Canned: Canning trend takes over Asheville brewers

Craft brewing has put Asheville, N.C., on the map. The city has won the Examiner’s “Beer City, USA” poll four years running, and the Asheville Tourism website reports that Asheville boasts more breweries per capita than any U.S. city – roughly one brewery per 8,000 people. It’s home to 18 craft breweries, and many of those brewers are getting caught up in the great canning trend. The Citizen-Times reports:

Some of Asheville’s craft breweries have added canning lines to their operations, and others are using a local canning service that brings equipment to them and handles the process.

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“Cans are the way of the future,” said Asheville Brewing President Mike Rangel, whose company was the first in Asheville to use cans. “It’s the environmental impact. As a small brewery, keeping an eye on things like that is important. Broken bottles can create litter and danger” at parks, trails and beaches. About half of Asheville Brewing’s beer is canned, he said, opening new sales markets.

While canning is not cheap compared to bottling, there are definite advantages that Craft Brewing Business has covered in previous features. Check out a few of those and maybe you’ll discover that a canning line might be a good investment for your own brewery: