20 BREWING & BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES BUSINESS Beer Combo returnable transport solution Liners are a reliable and easy to use and when new empty of everything including air. Once the fill hose is attached to it the only thing getting into the liner will be what comes down the hose, no air, no dust, no leftover cleaning product. Once filled either completely or partially, with the hose removed, excess gas will come to the top and can be expelled from the liner which can then be sealed – no purging required. Once in the liner your product is safe from all kinds of external contaminants including the DO pick up associated with rigid containers and the effects of UV through its translucent sides Being able to manage the hygiene, O₂ and UV factors plays an important part in reducing the risk of developing unwanted taints, odours and flavours within the beer and importantly increases the shelf life of the packed product. So, as with the brewers themselves, packaging companies pride themselves and are judged by the quality of their product. This has led to many of the growing number of quality bottling and canning companies either recommending the use of bag-in-box units or providing them as an integrated part of their own service, after all the quality of the packaged product is intrin- sically affected by the quality of the product inside it. As a demountable unit the Arlington Beer Combo can be collapsed down to 40% of its operational size making it easy and low cost to store and transport with many brewers able to have the Combo returned from bottling with the bottles at no additional cost. 4 empty Combos can be transported in a single pallet space within the pallet network. And what of the cost? The traditional bottle and cage, rigid containers seemingly represent good value, with new units running in at less than £150 and refurbished/rebottled units for as little as a half of that. The Beer Combo costs something more like four times that for a new unit with the cost of consumables on top of that. However, the beer combo is also available to rent on a day, month or yearly basis. The advantage of doing this, apart from the out and out cost advantage, is that you only need to have the amount of containers that you actually need at any given time. Expand the number for busy periods, contract or de-hire completely for quieter ones. Overall then the Beer Combo offers considerable quality and logistical benefits and is probably cheaper to operate than the traditional options as well helping you to get a better nights sleep. Small pack products will be of a better quality and keep longer than before helping to redress the balance between you and the big boys. Thanks to Vic at Cerne Abbas Brewery for the pictures. CONTAINERS Showcase Cornish distiller, Pocketful of Stones started with a gin and is now focused on another dream, absinthe. Absinthe is seeing a revival and is produced in dozens of countries including the US, where the production ban was lifted in 2007. “I was intrigued to give Absinthe a go and wanted to challenge myself,” states Shaun Bebington of Pocketful of Stones. “It meant working with flavours one might not normally use but I also wanted to stick to ingredients and the environment that influences us here on the Cornish coast.” Morveren Absinthe was born, and the stunning packaging of the drink will most definitely catch the eye. The tall, clear glass bottle highlights the almost luminous pale green, yellow colour of the spirit and both the label and the outer sleeve reflect all that has gone into the making of this absinthe. “The packaging needed to reflect not only the ingredients but the history of absinthe, the ethics and values of the distillery and its surroundings, and the story behind the drink, “ states Bebington. “The label needed to have exceptional foiling and finish and be of a high quality with precise die-cutting. So this was quite a challenge for the label printer. We chose a digital label company to produce this because it is a small batch, hand-crafted product with a short production run. Label.co.uk was able to give us the label quality and finish to complete our high- end packaging. Their foiling and die-cutting is exceptional. As you can see on the label.” label.co.uk is an online, label printing company that manufactures profes- sional, custom-printed roll labels for brands and businesses of all types and sizes, but particularly for the beer, wine and spirits industries. Cornish absinthe catches the eye www.arlingtonpackaging.com For more information visit: Continued from page 18 www.label.co.uk For more information visit: 20_Layout 1 16/05/2018 13:08 Page 1