Major Beer Company Issues Recall For ‘Packaging Flaw’

Beer company Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. issued a recall for some of its 12-ounce bottles, which the company said might contain a “glass packaging flaw.”

The company announced the recall on its website with a statement to consumers.

We have announced a voluntary recall of select 12-ounce bottles that may contain a small glass packaging flaw. This recall comes after quality inspections at our Mills River, North Carolina, brewery detected a very limited number of bottles with a flaw that may result in loss of carbonation and a small piece of glass to break off and possibly fall into the bottle, causing a risk for injury. While we believe this concern impacts roughly 1 in every 10,000 (0.01%) of our bottles packaged during this time, Sierra Nevada has set the standard for quality in the craft brewing industry since 1980 and we have decided to take this precaution to ensure the safety of our consumers.  To-date, we have not received any consumer reports of injuries resulting from the potentially affected bottles and we are working with our suppliers to determine the root cause of the issue.

The recall applies to product purchased in the following Midwest, Southern and East Coast states: AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI and WV.

Other products from the company were not impacted by the recall, including the brewery’s canned and draught beer, its variety packs, 24-ounce bottled beer, 750 ml bottled beer and a number of brews that were packaged before the date of the reported flaw.

Other breweries applauded Sierra Nevada’s recall efforts, saying they have experienced similar issues, and noting it’s often a major financial hardship for companies to issue recalls. 

“They are acting responsibly,” Bill Covaleski, president and co-founder of Victory, a brewery that experienced a similar recall in 2014, told BillyPenn. “It really must be done.”

The issue of glass potentially falling into beers is reportedly uncommon.

“Never broken glass-type packaging issues, and certainly nothing of that magnitude,” Neshaminy Creek Brewing Co. co-founder Jeremy Myers said of his brewery. 

Sources: Sierra Nevada, BillyPenn / Photo credit: NIH/Wikimedia Commons