Depending on your brewery’s barrelage, storage availability, need for off-premise sales and even how you want the aesthetics for your canned product, choosing how to label the beer you are selling can bring down costs. If you can afford printed can labels and have the storage space, it can be beneficial to purchase in bulk. If you have smaller runs with a lot of label turnover, stickers could be your option. The apparent “middle ground” choice may be shrink-wrapped labels.
Mission Brewery historically only used 25oz and 32oz printed cans, as the minimums made sense, considering the cost savings and expected volumes, explained the brewery’s Jeremy Castellano.
The San Diego facility is currently moving into 12oz cans and it decided to go with shrink-wrapped cans for the first few runs.
“They look cleaner/more “premium” than cans with stickers, yet [they] still allow us to keep volumes somewhat low until we determine which SKUs will move the most,” said Castellano, the brewery’s Lead Brewer and Quality Assurance Manager. ”In the end, we will end up sticking with printed cans due to both cost savings and the fact that they seem to work better on the canning machines.”
Castellano said that the shrink-wrapped cans are a little ’grippy’ and sometimes stick on the guide-rails of the canner.
Monday Night Brewing tried some small runs of wrapped cans said COO and co-founder Joel Iverson. However, they also found that the wrapped cans tended to get stuck more easily in their machinery.
Iverson also found that it was tough to get the look and full effect they wanted from a wrapped or labeled can.
“We were able to find a good workaround,” he explained. “We started experimenting with translucent labels on printed cans. After a few versions, we ended up with a labeled can that looks more like a printed one.”
Penn Brewery utilizes shrink-wrapped labels for their cans.
“Our choice was based on cost efficiencies and the aesthetics,” they said in an email to Brewer. “We did not like the way stickers looked on other brands, so we avoided that option from the get-go.
“Although we initially wondered whether the aesthetic quality of shrink sleeves would be up to snuff, we were very pleased with the result on our first canning, so we have continued with shrink labels for successive canning runs.”
The brewery only produces a small number of Penn beer varieties in cans and will likely continue that plan for the foreseeable future while sticking with the shrink-wrapped labels.
Great article! The “translucent” labels are clear BOPP material that is clear where unprinted and is tear resistant. It is a GREAT option for labeling cans instead of shrink wrap. Samples available – contact me!