Most co-packers won't run under 2,000 cases per SKU. A few named facilities will take a single pallet — one will run a single bottle. The gap decides whether a small brand can even get made, so here is what the floor actually is, who publishes theirs, and why it exists.
Small batch, short run, pilot run, small-scale beverage manufacturing — the industry uses all four for the same thing, and they all come down to one number a facility either publishes or doesn't: the minimum it will run.
The industry quotes ranges; almost nobody attaches a facility name to one. The facilities below do — the published minimums we've verified so far, smallest first. Every figure carries its source and the date we checked it.
| Facility / tier | State | Minimum run | Format | Basis | Source · checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida Canning CompanyLake Park | FL | 1 pallet | Can | Per run | floridacanning.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| MetaBrandEdison | NJ | 2 pallets | Pet bottle / glass bottle / can | Not specified | metabrandcorp.com/services/beverage-co-packing · 21 Aug 2026 |
| Creekside SpringsAmbridge | PA;OH | 12 cases | Pet bottle | Per order | creeksidesprings.com/private-labeled-water.php · 21 Aug 2026 |
| Craftek BeveragesOdessa | FL | 160 cases | Can | Not specified | craftekbev.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Atlas CanningOdessa | FL;OH;CT | 200 casesper SKU — raised from 140 in August 2026 | Can | Per SKU | atlascanning.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Good Liquid Bev CoPalmetto | FL | 200 casesalso publishes an 8-week timeline and per-can pricing | Can / glass bottle | Per run | goodliquidbevco.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Yes We Can Mobile SolutionsPittsburg | CA | 200 casestheir wording: “minimum production run”, or about 600 gallons | Can | Per run | yeswecanmobile.com/contact · 30 Aug 2026 |
| The Nations Brewing CoNashville | TN | 400 cases | Can / keg | Not specified | thenationsbrewing.com/contract-brewing · 27 Jul 2026 |
| Islamorada BeveragesFort Pierce | FL | 500 casestheir wording: “40bbls or 500 cases of 12oz cans”, RTD line | Can / glass bottle | Not specified | islamoradabeverages.com/contract-ready-to-drink · 30 Aug 2026 |
| New Holland Brewing CompanyHolland | MI | 600 cases | Can / glass bottle | Per run | newhollandbrew.com/contract-beverage-manufacturing-services · 31 Aug 2026 |
| Ginseng Up CorporationWorcester | MA | 1,000 casestheir wording: “low MOQs, starting from as low as” | Glass bottle / pet bottle / can | Not specified | gupcorp.com/contract-manufacturing · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Sprecher Brewing CompanyGlendale | WI | 1,500 cases | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per order | sprecherbrewery.com/pages/co-packing · 21 Aug 2026 |
| RTD Co-PackOceanside | CA | 1,700 casesor 4,000 gal / SKU | Can / glass bottle | Per SKU | rtdcopack.com/about_us · 7 Aug 2026 |
| Abita Brewing CompanyAbita Springs | LA | 2,000 cases | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per brand | abita.com/contract-brewing · 27 Jul 2026 |
| ProtoPackersRiverside | CA | 1 unit | Can / pet bottle | Not specified | protopackers.com · 22 Aug 2026 |
| Palmetto DistilleryAnderson | SC | 100 units | Glass bottle | Not specified | palmettodistillery.com/landing-page · 27 Jul 2026 |
| Chameleon Beverage CompanyCommerce | CA | 288 units12 cases | Pet bottle | Not specified | chameleonbeverage.com/faq · 29 Jul 2026 |
| Organic Food IncubatorBloomfield | NJ | 600 units | — | Not specified | organicfoodincubator.com/what-we-do/contract-manufacturing · 21 Aug 2026 |
| Eagle Park Brewing CompanyMilwaukee | WI | 700 unitspilot run | Can / glass bottle | Per run | eagleparkbrewing.com/co-pack · 22 Aug 2026 |
| Universal PureLincoln | NE;CT;CA | 20,000 unitsper production run | Pet bottle | Per run | universalpure.com/beverage-bottling · 27 Jul 2026 |
| Assemblies UnlimitedBloomingdale | IL | 25,000 unitsper SKU per run | Pet bottle / pouch | Per SKU | assemblies.com · 21 Aug 2026 |
| Full Sail Brewing (Contract Packaging)Hood River | OR | 66,000 unitssingle lot, 200 bbl | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per run | fullsailbrewing.com/contract-brewing · 27 Jul 2026 |
| Micropackers IncIsland Park | NY | 5 gallonsruns 5–500 gal | Can | Per run | micropackers.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| HiveMind BeverageBolivar | MO | 140 gallonstheir conversion: ~1,500 12 oz cans | Can / aluminum bottle | Not specified | hivemindbev.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Son Beverage CompanySan Antonio | TX | 200 gallonsvaries by bottle size | Pet bottle / glass bottle | Not specified | sonbeverage.com/capabilities-copacking-privatelabel · 21 Aug 2026 |
| Copperhead Beverage Co.Middle River | MD | 465 gallons15 barrels | Can | Per SKU | copperheadbeverage.com · 27 Jul 2026 |
| Swift Cider (co-packing)Portland | OR | 930 gallons30 barrels | Can / keg | Per order | swiftcider.com/copacking · 27 Jul 2026 |
| NICHE Beverage CompanyCincinnati | OH | 1,000 gallons300 gal pilot | Can | Not specified | nichebev.com · 4 Aug 2026 |
| Organic Craft Brewing & Co-packing (OC Brew Pack)Vista | CA | 1,000 gallonsper SKU | Can | Per SKU | ocbrewpack.com · 31 Aug 2026 |
| HBMC - Hawaii's Beverage Co-ManufacturingHonolulu | HI | 1,600 gallons | Can | Per SKU | hbmcbev.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| East Coast Crush & Co-PackNaples | NY | 2,500 gallonscustom crush, Finger Lakes | Glass bottle / can / keg | Per run | crushandcopack.com/resources/faqs · 22 Aug 2026 |
| Wildpack BeverageAustin | MD;TX | 4,000 gallonsper SKU | Can | Per SKU | wildpackbev.com/beverage-co-packing · 21 Aug 2026 |
| Great South Bay BreweryBay Shore | NY | 30 barrels~930 gal equivalent | Can | Per run | greatsouthbaybrewery.com/contractbrewing · 29 Jul 2026 |
| Summit Brewing Co.St. Paul | MN | 100 barrelstheir wording: "batch sizes beginning at" | Can / keg / glass bottle | Per run | summitbrewing.com/co-packing · 27 Jul 2026 |
| Stevens Point BreweryStevens Point | WI | 100 barrelsplus 1,000 bbl/year commitment | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per run | pointbeer.com/co-packing · 29 Jul 2026 |
| Real Ale Brewing CompanyBlanco | TX | 120 barrels~1,650 cases, their figure | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per brand | realalebrewing.com/co-packing · 29 Jul 2026 |
| Lofted SpiritsBardstown | KY | 300 barrelstheir wording: “we work best with commitments of at least” — no period stated | Glass bottle | Not specified | loftedspirits.com/contract-distilling · 29 Aug 2026 |
| Sleeping Giant Brewing CompanyDenver | CO | 2,500 barrels | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per YEAR | sleepinggiantbrewing.com · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Uinta Brewing CompanySalt Lake City | UT | 2,500 barrels | Can / glass bottle / keg | Per YEAR | uintabrewing.com/contract · 29 Aug 2026 |
| Glass / PET small-run floorCategory norm | — | ~1,000 cases | Glass / PET | Trade norm | quoted across the trade |
| Aluminium can floorCategory norm | — | 2,000–5,000 cases | Can | Trade norm | quoted across the trade |
Three facilities name a figure and are still missing from the table above. What they give is a yearly commitment, not a batch size, so it does not belong in a list sorted smallest-run-first — ranking them here would suggest you need the whole figure in one go, which is not what any of them said. Two of the three publish it, which is why the count says 38 while 36 facilities are named in it; the third told us directly. Motherlode Co-Packing (Hudson, CO) published a 400-gallon trial-batch minimum until Marc Phaneuf wrote on 7 August 2026 asking us to drop it and record 100,000 bottles of annual volume instead. Their own FAQ still carried the 400-gallon line when we re-checked on 13 August 2026. Sleeping Giant Brewing (Denver, CO) and Uinta Brewing (Salt Lake City, UT) each put the same question to a prospect — “do you meet our 2,500bbl a year minimum?” — in wording close enough that we do not count them as two independent observations. Full detail on the Colorado page and the Utah page.
A commercial filling line runs at roughly 250 to 600 units a minute. It is built for speed, not for short runs. Every changeover — a new recipe, a new label, a sanitation cycle — costs hours of that line whether you order 200 cases or 20,000.
So the co-packer spreads the setup cost across a minimum. Below it, the run loses money for them, which is why the quotes cluster at 2,000 cases and up, and why some state their floor in gallons: 4,000 gallons per SKU is a common mid-market minimum, roughly 1,700 cases of 12 oz.
A small number of facilities — often newer, or built around shorter changeovers — will take a first run of one pallet or a few hundred cases. That is the difference between a brand getting made this quarter and waiting a year to hit a 2,000-case minimum.
If you already brew or blend your own product, a mobile canning operator sidesteps the question entirely: the line comes to you, and the minimum is set by a day of your time rather than someone else's changeover schedule.
Run a facility with a low minimum? Send us your current numbers and we'll list them, with your name and the date — no charge, no listing fee.
Almost nobody's first order is meant to sell through a national account. It exists to prove something.
A pilot run — 50 to a few hundred cases — is how a brand validates a recipe on commercial equipment rather than in a kitchen, gets shelf-stable samples in front of a buyer or an investor, stocks a trade show, or tests one market before committing to a full production run. Formulating at bench scale and producing at line scale are not the same thing: carbonation, fill temperature and shelf life all behave differently on a real filler.
It costs more per case than a full run, and every facility will tell you so. We don't publish a figure for how much more, because no facility in our database publishes one. Ask each one directly and get it in writing — a per-case price quoted for 200 cases tells you more about a co-packer than any capability sheet.
Both will quote you. They are not the same deal, and the difference shows up on the second order rather than the first.
| Question to ask | What the answer tells you |
|---|---|
| Is this your standard minimum, or an exception for a first run? | An exception can be withdrawn. A published standard minimum rarely is. |
| How often do you run batches this size? | A line that does it weekly has the changeover down. One that does it twice a year doesn't. |
| What's the price per case at 200, and at 2,000? | The gap between the two is the real cost of starting small — and it's never published. |
| Do I keep this minimum on reorder? | Some low first-run offers apply once, then revert to the standard floor. |
Across the facilities we track — 47 states so far — most publish no minimum at all: 192 of 227 today. We mark those Not published rather than guess — a wrong minimum here costs a brand a wasted quarter. The list grows as we verify more.
Give us the product and the volume. We come back with co-packers that will actually run it at your size, not a list of everyone in the market.