Michael Izzo

@MIzzoDR

Just in time for the holidays, several local breweries are taking a leap in their operation, canning and bottling some of their most popular beers for customers to take home.

It’s the next logical step for some local favorites, including Hackettstown’s Man Skirt Brewing, Chatham’s Twin Elephant Brewing, and Lafayette’s Angry Erik Brewing.

Man Skirt Brewing is planning to release more than 4,000 cans of Great Porter in January.

“It is my most popular beer overall, and also happens to be my personal favorite,” owner Joe Fisher said. “It was the first beer I ever brewed at Man Skirt, so it's fitting that it'll be the first one in cans.”

Man Skirt opened in fall 2015 and in the 14 months since, Fisher said he’s refined his recipes and brewing schedules enough that he can now schedule time and capacity for a canning run. He’s also saved some funds for cans and artwork.

The cans, designed by graphic artist Justine Sherry, were recently delivered to the brewery. Fisher is waiting for fermenter space to clear up so he can brew more porter for the cans. Once the beer is ready, Tripod Canning, a mobile canning system, will fill them.

“Most mobile canning companies won't show up for less than 30 barrels of beer,” Fisher said. “I produce a little less than seven barrels at a time. Tripod Canning is new on the scene and local, so they were willing to fill a smaller order.”

If the porter moves quickly, Fisher said he hopes to next can his Gold Bar blonde ale, and is considering some “can-only” releases down the line.

In addition to the cans, Fisher has started a barrel aging program, with his first cask of Wee Heavy scotch ale currently sitting in the “vault” of the brewery, which was formerly the site of a bank. He’s also planning to add additional taps so he can serve a greater variety of his beers in the tasting room.

Angry Erik held its first bottle release last Saturday. They chose a tasting room favorite, the Hop-N-Awe imperial IPA, sold in 22 ounce bombers.

“Because it is high in alcohol, we limit its consumption in our tasting room, so we thought it would be a nice one for people to take home in 22 ounce bottle form,” Angry Erik co-owner Heide Hassing said.

The label was designed by local students.

“We held a contest last year in a graphic design class at Sussex County Community College and Professor James Palmieri requested that the beer we choose be one that would generate plenty of opportunities for the students’ creativity.”

Less than 1,000 bottles were for sale, and some remain available this week at the brewery due to the snow storm last weekend.

“There was a crew tailgating in the snowy parking lot waiting for us at 10:30 a.m.,” Hassing said. “Thanks to Mother Nature's little snow storm, it was a quieter turnout than expected, but on the plus side, we still have a few cases left to sell this weekend for stocking stuffers.”

The Angry Erik staff can bottle about 144 bombers per hour when factoring in labeling, sanitizing, filling and packaging, so they plan to do a limited amount of releases each year. They currently sell only at the tasting room, but would like to try selling at local farmer’s markets should a state bill pass allowing breweries to do so.

Hassing said Angry Erik’s next bottle release will be Dainty Viking, a blonde ale brewed with dried elderflowers. She also hopes to expand Angry Erik’s brew house to allow them to can, which would enable them to sell to local retailers.

“Bottling or canning has been something we've been wanting to have time for since we first opened (in February 2014),” Hassing said. “Most of the canning lines have minimum quantity requirements that are too high for us to meet in our current production facility, so bottling seemed like the way to go.”

Also on sale this weekend was an extremely limited quantity of Twin Elephant’s first release, Lil' Shimmy Ye', a double dry-hopped American pale ale. The brewery sold just 90 4-packs of cans.

While Man Skirt, Angry Erik and Twin Elephant are new to the can and bottle release game, others like Butler’s High Point Brewing and Fairfield’s Cricket Hill Brewing, which have both been around for more than a decade and half, have bottled their offerings for years. Another relative newcomer, Magnify Brewing in Fairfield, has been bottling and canning for about a year.

Magnify opened about a year and a half ago and has grown rapidly. Owner Eric Ruta said he’s brewing at capacity and has added a storage warehouse in Pompton Plains so he could have the space to make more beer.

Magnify started bottling their releases very early on, issuing their first limited releases about six months after they opened, but since purchasing a canning line in September, Ruta said the brewery releases two to three beers every other week, available only at the tasting room. He said owning the canning line as opposed to using a mobile canner is a big help.

“It gives us flexibility. We're a small brewery with a lot of moving parts,” Ruta said. “One week we had to move canning back a day and that wasn't an issue because we had our own line.”

Ruta said Magnify has already canned more than 20 limited release beers, debuting about four or five new beers each month.

“We tend to lean toward hop forward beers where freshness is key, so to have people pick them up a day or two after canning is ideal for getting our supporters the freshest beer possible,” Ruta said. “We love drinking beer on draft but the convenience and transportability of cans is so important for the accessibility of our beer. Being able to bring beer with you in a vessel other than a growler, which needs to be consumed very quickly, is super important.”

Ruta said releases typically sell out within a day or two at most, with some selling out in just a few hours, which is flattering, but not the goal.

“Right now we are making as much beer as we can. We are very focused on fresh beer, but our goal isn't to sell out as fast as possible,” Ruta said. “People are drinking our beer the way we intended it to be. We're happy that people are excited about what we are doing.”

Magnify also distributes two year-round releases, Vine Shine IPA and Low Visibility Pale Ale, to 65 New Jersey retail locations. But the taproom releases tend to push the boundaries of styles more, like the latest in Magnify’ s Uncharted Territory series, a Baltic porter conditioned on cocoa nibs and lagered in an oak foeder.

“Our goal as a brewery is to produce the best beer we possibly can, push the boundaries of the styles of beer we like to drink,” Ruta said. “Doing small limit release batches in cans allows us to try things out and experiment. People have responded well to what we've been making and appreciate that we try to make things you don't see all the time.”

At 4 p.m. on Thursday at the brewery, Magnify will release cans of the Uncharted Territory, Momentary Master, a double IPA, and Cold Side an IPA with hops only added to the cold stages of the brewing process.

Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636;mizzo@GannettNJ.com