Kane Brewing (March 2017)

Must not have had much. Place was not busy at all when I was there earlier

 

Admittedly I have no idea what the cost of a crowler machine is, but I often wonder why more breweries don't invest in one for this reason.

 

My experience with Crowlers has been mixed had a few sent to me from cycle brewing in Florida. 2/3 were great. One lost all it's carbonation. So I guess they can be hit or miss too.

 

Yeah I have heard complaints from others about crowlers but I've never had an issue. And I've probably had over 30 crowlers from various places over the last couple years. I've even waited over a week with some before opening.

 

Agreed I've had crowlers from CCB/weldwerks/cycle that had a few weeks on them tasted great. The IPAs tend to die off and before maltier a little faster then cans but I love crowlers

 

The Crowler doesn't solve the shortcomings that growlers have. They're no better or worse than glass growlers, they don't automatically add shelf life. They keep light out better, but the biggest problem with growlers/crowlers is oxygen pickup and only the filling method affects that. If you're filling straight off the tap like most breweries do, it's going to be a short term packaging option whether it's glass or aluminum.

 

I don't know. I know I've heard that argument before but I've tested the theory. I got a 32 oz growler and a 32 oz crowler of the same beer at the same time and let them both sit for a week before opening. The growler lost all carbonation and was basically undrinkable. The crowler was pretty much how it tasted directly out of the tap the day it poured.

For what it's worth, they were both filled to the very top, but I've always thought crowlers were better in general because they are much easier to fill all the way to the top than a glass growler with a smaller mouth is.

 

I have heard Augie Carton say the same thing about crowlers.

 

Basically we have to brew a lot of Head High, Overhead, and Sneakbox to keep up with draft for our bar and restaurant customers, and then even more Head High, Overhead and Sneakbox if we want to have all three in cans as regularly as possible.

Despite a lot of recent expansion in fermentation capacity, new brewhouse vessels, brewing staff etc, there's still limited time in the brew calendar for other beers, which is when we usually try to squeeze in bottled and/or canned batches (like Evening Bell, Vengeful Heart, Christian Patrick, Port Omna and Waimea Punch just to name a few of the recent ones). These packaged batches leave only a little left for draft. They're often ineligible for growler fills because if they were, they'd disappear very quickly and we'd be left with a small growler list AND a small sample list. We really don't want people to come visit us at the brewery and have like 3 beers to try. It's happened in the past and it's not the experience we're looking to provide to brewery visitors. Sometimes you'll even see flagship brands like Sneakbox and Overhead come off the growler list if we have a tight couple weeks in the brew calendar.

We're constantly working on ways to brew more beer, but we're committed to the draft business we've spent 5 years building, and proud of the continued demand for our flagship beers. The downside is just that they can stand in the way of variety at times. Hope that makes sense.

 

Thanks for the perspective. Things like availability/offerings are usually ones that people jump to conclusions (sometimes irrational) on the forum. Good to get the info straight from the source.

 

As Roy Scheider said on Jaws, "we're gonna need a bigger boat"

 

No, that's Carton.

 

@glennl What's Kane's yearly capacity these days. Guessing you guys have doubled or so over the last 2 years.

 

It's not really my place to say what our annual production is, but I can tell you we've more than quadrupled our original fermentation capacity (by adding fermentation vessels) from when we opened in 2011. We doubled our original capacity around 2013 and then took that new number and have increased it 2.5x in the last 18 months or so.

 

Thanks @glennl , I don't want you divulging any proprietary info on my account, and apologize if the question put you in an awkward position. I vaguely remembered mention of 3k bbl on a tour I took probably around 2 years ago when there was a lot less shiny stainless steel in the room, and was figuring you were at least double that these days. Sounds like I was probably on the right track to a bit low.

 

In before?

 

let the bitching/complaining commence!

 

I personally think this is the best possible way to do it. Kudos to Kane.

 

yea, this is the best option for sure.