Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

  • Home
  • About
  • Editorial
  • Birthdays
  • Art & Beer

Socialize

  • Dribbble
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Powered by Genesis

You are here: Home / Events / Beer Bottle Workshop

Beer Bottle Workshop

March 5, 2007 By Jay Brooks

Last Thursday afternoon I attended a Glass Bottle Workshop put on by the California Small Brewers Association. It was held at and hosted by Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California. A few dozen brewers, suppliers and one journalist packed in the party balcony at Lagunitas to talk about beer bottles. First, some interesting facts about the beer bottle industry today.

In 1985, there were 110 glass plants in the United States. Today, that number has dropped to less than half, or 49 remaining glass plants. Of those, 42 of them (or about 84%) are owned by the three largest companies; Owens-Illinris oe O-I (19 plants), Saint-Gobain (14) and Anchor (8). Seven companies own the remaining eight, with Gujarat Glass International owning two and the rest operating a single plant each. Like most modern industries today, consolidation has whittled the landscape of glass manufacturers down to a few giants with a handful of small players hanging on for dear life. Typically, that’s good news if you’re a big consumer of glass but not so good if you’re a small player. Part of the reason for the shakeup in glass makers ocurred in 1992-94, when there was a huge decline in the market, caused primarily when most soft drink companies converted from glass to plastic bottles. Longnecks far outsell the shorter Heritage bottle and twist-offs currenty outsell non-twist off.

The breakdown of glass bottles is currently as follows:

  1. 85% Beer
  2. 17% Food
  3. 9% Beverages
  4. 5% Non-Food Jars
  5. 5% Wine
  6. 3% Spirits
  7. 3% FAB (Flavored Alcoholic Beverages)

Tony Magee (from Lagunitas) and Mark House (from Pyramid) led a round table panel discussion about issues facing small brewers regarding bottles.

Later Magee led a tour of Lagunitas’ new bottling line, installed last January, by the Italian company Sympak.

After some supplier presentations and an open discussion, the afternoon ended with a beer social. Here Dan Del Grande from Bison Brewing enjoys a pint from Lagunitas.

And here’s a story about an O-I plant in Colorado entitled the House of Glass from the Scripps Howard News Service.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Bay Area, Beer Suppliers, Brewing Equipment, California, Other Events



Comments

  1. Pete says

    March 6, 2007 at 11:53 am

    Another reason for craft brewers to switch to cans!

  2. Chris Wood says

    March 15, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    The photo (in this story) of Dan drinking out of plastic cup is very amusing to me. Didn’t you all just get finished with a roundtable that discussed the glass shortage in the industry? I guess pint glasses must be in short supply as well. LOL.

Find Something

Northern California Breweries

Please consider purchasing my latest book, California Breweries North, available from Amazon, or ask for it at your local bookstore.

Recent Comments

  • Return of the Session – Beer Search Party on The Sessions
  • Scoats on Beer Birthday: Scoats
  • You're Not From Around Here - Food GPS on The Sessions
  • Mark Smith on Beer In Ads #4778: Rheingold Can Quench A Dragon’s Thirst
  • Getting Ready to Celebrate St Patrick’s Day – The Blessing of Beer | Red Panda News on Beer Saints

Recent Posts

  • Beer Birthday: Dave Alexander May 8, 2025
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Emil Christian Hansen May 8, 2025
  • Beer In Ads #4962: Rieker’s Bock Beer May 7, 2025
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Dreher May 7, 2025
  • Beer In Ads #4961: Santa Cruz Bock Beer May 6, 2025

BBB Archives

Go to mobile version