Small beer? Hardly. Processors tap into beer packaging

With beer sales flat in much of the world, breweries have uncorked a number of plastics packaging developments to help sell more suds.

Bag-in-box beverage packaging is not new but its use is only now gathering speed in beer packaging. One new development is the KeyKeg plastic keg, marketed by the newly formed Lightweight Containers (Den Helder, The Netherlands). KeyKegs are based on a technology reported by MPW some years back (March 2001); the early developer, Dutch company EML Produktie, “had the perfect product but it was too expensive” for the beer industry, says Jan Veenendaal, CEO of Lightweight Containers. His firm acquired and improved upon the EML technology for its kegs, which are being marketed to breweries as an option for long-distance markets, low-volume markets such as smaller restaurants, and catering/home parties.

As with any bag-in-box packaging, KeyKegs’ essential value proposition essentially comes down to saving brewers money on logistics, while also helping brewers meet new European health regulations limiting employee lift requirements to 23 kg, says Veenendaal. “The key issue in the industry is the amount of capital wrapped up (in the kegs),” he says, citing figures of €50/keg. Plus, “The higher the steel prices, the more lost kegs.” The lightweight (1.7 kg for the larger version) plastic kegs can reduce transport cost (shipping more beer, and less steel, per trip) by up to 50%, he says.

KeyKeg’s cost including secondary packaging (cardboard box around the rounded plastic keg) is about €8 for the 20-L version and €9 for the 30-L one, with the larger weighing 21.5 kg when full. According to Veenendaal, benefits include breweries’ ability to order kegs from suppliers on a just-in-time basis, rather than stockpiling steel kegs. As the KeyKegs are to be recycled or landfilled, there are no cleaning or repair costs and no administrative costs. Beer in them has at least a nine-month shelf life, he says. According to Veenendaal, the kegs pass a 2m drop test and other relevant regulations, including EU/FDA approval.

The kegs are actually a bag in a ball in a box; the bag is converted from a multi-layer polyamide/PET barrier film, inserted into a stretch blowmolded ball of recycled PET, which fits in a box. The area between bag and ball is pressurized to dispense the beer. Stretch blowmolding machine maker Sipa (Vittorio Veneto, Italy) has supplied a single-step straight-line stretch blowmolding unit to Dutch plastic container processor Schoeller Arca (Hardenberg) for blowmolding (up to 250/hr) of the keg shells. Production and assembly of the kegs is handled by Schoeller Arca. Other firms supply filling and dispensing equipment. The new beer kegs are in testing at most of the world’s 10 major breweries, says Lightweight Containers, with full production starting this August in Hardenberg. KeyKegs will be shipped and transported from there until the end of 2007, when equipment will be available to install keg production near breweries.

Already commercial is 25-L beer-in-bag packaging developed by German brewery Ankerbrau (Nördlingen). Processor/converter Rapak GmbH (Dürden, Germany) converts PE/metallized PET/PE film for these. Carbon dioxide is removed from beer after brewing and a ‘Carbonator Box’ developed by the brewery reintroduces CO² at the point of consumption. Rapak, part of DS Smith Plastics, also builds the filler for the bags. Ankerbrau formed a subsidiary, Carbotek, to market the packaging to other breweries.

Also commercial as of late last year are Ecokeg one-way rigid kegs using technology owned by Australia’s Ecokeg Group. The 30-L blowmolded plastic kegs work with existing filling machines. An outer shell of HDPE protects the 30-L PET inner container. Australian beer exporter Coogee Imports shipped 4000 late last year to the U.S. and has secured a contract with the Outback Steakhouse restaurant chain to supply it with beer in the one-way kegs.

Molders help steady suds’ stream

A beer keg without a working tap is, well, frustrating. Fully functional is a multipart beer-tap system molded by Quadrant CMS (Creative Moulding & Systems; Tielt, Belgium) for the 5-L, single-use Draught Keg from Heineken Beer Systems. It is the processor’s first venture into the beverage market; typically it molds for power tool OEMs, automotive systems supplier and other technical markets.

The steel kegs keep beer fresh in refrigerators for 30 days after initial tapping. The tap system consists of five molded parts and a small extruded tube, all of polypropylene, which is delivered in blister packaging together with a protective plastic ring that doubles as a carrier grip. All of the molded and extruded parts are processed and assembled at Quadrant CMS’ cleanroom production facilities in Tielt.

Last March competing beer maker Carlsberg introduced in Europe its one-way 20-L DraughtMaster kegs, blowmolded of PET. Injection molder RPC Bramlage (Lohne, Germany) designed and molded the kegs’ polypropylene closures, a nine-piece construction including a durable seal to the keg, a connecting tube to the chamber holding the beer, and a device to pierce the chamber. A sealing foil is placed between the keg and the closure. When a keg is placed in a pressurized DraughtMaster chamber, the foil is pierced and the beer flows from the keg to the tap. The keg gradually collapses as beer is dispensed and can then be recycled. RPC Bramlage also molds an adapted version of the closure for the 5-L home system.