Making Lost Rhino's $50 Growler's Easy To Handle

We live a little over 1/2 a mile from our favorite microbrewery - Lost Rhino in Ashburn, VA.

We have purchase our share of beer and food there, (great beer that they are always rotating) as well as Lost Rhino shirts and miscellaneous other swag.  Julie purchased two very nice growlers last year with the Lost Rhino logo on them.  They were $50 each because they are designed like a thermos with a vacuum layer to keep the beer very cold and so cold, that it can sit on the deck next to you so you do not have to waste very valuable time going back and forth to the fridge to refill your glass :-)

These growlers were perfect in every way except for two, they are hard to carry and hard to pour because they do not have a handle on them like your standard glass growlers always come with.  It is not easy to pour a beer when the growler is ful,l because it requires either two hands or for you to palm the growler with one hand.  Gripping the growler with two hands is not an option, because you can not tilt your glass when you pour so you do not get a huge head on the beer.

In addition, what is happening to these Lost Rhino growlers is that the connector on the caps are now breaking off.  The reason these cap connectors are breaking off is because people carry them by the connector since there is no handle. These cap connectors were clearly not designed to carry the weight of a full growler. While there is a lifetime warranty on these $50 growlers, so many of these have broken off that they do not have any in stock anymore.

Soooo, I designed to engineer a permanent fix to these almost perfect growlers.

Below is the original $50 Lost Rhino growler with the broken connector on it.  I put the blue/purple tape to make it easier to find my growler when we go over to the neighbors who also have these growlers.  Notice that there is no handle on this 64 ounce growler.

Below is the first part of the new and improved Lost Rhino growler.  Go to your favorite hardware store and get a gate handle.  I got this heavy duty handle below from Home Depot for $9.87.   Next step is to get some really heavy duty glue (E6000) 

What you would NOT want to do is to drill into this growler.  You would destroy the vacuum.

Spread it evenly over the handle contact surface.  Make sure the growler is on its side and you have something on each side to keep it rolling over when you place the handle on it.  Tape the handle down with some strong tape like gorilla tape (mother of all duct tape).

Let the glue set over 36 hours, then finish it up by using 12-14 gauge wire and getting it very tight using a pliers by twisting it as tight as you can.  This is key so that you are not testing the E6000 strength by itself.  It may work, but I prefer belts and suspenders when I design something :-)

Then, place black electrical tape over the wire, not for additional strength, but to keep the wire in place and it gives it a better look.



Now just enjoy your new Dave Edstrom Improved Lost Rhino Growler!!!