"Problem Children" CANs

For whatever reason, in my head, I had it that @rgordon meant that the can itself was two pieces, plus the lid. That is the seam I was referring to. I think that the side-seam that @Premo88 was talking about is from the vinyl, sleeve label that is shrink-wrapped onto the can, not a printed can, or paper/vinyl sticker type label. Sorry for the confusion folks.

 

Torpedo and SNPA are everywhere here in cans, gas stations, food stores.

 

wow, havnt seen you in forever woody!

i think about you from time to time.

i sent you a bunch of cans back in 2012, there was something in particular that i had that you were after. i remember how hard it was for me to track down cans to send you, seriously took some hunting. now i think it’s harder to find bottles

you did win! however you are also cursed to never end your canquest, to try all the cans, it is now nearly impossible, but good luck on the hunt, at the very least the quality of beer your drinkin these days most certainly is through the roof haha

 

FWIW, I remember the steel cans with the side seams and other three-piece cans as well. The ones with the side seam were called three piece welded cans. You received an open on both ends cylinder. For some of our products, way back when, we used to run those (I've been here longer than dirt, though). Two-piece are SO much easier - depalletize, rinse, fill, lid, thermal process, done. Saves an entire unit operation and double headaches about seams not having to roll that bottom seam.

I don't know if that welded three piece can was ever used for carbonated products - maybe it was, but I haven't looked into it. My hands are full with the ones we're working with now!

 

Really? Everything I've ever read about brewers (I always forget which brewery you work at) filling the old 3-piece steel cans w/side seams, they came with the bottom (or top, as seen in the image from an early American Can Co. ad) already crimped on and the brewer simply filled the can and crimped on the other end.

Other than the modern aluminum can and the old 3-piece steel can there were 2-piece steel cans which were manufactured similar to the aluminum cans - punched/extruded or whatever the process was called. There were even steel cans with "easy to open" aluminum lids, before the pop-top became dominant.

I just can't imagine (nor ever seen) aluminum cans with seams - arriving at the brewery with the mobile canning unit as a flat sheet. How is the seam manufactured in-house? How do they attach a base and create the curved-in lip to allow the lid to be crimped on? Aluminum beer cans are not straight cylinders, they taper in at the top, and the lid is a smaller diamenter than the body of the can. Seems like a pretty complicated process for a "mobile" unit.

 

Interesting. I've never seen the cans in my area.

 

I don't work at a brewery and never said or implied that I did - I'm in the food business. I've unofficially consulted with a couple breweries on thermal processing and blending. The seam confusion was just that - confusion. If I stirred that pot, my apologies. It just made me remember a bunch of stuff with steel cans here 40 years ago and what a pain is the ass aluminum cans are for my crew here at the moment. Sauces and juices go into steel two-piece cans, maybe some three piece for "supertanker" cans. My team is working on a carbonated line of products, so this flimsy aluminum thing is new territory.

We never got "flat" sheets and I don't think I said we did (that did show up somewhere in discussion, but not from me). We did get - or at least had a bunch of - steel three piece welded cans as three pieces - lid, middle, and bottom, welded seam on the side, separate pieces. Three piece cans the customer specifies which end comes attached - top or bottom, but doesn't say "none" is an option. That said, I do remember doing incoming inspections on "blanks" - and they absolutely were the cylinders with no ends. Why - I don't know but if we couldn't fill 'em why did we have 'em? I was a lab grunt at the time looking up at pond scum, so if boss said go measure 5000 can blanks, I didn't ask questions. Why would you want that unit operation in house - push it back to the supplier. Then again, we have a history here of thinking we're clever - maybe it was something somebody thought we would do and never did or gave up on. But there were three machines in a row at one time. One filled, the other two did something...

We use two piece cans mostly now, steel or aluminum. Big consumer outrage when we converted because the 16 ounce two piece can you can only open one end. People liked opening both ends of one of our main products so they could push out the whole "log" on Thanksgiving day - that should give you enough clues re: my employer ;-) They were so upset about that they didn't notice we'd dropped the weight from 16 to 14 ounces and not lowered the price right away...but it didn't take long...

 

Could be a distributor thing, we don’t get Pils Urquell in cans here, but they’re certainly available.

 

In a pinch, CANs CAN also be used to smoke weed. So there's that...

 

New this past summer. It's worth mentioning that the beer is pasteurized though.

 

That's interesting but I also meant it as more of a prestige of the contents than the integrity of the container. Like Pappy Van Winkle in 50 ml bottles or Expensive $300 wines with screw tops, you're just not going to see it done easily or as welcome a change, especially if its sudden.

 

Ain't nobody can judge, accurately, what another's definition of "prestige" is.

For me, it's the contents, not the package.

Except: when I buy a $40-ish container of DeuS, when I have somebody over. Then, surely, the pop of the cork helps me move things along more than the snap of a can would.

Obviously, YMMV, as will everyone's.

 

I mean the company's self perception of their prestige not the consumers.

 

That’s why I posted it. Other than being owned by a brewing conglomerate in modern times and the beers being much easier to come by in the US than Cantillon, Rodenbach should roughly be in the same conversation as Cantillon regarding prestige and Belgian brewers. If someone is using secondary market value as their primary yardstick then that will limit their view though.

Tagging @TongoRad in case he’s unaware of these cans.

 

Sorry, Woody, if fighting whale hunters was your original mission, you're not winning.

CAN is the vehicle of choice for "line up early on Saturday + post on Instagram" limited releases.
You know the ones I mean:

• tall CANs
• foil or matte white label
• some kind of abstract or graffiti art
• obscure/pop culture reference (song titles work great!) for a name
• new name, even though only one late hop addition changed since last version
• >$20 a 4-pack

I'm not hating - I've drunk my fair share of these beers.

But considered where you started, I'd love to know how you feel about this turn of events.

 

This seems appropriate to the discussion.

https://www.allagash.com/blog/what-is-can-conditioning/

They do refer to scrupulous control and the need for a high level of sanitation. Thinking about it, I guess it is no less risky than bottle conditioning assuming you have your process buttoned up tight. Would a small outfit using a mobile line be able to ensure the level of control/sanitation required?

A properly seamed can will withstand 90 psi, so we're told, so I'm thinking that would need quite a bit of extra sugar to reach that pressure. (I guess we'll find out. We'll be pasteurizing some carbonated juice this afternoon that is reading 2.4 volumes in the tank and 3.5 in the cans - we'll see how many survive the trip thru the hot tub! We do think (hope, maybe pray), based on taste and feel, that the 3.5 reading is definitely incorrect...)

 

Ya I'd probably pass on those in favor of bottles. I can definitely understand where the brewer /importer would see benefits but something about it is just off putting forme

 

I wouldn't mind taking a few of those tubing during the summer!

 

Exactly put ... and after watching the videos you posted, I'm about 97.3% sure the vertical seam I described is from the label. I still need to find some cans from one particular brewery to be 100.0% sure but it seems highly unlikely they'd have the only vertically seamed aluminum cans on the planet.

Thanks again for posting the videos, btw. Pretty cool to see those and a good short reference for anybody else interested.

 

Nice! I'd be all over them, myself, but then again I'm hardly your average consumer. But the importer must see a market for them being packaged that way.

Heck, it did take me a while to get around to the Fruitage cans, but that wasn't because of the packaging. Somehow I just had to get in the mood for something that I was anticipating as being kind of "lightweight", but as it turned out I had absolutely nothing to fear because, of course, they pulled it off with balance and style.

Personally I'm with @beertunes , it's all about what's inside the package that counts. Heck, if it's a bargain to boot, all the better! You may recall that I've been pimping these babies lately:

and don't let the can fool you: that's a quality cider on the level of Romilly (or better) and it's going for less than half the price without the bottle, cork and cage, etc. That's a big win in my book! And based on how well it sells out of my local shop, I'd say it's already developed enough of a following.