SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California’s craft breweries are being hit hard during COVID-19. The California Craft Brewer’s Association says that 99 percent of the craft breweries they surveyed throughout the state are being negatively impacted by stay-at-home orders.

However, one canning company is using a creative method to help keep craft breweries in business. The Can Van is a small business with 22 employees. Currently, they serve about 80 breweries in California.

Jenn Coyle, the Co-Owner of the Can Van, is one of the women behind the business and started the mobile canning service in 2011. As soon as the news broke that taprooms were closing from the stay-at-home order, Coyle says her phone began ringing off the hook.

“A lot of our customers were in a place of great uncertainty and not really being sure on how they were being able to sell their beer,” Coyle said.

That’s where the Can Van was able to assist. The canning company comes to craft breweries to help them can and label their products. The canning company sets up a canning line at each craft brewery. Then, the aluminum cans are fed on to the conveyor belt. As they move forward, the cans are rinsed and filled with beer.

The cost for canning is around 50-cents a can or $10 a case. Usually, craft breweries sell beer out of their taprooms, or sell to restaurants and cafés.

“It’s definitely not making up for the amount of sales being lost by having the taprooms closed, but at least right now it’s helping everybody make some sales, keep the lights on, and just keep going,” Coyle said.

But now craft breweries like Claimstake Brewing in Sacramento are doing curbside pickup. The Co-Owner of Claimstake Brewing, Brian Palmer, says that since the pandemic began, they have had to change their entire business model by primarily canning their beer into four packs.

“Without canning beer at a time like this we probably would be 75-percent below business as normal,” Palmer said.

He adds that he’s thankful for the canning company and without it, his business would barely be able to scrape by.

“At this point, you can say that the Can Van has saved our business,” Palmer said.

Coyle says she’s also grateful to work with craft breweries and help them get through this crisis.

“If the breweries are not here in six months, then we’re not going to be here either. We’re all part of a small business community, so we really rely on each other,” Coyle said.

So for now, the Can Van will continue to tap into craft breweries during COVID-19, filling can after can while taprooms remain closed.