Grain to Glass Series: Packaging
July 28, 2017
If you haven’t read the first post in this series, hop back and read “Grain to Glass Series Introduction,” then come here!
In 2012, the year after our opening, we were ready to begin packaging our products so that fans and customers could enjoy our beer no matter where they were! We started with a few limited bottle releases, but in 2013, owners Todd and Suzie Ford were ready to get creative by packaging our beer in a way that no one else in the city and surrounding area was. We unveiled our brand new 16 oz. Hop Drop ‘N Roll and Jam Session cans that year and immediately we knew we had a hit on our hands.
In the last four years since, we’ve really cranked up the can game. Admittedly, we’re can-crazy, and it’s been contagious; The #ShowYourCans hashtag that we coined has generated nearly 6,000 fan photos! When we first began canning at our original N. Davidson brewery, we were canning about 30 cans per minute. Today, on the new system at our N. Tryon brewery, we’ve quadrupled our productivity, and now produce about 120 cans per minute. In 2017, we’ve already canned more than 989,000 cans! In fact, about half of our sales are thanks to our cans. Here are a few more can-tastic packaging facts:
We can about 100 barrels of beer at a time.
The largest amount that we’ve canned at one time is 33,600 cans (It was NoDa Bandito, our Mexican Lager).
To date, we’ve canned 2.5 million Hop Drop ‘N Rolls!
To date, we’ve canned 5.2 million beers!
One of the things we’ve loved the most is packaging is redesigning our popular beer labels to be can-ready.
Below is a list of all the beers we’ve canned thus far (and their introduction dates):
Hop Drop ‘N Roll - September 2013
Jam Session - September 2013
CAVU - March 2014
Coco Loco - October 2014
Hoppy Holidays - December 2014
Hop Cakes - Feb 2015
NoDajito - May 2015
Gordgeous - September 2015
Par 4 - April 2016
River Jam Jam Session - May 2016
Ramble on Red - June 2016
Monstro - October 2016
Sticky When Wet - October 2016
NoDaRyeZ’d - October 2016
Captain Peanut Butter’s Chocolate Revenge - October 2016
Stop, Collaborate & Glisten - October 2016
Good Will Hopping - October 2016
Roaring Riot - November 2016
NoDa Bandito - April 2017
Pacific Reign - April 2017
Woody & Wilcox’s Hop Experiment - May 2017
Cheers to many more years of cans! Check out exactly how we do it here:
