Quaff ON! Brewing switches from bottles to cans with Sun King partnership

Quaff ON! Brewing is making a sharp production pivot, winding down its Nashville brewery as it shifts its beers from glass bottles to cans through a new partnership with Sun King Brewery. The move keeps the Brown County brand in market, but with a different operating model built around packaging, collaboration and outside production.

The change is as much about economics as it is about presentation. Quaff ON! says cans protect beer better from light and oxygen than bottles, a quality argument that also fits the active Brown County lifestyle the brewery has long associated with its brand. Canned beers are expected to reach bars, restaurants and store shelves later this summer, replacing the glass-bottled format that has carried the lineup statewide on tap and in package.

The production shift also reflects how breweries are trying to survive in a tighter market. Quaff ON! co-founder Jeff McCabe said the company had been working with Sun King for around two years and began seriously discussing the arrangement about a year ago as it became clear the marketplace favored cans over bottles. Instead of sinking money into canning equipment and added capacity at the Nashville facility, Quaff ON! chose to lean on a local production partner and free itself to grow without carrying the full burden of another expansion.

Sun King brings scale and credibility to the deal. Founded in 2009 in Indianapolis by Dave Colt and Clay Robinson, the brewery has become one of Indiana’s best-known craft names, and the collaboration gives Quaff ON! a path to keep distribution active while its own Nashville production brewery winds down. McCabe said the partnership should allow meaningful production growth over the next six months, underscoring that this is not an exit from the market but a reset of how the brand gets into it.

The brand’s footprint in Brown County is not going away. Quaff ON! beers will still be sold at Big Woods restaurants, including Big Woods Nashville, and at Hard Truth Distilling Co. locations, with retail distribution continuing across Indiana. That continuity matters for a brewery that says it was formed in 2012 in Brown County and built its identity around beers that started at Big Woods Brewing Company.

The timing also fits broader policy and packaging trends. Indiana’s Senate Enrolled Act 205, effective July 1, 2024, made it easier for small breweries to manufacture beer for one another under certain requirements, and the Brewers Association reported that in 2025 cans accounted for 78% of packaged craft beer volume while glass held 22%. Quaff ON!’s switch makes the same point from a local angle: in today’s craft beer market, survival often means changing the package, sharing the tanks and keeping the brand visible.