Cask Global Canning Solutions Hits The North Pole With Svalbard Brewery

(Longyearbyen, Norway) – Svalbard Brewery — the world’s northernmost brewery —

has become Cask’s first Norwegian micro-canning craft brewery.

Years in the making, Svalbard Brewery is located in the remote town of Longyearbyen

(population 2,400) on Spitsbergen Island in Norway’s Svalbard Islands archipelago. The

Arctic Ocean islands are home to an estimated 3,500 polar bears, and the brewery is just

over 800 miles from the North Pole.

To make his brewery a reality, founder Robert Johansen had to overcome numerous

obstacles due to the brewery’s extreme northern location. He also had to complete a

lengthy campaign to change longstanding laws that prohibited brewing in the region.

The brewery is now open and launching its first packaged beers in cans filled and seamed

on Cask Brewing System’s Automatic Canning System (ACS). 

“Robert is a true brewing pioneer,” says Cask founder Peter Love. “He is defying his

country’s traditional practices and literally rewriting the rules for brewers there. He joins

a large group of innovative craft brewers who are having great success thanks to their

unconventional thinking and our micro-canning machines.”

Svalbard’s founders cite the many benefits of aluminum cans and Cask Brewing

System’s pioneering reputation as reasons for opening with cans instead of bottles.

“Cans,” says co-founder Anne Grete Johansen, “are lightweight, easier to store and

easier to transport. They are perfect for trips in the wilderness, which are very common

here among locals and tourists coming to see polar bears, glaciers and the landscape.

They are also better for the environment as cans are recycled here in Norway and are

worth 1 NOK for each can someone returns.”

She and her husband chose Cask for several reasons. “We learned about Cask on the Web

while doing research,” she says. “We discovered that they created this concept of micro-

canned craft beer and they have a long history of helping small brewers like us. We also

got some good references about Cask from some peers in Sweden.”

Svalbard’s first canned beers are Spitsbergen Pilsner, Spitsbergen IPA and Spitsbergen

Pale Ale. The beers are available for purchase at Longyearbyen bars, restaurants and the

town’s one beer store.

Johansen hopes to have her micro-canned beers in Norway’s government-run system in

November, once they are approved for sale and the country’s recycling program. The

beers are made with melted water from the region’s surrounding glaciers.

“Svalbard’s embracing of our equipment and cans,” Love says, “highlights the

advantages we’ve been touting since we invented micro-canning. With the brewery’s

remote location, reduced shipping and packaging costs are especially crucial. Recycling

is just as important for Svalbard’s business as it is for the local environment. Our canning

gear and cans make all of those things possible for the brewery.”

“Canned craft beer is the hottest craft beer package in North America,” Love says.

“Someday that will be the case in Norway.”

Cask created the micro-canned concept while working with brew-on-premise

homebrewing operations it supplied in Canada, the US and Australia. Cask placed its first

canning gear in those BOPS in 1999.

In 2002 Cask sold its first machine (a table-top machine that seamed one can at a time) to

a craft brewer, Oskar Blues Brewery & Pub in Colorado, USA. The tiny brewpub was the

first US microbrewer to brew and can its own beer. Its cans-only focus helped make it

one of craft beer’s fastest-growing breweries, with production quickly rising from 700

barrels/year to over 149,000 barrels/year in 12 years.

Sales of US canned sixpacks last year were up 97% compared to 14% growth of bottles.

“Our canning systems,” Love says, “have helped micro and craft breweries around the

world enter the packaged-beer segment and quickly grow their businesses. We’re very

proud of that.”  

Cask’s manual, semi-automated and automated canning systems are now used by over

500 small breweries, wineries, cider and drinks makers in over 40 nations.

The machines require as little as 16 square feet of space. They also provide extremely

low levels of dissolved oxygen (15-20 parts per billion) that extend a beer’s shelf life and

flavor.