It’s a fair bet that all of us have popped the top on a can of beer or two to celebrate a birthday. But when the folks at Red Hare Brewing in Marietta, GA got ready to celebrate that brewery’s first birthday, they treated themselves to an entire 30-can-per-minute canning line.
Red Hare opened its doors to the public Labor Day weekend 2011 and for most of its first year was a draft-only brewery. Before July 2012 Red Hare’s beers were packaged exclusively in kegs and an occasional cask. “We planned to can our beer right from the start,” says head brewer Bobby Thomas. “Cans go anywhere—you can pack them, take them on a boat or to the pool. They’re light and they recycle. And,” he emphasized, “cans resist light and oxidation better than bottles. So you get fresher beer.”
An automated canning line from Canada’s Cask Brewing Systems finally arrived at the end of June, and by mid-July cans of Red Hare’s flagship Long Day Lager (4.9% ABV) were showing up in stores around metro-Atlanta and Athens. For now, only Long Day is being canned. But six-packs of Gangway IPA (6.2% ABV) are expected to follow “by the end of the year.”
Red Hare’s canning line is quite a sight, looking for all the world like an amusement park for tiny cylindrical robots. The ride begins as a layer of empty cans is swept off a pallet and onto a slanted tray 8 feet in the air. A chute narrows to the width of a single can, where the cans slip onto rails that corkscrew down to waist height. The cans are upright at the top, upside-down when they pass through the rinser, and upright again when they land on the conveyor belt at the bottom.
A blast of carbon dioxide then blows beer-staling oxygen out of the cans, and a pillow of foam rises from them as they are filled five at a time. Next, a lid drops onto each can before it is pushed onto the carousel that takes it to the seamer, where it is spun like a top as the lid is sealed onto it. One more turn of the carousel and a final conveyor belt leads to the packing table, where human hands bundle the cans into six-packs and send them on their way.
The Cask canning line is a proven system, the same used by Anderson Valley, Boulder and craft can-pioneer Oskar Blues as well as an ever-growing number of small brewers enamored of aluminum. Just three people are required to operate it: one to oversee the actual canning process and two to bundle the cans and pack the sixers into cases. It can crank out up to 75 cases of 12-oz. cans an hour, though a finicky seamer kept Red Hare’s line moving well below top speed during my visit.
“We expect to brew 3,000 barrels this year,” said Thomas as he rinsed down his 20-barrel brew kettle after finishing that day’s second batch of Long Day Lager. All signs point to continued growth. In a single year, Red Hare’s fermentation/maturation capacity has nearly tripled. Lagering can tie up a fermenter two or three times longer than ale brewing, effectively reducing overall brewing capacity. An 80-barrel cylindroconical will bring Red Hare to an even 300 barrels this fall, plenty of room to ensure a steady supply of Long Day Lager and the occasional bottom-fermented seasonal as well.
Next up is a grain silo, which will free up some space inside the brewery as well as reduce the cost of purchasing and handling truckloads of malt in 50-pound sacks. Then, says Thomas, “we’re going to have to expand the cellar again. I want to replace the bright tanks with jacketed tanks and get them out of the cellar.”
But what about beer? “I want to brew a ‘tropical fruit’ pale ale,” answered Thomas. “Like a jasmine-infused IPA?” I asked. No, he explained, a sessionable ale brewed with some of the aromatic new hop varieties that fairly explode with scents of kiwi, lychee, papaya and other exotic fruits. “I really want to try some Nelson Sauvin” hops, he said. “I don’t mind if we’re not 100% consistent,” he added. Playing with new hops is part of the charm of craft brewing.
Red Hare threw their birthday party a couple weeks early on Saturday, August 18. But who could blame them for jumping the gun? There’s plenty to celebrate: the new canning line, the burgeoning sales and production figures, and then to top it off a gold medal for their saison (Rabbit’s Reserve #3) at the United States Open Beer Championship. Not a bad first year by any measure.
Beer lovers were lining up outside the brewery a good hour before the party despite looming thunderclouds. Besides Red Hare’s year-round offerings, a cask of dry-hopped Imperial Red IPA (9.4% ABV) and the debut of Oktoberfest (6% ABV) beckoned within. When the gates opened, celebratory suds flowed in the tasting room and outdoors in the newly expanded kid- and dog-friendly beer garden. Sublime tribute band Wrong Way was onstage, and Atlanta’s D.B.A. Barbecue provided a delicious counterpoint to Red Hare’s brews.
After the taps were turned off at the brewery, the party continued well into the night at Wild Wings and at Johnnie MacCracken's Celtic Firehouse Pub. The whole city seemed to be celebrating “Marietta’s hometown brewery” on its birthday.
Southern Brew News October–November 2012
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