Obviously, it is more advantageous for the craft beer industry if their customers purchase beers directly from the breweries. First, it gives more money to the brewers themselves, which they can use to increase production, increase distribution, and so on. The other thing it does for the consumer is giving you the ability to try many more styles and varieties of beers. It’s simply not possible to distribute everything a brewery can make, especially if they’re working with 20, 30, even 40 taps or more. 

And if you’re like me, you want to go to multiple breweries, especially in a city you have never been to before. So you take the beer home. 

Therein lies its own difficulty; how do you bring a beer home? Not only do you have to worry about carrying the beer, making sure it doesn’t roll around and explode or come loose and jangle around in the car, but many times the beer is meant to be kept and consumed cold. 

This part is an easy fix if you have a cooler bag. Many of the cooler bags I have found seem to be either too big or too little to properly fit and transport beers I am bringing home, leading to the aforementioned problems. 

That’s why I was excited to see meori. 

meori, for those of you that haven’t found them on social media or in stores, is a line of expertly built, collapsible, and reusable wine carriers. They are something you’re meant to keep in the back of a car or in a picnic basket, to unfold and use as you see fit going from place to place. 

I took a look at the product, and they definitely focus on a wine-drinking demographic, something that does not surprise me. Going to a winery, it’s nothing to come home with a case of 12 wines. Having a solid, well-constructed, and (let’s be completely honest here) pretty wine carrier is so much easier than a big, dented cardboard box meant to be crushed, destroyed, and thrown away. If you’re into wine tasting, be sure to check out their blog post “Wine Tasting Near Me.”

My thing is, I am not much of a wine drinker. I used to drink, but since falling into craft beer, my taste (and tolerance) for other alcohols has gone way down, unfortunately. A 750 ml glass bottle is a 750 ml glass bottle, however. 

While glass bottles have had their time in craft beer, they are starting to fall out of favor. Growlers, those beautiful 32 and 64 oz. (and yes, the odd gallon is still available here and there) are also starting to fall by the wayside a bit. They are reusable, which is great, but breweries are starting to hate how their beers skunk when placed into someone’s dirty, improperly washed glass. 

Both of these are starting to fall to the wayside in deference to the newer, shinier, and infinitely more useful crowler. 

Yes, these 32 oz. cans of awesomeness are a particular favorite of mine. They travel well, are harder to break, protect the beer fantastically, easy to stack and store, and has the right mount of beer to enjoy. 

That is what I thought of immediately when I saw meori’s reusable wine carriers. Sure wine, but crowlers? Crowlers are roughly the same circumference as a wine bottle, a little bit shorter, and if these wine bottle carriers can comfortably seat 6 or 12 wine bottles, that’s a good chunk of portable beer. 

I am happy to report my hunch was correct, and the meori line of reusable wine carriers are perfect for crowlers. Investigating this required three different wine carriers, each with their own strengths. 

I’m starting with the 6 and 12 bottle carriers, the latter of which will easily carry twelve crowlers (something that has happened from time to time in my life), or a combination of crowlers and bottles. Want to push it further? I’ve even messed around with a combination of crowlers, bottles, and a good old-fashioned glass growler or two just for the heck of it. 

The big strength of both of these meori wine carriers is in their versatility. Individual bottle holder spots can be collapsed and moved around, so it’s easy to make space for a couple crowlers or bottles in the same container as a 64 oz. growler. 

If you’re a big fan of growlers, and you have a couple sitting in your car, it’s nothing to take those dividers out completely for giant bottle storing. 

The third meori wine bottle carrier one I got, and this is actually my favorite wine bottle carriers, is the Insulated 2-Bottle Tote. It has a strap for easy carrying, a zippered top to keep your beverage bottles/cans and cold packs inside and perfectly safe, and a divider to keep each bottle or crowler safe and cozy. 

It even has a zipper pouch up front for a churchkey (or bottle opener, knowing the intended use). It’s also a solid purchase for only $30.

I am looking forward to getting these on the road soon, which is going to be happening very soon. In the meantime, I have to make sure my cars are outfitted with their new meori wine (or growler or crowler) carriers, just in case. 

And you can never be too careful. Who knows when you just end up at a brewery with 6 crowlers to take home?