The increased demand for canned beer is outpacing the supply of aluminum cans, according to Wisconsin Brewers Guild Vice President Zak Koga.
The pandemic-induced trend has pushed Ball Corporation to enact new ordering restrictions for cans, upping the minimum order five times over — from about 200,000 cans per brand to 1 million. Koga, who is also the co-owner of Karben4 Brewing, says it’s hurting craft breweries, of which are also facing inflation, supply chain disruption and labor shortages.
He says 1 million cans, or roughly five truckloads, is more than most brewers are making of any one skew of beer. It doesn’t eliminate craft breweries from Ball Corporation, but it takes away the ease of printed cans, he explains. He says it costs more to purchase smaller orders of cans and put shrink sleeves or printed labels on them, doubling the cost of the can.
Karben4 was in the process of moving its printed can business to Ball Corporation when the can company made the announcement. Koga says the brewery will go into 2022 not knowing for sure how many cans it will be able to get for the year.
Koga says this cost increase alone should raise prices of beer in the store, but most breweries don’t want to do that for the sake of the consumer. Karben4’s packaging cost increases alone would justify raising the shelf price by 50 percent.