Light-weight Rapak beer box cuts costs

The Beer-in-Box pack has been developed by Bavarian brewer Ankerbräu, in conjunction with Rapak filling machinery, to reduce transport costs.

Thirty-six 25-litre rectangular corrugated boxes with a PE interior bag and a PE seal and nozzle can be stacked onto a single pallet, rather than 18 30-litre kegs.

The bags, dispensing seals and filling machinery are produced by Rapak but the outer cartonboard box can be produced by any manufacturer. An Autokap 610FC semi-automatic machine can fill 60 25-litre bags per hour.

Ankerbräu started work on the concept as a way to cut transport costs and overcome the expense of losing up to 30% of kegs in return transit. All the beer-in-box components can be recycled when empty.

Florian Koch of Ankerbräu said the export potential for many small breweries had been restricted by the cost of transporting traditional metal kegs, but the bag-in-box alternative gave the company the potential to market its traditionally brewed, speciality beers around the world.

The bag-in-box beer company calculates that transporting beer in a box can result in savings of £10-£13.50 (€15-€20) per 100 litres.