Thought some of you would be interested in this.
I think there are roughly a dozen of these nationwide. Two in Colorado that I know of.
The economics of canning are still awkward. For really small operations, there’s Cask’s two-head manual system for ~$20k, but that can only do ~5 cans/minute and requires two operators. Then you jump up to automated four- and eight-head systems that start at ~$100k. Wild Goose in Boulder is trying to plug the gap, and Cask just introduced their SAMS unit that they advertise as being 15 cans/minute, but there’s no proven solution for breweries in the 2,000-20,000 bbl/year range, give or take.
I saw something similar to this on Beerpulse.com the other day. I think it’s a really good idea. I can see how much value it could bring to smaller craft breweries that can’t afford a canning line. A guy I work with (who used to be a brewer at O’Gara’s brewpub in St. Paul, MN) said he has a friend who is considering designing a mobile bottling line. I told him he had better get a move on because this idea is already taking off!
I would recommend stay away from Cask.
That is all I am going to say.
Waiting on my equipment from Wild Goose Engineering.
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