Please enjoy this exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage of an episode of PBS's "Made in Virginia." Brought to you by Atlantic Union Bank, a proud supporter of Virginia businesses.
The bottling line that we got, about a year ago, has been fantastic. And it has opened up new opportunities for us because not everybody goes out to restaurants or bars. A lot of people will pick up a 6-pack of their favorite beer – hopefully ours – at the grocery store and take it home with them.
Bottling can be a challenge because there are a lot of moving parts. You have to take the bottle itself, you have to get the label applied to it, you have to sanitize the bottle, fill it, and cap it. Then it has to get packaged into 6-packs and case cartons. So the process itself has a lot of moving parts and it takes a lot of precision to do it correctly.
Bottling begins with prepping the bottles and assembling 6-pack boxes. The bottles are put on a table and fed into the line. The labeler puts a label on the bottles. The bottles are then sanitized 9 at a time. Then the bottles are purged and continue to the filler six at a time. The bottles are then filled with beer. The bottles are sprayed with a bit of water to get all the oxygen out. The bottles are capped and crimped. Finally, they are inspected, packed by hand and then sent to cold storage to wait for pick up.