It's been an exciting week for Sierra Nevada Brewery.
Wednesday, they announced plans for their new East Coast brewery in North Carolina
Thursday, they began canning their famous Pale Ale.
Workers at Sierra Nevada’s Chico brewery fired up the new canning machinery for the first official run of the popular Pale Ale Thursday morning.
"They run like a blur. It is so hard to keep track of how fast they are going through the system," Sierra Nevada’s Communication Coordinator Bill Manley said.
In just one minute, 800 cans make their way through the machine where they are filled, sealed and sent off for packaging.
Engineers have spent the last few months building the machinery and running quality control checks.
"There’s literally thousands of moving parts on that thing, so it takes a while to get any kind of line in, and commissioned and ready to go," Manley said.
Brewery officials also say they've gone through extensive testing to make sure the canning process does not change the flavor of their award winning beer.
"We've gone through pretty significant sensory trials in both the cans and the bottles, and our trained tasters can't really find a difference one way or the other," Manley said.
It wasn't just the taste of the beer that was a concern. A lot of work went into the can label to make sure it looks as similar to the bottle as possible.
If the beer tastes the same and looks the same, some may ask why offer cans?
Employees say the answer is simple.
"It opens up a new opportunity to take craft beer with you when you are out the beach or the pool or rafting, hiking or camping. Places where bottles really aren't that practical," Manley said.
Even though thousands of cans came off the production line Thursday, officials say it will be about two weeks before the Pale Ale ships because the brewery uses a natural carbonation process in the beer.
"Having a little yeast in the package really kind of improves the shelf life and develops flavor," Manley said.
Serra Nevada is hoping to have the 12-packs of Pale Ale on store shelves in mid-February along with 4-packs of the Torpedo Extra IPA.
They say the cans should be available everywhere by Memorial Day.
For those of you worried that the cans will eventually replace the Sierra Nevada bottles, officials say the cans will only make up a small percentage of the brewery’s total production.
