The first rule of can failure is you don’t talk about can failure.
Yet with breweries increasingly producing and packaging non-beer liquids such as hard kombucha and ready-to-drink cocktails (RTDs)—sometimes called “hard-to-hold” beverages by the packaging industry because they can gradually eat cans from the inside—the topic is more critical than ever.
“Breweries are really reticent to talk about this stuff publicly,” says Kevin McCabe, founder of Double Strand Consulting and a former brewery quality-assurance manager. “I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg with problems.”