Cans aren't just for shotgunning...

Been mulling cans around in my head for quite some time now.

Since the oscar blues tour on BB video actually.

I know, a little mad, maybe I should call a shrink. Anyone ever had these thoughts before? I've been trying to research the can sealers and info is hard to come by, but every once and a while I can pickup some decent info. It's pretty hard to even get good info on beverage sealers alone, usually everything is on sealers for cans you would get your peas and carrots in. I've seen some hand driven ones online, mostly old models though that aren't in production anymore (usually old sites that don't get updated or archived files). Big commercial ones are easy to find, if you want a fully automated process and have a bare minimum of 20 grand sitting in your back pocket (less taxes )

There is an extrusion plant in my area. I want to stop in and see if they would actually sell 12 oz can stock and lids by the pallet and if they would what they would charge.

The whole idea seems way out of HB ablity. That's obvious. But hell, i've seen people discourage others for even thinking of malting grain on here. Now people are talking about it and doing it left and right (well maybe not talking on here about it much).

We've got Yuri making his own SS roller mill and SS conical, John Beere being featured in Zymurgy for building a freaking walk in cooler. :rockin: If there is any resource that would be able to spark good crazy progress I think we have it here.

You should check out this link to a local company here in Calgary.

http://www.cask.com/main/index.php?page_id=39

Maybe out of the financial reach of most homebrewers, but canning is certainly possible.

FlyGuy said:

You should check out this link to a local company here in Calgary.

http://www.cask.com/main/index.php?page_id=39

Maybe out of the financial reach of most homebrewers, but canning is certainly possible.

Click to expand...

That's actually the company that oscar blues got theirs from! I think i seen on there somewheres 21st amendment has one from them too. Neat company and site.

They are probably the best place I have been able to spot out there so far.

FlyGuy said:

You should check out this link to a local company here in Calgary.

http://www.cask.com/main/index.php?page_id=39

Maybe out of the financial reach of most homebrewers, but canning is certainly possible.

Click to expand...

Called to see if they have a print catalog and to get some quotes and the sales rep for eastern north america is out of the country until April 8th.

I'm very curious how much just a sealer would cost and how much a pallet of cans and lids costs.

If this were relatively reasonable i could even see some clubs owning one of these for club use and "renting" to club members. A filler would be fairly simple to concoct yourself, the only major benefit to their filler would be the auto stop and of course their support.

Will call back next week.

[edit: checked the pallet specs on cans and for an export standard pallet of 12oz cans, lowest number of layers on pallet equaled to 6613 cans/pallet. Yowser! According to the video they have on the site that would be about $66,130 to buy a pallet of cans! I don't even know if that would estimate shipping.

I mean for 275 cases that really doesn't seem out of control. I mean that would last about 125 five gallon batches of brew! At 10 cents a can if you could purchase the cans at a more reasonable amount that ain't too shabby. But that would be one hell of a fundraiser to just get the pallet of cans lol!

if there was enough interest you might be able to convince a LHBS, some clubs, and some moneybaggers to get together haha]

I think you slipped a couple of decimal points. At 0.10 each, that should be $661.30/pallet.

david_42 said:

I think you slipped a couple of decimal points. At 0.10 each, that should be $661.30/pallet.

Click to expand...

yes i did. and i realized it as i was thinking about it while walking the dog in this cold a$$ weather.

note to self: quit multitasking, especially with the number of tasks begins to break the 5 barrier

Could buy used:
http://probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=19867#post19867

I looked into a set up for home canning once. It sounded neat but you could buy all the fruits and vegetables you wanted for the price of the cans.

IDK about the whole can thing. The only commercial/micro beer I can think of that I would rather have in a can is Guinness. Other than that, its bottles EVERY time. IMHO, cans are way too BMC. On top of that, you reuse commercial bottles you buy and only incur cost for cleaning and capping. I got my bench capper for 13 bucks and get a HUGE bag of caps for a couple more bucks.

i can think of a number of places that bottles are not allowed (i.e. beaches, baseball diamonds, certain park functions) and are not very practical (i.e. walking around in a drunken stupor at a NASCAR race haha or parades or the like) that I would MUCH rather be drinking my own beer than drinking every BMC equivalent of natty light.

I would love to can my beer! You could take it anywhere. Not sure if anyone plays golf, I don't, but I have family that does... I gave them a case of beer to take with them... it all came home. When asked what happened they explained that you can only have cans and plastic bottles on a golf course. NO BOTTLES!!! Plus there is the issue of light and bottles. last time i checked light dosn't penetrate a beer can. OK, so that is reaching a bit, but really! I can't remember the last time I opened a can of beer. You can't exactly crush a bottle of beer on your head after chuggin it now, can you? Don't get me wrong I would still bottle beer but I would can alot too. I like to have options. Anyone else seen anything on canning beer lately?

I agree that my preference is first draft, second bottle and last can (and can I have a plastic cup?). But if you are thinking of transport to said venues what about plastic PET bottles? Perhaps you can score some of the thicker, brown PET bottles the macro-breweries use at ball parks? They must have tackled the oxygen infiltration argument and the brown tint should help block the effects of outside light.

sirsloop said:

The only commercial/micro beer I can think of that I would rather have in a can is Guinness.

Click to expand...

You really should try the Oskar Blues products like dales pale ale, old chub, or Gordon. These are exceptional beers. IMHO best beers I ever tried out of a can.

I agree that Bottles may still be the more cost effective solution for hombrewers. Only exception to this would be them 5 gallon corny cans!
What about the party pig for you golfers?

Holy mackeral thanks for posting and reminding me I forgot all about this!

I will call the east coast rep again just to check on the seamer price and the pallet of cans price.

I think we need to tie Yuri to a chair and make him watch that video over and over again until he comes up with a way to make that Cask canning system a DIY project.

Of course...we probably wouldn't have to tie him down....and he'd probably only have to watch it once...so...why hasn't Yuri built one of these yet!?!?!!!!

I see a problem and a solution. Budweiser Aluminum Bottles are the answer. 15 for 18 dollars, About 50 dollars worth will get you up and running. Just find a bud that likes Budlight.

BlackZX3 said:

I see a problem and a solution. Budweiser Aluminum Bottles are the answer. 15 for 18 dollars, About 50 dollars worth will get you up and running. Just find a bud that likes Budlight.

Click to expand...

That's true. And I have since planned on using some of them.

But there is still one issue that had me thinking about this in the first place...
The cans themselves (as stock) would be cheap. They would be perfect in places that you don't plan on keeping the containers.

Yes the initial investment of a seamer is way out of a homebrewer's league (I say that still without knowing the price of a small seamer is yet). But if a large club decided to invest in one the cans still seem like a feasible option. Not to mention they stack one hell of a lot better

I have no problem with using aluminum as a delivery method but I don't like drinking out of it. I just brought up PET because I thought it would meet the objectives of cans (minus the 100% light blocking) with less effort/cost.

I live about 15 minutes from Oskar Blues, I'll borrow a truck from a buddy tonight and see what i can do for ya!

Off topic here....

OK, so I'm poking around that cask.com site and in addition to the canning system they also have a bottle / carboy washer that looks like it could be turned into a DIY project. From the looks of the video it appears they started with a deep stainless steel utility sink and a dishwasher pump and probably a heater, built a couple different distribution manifolds to force the water into the bottles/carboys, and racks for the bottles/carboys. I wonder what they sell it for. More importantly I wonder if a guy couldn't just start with a dishwasher, remove the bottom spray arm and replace with a manifold in the same way....

Back on topic, cans would be great for those venues that don't allow bottles, but I think I'd rather take a 3-5G cornie.