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Author Topic: Canning your home-brew  (Read 18724 times)

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #15 on: January 31, 2017, 07:51:58 pm »
I'd like to see a small scale supplier of can/bottles. They'd be great for shipping to competition. I think you have to buy a whole pallet at a time from Ball, maybe a truck load.

The Beerery

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #16 on: January 31, 2017, 08:02:31 pm »
The link I posted has small quantities. 


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Offline coombre

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #17 on: January 31, 2017, 08:04:56 pm »
Well why not...  Ill throw something up on the classifieds to see if anyone has to sell.
BikingBurrowBrewing

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #18 on: February 01, 2017, 09:31:54 am »
The link I posted has small quantities. 


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I mean the screw cap can/bottles like Ball makes. I'd give a buck a piece for new ones.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2017, 09:33:50 am by klickitat jim »

Offline majorvices

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2017, 06:39:42 am »
Oh yea. Cans are fantastic for storage,sharing, and oxidation. However it's getting it into the cans that worries me. I would gladly pay thousands of dollars for a surefire system.


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We finally agree on something. ;)

I do not have much faith in the low DO levels of the portable canning systems the mobile canning lines use, having seen them in action at other breweries. I really like our Crowler machine, and I have had beer stay fresh in there for weeks longer than a growler but that seems cost prohibitive for a homebrewer (I think ours was 1500 bucks.

I am not aware of a vendor that sells small supplies of ready to use cans though maybe that was answered here.

Even regarding the use of a  mobile canner understand that these ghuys are trying to make money and they are not going to want to regularly do regular runs off of 5 gallon corny kegs very often, even if you ended up have 20 brewers with 10 gallons of beer a piece. The amount of time alone in shutting the system down, swapping to other kegs, then starting up again would be a nightmare. On our bottling line when we have to shut down for any reason we end up having a few rows of low fills that sometimes may equal 2 or 3 gallons of beer. Not sure if canning line is same way.

The Beerery

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2017, 09:27:48 am »
Oh yea. Cans are fantastic for storage,sharing, and oxidation. However it's getting it into the cans that worries me. I would gladly pay thousands of dollars for a surefire system.


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We finally agree on something. ;)

I do not have much faith in the low DO levels of the portable canning systems the mobile canning lines use, having seen them in action at other breweries. I really like our Crowler machine, and I have had beer stay fresh in there for weeks longer than a growler but that seems cost prohibitive for a homebrewer (I think ours was 1500 bucks.

I am not aware of a vendor that sells small supplies of ready to use cans though maybe that was answered here.

Even regarding the use of a  mobile canner understand that these ghuys are trying to make money and they are not going to want to regularly do regular runs off of 5 gallon corny kegs very often, even if you ended up have 20 brewers with 10 gallons of beer a piece. The amount of time alone in shutting the system down, swapping to other kegs, then starting up again would be a nightmare. On our bottling line when we have to shut down for any reason we end up having a few rows of low fills that sometimes may equal 2 or 3 gallons of beer. Not sure if canning line is same way.

I had a lengthy discussion about canning and bottling and micro oxidation last night( which I can dig up if anyone cares). Packaging scares me.

Offline toby

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #21 on: February 13, 2017, 03:05:13 pm »
I really like our Crowler machine, and I have had beer stay fresh in there for weeks longer than a growler but that seems cost prohibitive for a homebrewer (I think ours was 1500 bucks.

That's the cost of the Oktober Design one. I'm assuming a similar shelf life to crowlers since the process is almost exactly the same from the seaming standpoint (manual lever action is the only difference). Primary difference is that I use my beer gun instead of the tap/hose setup a lot of crowler users undertake. Even so, I've never seen one go longer than a couple weeks. I only use them for one off (well more like 12-24 off) things to share/send to friends.

Quote
I am not aware of a vendor that sells small supplies of ready to use cans though maybe that was answered here.

The Oktober guys sell small scale blanks. Apparently, their prices have dropped drastically ~$0.48 per can when I ordered to ~$0.32 per can now (12 oz blank). Their order size has increased though (233 cans instead of 96).

The Beerery

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #22 on: February 13, 2017, 03:19:01 pm »
I really like our Crowler machine, and I have had beer stay fresh in there for weeks longer than a growler but that seems cost prohibitive for a homebrewer (I think ours was 1500 bucks.

That's the cost of the Oktober Design one. I'm assuming a similar shelf life to crowlers since the process is almost exactly the same from the seaming standpoint (manual lever action is the only difference). Primary difference is that I use my beer gun instead of the tap/hose setup a lot of crowler users undertake. Even so, I've never seen one go longer than a couple weeks. I only use them for one off (well more like 12-24 off) things to share/send to friends.

Quote
I am not aware of a vendor that sells small supplies of ready to use cans though maybe that was answered here.

The Oktober guys sell small scale blanks. Apparently, their prices have dropped drastically ~$0.48 per can when I ordered to ~$0.32 per can now (12 oz blank). Their order size has increased though (233 cans instead of 96).

Toby, thanks for confirming my issues. So you have the Oktober? I have been emailing with them and I just can't get past oxidation at filling.

Offline toby

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #23 on: February 14, 2017, 09:08:03 am »
Toby, thanks for confirming my issues. So you have the Oktober? I have been emailing with them and I just can't get past oxidation at filling.

Yes, I've run roughly 2 cases through it. To be clear, the 2 weeks I mentioned is not oxidation time. It's the longest a can has been seamed before being drank. I've never actually tested DO levels because of my use pattern and consumption time for the cans I've gifted. I'll probably be canning a run of an IPA in the next week or two, so I'll try to remember to actually hold some for testing.

Offline chickasawjoe

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #24 on: February 21, 2017, 05:38:03 pm »
Anyone have any good information or experience with canning your homebrews?

-Manufacturer/make/model/pricing

Ive seen some on-line for around $1500 sans the cans.

cheers.

Offline chickasawjoe

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #25 on: February 21, 2017, 05:41:56 pm »
[quote author=coombre link=topic=28666.msg376376#msg376376 date=1485903628
I own a mobile canning company in Oregon and have been canning Homebrewers beverages for 2.5 years never had any issues besides over carbonation on the brewers end. I do brew clubs throughout Oregon and Washington and also do monthly Homebrew sores also
cheers.
[/quote]

Offline Midwest Supplies

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #26 on: February 22, 2017, 03:09:46 pm »
At our shop, we have an All American Can Sealer (Model EL8000B).

Homebrewers bring in their kegs, and we can their brew in 24 oz crowler cans. We've had very good results just treating the cans like bottles...Start with a cold, carbonated keg and sanitized equipment.  Purge the can with CO2, fill the can, then purge again and seal the lid.  No quality issues or complaints from our brewers to date.

Hope that helps.

Brian Clapsaddle
Midwest Supplies Retail Store

 

Offline crossroads.mobil

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Canning your home-brew
« Reply #27 on: February 22, 2017, 05:51:53 pm »
I own a small mobile canning company and service Homebrewers and small craft breweries in Oregon and Washington. I have monthly canning events at local Homebrew stores and also at my place. Been at it for 2.5 years have Never had any issues with beverages going bad had them several lab tested best way to keep your beverages light weight no light no oxygen.
We do 12 & 16oz also have labeling.
Prost
Joseph
Crossroads mobile canning

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« Last Edit: February 22, 2017, 05:53:41 pm by crossroads.mobil »

The Beerery

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #28 on: February 22, 2017, 06:11:19 pm »
I own a small mobile canning company and service Homebrewers and small craft breweries in Oregon and Washington. I have monthly canning events at local Homebrew stores and also at my place. Been at it for 2.5 years have Never had any issues with beverages going bad had them several lab tested best way to keep your beverages light weight no light no oxygen.
We do 12 & 16oz also have labeling.
Prost
Joseph
Crossroads mobile canning

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Do you have the lab specs for the DO of those tested?  Really curious.

Thanks.


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Offline willys29

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Re: Canning your home-brew
« Reply #29 on: February 22, 2017, 11:16:33 pm »
Thanks to supplying kegs of homebrew for our neighborhood block party about 5 months ago, I happened to get connected with a local company in Wisconsin that has been trying to find a way into the homebrew industry by developing and providing canning equipment.  I was able to go "tour" their factory and was shown a number of different canning mechanisms they were developing and/or distributing at a commercial level (I believe Oskar Blues, if I'm recalling correctly is one of their customers).  We walked through pallets of cans and spent hours discussing homebrew canning vs. bottling.  I was offered the opportunity to take and test the canning sealer and a labeler anytime I wanted at the expense of any feedback that I could offer.  I have yet to take them up on this offer, but they may be the solution some of you are looking for here.  It's expensive no matter what, but they do have a cheaper manual sealer and were willing to ship smaller amounts of cans.  The biggest CON and the main reason I haven't attempted it yet is because it honestly seems just as labor intensive as bottling.  Cans will need to be clean and sanitized just like bottles, you'll need to have a kegging setup (or at least I'd suggest it) and a beer gun of sorts to fill one can at a time, just like bottles.  Nothing was automated (besides the sealer which still requires you to place and remove one can at a time) if you wanted to pay for that feature.  We discussed the potential of marketing it to homebrew shops as a possible service, but there's all kinds of variables that would worry me on that front as well (wouldn't it suck to can your barrel aged stout right after the last homebrewer canned his American Wild Ale and failed to clean/sanitize the canning equipment leading to an eventual infection of your stout).

This video would be a good example of what your canning day might look like minus the wonderful automated canning line that this brewer got to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LUkyN8p-6Y&app=desktop

I'll certainly follow up if I give it a shot and if somebody is really interested in this setup (which is honestly no different than the crowler equipment found in many brew pubs...just cheaper) let me know and I can get some prices again.