Germany: Bag-in-Box packaging to replace steel kegs

The brewing industry could change to Bag-in-Box packaging to replace stainless steel kegs, as a result of recent development by a German consortium of Rapak, Ankerbrau Brewery and SPN, according to Today’s News on December 4th.

Intended to reduce the high weight and cost of conventional kegs, the new product uses a polyethylene bag housed in a card container made from recycled paper.

The brewery industry makes large annual losses due to the theft and/or non-return of large numbers of the expensive metal kegs and their heavy weight adds considerably to transport costs. As well as overcoming these obstacles, the Bag-in-box system requires no pressurisation during transportation and takes up less space because of its cubic shape.
Estimates suggest that savings of up to €20 (US$27) per hectolitre will be made with the introduction of this system.

Following this development, Ankerbrau is currently switching to Bag-in-box kegs for its export beers.

07 December, 2006