Past Season

I am a Chelsea supporter but even I have to admit that Liverpool were a beast this year and truly deserve the title despite the season not being completed in the Premier League. Carlsberg might not be a fantastic choice but it is a cool label.

The Next Trend in Packaging

You are looking at one of the two prototypes that the Carlsberg Group has created towards their goal of the world’s first “paper beer bottle”. The bottles are “made from sustainably-sourced wood fibres that is both 100% bio-based and fully recyclable.”

The difference is the polymer inside the bottle. Since these are tests, I (and probably they) may not know how the beer responds to heat, they are obviously shielded from light. Maybe we will all be drinking straight from fibre.

It’s No Good

It is a bold marketing plan to say that your product is bad…..

…even if it is, you have to explain why you let your product go to crap and then re-gain the trust of people who have your beer in the ‘fridge already. That is a tough ad line to follow and probably really affects people delivering the beer who have to drop off “not” good beer to customers who are a bit upset.

Add in an environmental push and this becomes a whole re-booted Carlsberg.

Siri, Check Keg

I have seen some bars adopt the real-time keg levels on their beer menu boards but now a brewer (albeit a large one that rhymes with Snarlsberg) is sending out their smart beer kegs.  A tablet and (I assume an app) are all that is needed to monitor a keg.  From when a beer is poured to when it is getting near empty and probably send the data to Facebook too.

These kegs will be in Europe to start and if they catch on might be used across the network.  Maybe even by Lagunitas.

from the Untappd Podcast – Part 2


Part two of the Untappd podcast news comes from Carlsberg with some new packaging, the Snap Pack.

Instead of using plastic rings, or the bio-degradable rings or the plastic snap-on lids, the Danish mega-brewery is using dots, with glue that will bind the cans together enough to be moved about but still easy enough to pull apart.

It is in only the UK market to start but maybe this is something that can catch on here, if the price is right.

Carlsberg in the Bathroom?

…and not in the ‘fridge?

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So, you freeze dry Carlsberg lager into a powder and then add it into a skin care line? Or as it is marketed in many more words, The Beer Beauty by Carlsberg limited edition men’s skincare line. This new line-up is a collaboration of sorts between Carlsberg Laboratories (the R&D division of the brewery) and cosmetics producer Urtegaarden.

There is a shampoo, conditioner and body lotion with the “beautifying properties of lager” to choose from.

Cardbeerd

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Do you like wood-aged beers?  What about wood-fiber beers?  Looking to sustainability, Carlsberg premiered the Green Fiber Bottle which they have been working on with the company ecoXpac who have bullet pointed the bottle attributes on their website:

  • Optional design of bottle with either screw cap or single-use seal. And fits in with any existing filling plants.
  • Made from paper pulp, which also is renewable resources.
  • New patented production technology guarantees high level of energy saving – up until 80% compared with conventional moulded pulp production.
  • After use the bottle can enter into recycling systems on equal terms with cardboard and paper, or decompose directly in nature.
  • The production unit is small and compact, thus it can be transported and put up wherever in the world the bottles are to be filled.

Admirable, yes.  But this country struggled to use cans because of early versions that affected the beer (oh, and association with big beer that were considered negative).  And the elephant in the room is how will this protect the beer from light?  Gotta be better than green or clear glass, right?

So I don’t see how this bottle will be more than a novelty.  Though it would be really cool to see an L.A. Beer Week beer packaged this way.  Would make quite the collectors item. Tip of the Hat to the Brookston Beer Bulletin for posting about this earlier.