Odell Brewing Going Back To Bottles

that’s great and all, but there’s zero chance I’ll believe that we’ll ever run out of the most abundant mineral on the planet- silica ... furthermore, the bit about the eolian sand being useless in concrete is bullshit- it may be less economical because additional cementitious/pozzolan material or allow additional cure time.

 

Great time for Odell to start printing packaged on dates! :::crickets:::

 

Is this a real opinion? If so why? Not disparaging as I'm not a can hater in general, I've just never heard anyone assert that a particular breweries cans are the best (draught and bottle is best are common enough sentiments). But do you think the beer that goes into the cans is better or is there something special about their cans in your experience?

 

There is a material shortage. It's getting harder to even get lids.

 

Ya even canning lids for mason jars are getting hard to come by (I know they are steel but my understanding is that the issue is with global supply chains for ore as well for chains from foundries to customers)

 

And, 45s tariffs on stuff from China.

 

Ya those certainly aren't helping stressed supply chains

 

Absolutely.. 100%
A can of Odell IPA from a can, poured into your favorite vessel, beats the similarly dated draft AND bottled poured into same vessel every time. The flavor and aroma absolutely explodes.

im not sure if that’s local only knowledge, but its definitely the truth... not that the other options aren’t delightful

 

Any guesses why that is? Also do you generally prefer cans over bottles? Have you experienced this with other breweries? Do they have more than one brewery?

 

I haven't seen anything about raw material shortage. If there's a material shortage why has the price of aluminum decreased from. $1,760 per ton in 2020 from an average of $1,790 in 2019.

I can only speak of Ball Corp. because that's who my company deals with and I deal more with plastics. They are only able to produce so much. They have increased production by 1% which im sure is millions of units.

 

There is also I giant gap in the recycling cycle. Less returns and deposits returned if your state does that. People must me staying home with there returns. Or trashing them.

Does anyone know how long the cycle from return or recycled can to a new vessel. Larger scale bottled water companies own there own facilities to turnover plastic bottles quick.

 

All I know, for a fact, is that my work is struggling to get any aluminum: cans, lids, anything. The manufacturer won't take our calls on printed cans, so we have to go second source and buy shrink-wrapped/labeled cans, by smaller amounts. Which is waaaaay more expensive.

And, on a highly local note, Alcoa is shutting down their facility here: https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/business/article242210711.html

Hardly a sign of there being plenty of production to go around.

(side note: a few years ago Alcoa pitted our facility against another for closure, with the promise of the "winner" being solid for decades to come. Very generous tax breaks (I'M SHOCKED!) saved the day, but, huh, look at that. 700 families getting screwed anyway.)

 

In CA at least they have shut down returns. You can still throw stuff in the recycling bin but you can't take returnables in for return. This may be changing, one local recycler opened up for one day of accepting returns, then said demand was way too high and they couldn't handle it. I'm guessing folks have tons of returnables stocked up. I know I have 2 trashcans full before I realized what was going on and started tossing it in with the cardboard

 

I saw a sign up for the first time yesterday on the beer aisle at Kroger mentioning this. It said they might not be able to stock certain brands in the near future due the aluminum shortage. They also aren't giving change back if you don't pay with exact change due to the coin shortage. I don't know anything about the aluminum industry but hopefully they are able to crank up production somehow in the near future.

 

Aluminum is the most abundant metal, though, so...

 

Can you elaborate on the plastic bottle recycling? Are we talking those giant water cooler bottles being reused for turnaround or smaller individual sized plastic bottles? It is my understanding we don't recycle plastic.

 

All things equal the draft should always be better but there are so many variables at play that the brewery has no control over.

It’s easier to get beer into a bottle with less o2 pickup but the can is a much more stable vessel with no oxygen ingress or UV issues.

As long as the packaging line is top notch hoppy beer will be better in cans over time. If kept cold and in a dark place all thing equal a can and a bottle should be pretty darn similar for quite some time...

 

I’ve always assumed they had the absolute best canning line money can buy leading to almost zero DO in the packaging process...

prior to this experience I had no preference on bottles vs cans.

odell opened a taproom in Denver that brews beer but all production happens in Fort Collins.