麦克风酿造公司started as a hobby for Daniel and Jon Love, and Kamron Khannakhjavani in 2010 in San Diego. The company operated out of 2,200-sq.-ft.-industrial space, which allowed the business to grow quickly and for the company to begin self-distribution of 22-oz. bottles and kegs to stores, bars, and restaurants. A large Tap House in Vista, Calif. followed and gave the company more opportunities to expand its production spaces—adding nearly 28,000 sq. ft.
The brewer entered major distribution in late 2013. After double-digit growth in 2014, Daniel Love wanted to expand operations but had a hard time doing business and finding new opportunities for growth in Southern California.
“It's just not a business-friendly state for someone of our size, less than a hundred employees,” Daniel Love says.
Expanding up north
因此，随着许多加利福尼亚人所做的，丹尼尔的爱向北朝北，爱达荷州，他们发现了有足够的机会与当地政府和倡议合作，支持像他们这样的小企业。
公司built a 40,000-sq.-ft. production facility 15 miles west of Boise in the neighboring city of Nampa, which provided them a lot of space to sprawl.
The facility houses a 40 beer barrel volume (bbl) multi-vessel Mueller brewhouse, and the capacity to produce more than 100,000 bbls a year, becoming one of the largest breweries in Idaho, according to the company. The Nampa production facility supports most of the company's growth and produces beer for all markets outside Southern California. The original Vista brewery continues to provide draft and specialty offerings to its home market while also managing the creation of one-off brews for visitors at its retail operations in North County San Diego.
Under the brand, there are eight different year-round beers, including its claim to fame, the Cali Creamin’ vanilla cream ale.
“It sounds like it might be sweet, but it’s a dry beer,” says Daniel Love. “We use Madagascar vanilla bean instead of using hops. It is very special and unique. Nobody else does this type of beer.”
Automated cartoner allows Mother Earth to scale amid pandemic woes
随着Covid-19 Pandemer开始，它还在其记录增长中为工艺公司创造了一些障碍。它在加利福尼亚州的味道房间关闭，但该公司在Vista举行了啤酒啤酒厂手稿，以通过石头酿造在南加州的分销。目前，Nampa设施仍将20个不同的国家和11个不同的国家分发，同时也填入了Vista Brewery不能的地方。总而言之，业务与每年约有1000万罐头的业务良好。
2020年3月，公司带来了其中一个Wild Goose canning machines达到Nampa - 它已经拥有另一台机器的另一台机器 - 从加利福尼亚州的位置，允许它们升至80罐/分钟。
 |
Read this story about一种提高效率并降低成本的自动化罐头线 |
公司spends 70% of its time running 24-count mix packs and the other 30% of the time running 12-packs with its Cali Creamin', Tierra Madre, and Boo Koo beers. Up until recently, the packing was handled manually, but record labor shortages and the amount of variety necessitated automation.
公司invested in anEconocorp斯巴达装饰品, which allowed it to automate the case and tray erecting and packing.
该公司投资于Econocorp Spartan Cartoner，使他们能够自动化案例和托盘架设和包装。
“We do a lot of stuff in 24-pack trays,” says Chris Baker, director of brewing operations. “But we were also trying to touch on that carton side of the business. We wanted something that would do both because, individually, the two machines are expensive. So, getting something that was a good bridge between them was what we were looking for, and the Spartan really covered that.”
Not only was the company packaging both 12-pack cartons and 24-pack trays for its different beers, but some brands added in the complexity of having both 12- and 16-oz cans. This necessitated a cartoner that allowed them to changeover often with ease. Now, they can change the Econocorp cartoner over in less than 20 minutes, which doesn’t negatively impact production goals.
“我们是遍历的地方，所以包装需要很聪明，以便我们可以掌握一个品牌并淘汰四种不同的格式，然后进入另一个品牌，”贝克说。
It was also important to find a cartoner that couldkeep up with their canning line capabilities还适应更大、更快的操作the company grows.
 |
听这个播客how to bridge the skills gap through partnerships |
“We want to look at 200 to 250 cans/min. next, and this machine can keep up with it,” Baker says. “At our size, that's a tough machine to find, because the reality was everyone else wanted to sell us something that would either work for the next six months or be so expensive and so over-the-top that it would be overkill for the next year or whatever it takes us to get into a bigger line. This is something we can grow into and expand upon pretty easily.”
The cans run through two separate Wild Goose WGC 250 canning lines, where cans are rinsed and sanitized by two twist rinsers, filled, and seamed.
How the line works together
的Econocorp纸板包装机is the latest addition to Mother Earth Brewing’s filling and packaging line, but there is a lot more going on upstream keeping the company at its target of 80 cans/min.
公司runs two separate lines, starting with aSka Double Eagle depalletizer该公司于2020年升级的公司升级。罐头通过两条独立的野鹅WGC 250罐装线，其中罐子被两个扭曲冲洗器，填充和缝合卷曲和消毒。过去六年来，地球一直在运行野鹅线。
“There are an infinite number of adjustments and ability to adjust things,” Baker says. “If I run a milk stout, I can slow my belts down to give it time to foam out how I want. It's more versatile. While I can't run super high carbonation levels, I can run nitro beers. We run everything through that.”
自定义传送将两条线组合在一起，以应用日期代码using Domino A320i ink jet printers通过A.Heuft Basic low fill/low pressure detector, aChart Industries氮素剂量，一个Anton PaarCBox, and aZAHM.刺穿装置检查溶解氧水平.
Custom conveyance brings the two Wild Goose lines together and sends cans through a Heuft Basic low fill/low pressure detector.
“Along with theAnton Paar CBox, we do have a very extensive laboratory, and a lot of breweries our size don’t have that,” Daniel Love says. “We do pull off a number of cans in line at the beginning, the middle, and the end and we store them warm, cold, and hot. We taste those about every other Friday with our brewers, so we have an extensive ability to react to somebody if they get a beer and they light us up on Facebook or send us an email. We know before we put something in the can that the product is going to be exactly what it needs to be and there aren’t going to be any inconsistencies in it.”
After the cans run through inspection, they are fed onto an accumulation table, which allows the company to keep fillers running if equipment backs up or slows downstream.
“We try to think the setup through so that we could add in bigger pieces without having to change everything,” Baker says.
For higher volume beers like the Cali Creamin’, Mother Earth uses printed cans, which run straight into aPakTechcan carrier applicator120/180 from the accumulation table. The applicator can be configured for a six-pack or four-pack.
对于可能不符合供应商最低订单量（MOQ）的较低卷啤酒，如项目X，这是一系列全年旋转啤酒，具有新的标签和新艺术品，母亲母亲可以side-stream these cans to aPack LeaderPL-501 can labeler, which applies pressure sensitive labels from localBoise-based label makerAction Quality Printers.
From there, a long infeed conveyor brings cans to the Econocorp cartoner.
“We set it up so that we could put some tables on it and make that feed pretty easily.” Baker says, “We set these tables along the side, and then we just push these on with these lanes and we now have the ability to either do six varieties, four cans of each. We could do two varieties, with 12 each, or we could do two varieties, six each, and a 12-pack. We can do literally anything we want.”
 |
Watch this关于创新的新标记，编码和数字机械的视频报告，CAND EXPO LAS VEGAS |
然后，四英尺的输送机引线可以到另一个Domino A320i日期编码器，以编码纸箱外部。
“Some brands are still missing on that front and it's really frustrating to buy a 12-pack of an IPA, you're really excited, take it home, and realize it's really old,” Baker says. “So, we code the outside of those.”
A gravity feed conveyor takes the cans to a stop point where three to four people hand-stack cases onto a pallet in preparation for the company’s pallet wrapper.
What’s next for Mother Earth
As the company continues to scale, Daniel Love and Baker are building flexibility into their operations and line so that when the time comes, they can ramp up to 200 to 250 cans per minute. But they are also keeping an eye on quality. Along with its extensive testing, the company has also developed an internal shelf life assessment called 30, 60, 90 where they test the beers 30 days after packaging, 60 days after packaging, and 90 days after packaging, as well as under different conditions.
“Knowing what's going on with your product as it goes through its life cycle is important,” Baker says. “Now, if somebody brought us a beer and they're like, ‘What's wrong with this?’ I could tell you just from the taste how old it is, how many days it's been warm, and how it's been stored. The reality of it is once the beer leaves your facility, you really don't know what happens to it.”
Mother Earth’s lifecycle analysis, which provides valuable insights on beer quality even after it leaves the brewery, helps identify and account for distribution issues that could negatively impact a beer that left the facility fresh and delicious. These steps improve insight into the whole operation and inform the company on how to keep quality as high as its fans expect.
