• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

South Dakota’s Fernson Brewing utilizes a WaveGrip multi-packing applicator to help packaging its craft beer

June 5, 2019Pretty Much a Press Release

Fernson Brewing Co.opened in Sioux Falls, S.D., just over four years ago and now operates across two locations. It has a brewery and taproom on the outskirts of town and a bustling and lively taproom and kitchen right in the heart of Sioux Falls.

The brewery offers five core beers, and the range includes a hoptastic IPA Shy Giant, Lions Paw, an easy drinking lager, and even Curio, a citrusy tart brew. These core beers stay on year-round alongside one-off specials, collaborations and seasonal guests.

As well as being available on-site, a range of Fernson beers are available in cans and play a key part in the brewery’s offering, allowing drinkers to enjoy Fernson’s beers at home.

“We are often asked why we chose cans for our beers rather than bottles, and there are two basic reasons. One is that cans are better at protecting each beer from light and oxygen, and two is because aluminum cans are lighter and easier to recycle than glass,” says Joel Thompson, CEO of Fernson Brewing. “However, while cans are great for the beers and our drinkers, packaging them was proving to be very labor intensive, and many of the automated solutions we had seen were just too expensive for the level we need to run our machines at.”

Yet WaveGrip’s G1 applicator proved to change that for Fernson. With its low entry price, automating the packaging process became a reality and the G1 delivered savings in both the cost of labor and materials needed to pack its cans. While the G1 applicator provides efficiency upgrades for the brewery, the WaveGrip carriers are also providing sustainability benefits as well. Weighing less than 4 g for a standard six-pack and using less material than any other multi-packing solution, WaveGrip is the lightest carrier on the market. Additionally, all WaveGrip carriers are 100 percent recyclable and meet current U.S. Packaging regulations by being photodegradable.

WaveGrip Managing Director Aaron McIvor explained: “We wanted the G1 to be an accessible solution for craft brewers, giving them an entryway into automated multi-packing of cans and allowing them to increase their production at an affordable cost. We are delighted to see that Fernson is already benefitting from reductions in labor and material to pack their beers, and we look forward to these growing as their production scales up.”

“The WaveGrip G1 was the perfect choice for us and even running at just 30 cpm we are seeing significant benefits, including giving the team more time to spend on what they love — the brewing,” said Thompson.

Canning2-001
Manufacturer advice for specing the right canning equipment for your brewery
WG-Evolution-Series_Image-No-Text
Craft Beer Canning Line Buyer’s Guide 2020
WaveGrip and Atlanta’s Orpheus Brewing establish cool, eco-focused carrier return plan
wave grip beer can packer
Due South Brewing explains efficiencies of its new multi-packing applicator

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jerry DeBoer says

    June 5, 2019 at 6:26 pm

    Fernson makes great beer!

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Resplendent Oregon hop farm has ultimate beer garden (TopWire Hop Project) reopening April 30 (enjoy some images)
  • This Get Your Drink On app gifts beer money to a phone’s digital wallet, so please send me some
  • New Yuengling limited-edition desert camo Lager cans honor vets and allow drinkers to engage with a Snapchat Yuengling eagle
  • Arryved debuts OpenTab to change the on-premise POS game

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Crosby Farm TopWire Hop Project 12Resplendent Oregon hop farm has ultimate beer garden (TopWire Hop Project) reopening April 30 (enjoy some images)
    April 15, 2021
  • Get Your Drink On app people cheers drinksThis Get Your Drink On app gifts beer money to a phone’s digital wallet, so please send me some
    April 15, 2021
  • GEA-InsightPartner-ProduktbildInside the real-time process control of GEA’s InsightPartner software
    April 14, 2021
  • roughhouse brewing cave aged beersCave-aged beer finally excavated by Roughhouse and other beers to know this week
    April 13, 2021
  • Distribution update: 21st Amendment heads to Hawaii, Upland Brewing to Chicago, Ceria Brewing to Texas/Puerto Rico and lots more news
    April 13, 2021
  • CODO Can design backgroundExploring canning trends and the can shortage with CanSource
    April 12, 2021

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by