Tyler Brown’s brewery has been invaded by 12-ounce aluminum cans, items that in the past were about as welcome here as a batch of bad hops.

The shiny silver cylinders slide past Brown on a conveyor belt, to be filled with foamy ale, capped and labeled so rapidly it’s hard to focus on any single part of the process.

It’s a scene that Brown, as recently as a few weeks ago, would have dismissed as impossible inside Barley Brown’s Brewery on Baker City’s Main Street.

But the microscopic tentacles of coronavirus have a long reach.

“Every night I have a couple of beers and rewrite the business plan,” Brown said with a rueful chuckle.

He opened Barley Brown’s Brew Pub in 1998 and has won more than 80 awards for the beers that he and his brewers have created.

The state-mandated closure of bars and (except for takeout and delivery) restaurants to reduce the spread of coronavirus has devastated the microbrewing industry, Brown said.

About 70% of Barley Brown’s beer is trucked to Portland, where it’s available on tap at many taverns and eateries.

With that demand evaporated, Brown, who has ceased brewing, for now, was left with thousands of gallons of finished beer in tanks and kegs, and no place to sell it.

And although beer doesn’t spoil as, say, milk does, Brown said his quality standards call for most of his beers, including the most popular, Pallet Jack IPA, to be sold within about 90 days.

The only option was to fill customers’ growlers, but since the most popular size holds only half a gallon, the volume was far too small.

The bottom line, then, is that Brown faced a conundrum — either can his beer or dump it down the drain.

The latter, a waste not only of good ale but also of the money that went into brewing it, was so abhorrent that Brown set aside his distaste for putting his beer into cans.

Although canned beer is about as American as apple pie and baseball, Brown had always resisted the temptation to have his craft brews share grocery shelf space with the likes of Keystone Light.

He had multiple reasons.

First, by making his beers available only by draft, Brown said he carved out a niche in the crowded Northwest craft brewing business that gave Barley Brown’s ales a certain cachet.

“It elevates the cool factor — not being able to buy our beer at any store,” Brown said. “We’ve definitely been proud of that.”

He said renowned restaurants in Portland serve Pallet Jack IPA in part because of its exclusivity.

The second reason is financial and logistical — running a canning operation is labor-intensive and expensive, Brown said.

That’s a particular challenge in a relatively remote place such as Baker City where shipping costs are higher than average for cans and other equipment.

“It takes up a lot of room, too,” Brown said.

But given the uncertainty about how long the coronavirus crisis will last — and in particular the bar closures and restaurant restrictions — Brown decided to change his philosophy.

His daughter, Tori Thatcher, who is mainly quarantined at home because her first child is due in about three weeks, started making phone calls.

Brown said the only time he has canned beer was about a year ago when Boise River Canning, which has a mobile line, canned about 8 barrels of Pallet Jack during a beer festival in Boise.

(One barrel of beer is 31 gallons.)

In less than two weeks Thatcher arranged to have more than 30,000 cans delivered and labels printed (the design matches the Pallet Jack logo printed on T-shirts and hats that Barley Brown’s sells).

And on Monday a crew from Boise River Canning arrived at Barley Brown’s.

The crew, along with Barley Brown’s employees, canned about 60 barrels Monday — approximately 800 cases of 24 cans each.

Barley Brown’s posted on its Facebook page about the canning operation, and employees set up what Brown described as a “lemonade stand” outside the brewery to sell the freshly canned Pallet Jack.

They went through, appropriately enough, almost an entire pallet — 98 of the 100 cases that fit on a pallet, Brown said.

“People came from La Grande,” he said.

Day 2 Brewing

At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday Barley Brown’s Brewery was hectic.

A cacophony of clangs and bangs and whooshes echoed off the high ceilings.

The earthy, yeasty aroma of fresh beer hung heavy and moist on the air.

Brown watched as cans slid from pallets onto an assembly line where they were lined up, as orderly as soldiers on parade.

Little more than a minute later each can’s journey ended when Brown’s brother, Luke, grabbed a case of Pallet Jack and placed it on the stack rising on a pallet.

A few full pallets, wrapped tightly in cellophane, stood in the chilly refrigerated room, where they shared space with other pallets stacked not with cans but with kegs.

Although Brown plans to continue selling 6-packs and cases direct to customers outside, he also is working with distributors, in Oregon and in Idaho, to make cans of Pallet Jack available at grocery and other stores.

His top priority is stocking Baker City stores to make sure local residents — who normally would sip their Pallet Jack from a pint glass in the brew pub or the tap house, which occupies the west side of the brewery — can get the ale.

Brown said he won’t make a profit on the canning operation.

But he hopes to at least reduce the losses that would accrue if he had to watch beer trickle down a drain.

His current plan calls only for canning Pallet Jack, although he also has Hand Truck Pale Ale that’s ready to drink.

Considering the unprecedented challenges that have arrived so rapidly, and the uncertainty of the next few months at least, Brown said he’s not ruling out anything.

“What’s the new normal going to be?” he pondered.

Demand for his beer might be slow to recover if diners are leery of returning to restaurants or, as he suspects is likely, some aren’t able to reopen at all.

“The timeline’s out of our control,” Brown said. “It’s a learning experience.”

And one that has forced him to adjust rapidly.

A month ago Brown might have shuddered at the prospect of Pallet Jack flowing from the stainless steel brewing vessels straight into cans.

On Tuesday morning he plucked a can right off the line, popped the top and had a swig.

“Quality control,” he says with a smile.

“What’s the new normal going to be?”

— Tyler Brown, Barley Brown’s Brewery owner