Regional Craft Brewery Ale Asylum is gearing up to release canned product into the market and has chosen Earth Day to celebrate their recent solar panel installation with a fundraising event that will benefit RENEW Wisconsin.
Starting the week of April 20, Ale Asylum will be releasing Hopalicious, Bedlam!, Demento and Unshadowed 12 oz. cans in 12-pack packages into their Wisconsin and Illinois markets. The brewery has timed this release to sync with spring and outdoor summer activities where cans are more suitable.
Rob Richards, the Wine and Spirits Manager at Madison’s East side Hy-vee quotes, “Putting their beers in cans is not only a wise business decision in that it will allow Ale Asylum to sell their beer in more venues, it is good environmental business as well. Aluminum is obviously safer in outdoor venues than glass, but cost and environmental impact savings are just as important. Less fuel will be used transporting these delicious brews by both the brewery and their distributors, pumping less carbon into our atmosphere.”
The brewery’s custom-built canner was created by Palmer-Tech Services, INC. This is the largest project Palmer-Tech Services has completed for a craft brewery to date. The canning line will cover 1,000 square feet within the 8,000 square foot bottling line space and fills 200 cans per minute. The rotary filler alleviates risk of oxygen pick-up during the canning process, which ensures a longer shelf life. Other measures taken to deter oxygen invasion include a double pre-purge of CO2 into empty cans and a fobbing jetter to agitate the filled cans before the lids are sealed.
“The technological advancements made in the canning line industry will help us achieve a solid product that not only tastes as great as our bottled beer, but allows us to be more sustainable in the process,” explains Ale Asylum Brewmaster Dean Coffey. ”
Aluminum cans in a cardboard wrap is the greenest way you can purchase beer.” The brewery strives to implement sustainable practices throughout their entire manufacturing process and was the first in Wisconsin to sign the Brewery Climate Declaration.
On April 22, the brewery’s Tasting Room is hosting an Earth Day event from 4-7pm to celebrate the recent installation of their solar panels. This event is open to the public and features a logo tote bag for $15 that includes a free Ale Asylum pint of choice and a raffle ticket for a private brewery tour package or $50 of product from Just Coffee. A portion of the proceeds from the tote bag sales will benefit RENEW Wisconsin, an area organization that advocates renewable energy policies. “How sweet it is to have solar-powered beer! Ale Asylum’s rooftop solar project demonstrates its corporate leadership in energy self-sufficiency and protection of our natural resources,” quotes Tyler Huebner, RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director. The brewery is also collaborating on this event with the solar panel installation firm SunPeak to unveil a monitor in the Tasting Room that will show carbon offsets as well as daily, annual, and year-to-date production statistics.
At the beginning of the year, the brewery announced an aggressive distribution calendar featuring increased seasonal releases on top of the six brands they distribute year-round. With the addition of the canning line, they are grateful to have sustainability measures in place to reduce their carbon footprint while meeting production demands.