Beer Monks Mobile Canning comes online in California

Greg Kinne and Mike Nalick, co-owners of Sierra Madre-based Beer Monks Mobile Canning, said the company is now up and running, ready to deliver and operate equipment to produce as much as 1,800 gallons of canned beer a day, on-site. The canning machine fits on a box truck and can go anywhere a truck can — and the machine is small enough to fit through a standard door.

We’ve covered many of the mobile canning affiliate openings as they have come online. The service, part of a growing national trend in micro-canning, allows micro-brewers a convenient and cost-effective way to get their beers to market. And that can have advantages for both brewers and consumers.

“As a package for beer, cans are ideal in that they keep out all light and all oxygen, both of which cause beer to degrade,” Kinne said. “Cans also weigh less than bottles, which makes them cheaper to ship — and offers savings in fuel cost and a lower carbon footprint. They stack easier than bottles, and they are less likely to break. For craft beer enthusiasts, cans can be taken where glass bottles aren’t allowed.”

For small-scale breweries, canning has historically been cost-prohibitive, Kinne said. “For a small brewer who wants to produce 3,000 cans per run, once or twice a month, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to buy a canning machine, and order cans a truckload at a time.  Our service allows us to deliver smaller quantities of cans and packaging materials — six packs and case trays — in a just-in-time fashion.  There is no need for brewers to make a huge capital investment, or buy and store huge quantities of cans. With a mobile canning option, the barriers to canning become very low.”