For the final decade or so, cans have been the king of craft beer packaging with extra of us in search of a straightforward strategy to take their beer on the go. Actually, in response to the Can Producers Institute, beverage can manufacturing throughout all segments jumped six p.c in the US to greater than 100 billion cans final 12 months.
However let’s not neglect that there was a time when glass bottles in all sizes and styles dominated the beer market. And similar to 2023 may truly be the 12 months of the lager and pale ales appear to be making a resurgence, we all know that developments are cyclical.
Glass may very well be poised for a comeback. Or perhaps the higher query is: Did it ever actually go away?
Final 12 months, the United Nations Basic Meeting authorised a decision declaring 2022 the Worldwide 12 months of Glass (IYOG) to acknowledge the heritage and affect of such a packaging. Together with the environmental advantages.
Glass beer bottles are made of 4 easy, pure elements—silica sand, limestone, soda ash, and recycled glass. It’s 100% recyclable, time and again, and may go from curbside recycling again to the cabinets as a brand new bottle in as little as thirty days. Glass’ pure elements imply it protects the beer inside. It tastes the best way the brewery supposed—no metallic aftertaste.
For some breweries, glass has at all times performed an essential function and can proceed to take action far into the long run.
For example, at Left Hand Brewing Firm in Longmont, CO, the place their Milk Stout Nitro is their primary promoting SKU in 6-pack bottles.
Or at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO, the place Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, the primary IPA in America, sells greatest in 6-packs of 12oz glass bottles, not aluminum cans (in response to Nielsen scan knowledge 12 months to this point, week ending 10/8/22).
What’s the explanation for these fashionable beers promoting in glass?
Properly, right here’s a doubtlessly scorching take: Glass may simply be the most effective packaging for beer.
Glass Provides a Premium Really feel You Simply Can’t Get in Cans
By far and away, New Belgium Senior Model Supervisor of Innovation Andrew Emerton says that he prefers glass as a result of it provides sure New Belgium beers a premium really feel that you simply simply can’t obtain with aluminum cans.
“There’s a sure shopper shopping for habits that’s a part of our total shopper tradition, which is that customers normally like to the touch issues,” says Emerton. “If you happen to see a shirt in a retailer you actually like, you’ll in all probability attempt to contact it… Utilizing bottles is the premium alternative you may have that comes with textural finishes.”
Give it some thought this fashion: Do you see high-end spirits bought in cans?
Most frequently not.
As an alternative, you discover top-shelf scotch, whiskey, vodka, tequila, and many others., offered in these intricately designed bottles with attention-grabbing constructions and surfaces.
Whereas spirits have higher margins to pay for these over-the-top bottles, beer merely can’t compete. As an alternative, a easy glass bottle with a flourish right here or there could make all of the distinction.
“Within the beer world…there aren’t an entire lot of alternatives so as to add these premium components, however you are able to do that with a bottle,” says Emerton, suggesting enjoyable embossed or customized molded bottles which are distinctive to your brewery. “It’s a very nice strategy to lengthen your id on a shelf or personal an id on a shelf that’s distinctive that you simply simply can’t do with cans.”
At New Belgium, they’ve been utilizing a customized bottle for all their 12oz bottles since in regards to the ‘90s, Emerton estimates. With a hoop across the neck that claims New Belgium, these bottles are distinctly distinctive to the brewery. “It’s ours; we personal the mildew, so no one else can use it,” says Emerton. “It’s a novel figuring out piece… It robotically kicks you into this premium queue.”
At the moment, in 12oz glass bottles New Belgium gives all the pieces from classics like Fats Tire, Trippel, Honey Orange Trippel, and extra to newcomers just like the Voodoo Ranger collection.
At Left Hand, head brewer Gary Glass says the brewery’s unique flagship Sawtooth amber ale is simply bought in bottles and the uber-popular Milk Stout Nitro sells higher in bottles. That’s what individuals need and “it’s laborious to argue with what the shopper desires,” says Glass.
For Sawtooth particularly, Glass calls {that a} “heritage craft model,” so it suits nicely in a bottle. “A can could be very utilitarian,” he says. “However bottles are just a bit classier.”
Particularly after they go greater. Approach greater.
Glass Grows in Dimension and Income
With glass bottles, you may have all kinds of sizes at your fingertips. And whereas 20oz bombers aren’t as frequent nowadays, Emerton says that bigger 375mL cork-and-cage bottles are very a lot part of New Belgium’s profitable agenda.
At the moment, very particular, high-quality sours similar to New Belgium’s La Folie and Le Terroir discover their means into this cork-and-cage format.
“It pays much more respect to the beer moving into there,” he says. These are very nuanced, very premium beers which have taken an immense period of time and a spotlight to make.
Placing delicate beers like La Folie in a 375mL bottle additionally means New Belgium can cost upwards of $11.99 for one…and individuals are keen to make that funding.
Consider it this fashion: “You don’t go to a Michelin star restaurant to have meals served on a plastic plate,” says Emerton. “Whenever you current one thing in that elevated means, it feels particular, it seems like the worth related to it.”
Plus, Glass factors out, for a few of these kinds, similar to Left Hand’s Barrel-Aged Wake Up Lifeless imperial stout, a glass bottle lends itself higher to ageing. “In that case, the beer may be aged for fairly some time, a few years, and proceed to enhance,” he says. “With cans, you don’t want to age beer as a result of can liners have a restricted life span.”
Huge format and cork-and-cage bottles are only a couple examples of the inventive avenues breweries can go down with glass packaging.
Get the Inventive Juices Flowing with Glass
“You have got all these enjoyable avenues to discover with bottles that you simply simply don’t get with cans,” says Emerton.
For example, you’ll be able to fiddle with cap colours or put a shock code or saying beneath the cap. It’s simply what Emerton calls “one other interplay level.”
You could possibly add a further neck label to a bottle. Based on Emerton, New Belgium has truly carried out inside research evaluating the efficiency of bottles with neck labels and with out.
“We’ve got fairly good proof, when it’s shoulder and above on the bottle on the shelf, that the neck label helps it stand out,” says Emerton.
For example, with New Belgium’s Trippel. The brewery carried out research on including a pink neck label and charging a greenback extra for the bottle.
“The thought is that you simply’re signaling to customers that you simply’re going up in worth,” says Emerton.
The experiment has appeared to work. Emerton says that, since they made these modifications to Trippel in 2017, gross sales have elevated thirty p.c. “You possibly can attribute that improve in year-over-year development to different issues, however Belgian-style tripels aren’t precisely the factor in craft beer proper now and that model is twenty-plus years outdated, so to see an outdated legacy model like that discover footing once more in year-over-year development is de facto thrilling,” says Emerton. “Plenty of that got here from the transformation we did on packaging premiumization to the prevailing bottle and growing the worth with it.”
Moreover, glass bottles supply extra alternatives on the subject of printing. Emerton calls printing on aluminum cans nonetheless “a really analog course of” in the US. You want to create printing plates and blend the paint to match the precise colour you’re going for, which may restrict your choices. Plus printing on metallic is simply powerful by nature.
With the bottle label aspect, then again, you’ll be able to hit any colour spectrum and gradient tone you need, in response to Emerton.
Will get the Occasion Began
Think about this: You’re heading to your annual vacation cookie swap, white elephant, and even Friendsgiving, what do you carry?
Almost certainly a bottle of some kind of beverage proper? Whether or not it’s scotch, wine, cider, and even beer.
“If I’m invited to a cocktail party…I’m extra inclined to go for one thing in bottles than cans,” says Glass.
And Emerton agrees. “For no matter motive, it’s laborious to place your finger on it, however bottles within the household gathering situation are inclined to promote higher,” says Emerton. “There’s an attraction to bottles over cans as nonetheless this inherent premium, old-school factor… [When] the vacations come round we need to commerce as much as one thing, and in that jump-ball situation, the bottle tends to win a bit extra if it’s a beer that’s good, shareable, or a celebratory-type beer.”
Emerton says that in the course of the vacation season in November and December, bottle gross sales improve throughout the board at New Belgium. These two months are the primary season for his or her bottle selection pack gross sales and the primary quarter of gross sales for Trippel.
Based on Nielsen scan knowledge evaluating the months of October, November, and December in 2021 vs. the earlier three months of July, August, and September, Trippel averages a twelve p.c improve in gross sales quantity. Equally Fats Tire glass SKUs in each 6-pack and 12-pack bottles see a seven p.c raise in gross sales quantity. And New Belgium’s Selection Pack bottles skilled a fourteen p.c leap in gross sales quantity throughout this time.
Throughout a time of reward giving and vacation cheer, typically the busiest gross sales time of the 12 months, individuals have a tendency to achieve for bottles.
Will get to Market Faster
Even when being premium doesn’t sound higher, consider using glass from a enterprise perspective.
Logistically, it’s faster to make use of glass bottles than cans on the subject of printing labels.
“The turnaround time to get labels printed on glass versus cans is dramatically completely different,” says Emerton. “We rely on at the least three months for cans to get printed and undergo the proofing course of, however with labels [on bottles] it’s as little as two weeks.”
Particularly, in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic a majority of breweries both elevated their packaging in cans or turned to it for the primary time, placing an unbelievable pressure on the availability chain.
“For breweries, it’s considerably of a legal responsibility to be completely in cans,” says Glass. “Definitely at Left Hand it has been an enormous benefit the final couple years as a result of we’ve been ready to make use of each cans and bottles. Even once we couldn’t get entry to cans, we have been in a position to proceed manufacturing and never take a major hit.”
And presently, because the U.S. economic system continues to battle with inflation and rising costs of uncooked supplies, Glass says he expects glass bottles to achieve some curiosity “simply because aluminum and the entry for cans has been so unstable.”
However will glass as soon as once more overtake cans?
Wanting Into the Crystal Ball: What Is the Future for Glass Bottles in Craft Beer?
In all probability not.
General, Emerton doesn’t assume that tumbler will overtake aluminum cans once more, however he hopes that extra breweries give that packaging format some severe consideration.
“In a dream world I’d like to see the craft trade return to a nudge in the direction of premiumization itself,” says Emerton. “It’s on this trajectory in the direction of this caricature world and fixed irreverence; premiumness may very well be a pleasant addition again into craft.”
And bottles are the proper primer to premium. “On the ritual aspect of issues, it seems like there’s something extra to personal there with bottles that will profit breweries to assist them stand out on a shelf,” says Emerton. Whether or not that’s by means of a mildew all your personal, a cool colour on the cap, and even little easter eggs on the labels. There are such a lot of enjoyable and interactive parts to labels on glass bottles that you would be able to entertain.
Emerton encourages breweries to contemplate glass even when it’s only for one or two releases right here and there. “For a few of these newer breweries which have discovered success previously 5 or 6 years with 16oz 4-pack sticker [can] labels, what a enjoyable pivot to return out with your personal ownable bottle as some form of distinctive identifier to make it only for your self,” says Emerton.
Glass simply provides you a bit glitter if you’ll, a bit sparkle, and a bit zhuzh. And in right now’s crowded craft beer market, that may make all of the distinction.
“Glass ought to simply be part of the dialog once more for almost all of craft,” says Emerton. “Even now after 9,000 breweries…there are nonetheless methods to personal a bit of the trade.”
And if that doesn’t persuade you, allow us to remind you: The primary promoting IPA in the whole nation, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, is bought principally in glass, not aluminum cans.
Beer for thought.
If we glance into our crystal glass ball, we see glass in our future.
