A long-time holdout in craft brewing’s move to cans has gone over to the other side.
This week, Dogfish Heads’s 60 Minute IPA was released in 12-ounce cans throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
60 Minute IPA, the flagship brew of Dogfish will move into its 30-plus state footprint in 2017. Flesh & Blood IPA and session-sour SeaQuench Ale will also be added to the year-round brand can lineup, early in the New Year.
Flesh & Blood IPA and session-sour SeaQuench Ale will also be added to the year-round brand can lineup, early in the New Year.
“Early on in the craft brewing renascence I was underwhelmed with the canning technology for craft beer,” said Dogfish Head founder and President Sam Calagione. “But times have changed, equipment has evolved, and we’ve designed a beautiful, state-of-the-art Krones can line that delivers the quality and consistency our consumers have come to expect from our beer.”
Dogfish noted that the canning project had long been in the works. In a related development, the Milton brewer has redesigned its packaging.
In 2013, Dogfish Head worked with Krones to commission its commercial bottling line. Producing 267 cans per minute, the new production line allows Dogfish to can at the same consistency and quality assurance levels found in bottle and draft offerings, a release stated.
Dogfish Head is using metal packaging from Ball, state of the art can manufacturer. The brewer says there is no metallic off-flavoring in the beer due to a special liner found in all Dogfish cans.
Each can is stamped with a ‘can date’ to guarantee freshness and traceability. Executing the same all-encompassing testing performed on the bottling line, the Dogfish Quality Assurance team incorporated a seam test for all cans to pass which ensures no air is getting in and no beer is getting out.
“We’ve been able to grow from the smallest brewery to one of the top 20 craft breweries in the country, and we’ve done it in part by investing in world-class people and world-class equipment,” Calagione says.
Craft brewers, large and small have moved to cans in recent years as the industry matured and expanded. Finicky craft beer drinkers also became less critical of canned beer.
Craft beer sales gains have also slowed, with Dogfish not seeing the double-digit gains of the past as competition intensified and the company refrained from discounting.
For more information, visit dogfish.com
