An Uncanny Invention for Home Canning

Interesting. Any photos or videos you can post in this thread?

 

Here's a page for the All American brand can sealers from Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry.

They're mostly for steel ("tin") cans but I'd imagine the units for aluminum cans are pretty similar or adapted from one of them

 

Those are some purty hunks of metal. Now I really want to see it with some beer on there.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Okt...hevVAhWEMSYKHXQ7DwEQ_AUIDSgE&biw=1920&bih=988

 

Excellent! What a nightmare bottling can be - this would be so much easier! And then, if you're someone who kegs because really that's the easiest way to do it, you could still pull off a couple of cans if you were headed out somewhere.

Of course I'd probably want to split the cost between a few of my home brew buddies, so I wonder how portable it really is. It doesn't seem to look too heavy in the demonstration video.

 

Thanks, gentlemen.

 

These look badass as hell. But for a normal home brewer canning this way, is the oxygen level going to be much different than bottling? In other words, do people expect hoppy beers to get significantly better shelf life, or is this mainly about the coolness factor?

 

The advantage of cans (whether commercial or homebrewing) is that they are 100% impermeable to air (oxygen). Bottles on the other hand will suffer from air (oxygen) ingress through the crown liners over time.

The questions that homebrewers need to ask themselves are:

• Is the initial cost of several hundreds of dollars worth it?
• Are you willing to spend about 30 cents per can* (bottles get reused).

Needless to say but @DrewBeechum answered yes to the above two questions.

Cheers!

* The 30 cents per can is a bulk buy price.

 

We adapted a Dixie (well, Dixie did anyway) can seamer to use with aluminum cans (the skinny ones like Sixpoint uses) and carbonated beverages. We bought two brite tanks, one 45 gallons and one 18 gallons. Then my staff and I visited Harpoon who were kind enough to take time out of their day to teach us how to cabonate stuff to target.

I suppose anybody who kegs knows the particulars of forced carbonation and balancing head pressure and pressure in the liquid.

The can seamer is a little tricky though. You have to get the correct dies for the can you are using to roll the double seam. We sent blanks to Dixie and they made the rollers to fit. I reckon this is a huge part of the cost, but they also told us they don't sell a lot of the single can seamers anymore. Who knows...but they ain't givin' 'em away.

We fill the can with a wand that does a CO2 purge off the tank, then slow fill the carbonated liquid. Gas pressure pushes the liquid. One guy does this, the other seams the cans. We can do about four 8 once cans a minute. Our Dixie with the right dies and electric motor ran us about twelve large. The two jacketed brite tanks cost us way less than that at roughly three grand combined. We seamed about a thousand cans to validate the seaming. We are tunnel pasteurizing, so that double seam has to be perfect...don't ask how we know We had no clue there were adjustments required...ka-boom!!!

 

That's what I'm thinking.

I bottle all of my beer and the ones that are going to be consumed quickly get packaged in swing-top bottles. Couldn't be easier or more cost effective. Thowing away bottle caps is one thing. Having to dispose of the entire container every time you empty it is another and would get cost prohibitive. At least for me, it would.

 

I fully admit that the coolness factor is a thing for me and this, but also, I really wanted to explore how all of this is working and I think it's a direction the hobby will move in. I do still think, as I mentioned in the column, that it's better aimed at clubs and shops at this point, but it's only going to get cheaper

 

Drew, when you state "shops" are you referring to LHBS? If so, how would you envision this working? Would the LHBS rent the unit?

Cheers!

 

Just a note on my "coolness factor" comment. That wasn't a dig. I'm sure there are some homebrewers making beer exactly to their taste and/or cheaper than they can get it off the shelf, but that isn't the case with me. It's a fun hobby for experimentation. With all the beers available for sale these days, it's not like homebrewing in the '70s or '80s when it was hard to find certain styles. Today, it's all about seeing what you can do.

 

Well, one advantage to homebrewing is that you can make exactly what you want. While there are indeed a wide variety of choices today there are still some beer styles/types which are not typically available. For example I make beer styles like Classic American Pilsner, 1896 Michelob, Grodziskie, Equinox IPA,... since these beers are not available to me at my local retailers (and in Southeastern PA we have a great selection).

There is also the freshness factor to be considered. While I can purchase some Continental beers I like they are frequently old on my retailers shelves. I am a big fan of Altbier and I brew my own since that way I can drink it fresh.

Another consideration is beer price. I recently brewed two cases of a Quad for less than 50 bucks of material cost. If I were to purchase two cases of a Belgian brewed Quad that would be hundreds of dollars.

Cheers!

 

Fair enough. I'm definitely a novice.

 

Jack, I envision as the shop/club has the machine and offers the canning as a service - bring your beer to X location and let's can it - whether it's like a special "day" type thing or a drop-in type of thing. In this day and age of online retailers undercutting brick & mortar retailers, this might be another differentiator.

No worries, didn't take it as a dig!

 

Seems the thinking is this works if it is a club or LHBS that buys the can seamer. Then that also possibly helps take care of the can issues. They could be single-sourced so no change parts and minimal adjustments to the rollers, bought in bulk to try and control cost.

You do need two people, which again can be solved with group or shop purchase. And it will still be a slow process...even with two guys and lots of practice, there is only so fast you can physically go. Maybe a well-heeled LHBS or even a small brewery could do a two head filler with the seamer integrated. Drop off your keg, go to lunch, pick up your canned beer.

I agree - this will be a "thing" despite some impracticalities. We all know home brewers who have no issue spending money on gear, and we also know there are those who don't. I would wager that some individuals actually will buy the least expensive versions, with shops and groups going for the electric version (if they are smart they will...after you hand-roll that flywheel for a couple hours, you will wish you had).

Superior package? No doubt. Better method for the home brewer...not so sure about that. And I would also wonder...if the Dixie is so expensive and is pretty much the standard, how can these guys come in under a grand?

 

Larry, the challenge of this 'business case' is that you limit yourself to the portion of homebrewers who keg. For those homebrewers who bottle their beers (e.g., me) this would not work.

Cheers!