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 Todays 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.
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