We’ll Get The Job Done Right, When Overpriced Equipment Doesn’t
Everything You Need to Know About Kindred Spirit Brewing
“Kindred Spirit Brewing was founded by a group of friends with the goal of crafting beers that draw people together.” What better way to bring friends together, after a long day, than with a place to kick back and enjoy some well-deserved craft beers? If you’re in the Richmond, Virginia area, then lucky you, but if you’re like the rest of us, then you’re also missing out on beers like Headspace, Day Drink’n, and Gridlock.
If things were going so well for Kindred Spirit Brewing, what is it that made them reach out to Sneed Coding Solutions? Well, when it comes to producing and distributing craft beers it’s important to have traceability information like born on dates and best before dates in the event that a recall were to occur. According to an article published by Flavourly,
- “ There are two main ‘B’ dates that you will find on the label of your craft beer… Your beer’s born-on date is the date that your beer was either bottled or canned; it’s basically an indication of freshness.”
- “The best before date is what you're more used to seeing on any of your food or drink containers; this is the legal and advised date beyond which the beer is not at its best. For most beers this will be around 110-180 days from the point at which it was born."
Kindred Spirit Brewing’s issue came down to dealing with overpriced printers that were producing prints that just weren’t up to par. Again, it’s crucial that date codes, lot codes, batch codes, and other traceability codes are legible, both for the consumer and manufacturer’s sake.
Was Your Overpriced Printing Tech Worth The Investment?
Just because equipment or products have a hefty price tag doesn’t mean that they’re always going to yield the best results; take Kindred Spirit Brewing’s previous printer; according to John Barefoot, one of the company owners,
- “We were tired of printing “born-on” dates using $5000 printers that managed to only apply smudged and often unreadable date codes on our canned beer.”
You would think that after having invested $5,000 or more into your printing equipment, the least it could do was print clearly and efficiently, so imagine Kindred Spirit Brewing’s frustration when all they got was error ridden prints.
What Was Production Like After Partnering Up With Sneed?
There’s only so much a company can put up with before they seek a better solution and Kindred Spirit Brewing was ready to do just that. When Mr. Barefoot contacted us and broke down their situation and process, we decided that the SNEED-JET® Titan was the best fit for the job; plus it came at only a fraction of the cost. So, how’s that new printer working out for them?
- “While the installation wasn’t difficult, it did take some time to learn; luckily, the staff at Sneed was helpful as were the numerous tutorial videos. And look at us now, we’re experts and able to make adjustments whenever we need to.”
- “On average we use the printer once per week and get about 8,000 prints per use; it’s also allowed us to add creatively-witty messages next to the date codes; lastly, we’ve had no problem with consistency. “
Now that’s how you go from struggling with illegible-inconsistent prints and overpriced printing technology to producing crisp-clean prints and streamlining your process for a fraction of the cost.
