Coopersmith’s Brewery in Westeras, Sweden has just become the first Swedish craft brewer to brew and can its own beer. Cask Brewing Systems, makers of the small-scale canning gear that started North America’s canned craft beer phenomenon, supplied the brewery with its canning equipment.
Why cans? “Sweden,” says co-owner Göran Carlsson, “has a state-run alcohol monopoly — System Bolaget — with some 400 stores. Cans have had the lion’s share of beer in those stores for years, in 2014 it was 75% of the total beer volume. So we thought it would be a good idea to become Sweden’s first microbrewery with its own canning line.”
Cans of Coopersmith’s Queen’s Pale Ale (a 5.4% ABV American-style pale ale hopped with Cascade and Centennial hops) are now appearing in stores and establishments in Sweden, and the brewery hopes to add additional canned beers in the near future.
In the US where Cask launched its microcanning revolution in 2002, sales of US canned sixpacks in 2014 were up 97% compared to 14% growth of bottles.
“Canned craft beer is the hottest craft beer package in North America,” says Cask founder Peter Love. “Someday that may be the case in Sweden. We just placed our first canning machines in several European countries and the response to canned craft beer there has been huge.”
“Our canning machines give small brewers an affordable, small-scale way to package their beer,” Love says. “And they allow them to put their beer in a package that’s portable, infinitely recyclable and gives their beer the ultimate protection from light and oxygen. Those benefits are hard for brewers to resist.”
Carlsson appreciates those freshness-keeping benefits, and cites several reasons for using Cask’s Automatic Canning System (ACS) machine to add cans to his brewery’s previously bottles-only lineup.
“First of all,” he says, “the capacity suits our production and sales. We brew 2000 liter batches and get 6000 cans within 3-4 hours. Second is the size of the ACS — it’s slim and easy to place. Third, the price is a good value for the money. The ACS is also easy to handle and operate and it’s very reliable.”
As his pioneering American counterparts did, Carlsson expects he and his partner (Petri
Karhukorpi) and their three staffers must educate consumers about canned craft beer’s benefits.
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