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Until just a couple of years ago it was a big investment that they couldn't afford. I'm sure if Carlow and DBC could have done their own bottling in a cost-effective way they would have.

These days -- and perhaps noby can confirm -- smaller, cheaper bottling machines are available. That's what Cuilan told me, anyway. I do wonder about quality, though. I'm not sure Hilden's bottling system is up to scratch and it doesn't do the reputation of their beers any good. That's true for several other UK breweries as well: bottling is an afterthought and there's no saying "your bottled beer tastes like elderly cardboard" because, obviously, if you're not drinking it fresh from the cask you have no right to comment <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: -->

I'd imagine that the actual act of bottling is only the start of the costs. You'd probably need to hire sales reps to go around to pubs and off licenses, storage space, transport. Retailers are probably used to dealing with a few importers and distributors and not too keen on working with one brewery who can supply one or two crates of beer every month. I think it's a major achievement that Carlow have accessed a number of the large supermarkets.

Diablo, you could say the exact same thing about kegs, only with kegs, you can't sell to offies and you have to persuade the publican to take a tap, not just a few crates.

&amp;quot;Diablo&amp;quot;:ih67yw4n wrote: I'd imagine that the actual act of bottling is only the start of the costs.[/quote:ih67yw4n]The big extra costs (from talking to a brewer a few months back) are bottles and the design and printing of labels -- those aren't issues with reusable kegs.

&amp;quot;TheBeerNut&amp;quot;:1lv5hq1y wrote: The big extra costs (from talking to a brewer a few months back) are bottles and the design and printing of labels -- those aren't issues with reusable kegs.[/quote:1lv5hq1y]

True but kegs are only reusable if a marco brewers draymen don't "accidentally" take the empties out of the pub cellar and bring them back to macro HQ.

Bottles are also more labour intensive than kegs.

Anyway, it's not one or the other, I see no reason why you can't do both. If your brewery is too busy brewing beer and lashing it into kegs, then great. Maybe it doesn't need the extra sales bottles would represent.

&amp;quot;sbillings&amp;quot;:a9tb5ktl wrote: Maybe it doesn't need the extra sales bottles would represent.[/quote:a9tb5ktl]
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I'd say that's a big part of it. And I reckon the same goes for things like proper online presence: I don't think they're convinced that the effort which goes into them is worthwhile. And maybe it isn't. But it's a bit of a pain from a consumer and campaigner's point of view.