In this era of start-up breweries in particular, one-way kegs offer the flexibility to test the market with less initial investment. As breweries continue to launch new beers and develop new and innovative ways of experiencing them, these could offer a new competitive edge for all those thinking of dipping their toes into the beer industry. says Chris McEwan, president of Petainer, Americas.
It might not be beer drinking weather yet as CTV recently pointed out, but the Canadian beer sector is still booming regardless! As craft breweries continue to grow and expand the craft beer market is starting to reach out into rural areas and a string of new and exciting beers are emerging as a consequence.
Craft brewers may be approaching saturation point in Canada, however, to date, most game-changing strategies they have adopted have centred around launching unusual beers, innovative branding and packaging, through to cutting edge technology, such as AR, to enhance standout.
The logistical side of a beer’s journey to the consumer’s glass has seen very little change over the years. But this too is now being disrupted. It may not be the most glamorous facet of a brewery, however it is rapidly gaining a competitive edge.
As the sector diversifies with challenger Tap Rooms, micro-breweries and Brewpubs re-defining the landscape, there is now an urgent need for innovative, more nimble logistical solutions to match these more agile breweries’ growing requirements.
Working side by side with brewers for over 35 years has taught us one vital lesson; effectively managing on-going change and remaining at least one step ahead of the competition is crucial to a thriving brewery.
Which is why the advent of intensely flavoured beers, for instance, was one of the drivers to developing a ready-to-use, light weight, one-way keg alternative to the traditional steel.
Steel kegs have of course been around since the dawn of beer, well almost. Prior to that brewers used ceramic kegs which replaced clay. Few have thought to challenge them until quite recently, yet a cumbersome steel keg comes with its own handling issues which start with the need to thoroughly clean them to remove all traces of the last brew they were transporting.
In truth steel kegs should be completely overhauled at least every 5 years yet very few are even tagged and most are continuously used until they are too damaged.
Since every obscure beer style has by now been resurrected, dynamic new micro-breweries have taken to experimenting with some exciting new ingredients that are even more challenging to efficiently clean out of the old steel kegs.
So let’s take a look at some of the alternatives. Over the last few years a range of one-way kegs have started to appear on the market. As a disruptor in a well-established sector they have had their fair share of teething problems, yet this has resulted in the serious contenders fine-tuning their offering.
Since one-way kegs are also one-time use, they don’t require cleaning, maintenance or storage after use. It takes about 11 litres of water to wash one steel keg not to mention the chemicals and energy outlay to properly sterilise them. Any new beer producer who does not want to invest in either a keg cleaning system, or a stainless steel fleet will appreciate this.
However to offer true differentiation the PET keg has had to re-write the storing and transportation rule book. There now exists a one-way keg that can either be delivered purged and ready to fill or blown and assembled locally, on or off the filling line. To specifically support the Canadian market, Petainer is opening its second manufacturing site in North America in Ontario, Canada. This manufacturing site will blowmold the kegs locally and optimise supply chain savings to provide Canadian made kegs to the market.
Weighing in at only 10% of the standard steel keg the shipping cost is reduced as is the carbon footprint. It can be totally dis-assembled and all its component parts are either re-usable or totally recyclable.
Its chimes, which comprise around 60% of the total weight of the product, are re-usable and pack down to a small return pack size alleviating the need for recycling altogether and bringing economic savings to the supply chain. The keg itself can be depressurised, crushed and recycled. This means there are no storage, fleet or maintenance issues.
Getting back to the taste of your beer, cutting-edge barrier technology and heightened UV and light protection are just two of the factors that ensure the beer maintains its integrity and has the same shelf-life as its steel sibling, even at higher temperatures. In fact an independent expert panel ran a blind test over a 12 month period to ensure the taste profile remained the same.
There is no doubt that one-way kegs flip fleet management on its head. At a time when sustainability is on everyone’s mind it might at first appear to be a throw-away option that does not tick the ecological box. Yet by reducing the carbon footprint and the high-energy requirement of cleaning alone this solution is already a greener option.
Furthermore these new-age kegs are easy to brand, use standard keg valve fittings (Sankey D), fit on the same production line, can be filled upright or inverted, enable operators to actually see the beer in the keg through to reduce foaming and increase speed of filling, and you can start to see why they are gaining traction.
As with any disruptor, it will take heritage breweries some time to switch, however we are already seeing many who have keg fleets starting to trial the one-way alternatives to rapidly top up production when needed.
In this era of start-up breweries in particular they offer the flexibility to test the market with less initial investment. As we continue to launch new beers and develop new and innovative ways of experiencing them, these could offer a new competitive edge for all those thinking of dipping their toes into the beer industry.