With the concern of the can shortage continuing to play a major role with brewers’ production process, most producers had to shift into making beer to go in the form of growlers, bottles, crowlers, and lots of cans making it easy to transport.

Brewer’s Association analysis had shown an increasing preference for cans, with cans going from less than 20 percent of the total in 2015 to about 47 percent by 2019.  Consumer preference, cost, ease of recycling, retailer preference, and numerous other factors were driving this shift.

When the pandemic hit last year, the increase to can production increased significantly and the percentage of cans soared to over 55 percent in mid-2020. This rise in can usage, combined with supplier plants being affected by the pandemic, uncertainty around global supplies, tariffs, and other factors, were the cause of can shortages across the globe.

For smaller breweries in particular, the can shortage was greatly felt. 

At Wolf’s Ridge Brewing, they’ve been fortunate to have a long-term partnership with their packaging supplier. However, this has still caused delays and price increases, along with concerns about cans coming in with different profiles, which has proven to cause problems with existing canning equipment. 

For the full story, click here.