Ridgeway Brewery of Oxfordshire has chosen Beatson Clark’s first standard embossed beer bottle for its range of craft beers.
The new smaller 330ml amber bottle has the words ‘Craft Beer’ embossed around the shoulder and is ideal for the new generation of ales that often have a higher alcohol content by volume.
“While the UK ales market has long been mostly in 500ml bottles the 330ml market is growing,” said Peter Scholey, co-owner of Ridgeway Brewery and its sister company Beer Counter.
He was formerly Head Brewer at the neighboring Brakspear Brewery.
“For some time there has been a variety of 500ml bottles available but the choice in 330ml has been very limited.”
“We are a bottled beer only business selling absolutely nothing to pubs so we have to be good at bottled beer,” he said.
“We produce not only our own Ridgeway beers but also a number of bespoke lines, particularly lagers, for the restaurant and wholesale trade.”
Scholey said he was not tempted to follow other breweries down the aluminum cans route.
“Right now craft canned beer is very trendy – bizarrely there is even an idea in some circles that a can is somehow better quality than glass packaging. That notion is complete rubbish!”
“Canned beer is inevitably inferior because of the difficulties in eliminating oxygen from the package, and even more so when small-scale packaging is considered,” he said.
“Our new embossed standard 330ml beer bottle is ideal for small breweries who want to differentiate their product on the shelf,” said Alison Hughes, Business Development Manager at Beatson Clark.
“We can also customize our standard containers by having the brewery’s name, logo or strapline embossed onto the bottle.”
“This is more cost-effective than investing in a fully bespoke design and it allows for the bottle to be manufactured in smaller volumes.”
