Tag: packaging

Posted on

The Firkin for June 2023

The 16oz can is the de rigeur format and has been for a few years now taking the packaging crown from the 22oz bomber and the six-pack with it’s 12 ounces. Though the 19.2oz stovepipe can is pushing for the throne currently.

This article in Punch talks briefly about why it is as well as the good and bad about it..

…but I firmly believe (and have expressed on this blog many times) that more sizes should be in the packaging arsenal.  I would like to see more big ABV beers in 10 ounce bottles or heck, 12 ounce cans.  I love the extra large format of some Belgian beers with the corks and one of these days, I will buy one of those jereboams that you sometimes see.

The packaging format should be as creative and unrestricted as the crazy beers that are inside them.

Posted on

Could Have Been Birthday

An unassuming box. But filled with wonder. I do not live in the Sea/Tac area but if a local L.A. brewery sold bag in a box of a beer, I would probably get a couple a month and would have definitely asked for one for my birthday.

I do wonder why I have not seen this packaging in more places. Perhaps it is not efficient or cost effective but for the non home brewing crowd, it would make a great option.

Posted on

Great Beer Names – February 2020

We start with a transatlantic collaboration from Portland to Belgium with Robots & Windmills packaged by Gigantic Brewing…

Cool juxtaposition of comics and color and the flower designed G is perfect. Can’t wait for Beer # 100.

And this month we will stay out of SoCal and highlight New Holland Brewing (which does send the occasional beer our way) Poets Brunch is a classy named paired with an artistic label that I really like. Plus the beer may have a nice balance of sweet and spice.

Posted on

Novellas

I have come to realize that I will never catch up on all the reading that I want (need) to accomplish which is why I like smaller chunks of reading like the short story and novella.

The same goes with beer which is why I am a booster of the stubbie bottle, of flights and sharing. And I am also a fan of smaller packaging….

…I don’t know a thing about Workhorse Brewing but I love the 8oz packaging and the branding as “Flights”.

Posted on

The Next Package

It would be safe to say that back in 2010, no one would have predicted that beer shoppes would be primarily filled with 16oz cans. Bombers were the reigning king and cans were seen as the realm of big beer.

It is not too early then to guess as to what will be the package of preference in five years time. Maybe this….

…yeah, I doubt it too due to simply figuring out how to shelve them. But the question still stands. What will we be pouring our beer out of. Cans or bottles? What size? Will 10oz stubbies reappear?

Posted on

El Crowl-gundo


El Segundo beer needs to be drunk fresh. There is a reason why they have a whole Day 1 program of getting their bottles to market the same day that they are filled. That is why they date code. Now, they have added crowlers to the mix to add another option for the West Coast IPA fan.

Posted on

But What Does it Mean?


If you have been a better beer fan, you know that in the early days, there was no use of cans. Cans were gauche. Cans signified the other.

And a recent (reliably great) post from Beervana talks about cans and craft beer in conjunction with the recent NE IPA trend. Making a solid case that nowadays, the vessel may indicate a style rather than the us vs them that it did before.

Now, I sometimes buy beers from unknown breweries based on the label design. My working theory being that if the design has a certain level of craft that the beer will as well. That is obviously not a perfect corollary.

As of yet, though, I have not bought an IPA based on can vs bottle. L.A. has a few with skin in the canned juice IPA game but I have bought more based on brewery reputation and availability (ie – not having to wait in line with the Whale Broz.) than anything else.

Why the 16oz can format has been grabbed by the NE IPA is probably based more on economics but I can see an argument made that the cachet and cool factors are tied to branding that wants to seem more disposable to match the high demand for the hazy IPA sub-style. A 22oz bomber or, God forbid, six-pack have a year-round core flagship feel to them.

My hope is that the haze crowd though wedded to the “it girl” IPA breweries, does still care about the liquid inside the container more than the type of container.

Posted on

Milk Stout in Milk Bottle

This NY Times article does not specifically mention beer but it does show that outside the container thinking should not be relegated to glass vs can.

What type of packaging can be sustainable, or recycled more while also not breaking the budget of a small brewery. Is there an earth substance that can be harnessed to block light and be light like a can without the drawbacks of that metal? And can that be made without damaging the food supply.

Something to ponder as you pull a beer from the ‘fridge. Would you drink a beer that was put into a package made from mushrooms, or kelp?

Posted on

Time Stamped

I have talked repeatedly about putting the packaged on date on beer bottles and cans and anywhere else you can and Sixpoint from NY has gotten creative with the idea.

This is part of bigger recipe tweaks across their core line-up from Pils to IPA as well as a return to a more unfiltered style of beer. I will certainly be checking the latest iteration in appreciation of their commitment to transparency as well as to see what the new-ish beers taste like.

Posted on

The Firkin for February 2016

header_firkin
I prefer to both see and smell my beer in well lighted spots without the perfume intrusions of people or food. Now I need to add quiet too. Now the idea of “sonic branding” is being studied. And not just the “Pop pop fizz fizz” of jingles but the actual sound your beer makes coming out of the bottle and/or can.

Is there a Pavlovian response when a can is popped open with a hiss versus a response to a bottle cap being pulled off versus a cork hurtling out from under pressure?

A paper on Sensory Affects (see HERE to read it) takes the viewpoint that sound can and does influence people’s rating of a product.

But what is that percentage and how would you or I quantify it. It certainly is not part of how you rate beer on RateBeer and probably has a narrower band of possible ratings than, say, a color spectrum or individual aromas.

I would hazard a guess that sound would be more important as a disqualifier than as an indicator. A non-fizzy pilsner versus a bubbly sounding stout for the yin and yang of it.

Right now Sonic Marketing seems more suited to those who like adding bells and whistles to boring beer and its packaging. IE twisted necks on mass market fizzy corn water. The other half of the science experiment would be the glassware but any specific container is designed (after marketing) for aroma and secondarily color. Sound isn’t even a consideration.

Maybe, in the future, it will be a value add though.