounces (the smaller ones are sometimes called "growlettes"), though gallon jugs are also used.

"We'll fill any container people bring to us as long as it's sealable," said Katy Maxwell, a bar manager at Block 15 Brewing.

"I've filled an apple juice jug before, a large plastic Gatorade bottle. A lot of people bring in Mason jars — it's a very Corvallis thing to do."

The container has to be clean, of course, and most bartenders put a short length of hose on the tap during fill-up to minimize foaming. They also take care to fill the growler as close to the brim as possible, allowing the carbon dioxide bubbles to force out all the oxygen, then seal it tight with a good cap.

Most people get their growlers filled for same-day consumption, but as long as the cap stays on, the beer should keep for at least a week.

"It's all about personal preference, but we go with the fresher the better," Maxwell said. "We usually recommend two to three days."

Keg-fresh taste

Oregon prides itself on its thriving microbrew industry, and part of the appeal of having a growler is the ability to sample a wide swath of the virtually endless variety on tap here, including exotic brews not available at the corner store.

"If you can take home a growler of beer that you can't get in a bottle or can, there's some allure to that as a consumer," said Joel Rea of Corvallis Brewing Supply.

Most mid-valley brewpubs and fill stations charge about $10 and up to fill a half-gallon growler, making the price competitive with bottled craft brews, and many offer discounts one day a week to sweeten the deal.

"We might get a good portion of our business from people who used to get a six-pack at Safeway," speculated Fifth Street Growlers' Van Vleet. "For roughly the same price, they can get fresh keg beer."

Growlers are also a good way to promote your product, according to Flat Tail Brewing's Iain Duncan, who estimates there are well over 1,000 growlers in circulation with his brewery's logo on them.

"It's like the T-shirt theory," Duncan said.

"You sell a T-shirt, you've got a walking billboard. Same thing with a growler. ... You show up at a party with that and people say, 'What's that? Where'd you get it?'"

And for brand-new breweries like Corvallis-based Mazama, which brewed its first beer last week (an IPA called Hops Eruption), growlers offer a chance to generate some much-needed revenue while lining up wholesale customers.

"It may be that's our bread and butter till we get our distribution up and running," Tobin said.

It can also help build the brand by getting Mazama beer into the hands of customers quickly.

"Growler stores around the state actually give us that opportunity to get our beer out far and wide," Tobin said. "It's a retail market that didn't exist even two years ago."

Wave of the future

It's a market that's growing quickly, in part because of relatively low barriers to entry.

Under Oregon Liquor Control Commission regulations, breweries and pubs can ring up growler sales under their primary licenses. Specialty growler fill operations can do the same thing by getting a simple off-premises license.

"It's essentially the same liquor license that a grocery store or a convenience store gets, except their employees need a service permit," OLCC spokeswoman Christie Scott said. "Then they can sell sealed growlers to go."

And thanks to a new law enacted just last month, Oregon retailers can now fill growlers with wine as well as beer.

You don't need a lot of real estate, either.

Beer:30 owner Debbie Edwards is setting up shop in a 1,200-square-foot former restaurant in South Corvallis. Her tasting room and growler fill station will seat 26 people and have 30 taps, including a rotating selection of 24 artisan beers and a smattering of cider, wine and mead.

She's also installing a high-tech C02 counterpressure system for growler fills.

"It keeps the beer from touching oxygen and essentially keeps it draft quality," Edwards said. "That was the kind of thing that got me excited about doing this in the first place — it's kind of new and different."

Lakeshore Lanes' Nyquist said putting in 20 taps for growler fills at his Albany business was an easy decision for him. People these days like the idea of buying locally produced goods, and that applies to beer — especially in a state that has always been in the vanguard of the craft brewing revolution.

"It started slow, but every week sales increase incrementally," he said.

"I just think over time the market's going to grow as people become more aware of the quality of product we have in Oregon."