From Cask Global Canning Solutions:
(Longyearbyen, Norway) – Svalbard Brewery -- the world’s northernmost brewery --
has become Cask’s first Norwegian micro-canning craft brewery.
Years in the making, Svalbard Brewery is located in the remote town of Longyearbyen
(population 2,400) on Spitsbergen Island in Norway’s Svalbard Islands archipelago. The
Arctic Ocean islands are home to an estimated 3,500 polar bears, and the brewery is just
over 800 miles from the North Pole.
To make his brewery a reality, founder Robert Johansen had to overcome numerous
obstacles due to the brewery’s extreme northern location. He also had to complete a
lengthy campaign to change longstanding laws that prohibited brewing in the region.
The brewery is now open and launching its first packaged beers in cans filled and seamed
on Cask Brewing System’s Automatic Canning System (ACS).
“Robert is a true brewing pioneer,” says Cask founder Peter Love. “He is defying his
country’s traditional practices and literally rewriting the rules for brewers there. He joins
a large group of innovative craft brewers who are having great success thanks to their
unconventional thinking and our micro-canning machines.”
Svalbard’s founders cite the many benefits of aluminum cans and Cask Brewing
System’s pioneering reputation as reasons for opening with cans instead of bottles.
“Cans,” says co-founder Anne Grete Johansen, “are lightweight, easier to store and
easier to transport. They are perfect for trips in the wilderness, which are very common
here among locals and tourists coming to see polar bears, glaciers and the landscape.
They are also better for the environment as cans are recycled here in Norway and are
worth 1 NOK for each can someone returns.”
She and her husband chose Cask for several reasons. “We learned about Cask on the Web
while doing research,” she says. “We discovered that they created this concept of micro-
canned craft beer and they have a long history of helping small brewers like us. We also
got some good references about Cask from some peers in Sweden.”
Svalbard’s first canned beers are Spitsbergen Pilsner, Spitsbergen IPA and Spitsbergen
Pale Ale. The beers are available for purchase at Longyearbyen bars, restaurants and the
town’s one beer store.
Johansen hopes to have her micro-canned beers in Norway’s government-run system in
November, once they are approved for sale and the country’s recycling program. The
beers are made with melted water from the region’s surrounding glaciers.
“Svalbard’s embracing of our equipment and cans,” Love says, “highlights the
advantages we’ve been touting since we invented micro-canning. With the brewery’s
remote location, reduced shipping and packaging costs are especially crucial. Recycling
is just as important for Svalbard’s business as it is for the local environment. Our canning
gear and cans make all of those things possible for the brewery.”
“Canned craft beer is the hottest craft beer package in North America,” Love says.
“Someday that will be the case in Norway.”
Cask created the micro-canned concept while working with brew-on-premise
homebrewing operations it supplied in Canada, the US and Australia. Cask placed its first
canning gear in those BOPS in 1999.
In 2002 Cask sold its first machine (a table-top machine that seamed one can at a time) to
a craft brewer, Oskar Blues Brewery & Pub in Colorado, USA. The tiny brewpub was the
first US microbrewer to brew and can its own beer. Its cans-only focus helped make it
one of craft beer’s fastest-growing breweries, with production quickly rising from 700
barrels/year to over 149,000 barrels/year in 12 years.
Sales of US canned sixpacks last year were up 97% compared to 14% growth of bottles.
“Our canning systems,” Love says, “have helped micro and craft breweries around the
world enter the packaged-beer segment and quickly grow their businesses. We’re very
proud of that.”
Cask’s manual, semi-automated and automated canning systems are now used by over
500 small breweries, wineries, cider and drinks makers in over 40 nations.
The machines require as little as 16 square feet of space. They also provide extremely
low levels of dissolved oxygen (15-20 parts per billion) that extend a beer’s shelf life and
flavor.
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