Canning Homebrew?

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So, i havent googled this, so bear with me...

Today, i saw a thing on a local cable news channel about a business owner that started a business with a portable canning trailer he takes to local breweries. Its been a big success here in the Pac NW, because theres like a bajillion craft breweries. They like the lower carbon footprint, ease of recycling, portability of the brews (hiking, camping, river floating, kayaking, etc, are all pretty big up here), all contribute to why the breweries and consumers like it.

It got me thinking: if you could can your homebrew, instead of bottling or keggin, would you? Why/why not?
 
I keg mine mostly, but of I could I'd put what I dont keg in cans. Carbon footprint (if there is such a thing) has nothing to do with it. I believe beer in cans keeps better, than bottled beer.
 
Srsly??

I've gotten the idea to bottle in mason jars from this site once or twice. I'm wondering why it's not MORE common if there's no need for a capper and a "limitless" replacement caps.

Mason jars come in 8, 16, 32, 64 oz jars. Twelve jars for $10 or less???

Oh yea... they're not brown, tho. So leave 'em in box inside two bags, in a closet, in the basement. Then it's all good!!!
 
Absolutely! I would then buy an old soda machine and stock it with canned homebrew. But....it will never happen.
 
Canned homebrew would be awesome

grndslm said:
Srsly??

I've gotten the idea to bottle in mason jars from this site once or twice. I'm wondering why it's not MORE common if there's no need for a capper and a "limitless" replacement caps.

Mason jars come in 8, 16, 32, 64 oz jars. Twelve jars for $10 or less???

Oh yea... they're not brown, tho. So leave 'em in box inside two bags, in a closet, in the basement. Then it's all good!!!

Even if you could carbonate them (canning with heat would kill the yeast), mason jars would explode pretty easily.
 
Canned homebrew would be awesome



Even if you could carbonate them (canning with heat would kill the yeast), mason jars would explode pretty easily.

I wonder about that. I mean, they're made to withstand heat which I'm sure creates a good bit of pressure...

I've never canned, so I don't really know the process
 
Bamsdealer said:
I wonder about that. I mean, they're made to withstand heat which I'm sure creates a good bit of pressure...

I've never canned, so I don't really know the process

The pressure created by heating (typical) stuff in a mason jar is only a fraction of what would be created by carbonated beer, particularly "bottle"-conditioned beer. You could probably get away with filling it from a keg though, as with growlers. But at that point I'd just prefer to use growlers.

Also, I've never canned anything myself, but I don't think the process even creates any significant added pressure from the heat. I'm fairly sure it works because air is able to escape while heated, as that pretty much HAS to happen in order for there to be a bit of a vacuum in the jars once cooled. This vacuum is what allows it to seal and sucks the center of the lid inwards (the safety thing). If anything, it would seem mason jars need to be made to withstand a pressure differential where the higher pressure is on the *outside* (implosion), especially for pressure-canning, but they shouldn't be nearly as resistant to explosions.
 
My 95-yr old grandfather who recently passed away told me how HIS mother bought yeast, grains, etc. and they would all make it.

I could have sworn that she just put it in mason jars, but I don't really have the ability to ask him that. Wasn't into homebrewing until my friend had all the equipment and basics down for me to perfect.

I think that it'd be possible to find some mason jars that wouldn't explode, tho. Not a real fan of clear bottles, but I'm pretty sure I could make it work somehow. Put a tad more headspace or a tad less priming sugar?? There's gotta be away if you know your process.
 
grndslm said:
My 95-yr old grandfather who recently passed away told me how HIS mother bought yeast, grains, etc. and they would all make it.

I could have sworn that she just put it in mason jars, but I don't really have the ability to ask him that. Wasn't into homebrewing until my friend had all the equipment and basics down for me to perfect.

I think that it'd be possible to find some mason jars that wouldn't explode, tho. Not a real fan of clear bottles, but I'm pretty sure I could make it work somehow. Put a tad more headspace or a tad less priming sugar?? There's gotta be away if you know your process.

You'd have to bulk carbonate it. Either that, or drink it nearly flat. I suppose they technically COULD make special "jars" that could withstand the pressure from bottle-conditioning, but they wouldn't even look like regular mason jars, unless they used ridiculously thick glass.

Either way, you'd be paying a heck of a premium on them and they wouldn't be cheaper than using standard beer bottles, as it'd both be smaller-scale manufacturing and require more glass per vessel. And because of that, I don't see why there would be much of a demand for such a product, making it all the more expensive to actually produce. Which kind of sucks now that I think about it, as I think it'd be fun to "bottle" a Kentucky common or even a CAP.
 
To the guy who wants to use mason jars, go for it. I would never myself because I both brew and process pickled stuff and the principals are different with each. But hey, knock yourself out.

The mobile canning company is a startup by some of my son's college buddies. Lots of advantages for a small batch brewery to can their products to market. I think it's a great idea and if or when I get bigger at this, I would do it too. the can 'art" is pretty good with the product they've canned so far.
 
To the guy who wants to use mason jars, go for it. I would never myself because I both brew and process pickled stuff and the principals are different with each. But hey, knock yourself out.

Bolded for Truth. You are free to try, but be aware that you are much more likely to get bottle bombs with mason jars. The pressure differential is exactly opposite between canning and bottle conditioning. Mason jars are not designed to withstand a positive internal pressure, where champagne and beer bottles are.

Plenty of people will say that they've done it plenty of times with no problems. But with as cheap as a case of good, fliptop-bottled, craft beer is, why run the risk?

Sorry for the detour. Back On-topic: That's a great idea. I have read that the most prohibitive aspects to canning are the equipment cost and the bulk nature of supply availability. This business would make both of these aspects of production manageable, for a small fee, of course. The business owner buys cans in bulk, carries the equipment around, and charges you a percentage markup to use some of his cans (maybe a sliding scale cost-point depending on quantity purchased?). Bottom line, it seems he's identified a need and found a potentially profitable way to meet that need. Props to him/her.

That said, I don't produce enough to make it viable, I don't think. I have a pretty stable supply of bottles, and I can't see wanting to pay more to package it differently.
 
It would be awesome if a large LHBS - or even BOP - could bring this service to the (local) homebrew market. Bring in a fully carbed keg or several, pay a per-graphic setup fee, and a per-can filling/printing fee, and pick it up when it's done. I could see myself paying $2-3 per tallboy for really special batches, though it'd have to be a bit cheaper (~$1.50, maybe?) to do it on a more regular basis. I'd probably put everything in cans if it could be done for $1/tallboy or $75¢/12oz can.
 
If I was doing 20 gallon batches, and the cost of canning was .05 per can. 128 oz per gal. X 20 =2560 oz divided by 12 oz =213 cans X $.05 =$10.66, yeah I's go for it :D
Might even go for $.10 per can, any more than that and I'm out!:eek:
 
Hey guys, I thinks some us are talking about canning in mason jar and others in steel cans. When I was little, 1982 dad opened his beer with a "church-key". I'd buy steel canned beer, just to back in time.
 
CBXBob said:
If I was doing 20 gallon batches, and the cost of canning was .05 per can. 128 oz per gal. X 20 =2560 oz divided by 12 oz =213 cans X $.05 =$10.66, yeah I's go for it :D
Might even go for $.10 per can, any more than that and I'm out!:eek:

Yeah, you'd never get anywhere near that price for a small batch like that. That's the kind of cost a brewery with *their own* canning equipment might see.

10¢/unit is what people "pay" here just by keeping used bottles (since that's the deposit you'd otherwise get back). Hell, you could probably even manage to turn in printed cans for that refund (not exactly legally, but it'd be easy to get away with), making it free - or even profitable - at the prices you stated. Which actually also suggests that even big breweries pay at least a little more than that. In fact, a business that cans homebrew here would probably only be allowed to operate, assuming it'd EVER be allowed, if they charged the same deposit on the cans of homebrew.

To get totally custom cans made and filled for that price is just never going to happen. It's so far outside the realm of realistic that even just mentioning such prices is ridiculous... pure fantasy.
 
You'd have to bulk carbonate it. Either that, or drink it nearly flat. I suppose they technically COULD make special "jars" that could withstand the pressure from bottle-conditioning, but they wouldn't even look like regular mason jars, unless they used ridiculously thick glass.
Bulk priming is the ONLY way to go, regardless of what I'm bottling/canning in. We're currently using 5-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches, and it could be just a TAD on the high side.

I'm willing to bet that if we switched to 3-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches to go into STANDARD mason jars.

Either way, you'd be paying a heck of a premium on them and they wouldn't be cheaper than using standard beer bottles, as it'd both be smaller-scale manufacturing and require more glass per vessel. And because of that, I don't see why there would be much of a demand for such a product, making it all the more expensive to actually produce. Which kind of sucks now that I think about it, as I think it'd be fun to "bottle" a Kentucky common or even a CAP.
STANDARD mason jars could be had for incredibly reasonable prices at ANY grocery store in the world....

Twelve - 32 ounce mason jars with INFINITELY reusable lids... for $11

Two of those 12-packs for $22 total, and then you're good for repeating a 5-gal batch FOR LIFE [or at least the life of the glass].

That's "better" than me having to drive to another state where I can buy empty bottles, or paying $2.75 for a 22-oz of Sam Adams. Twenty-nine 22-oz bottles (enough for a 5-gal batch) of Sam Adams would cost $80. And THEN one would still need a capper, and would need to continually buy new caps.

My point is that if one were looking to really be truly "independent" in terms of making beer (i.e. - growing your own grains, hops, washing & storing various yeast strains, etc.).... I would lean toward using mason jars to store the beer. Why?? Because I cannot make caps easily.

I'm perhaps looking at this from a different angle than others are. I'm looking at jars from a SHTF scenario, while others are looking at cans for nostalgic reasons.

But I'm still wondering how my great-grandmother bottled/canned that beer 80-90 years ago....
 
grndslm said:
Bulk priming is the ONLY way to go. We're using 5-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches.

I'm willing to bet that if we switched to 3-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches to go into STANDARD mason jars.

STANDARD mason jars could be had for incredibly reasonable prices at ANY grocery store in the world....

Twelve - 32 ounce mason jars with INFINITELY reusable lids... for $11

Two of those 12-packs for $22 and you're good for a 5-gal batch.

That's "better" than me having to drive to another state where I can buy bottles, or paying $2.75 for a 22-oz of Sam Adams. Twenty-nine 22-oz bottles (enough for a 5-gal batch) of Sam Adams would cost $80. And THEN one would still need a capper, and would need to continually buy new caps.

My point is that if one were looking to really be truly "independent" in terms of making beer (i.e. - growing your own grains, hops, washing & storing various yeast strains, etc.).... I would lean toward using mason jars to store the beer. Why?? Because I cannot make caps easily.

I'm perhaps looking at this from a different angle than others are. I'm looking at jars from a SHTF scenario, while others are looking at cans for nostalgic reasons.

But I'm still wondering how my great-grandmother bottled/canned that beer 80-90 years ago....

When I say bulk carbonating, I don't mean bulk priming. I mean you'd have to fully carbonate the beer *before* putting it in jars. The easiest way to do so is with a kegging setup. And if you have kegs, you're probably not bottling a ton of beer for yourself, and people just tend to use growlers (which also have reusable caps) in that case anyways.

And standard mason jars can be had for a reasonable price, sure. But that's a tad irrelevant, since standard mason jars are (as mentioned) highly prone to exploding if you try to carbonate it in the jar. They're not made to withstand internal pressure because manufacturers obviously don't count on people trying to carbonate in them.

If you just want something really cheap and reusable, plastic soda bottles make far more sense. They can hold more pressure than even the best beer bottles.

Anyways, this has gotten terribly off-topic. As somebody else already pointed out, this is not the kind of "canning" that this thread is about, and arguing is kind of pointless because if you really want to carbonate in mason jars, I can't stop you. So if you decide to do so, please just take every safety precaution you possibly can. Exploding glass bottles (or jars) can seriously injure someone, take out an eye or two, or even be fatal.
 
The mobile canning company is a startup by some of my son's college buddies. Lots of advantages for a small batch brewery to can their products to market. I think it's a great idea and if or when I get bigger at this, I would do it too. the can 'art" is pretty good with the product they've canned so far.

Props to your kids' friends. I thought it was a brilliant idea. And, it got me thinking about whether there'd be a way to make pre-sanitized aluminum cans that a homebrewer could use to put their stuff in. besides the logistics of the sanitization, i was trying to wrap my head around how you could 'cap' the can.

anyways, just a thought
 
mikescooling said:
Hey guys, I thinks some us are talking about canning in mason jar and others in steel cans. When I was little, 1982 dad opened his beer with a "church-key". I'd buy steel canned beer, just to back in time.

Can seamers are usually prohibitively expensive.
 
When I say bulk carbonating, I don't mean bulk priming. I mean you'd have to fully carbonate the beer *before* putting it in jars.
Ahh.... gotcha.

And if you have kegs, you're probably not bottling a ton of beer for yourself, and people just tend to use growlers (which also have reusable caps) in that case anyways.
But the kegs require CO2, and the growlers eventually require new gaskets.

I guess perhaps the mason jar lids will compress to a point where they will actually need to be replaced, but I've never personally seen one that needed replacing. Don't use them all the time, tho.

If you just want something really cheap and reusable, plastic soda bottles make far more sense. They can hold more pressure than even the best beer bottles.
This is likely the most "reusable" solution there is, but the taste only seems to be acceptable to me for, at most, a couple weeks after bottle conditioning has finished.

arguing is kind of pointless because if you really want to carbonate in mason jars, I can't stop you. So if you decide to do so, please just take every safety precaution you possibly can. Exploding glass bottles (or jars) can seriously injure someone, take out an eye or two, or even be fatal.
Do you know the difference between an argument and a discussion???

Thank you for the tips. I will definitely place them in bags inside boxes inside bags inside boxes. I think I'll work from 2.5-oz of priming sugar [for 5-gal], upward by .5-oz for each batch. There must be a limit in which the mason jars DO work. There must be. It could be a fine line, but it must exist. (would you prefer to discuss this instead of argue about it, tho?)

I'm actually curious how long the lids would seal. I think they might seal a couple times with the positive pressure, but I don't believe they'd seal FOREVER like I initially stated.

Anyway, don't mind me. I'm just discussing in the same place that inspired this tangent.
 
Jesus guys, they're talking about portable canning systems by WELCOME TO CASK.COM that puts beer in cans...

All-5-Cans-Web-2011.jpg


You know, BEER CANS?

There are threads about that one here, including someone thinking about offering a similar service for homebrewers.

NOT MASON JARS...

Mason jars are meant to hold a vaccum, not the outward pressure of carbonation pressing on the screw ring.

Drink out of them, but don't bottle in them.

They work by creating a vacuum when you can under pressure... When you put your food in the jar, seal the jar and stick it inside the boiling water bath, as it cools the vacuum draws the seal downward or inward that's why the dimple on a can is supposed to be pushed inward, and if you ever come a cross a can where it is bulging outward you are in trouble...

When you bottle, the gas builds up til it maxes out the head room (held in place by the crimped cap or the cork with wire or the gasket on a grolh bottle.....The co2 hits the barrier, maxes it and then goes back into solution/

With a mason jar you would either blow the seal and all the co2 would escape or if you were lucky enough that the seal held, more than likely the glass of the jar would explode and you would have a nice bottle grenade....

The tops for a mason jar typically is a thin metal lid with a rubberized "grommet" attached to is, really just a silicon band around the edge of the lid, and a retaining ring.

Mason-jar-lids.jpg

canning.jpg


When you can, the cooling of the once heated container and it's goodies creates a vaccuum, it sucks inward. It pulls the flat tightly Downward.

In fact many of the lids actually has a small indentation in the center of it, that when the vacuum occurs it is pulled inward on the top and leaves a little dimple. That's a sign that there is a vacuum pulling the lid down and keeping the veggies or jam sealed up nicely and protected from infection.

And usually after you remove the retaining ring, if everything is OK with the jar, you usually can feel/hear the the vaccum break, with a little *POP*

However any of you who have ACTUALLY canned before, probably knows that one of the ways you can tell if your food in the can spoiled is if the little dimple is pushed outword. In jars without the dimple it is really hard, usually the lid might feel loose or there might actually be wetness around the lid when you unscrew the retaining

Because usually the rotting food give of a gas which expands to push up the dimple OR it breaks the seal where the little lid gasket meets the rim of the glass.

There is considerably MORE pressure in the carbonation process of beer, often enough pressure to cause a BOTTLE BOMB, in bottles specifically made to handle the OUTWARD pressure of carbonation.

Now if you managed to find one of these older style, thick walled jars with big gaskets and flip tops...We MIGHT be having a different discussion.

mason-jar.jpg


But your typical jars from the grocery store...NOT.

The gas is going to break the seal and leak out...Anyone who has ever canned food and have one go bad knows it doesn't take a lot of gas from the rotting food to break the seal.

A crown bottles cap is designed to contain the Outward and upward pressure of a beer bottle, we crimp it down, we don't create a vacuum that seats it on the bottle.
 
Srsly??

I've gotten the idea to bottle in mason jars from this site once or twice. I'm wondering why it's not MORE common if there's no need for a capper and a "limitless" replacement caps.

Mason jars come in 8, 16, 32, 64 oz jars. Twelve jars for $10 or less???

Oh yea... they're not brown, tho. So leave 'em in box inside two bags, in a closet, in the basement. Then it's all good!!!

This is Revvy's reasoning behind not putting homebrew in mason jars. Long story short - they work as a vaccuum - the exact opposite of anything beer related.
 
That's great, Revvy! I was waiting for that one..... HTF did the topic co from canning beer in actual beer cans to bottling in mason jars? And really, how could you think mason jars would hold any outward pressure? Those lids, the flat part, that'd just bow and pop out of the ring, at best. Worst case.... well, Grndslm, post back the results of your 'plan'.... I wanna see how that turns out!
 
I've seen that post at least a half-dozen times after searching for "mason jars conditioning", but I feel obligated to test it out for myself.

I'm fairly certain that I could get the lids tight enough to hold onto a positive pressure, and to batch prime with half the sugar.... thus reducing the pressure on the thinner than preferable glass.

If there is a limit, then I will find it. If there is not a limit, then at least I will know.

Don't try this at home kids!!
 
That's great, Revvy! I was waiting for that one..... HTF did the topic co from canning beer in actual beer cans to bottling in mason jars? And really, how could you think mason jars would hold any outward pressure? Those lids, the flat part, that'd just bow and pop out of the ring, at best. Worst case.... well, Grndslm, post back the results of your 'plan'.... I wanna see how that turns out!
(1) Topics lead to discussions. Discussions lead to tangents. :ban:

(2) I expect the threads to be tight enough, and perhaps have a "wet seal" on the flat lip??

(3) I'll be sure to let you know. But it will be several months, I'm sure.
 
It's not whether or not you can get the lids on, it's whether or not the two piece lid can remain intact under the pressure. My guess is that it will bow, and eventually pop out of the ring. Probably in a rather explosive manner.
 
It's not whether or not you can get the lids on, it's whether or not the two piece lid can remain intact under the pressure. My guess is that it will bow, and eventually pop out of the ring. Probably in a rather explosive manner.

I think grndslm's made his mind up. Personally, I definitely would like to see the experiment played out in its own thread for documentary reasons. Also, to truly test it - make it be a Hefeweizen carbed to style. I give it 10 days before kaboom. Any takers?
 
See I don't predict Kaboom, I predict hissssssssssssssss. The co2 is going to pop the seal on the lids and the gas is just going to leak out. And probably not even all that dramatically, as soon as the slightest amount of overpressure happens (probably within 24 hour) the seal is going to break and the gas is just going to ooze out as it is being produced.
 
Jesus guys, they're talking about portable canning systems by WELCOME TO CASK.COM that puts beer in cans...

All-5-Cans-Web-2011.jpg


You know, BEER CANS?

There are threads about that one here, including someone thinking about offering a similar service for homebrewers.

I would definitely be interested in this if the price was reasonable. There are trails that allow cans but not glass bottles, and even brown bottles will skunk after enough exposure, but an opaque can never will.
 
I would definitely be interested in this if the price was reasonable. There are trails that allow cans but not glass bottles, and even brown bottles will skunk after enough exposure, but an opaque can never will.

They have plastic beer bottles too - if you're really concerned about it.
 
now the question is, how do you make the canning process (for beer cans, not mason jars) affordable and doable at home without much specialty equipment?
 
NineMilBill said:
I think grndslm's made his mind up. Personally, I definitely would like to see the experiment played out in its own thread for documentary reasons. Also, to truly test it - make it be a Hefeweizen carbed to style. I give it 10 days before kaboom. Any takers?

The same guy also made a thread asking what people thought about his idea to whirlpool after transferring to secondary. Dozens of post unanimously told him that it was at best pointless, and at worst would oxidize his beer, leading to cardboard and acetaldehyde flavors. He basically told everybody that we're all wrong, and that it should improve the beer, since "whirlpooling" on top of a priming solution in the bottom of the bottling bucket is a legitimate practice.

He's a new brewer with 6 extract batches under his belt.

And every time somebody rips apart his reasoning, he comes up with a new line of reasoning. Basically, he decided that whirlpooling the secondary must be good, and then looks for reasons why it must be. It's not rational thinking, and he's done nearly the same thing here. Because he's done the same thing multiple times, it's become quite obvious that he is just obsessed with the idea of being personally responsible for innovation or a shift in the brewing paradigm, which is why he stubbornly refuses to accept anything that would take that away from him (ie reality).

Now... he's taken an interesting thread and made it go way off-topic. I'm not saying I should necessarily have the last word on the matter, but let's try to have some respect for the OP and not just shìt all over his thread, k? Grndslm, if you really need to keep discussing the ridiculous topic of bottle conditioning in a jar (which has been pretty concretely dismissed with sound science), just create your own thread instead of highjacking someone else's.
 
Now... he's taken an interesting thread and made it go way off-topic. I'm not saying I should necessarily have the last word on the matter, but let's try to have some respect for the OP and not just shìt all over his thread, k? Grndslm, if you really need to keep discussing the ridiculous topic of bottle conditioning in a jar (which has been pretty concretely dismissed with sound science), just create your own thread instead of highjacking someone else's.

i dont mind. its entertaining, really.
 
The same guy also made a thread asking what people thought about his idea to whirlpool after transferring to secondary. Dozens of post unanimously told him that it was at best pointless, and at worst would oxidize his beer, leading to cardboard and acetaldehyde flavors. He basically told everybody that we're all wrong, and that it should improve the beer, since "whirlpooling" on top of a priming solution in the bottom of the bottling bucket is a legitimate practice.

He's a new brewer with 6 extract batches under his belt.

And every time somebody rips apart his reasoning, he comes up with a new line of reasoning. Basically, he decided that whirlpooling the secondary must be good, and then looks for reasons why it must be. It's not rational thinking, and he's done nearly the same thing here. Because he's done the same thing multiple times, it's become quite obvious that he is just obsessed with the idea of being personally responsible for innovation or a shift in the brewing paradigm, which is why he stubbornly refuses to accept anything that would take that away from him (ie reality).

Now... he's taken an interesting thread and made it go way off-topic. I'm not saying I should necessarily have the last word on the matter, but let's try to have some respect for the OP and not just shìt all over his thread, k? Grndslm, if you really need to keep discussing the ridiculous topic of bottle conditioning in a jar (which has been pretty concretely dismissed with sound science), just create your own thread instead of highjacking someone else's.

Very well put! :mug: I remember seeing the 'whirlpool' thread..... sometimes people amaze me.

Back to the canning thing..... more and more craft breweries are canning their beers, even smaller breweries. Which is great! For many reasons.... for the home brewer, if there's some sort of trickle down effect, as in in the cost of canning decreasing trickling down to a point where it may be feasible for a home brewer or club to invest in canning equipment. Maybe I'm just daydreaming, but it'd be f'n sweet to be able to can.

And to the guy that posted the Miller Lite aluminum bottles..... Well, they're bottles. :D
 
I honestly don't think it'd be too tough to figure out an economical way to can beer. Right now, the canning machine is the prohibitive factor, in how its like a bajillion dollars.

But, homebrewers use a bottle capper and some reused bottles to accomplish the same thing.

So, its all just a matter of designing a single use can for filling and 'capping' in a way that you could do on your kitchen counter with a minimal investment ($15-$20). THATS the part thats been eating me up all day. i know theres a solution to it, but i can't quite put my finger on it.
 
it's become quite obvious that he is just obsessed with the idea of being personally responsible for innovation or a shift in the brewing paradigm, which is why he stubbornly refuses to accept anything that would take that away from him (ie reality)

As personally attacking as this may seem to outsiders - based upon past history, honestly - this is spot on. It almost seems like he's trying to come up with the next "I don't secondary" that goes against the standard, and in-turn becomes the standard. There is legitmate science backing up the contrary. We all know mason jars look cool because people associate them with moonshine, but moonshine is still, not carbonated - and they seal by sucking in - not pushing out.

DROP THE MASON JAR ISSUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait, what? Like I was saying - it's unfortunate that a great discussion of (possibly?) affordable canning became a thread concerning a topic that has been covered in depth otherwise - especially with the scientific curb-stomping that Revvy gave it - removing any logical concept that mason jars would work.

F. Back to my DFH Midas Touch. That was bottled - very effectively.
 
I honestly don't think it'd be too tough to figure out an economical way to can beer. Right now, the canning machine is the prohibitive factor, in how its like a bajillion dollars.

But, homebrewers use a bottle capper and some reused bottles to accomplish the same thing.

So, its all just a matter of designing a single use can for filling and 'capping' in a way that you could do on your kitchen counter with a minimal investment ($15-$20). THATS the part thats been eating me up all day. i know theres a solution to it, but i can't quite put my finger on it.

You'd think they could come up with a way to do it manually on a small scale. I mean, this can lids are crimped onto the can, not in the same way as a bottle cap, but I bet it could be done.
Us home brewers are a pretty crafty lot, maybe we have some that could come up with something.
 
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