Last chance to save $100! Cutting-edge Trends for Every Industry at PACK EXPO Southeast
Discover packaging & processing solutions for all industries at the all-new PACK EXPO Southeast in Atlanta, GA, March 10-12, 2025
LAST CHANCE! Register ASAP for $30

Laying the groundwork

A strong initial equipment foundation has this burgeoning Oklahoma brewery poised to take the next step.

This 12-nozzle filler with seaming station caught Mountain Fork Brewery management’s eye because its design affords low oxygen pickup. This will give the beers the greatest shelf-life as they are rolled out to new markets.
This 12-nozzle filler with seaming station caught Mountain Fork Brewery management’s eye because its design affords low oxygen pickup. This will give the beers the greatest shelf-life as they are rolled out to new markets.

Rivers, lakes, mountains, and forests don’t immediately leap to mind when you think of Oklahoma. But in the eastern part of the state, the town of Broken Bow sits adjacent to the sylvan Hochatown State Park, which houses a large reservoir fed by nearby mountain streams. For weekend warriors in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Dallas, each about three hours away by car, this represents a refreshing change of scenery. And nothing fits better into a getaway-ready tourist town than a local brewery.

Recognizing this niche hadn’t been filled by 2015, now co-owners Mark McDaniel, Charles Wilson, and Keith Shearer decided they wanted to be the ones to bring a brewpub, complete with food and tasting room, to Broken Bow. Such was the genesis of Mountain Fork Brewery, the name owing itself to the pristine nearby river from which the company sources water for brewing.

“We started brewing on a 60-gallon system and serving out of the taproom,” says Keifer Shearer, General Manager, Mountain Fork. “But it didn’t take long for us to recognize that we were full of people every night. And people would constantly ask where in Dallas or Oklahoma City they could get our beer. We realized we needed to go bigger.”

In October 2017, the fledgling brewing company made the jump from a 60-gal system to a 20-barrel, 3-vessel system in a new facility, and management brought in talent that could manage the much larger setup. Peter Hemmingsen, a Dallas native, brewer, and recent graduate of the University of California-Davis brewing program, took over the reigns as brewmaster. Now, six months later, the company is hitting an inflexion point where the lion’s share of sales will soon be in markets outside of Broken Bow.

“Right now, most of our beer is still sold through our taproom. We’re lucky to have a huge following,” Hemmingsen says. “But we’re aiming be distributing in Oklahoma City by April, and then Tulsa is next. My ties are from Dallas, and we already have our Texas license; we need to get label approval for each of the individual beers, but in six months we plan on being in Dallas as well. For now, cartonized six-pack paperboard boxes will be the main distribution format.”

Canning line
The front half of the canning line represents one of the first installations in North America of Palmer Canning Systems’ Generation 2, 12/1 (12 filling nozzles, 1 seaming station) canning line. Within this turn-key setup, an overhead depalletizer single files cans and sends them through an inverter, opening them up to an ionized-air deduster. Unfilled cans then enter a Best Code inkjet date coder distributed by Weber Packaging Solutions. Next, cans enter the Palmer 12-head carousel filler and seamer. Cans travel around the carousel and are purged with CO2 prior to filling.

“The unique feature for going with the Palmer, and big selling point for us, was the low oxygen pickup that its design affords over the inline canning lines,” Hemmingsen says. “It meets our needs with speed—we can do 40 or 50 cans a minute depending on how we push it—but our goal was to get the best quality beer in the cans that could last the longest on the shelves.”

New e-book on Flexible Packaging
In this e-book, you’ll learn key considerations for vertical and horizontal f/f/s and how to choose between premade bags and an f/f/s system. Plus, discover the pitfalls to avoid on bagging machinery projects.
download
New e-book on Flexible Packaging
LAST CHANCE TO SAVE $100! New Trends for All Industries at PACK EXPO Southeast
The exciting new PACK EXPO Southeast 2025 unites all vertical markets in one dynamic hub, generating more innovative answers to your production challenges. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity for your business!
REGISTER ASAP FOR $30!
LAST CHANCE TO SAVE $100! New Trends for All Industries at PACK EXPO Southeast