The full impact probably hasn’t been felt yet, but brace yourself: There appears to be a shortage of the aluminum cans used to package beer and soda.
Whether — or how — that affects your ability to get your hands on your favorite cold one in Central New York remains to be seen.
The shortage appears to be due to a rising demand for drinks in cans. That’s fueled in large part by the coronavirus: People are drinking more in their homes than at bars and restaurants during the pandemic. Much of what they drink at home comes in cans.
Add the two-year surge in the category of hard seltzers, which has led to a spike in demand for a particular type of package -- the slim or sleek can. That’s putting pressure on the aluminum supply for standard 12-ounce cans.
And then there’s the decade-long trend in which brewers, especially many of the newer craft breweries, have demonstrated a preference for packaging in cans instead of bottles.
“The can shortage is real, for sure,” said Mike Moehringer, general manager at Clinton’s Ditch Cooperative in Cicero, a packager of Pepsi products. “Our business is actually up during the pandemic. I could sell more product right now if I had more cans.”
It’s not an issue of the supply of raw aluminum, according to a recent report in USA Today. Instead, it’s the inability of can manufacturers to meet demand. Several new can manufacturing facilities are now under construction across the country.
“The can industry is working 24/7 on meeting the unprecedented demand,” Robert Budway, president of the Can Manufacturers Institute, the industry’s trade association, told USA Today.
For companies like Clinton’s Ditch and many Upstate New York beer makers, the shortage is likely to show up in extended delays in getting new supplies.
“It is definitely a tight supply,” said Fred Matt, president of Matt (Saranac) Brewing Co. in Utica. As at many breweries, cans have been making up an increasingly large portion of Matt’s packaging in recent years. Cans rose from 30% of packaging two years ago to 67% today, Matt said.
The Utica brewery has started trying to increase its inventory of empty cans in stock, and is bracing for longer lag times for delivery, perhaps as much as five to six months, Matt said.
At the significantly smaller Middle Ages Brewing Co. in Syracuse, cans (in this case the 16-ounce size) have also become the primary packaging preference, Isaac Rubenstein said. With tasting rooms shut for much of the spring, takeout 4-packs became a more important piece of the business.
“We’re actually OK in the supply right now,” Rubenstein said. “But I’m hearing a lot of talk about some longer delays in resupply, maybe even a year in some cases."
Paul Leone, director of the New York State Brewers Association, also thinks the issue hasn’t hit hard yet, but the future is more uncertain.
“I don’t think anyone is in panic mode yet,” he said of the state’s craft breweries. “But we’ll have to see what happens going forward.”
Leone also noted a shortage earlier this year of crowlers, the 32-ounce to-go can packaging used by many small breweries, “worked itself out.”
At Anheuser-Busch InBev, the global brewing giant whose brewery near Baldwinsville is the largest in New York state, the official word for now is that the situation is under control.
“Our can supply is currently sufficient,” the company said in a statement. “Our ability to serve our retail customers and our consumers has not been interrupted, nor has the availability of our beers.”
A-B InBev has a benefit that most smaller breweries don’t have: It owns a subsidiary, Metal Container Corp., that supplies more than 45 percent of the cans used by its U.S. plants. One of Metal Container’s plants is in Newburgh in the Hudson Valley.
For other major brewers or soda makers, the can shortage is leading some to stop packaging some smaller or niche brand lines in favor of saving the cans for the top-sellers, USA Today reported.
So far, the shortage of cans may be hard to spot at your local market, such as Wegmans stores.
“Wegmans is a aware of the shortage of beer cans,” the Rochester-based grocery chain said in a statement. “We are doing everything we can to have beer products available for our customers. A variety of packaging options are being offered to ensure our customers are able to purchase their beverage of choice. These options include both bottle and can varieties.”
At Branching Out Bottle Shop, a specialty beer store in Camillus’ Township 5, the shortage hasn‘t been felt “yet,” said co-owner Carissa Monahan. “But I fully expect that to trickle down to me soon.”
She has, however, noticed a related coronavirus effect. Fewer brewers are offering beer for sale in kegs to her shop.
“I am having a hard time getting kegs actually since so many breweries are hesitant to keg any beer with bars/restaurants being open, then closed, then open, then closed,” she said. “They don’t want their kegs getting tapped and then sitting and dying.”
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Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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