Bag-in-Box -The BiB Idea

In the summer of 2003 during a brainstorming session involving Mr. Fischer (Master Brewer) Mr. Koch Sr. and Mr. Koch Jr., the idea was conceived to develop a system for packaging beer without CO₂. The driving force behind this project was the lack of kegs, which was restraining sales growth.

Work began in earnest on the project and the first trials were carried out. The breakthrough came in December 2005 and the vision began to take shape. The key was Bag-in-Box Beer.

Now we know: It's a big revolution for the beer market that will take place in the next few years.

Initial position

Beer sales in Germany have been in decline for over 20 years. Many breweries have high surplus capacity and a damaging internal price war is raging. However, the export market gives us another leg to stand on even, or precisely, for small breweries with their usually superb speciality beers.

One of the main problems with export is the transport of reusable packaging. Whereas bottles are mostly sold as disposable, this is not possible with kegs. Once emptied, kegs must be sent back to the brewery to be refilled. These costs have to be factored in with the product price. A further problem is the high risk of lost kegs and capital lockup.

So the idea was to develop a cost-effective disposable system for kegs.

The solution consisted in largely removing the carbon dioxide from the beer before bottling. Without carbon dioxide there is no pressure on the transport packaging. 

Beer low in CO₂ can be bottled like, say, milk in so-called Bag-In-Box containers. In the public house, beer low in CO₂  is drawn out of the bag and aerated with CO₂ back to its original concentration on its way to the tap.

The CO2 aeration is made possible through our patented innovation: The Anker-Beer-Carbonator

Ankerbräu has solved all process steps and the initial bugs are fixed. Since April 2008 we are selling our great Bavarian Beer worldwide in BagInBox. The system is ready for the market. In 2009 we expect to produce 30% of our overall beer production in the Beer-In-Box concept. A great system for a great beer.