Mother's Brewing brings cans to market

Mother's Brewing Co. began selling its craft brews in cans yesterday in the Springfield market.

The Springfield-based brewer dispensed canned products to most stores where Mother's beer is sold, including Brown Derby, Macadoodles and Price Cutter, said Kelly Spencer, brewery administrator.

Mother's, which doesn't currently have canning equipment at its 215 S. Grant Ave. plant, worked with Albuquerque, N.M.-based Mother Road Mobile Canning to produce the cans. Mother Road brings its mobile canning equipment to companies. Mother's packaging crew members worked on-site in Springfield with Mother Road workers, Spencer said.

"So many places in this part of the country, glass is really frowned upon or not even allowed. We wanted to provide people the opportunity," Mother's Director of Sales and Marketing Jeremy Wicks said.

Wicks said the process represented Mother Road's first canning experience in Missouri, where it recently opened a location to do business with breweries and cider companies in the Show-Me State and Arkansas.

Wicks said cans would be seasonally produced for the spring and the summer unless customer demand is high for the other months. Mother's plans to continue to work with Mother Road, which he said simply hooks its machinery up to the brewery's tanks to produce the canned beverages.

Two of Mother's beers are available in cans: its Towhead blonde ale and Lil' Helper, an Indian pale ale. Mother's is working to bring its canned beers to each markets it serves, including Kansas City, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, Rolla, Sedalia, Kansas City, Kan., and northwestern Arkansas, according to the release.

Six-packs of 12-ounce cans retail for $8.49 to $8.99, the same as bottle pricing, Spencer said.