Changes at Ball Canning Could Destabilize the Craft Beer Industry

Yeah, I get it. But the "Chicken Little" reaction to such events (similar things were said back during the last hop shortage) by "craft" brewers starts to get tired. These guys are selling beer for 3 or 4 times what the macros are going for - "We don't have the economies of scale that AB has!" they moan. They now pay less Federal Excise Tax on a barrel of beer ($3.50 in 2021 dollars) than brewers did after Repeal ($5 in 1934 dollars), many sell a good portion of their barrelage from the brewery - thus pocketing the money that goes to retailers' and wholesalers' expenses and profits - and often rely on the use of "volunteer" labor, despite it being illegal under US labor law.

So, as the industry moved to more and more can usage, the pandemic hit, Ball and the few other US can manufacturers (pretty much limited to Crown and Ardagh at this point IIRC ) were overwhelmed with increased demand and whatever shutdowns they experienced, so Ball felt they had to institute moves to protect their own business.

 

Bring back the little guys, I'm in favor.

 

Back when I was an OTR driver, I ran a couple loads of plastic pop bottles from the manufacturer to the producer. And, they were shipped in miniature. The pop maker had a machine that would expand them into the full size just before filling. IIRC, 1 truck load replaced 4-5 truckloads.

 

I've know women whose shoe collection did that.

 

Is it time to merge the 12 oz. and 16 oz. formats together to make , just 14 oz. cans? And make 5 packs?

 

Schlitz beat you to that, late '60s.

Well, given that the standard "case" of beer is 24 units (8 X 3, 6 X 4, 4 X 6, 3 X 8, 2 X 12 have all worked), that'd be a tough one.

 

I understand the packaging would be inconvenient with 5 cans. I’m just trying to figure out how consumers would win. If you have a 14 oz. 5 pack that is 70 ozs. of beer. So that is 2 ozs. less then a 6 pack of 12 ozers. Would you be opposed to considering a reduction from 24 units, to 20 units in a case? Or increase to 30 units?

(5x4, 2x10 / 6x5, 3x10, 2x15)

Just brainstorming. Because if you go to a 4 pack 14 oz format, the consumer loses 8 oz, when comparing to the 16 oz. 4 pack format

Imagine a 5 pack holder where it is a regular 4 pack stringer, but the top is two extra loops where a 5th beer could be attached as a handle. Most beer fridges at liquor stores have room or space to accommodate this if they double stack, which really isn’t advantageous, since people don’t want to move the top pack to get to the bottom one usually. The rest is just cardboard packaging as usual for the large formats.

I was not around for the Schlitz 7 pack, but that is innovative!!! Thanks for sharing.

 

My idea for the handle is a stretch, and wouldn’t ship well. The 5 pack holder style could be engineered by some college students who might have a passion for craft beer. Not to mention all of the other packaging formats, too!

 

Makes sense to me but I'm not the one making decisions.

 

Packaging and shipping would be horrendous. How would you stack them on the standard 48x40 inch pallet? Could you still get 10 layers on there?

Putting 5 cans in a cardboard carton, as a lot of 6ers do now, is no biggie. But how do you pack a case? Design a whole new flat to hold them? And, again, how many can you get on a standard pallet to optimize shipping and storage?

 

Per a Cnn article, craft brewers (assuming printed cans) will have to order 5X more truckloads of Ball supplied cans per can order. Wait, so a can printed for IPA vs Pilsner will each have 1.xx million can order requirements?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/27/economy/ball-craft-beer-can-disruption/index.html

 

Seven-ounce brown glass bottles: It's Time.

 

I'm going to laugh my ass off when all these brewers touting the benefits of cans as being superior have to switch to bottles and then start telling us how much better bottles are....

Those are pretty significant ordering changes, especially the minimum shipment going up 5 times. I'm not sure how many brewers will be able to swallow that larger load from Ball.

 

Many years ago 14 oz cans were available in South Carolina, but individually and in 6-packs.

 

Yes

 

crowlers..32 and 16 oz.

 

No, that's not what it says. It says NON-CONTRACT customers, which includes 'many small breweries'.

 

thanks for the clarification