The 3 Things To Look For Before a Canning Line Purchase

In the pre-COVID production days, ​Boomtown Brewery would only can either partial tanks or ​just for​ ​a special release.

​Although canning has always been a part of ​the California brewery’s overall business strategy​, the act of canning, while important, was not a very large part of ​the production schedule.​ ​​Now​,​ firmly in ​a COVID production​ mode,​ Production and Brewery Manager Ben Turkel said that they are using canning as one of the sole means of getting product to market​, meaning ​the canning load has skyrocketed.

​”​This has meant expanding our brewing schedule to the weekend​s to allow for canning during the weekdays, giving us greater flexibility in getting beer into/out of the tanks in a timely manner,” he said​. ​”​Given the health-crisis regulations currently in place, and the expectation that they will be in place for a while, we predict our canning load will continue for the foreseeable future.​”​

Although canning was in the plans from the start for this brewery, it’s still not too late for other breweries now to set up for the future.​

​Turkel shared that in buying a canning line, the three major factors for Boomtown were quality and reliability of the machine, canning speed, and DO pickup.

“We ended up going with a counter-pressure filler that would allow us greater protection for DO pick up, more control over carbonation loss, and greater flexibility to can higher carbonation level beverages (think hard seltzers),” he said.

When it came to working with a mobile canner, ​Boomtown’s team said they were concerned over availability, flexibility, and professionalism.

​”​At the end of the day, whatever comes off the line has our name on it — so we want to make sure that we were working with a team who has as much pride in their work as we have in our beer​,” Turkel said.​

The same holds true for Colorado’s Woods Boss Brewing.

Co-owner and Marketing Director, Chad Moore, explained to Brewer that the brewery’s canning and distribution program has been built with the full intent that it would continue to expand for the foreseeable future.

“We are looking at this as an opportunity to embrace what we did not necessarily plan for and secure a consistent revenue stream in addition to our taproom,” Moore said.