Independent brewers have always prized novelty, and their customers tend to reward that. The spirit that drives us to revive historical beer styles, push the envelope with new hop varieties, or explore the possibilities of obscure farmhouse yeasts is also nudging breweries toward altering their customers’ experiences with packaged beer.
The pace of change can be dizzying. It was only a few years ago that cans were a viable alternative to bottles, rather than the virtual default for craft beer—and we could say the same about the shift from 12-ounce toward 16-ounce sizes. The pandemic kicked that pace of change into a higher gear, as larger packs became white-hot—when customers filled their shopping carts and garage fridges to stock up for the unknown—but now they are already starting to cool. Meanwhile—especially for breweries more accustomed to selling beer in their taprooms than in their local supermarket chains—this has been the year of the Crowler, as manufacturers of can seamers have seen their business expand while struggling to keep up with demand.
Briefly, here are some of the latest shifts in the packaging landscape, providing a sneak preview into what the world of beer packaging could look like in 2021.
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Before COVID-19 forced breweries to package everything, “cute” 6- and 8-ounce cans were lighting up Instagram as the perfect bite-size beer package.
A few breweries, such as Urban Artifact (Columbus, Ohio), have been selling high-ABV wine-beer hybrids in petite cans. For consumers, the trend follows the wine world’s move toward single-serving sizes—175 ml (6 oz) or 250 ml (8.4 oz)—perfect for pouring into a small glass or two. In that sense, they have the potential to be a modern analog to the sort of 7-ounce nip bottles once used in Britain for some strong ales. In recent years, 21st Amendment (San Francisco) and now-defunct Flat12 (Indianapolis) are two breweries that used 8-ounce cans for stronger beers—a barleywine and an imperial stout, respectively.
A more successful (if less intuitive) example comes out of Chicago, where Hopewell’s Lil Buddy—“a delightful little lager, a snack, a proverbial plus-one”—is known for its stubby 8-ounce cans.
“Lil Buddy has certainly outperformed the original projections we had when we first launched it,” says Jake Guidry, Hopewell’s brand director. “We thought it would mostly be sold at bars and restaurants as sidecars to cocktails, Bloody Marys, etc.—essentially an industry-facing product that would fit into very specific situations.
“But we quickly found out that there is a sizable market for people looking to have smaller serving sizes at home, which is something we think ties into the growing ‘better for you’ segment. At this point, it’s become a very strong part of our year-round portfolio.”
Another variation on the smaller-format cans: the slimmer, 12-ounce “sleek” cans that were once exclusive to energy drinks. Sixpoint Brewery (Brooklyn, New York) has been selling beer in them for years, but we’ve recently seen brands such as Brew Gentlemen (Braddock, Pennsylvania) adopt the format, opting out of the more popular 16-ounce labeled bright cans and doubling down on pre-printed sleeks with appropriately sized PakTech carriers.
Stovepipes
The imperial pint lives on! These reassuringly weighty 568 ml (19.2 oz) cans have been appearing with greater regularity over the past few years, especially in supermarkets and convenience stores, and often at competitive price points. The selection tends to be limited to larger regional and national brewers who have the machinery for it and the volume for lower margins. However, now that breweries of all sizes have had to get more dependent on packaged-beer margins and volume, it will be interesting to see whether a few smaller breweries choose to try following this path.
Some, like Denver’s Great Divide, are even bucking the smaller-packaging-for-bigger-beers trend and canning imperial stout in the large cans.
Crowlers & Twistees
The year of COVID has been the year of the can seamer, as breweries without canning lines have looked for any affordable means to package beer for takeaway. Growlers endure, but amid virus fears, many breweries have been reluctant to fill the used jugs of dubious cleanliness carried in by customers.
Behind-the-bar seamers and large cans—such as Crowlers, a trademark of Ball—were still charming novelties a few years ago, but they have rapidly gained ground. Advantages include greater portability and easier sanitation. They are no substitutes for proper canning lines that can limit oxygen, so the shelf life is limited, much like growler jugs. However, they have proven a popular way for customers to take fresh draft beer home and drink it soon.
There is another option for bars and taprooms unable to get a seamer: Twistee cans, which are already seamed, seal tight when the cap is screwed on. A counter-pressure filler that purges the can with CO2 first is ideal. The cap also includes an oxygen absorber that helps preserve the beer until it’s consumed. Much like Crowlers, Twistees are not meant to be reusable but are easily recyclable.
Oktober and other can-seamer manufacturers have ramped up production to meet greater demand for takeaway beer. That means there will be a lot more of these seamers out there in taprooms across the country once the pandemic is over. It would appear that the Crowler and its cousins are here to stay.
Clear Bottles
Decades of education on the importance of brown bottles for preventing skunky, lightstruck character have culminated in a new way to stand out on the shelves and on social media: Just chuck all that wisdom and use a clear bottle.
While clear bottles are far from common, we have seen this trend most often with fruited sour ales, as the transparency gives brightly colored liquids a chance to shine. There are also obvious, comforting connections with the sort of juice-bottle or soda-pop nostalgia that many of these beers can evoke.
This is another format where Chicago’s Hopewell has found success, in this case with its Neon series of mixed-culture sour ales. “The idea behind clear bottles came directly from the natural wine world, where you see them used fairly regularly,” Guidry says. “That whole scene is sort of known for its irreverence, playfulness, and aversion to dogmatic thinking—which is something I think craft breweries can easily relate to.
“We wanted to capture some of that feeling with our mixed-culture beers, which is a style that can sometimes be seen as too ‘precious’ or ‘fussy’ for everyday consumption. The clear bottles literally present these beers in a new light, one that we feel helps break down that stigma and encourage drinking fresh with friends, as opposed to cellaring for years for a ‘perfect moment’ that never actually comes.”
The idea of brightly colored beers in clear bottles isn’t germane to most styles—these beers generally depend on low hopping rates and Brettanomyces to avoid the worst lightstruck character. We’ve seen plenty of examples this year from Alvarado Street’s Yeast of Eden (Carmel-by-the-Sea, California), Fonta Flora (Morganton, North Carolina), Urban Artifact, Our Mutual Friend (Denver), Jester King (Austin), and more.
Photo: Jamie Bogner
Mixed Cases
Drinkers limiting their shopping excursions during the pandemic have shown a clear and understandable preference for larger packs of beer. Variety packs have been a blessing for those breweries with the ability to package them, as have the sort of two-12-pack cases found at warehouse stores such as Costco. They will remain a viable option for mid-size breweries and larger that can produce the volume for local chains. (For more from a brewery that’s had success in this realm, see In Packs and Off-Premise, Revolution is Thriving).
With brewery-direct sales, many small and midsize craft brewers are taking the same principle and extending it, allowing customers to build their own mixed cases one beer at a time, or else creating pre-designed mixed cases for delivery and pickup. As consumers move away from pure hoarding instinct and again want to explore and try different beers, this approach combines purchase efficiency with a bit of adventure.
For smaller breweries dealing with demand imbalance between faster- and slower-moving brands, slotting a few coveted cans into a preconfigured case that includes slower movers can help even out inventory.
Slow Death of the 750
They’re not dead yet, but one of the noticeable changes over the past couple of years has been the growing scarcity of the 750ml bottle—once the premier container for any brewery’s special releases, evoking champagne or Belgium with the pop of a cork.
However, we’re not writing its eulogy. Brands such as The Rare Barrel (Berkeley, California), Crooked Stave (Denver), The Bruery (Placentia, California), and others, have all moved signature beers into smaller-format packaging, but that hasn’t been a panacea. Many breweries who have followed a similar path are privately acknowledging that revenue from sales of the smaller bottles is not replacing the revenue lost from 750ml bottles; consumers buying a beer to tick it off their list are simply doing it for less volume and less cost with smaller bottles.
The Pandemic Can Crunch
It’s no secret that pandemic buying habits have placed a massive strain on the worldwide infrastructure for consumer packaging (see Supply Shortage: The Candemic). The need to get just about everything to-go coincided with growing preference for cans. The long lead time needed to add manufacturing capacity for cans has left brewers and other drinks producers in a near-term crunch in the aluminum-can market.
“Prior to COVID, 2020 was already poised for notable can growth across a variety of categories,” says Scott McCarty, a spokesman for Ball Corporation. “For instance, hard seltzers have experienced explosive growth as a category, and specifically in cans.” Soft drinks, including sparkling water, have also moved more toward cans. “The peak summer season, with a heat wave in much of the United States, also contributed to that high demand.”
In the near-term, McCarty says, Ball is using its global network of plants to lessen the impact and meet demand, while also increasing its efficiency and production where possible. It’s also adding two new plants—one in Glendale, Arizona, and another at a site to be determined in the Northeast—that he says will add at least 6 billion units of capacity by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, many brewers are scrambling, using what leverage they have to keep supply going. Immediate solutions might look like the beer world looked a few years ago: with more glass bottles and cans of different sizes sourced from wherever possible. Smaller breweries might be the first to pivot to keep their beers and businesses moving, while larger production breweries flex their buying power to ensure continuity of supply.
