Beer exports have never had cause to be sustainable, with those in the industry long sticking to tried and tested business models. When Heineken became the first brewer to re-enter the US after prohibition, it did so via bottles packed in carton boxes. It’s a method that’s still used today.
The standard option for shipping in this way – a 20ft ISO box container with a volume of 39,000 litres – typically only holds around 11,500 litres due to the shape of the bottles and the padding needed to prevent breakage. That’s over 27,500 litres of unused capacity per container.
In the post-prohibition era it was the best way to preserve the quality of the beer, but nowadays shipping in bottles is the norm because it taps the demand for authenticity and a consumer preference for provenance.
That’s not to say there aren’t alternative methods for packing, preserving and exporting. Kegged beer for the on-trade is another, if not perfect, option, for example. However, thick profit margins have provided little impetus to bring about wholesale upheaval to the way brewers sell their products overseas.
Covid-19 could change that. Stale beer being poured down drains isn’t just an image issue, it hits bottom lines too. Those in the industry now see this as the chance to take stock and react to the steady tide of pressure building in recent years to become more sustainable. While the pandemic has blighted many brewers, it also presents an opportunity to take stock and initiate change.
Shipping beer in tanks, with bottling taking place at the destination, is one option. A 20ft ISO tank container can hold 25,000 litres of liquid – more than twice as much as its boxed alternative. But brewers rightly have concerns. Their main worry is that the quality of the beer could be jeopordised, and it runs the risk of cross-contamination if the tank hasn’t been properly sterilised. This can be eliminated by shipping back the tank empty, meaning it is used exclusively by the brewer, but the gains made in exporting will have been lost on the return journey home.
A third choice could solve the conundrum.
The ‘bag-in-tank container’ solution is now being spoken about in hushed tones within brewing circles as the answer. As the name implies, it works by providing a high-end food grade liner separating the beer from the tank itself, eliminating the risk of it being spoilt. Once at its destination, it can then be stored for up to four weeks prior to being bottled or kegged for delivery to the on or off-trade. The tank that carried it can then safely be used again in the same fashion for any non-hazardous liquid on the return leg.
It leaves the brewer with the choice of bottling or kegging on the other side, or shipping to another country should demand from bars and pubs dissipate completely, as has been the case recently. At a time when worries of second spikes in Covid-19 contaminations and further lockdowns are high, this fallback option is reassuring for brewers and cost-effective, not to mention more sustainable.
But while many are warming to the idea, bringing it into the mainstream won’t be plain sailing. As is often the case, the onus will fall on the biggest brewers to push through the changes that will benefit the whole industry.
One of the biggest issues is that for the majority of the industry, outsourcing the transportation of beer is the only option. Most transporters will be reticent to overhaul profitable methods of doing business for the effort – if the model isn’t broken, why fix it? On their own, or even as part of a small collective, most brewers won’t be able to bring about meaningful change.
It’s the big players with clout that will have the most impact. The bag-in-tank container is increasingly becoming a part of the sustainability conversation, but until transportation firms are brought into the debate and are sold on the benefits of the idea – to them, the environment and the wider industry – it will struggle to become a reality.
It might not eventually come to pass, but Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus many conversations that we’d been putting off previously. If one of those brings about real, sustainable change to how brewers export, we’ll have made the industry just a bit greener. Now that’s something to raise our glasses to.
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