Can Seamers

[JAReeves]

Greetings,

Did a search for this topic, but didn't come up with a thread for it. If you have a link, I'll take it.

Q: If you have a canning system for your homebrew, which one and what are your likes/dislikes? I am thinking about getting one, and since they are all basically the same price, it comes down to user reviews and I trust the group here's perspectives.

Peace,

Reevesie

 

[micraftbeer]

I had the Cannular for a hands on review. I played around with it for awhile, but found it was too much hassle to try to get a good fill. I also wasn't a fan of how messy it was. To fill on foam and minimize oxygen, when I'd spin it to seal the can topper, it would fling foam and a bit of liquid everywhere.

That said, I have a friend who has one, and likes it. He didn't go through as much trouble as I describe in my review (link below), and I believe just fills the cans from a pitcher even.

https://www.homebrewfinds.com/2019/...r-bench-top-can-seamer-can-your-homebrew.html

 

[JAReeves]

I had the Cannular for a hands on review. I played around with it for awhile, but found it was too much hassle to try to get a good fill. I also wasn't a fan of how messy it was. To fill on foam and minimize oxygen, when I'd spin it to seal the can topper, it would fling foam and a bit of liquid everywhere.

That said, I have a friend who has one, and likes it. He didn't go through as much trouble as I describe in my review (link below), and I believe just fills the cans from a pitcher even.

https://www.homebrewfinds.com/2019/...r-bench-top-can-seamer-can-your-homebrew.html

Very helpful, thank you!

 

[Jack Arandir]

I have the Cannular Pro and did around 700 cans this past year. Here are some thoughts.

It took some time to get it dialed in. One of my early batches had almost all of them leak (~50 cans). I had to rework the entire batch.
I gradually reduced the leaking cans from over half to 20% to 10%. Now I rarely get leaks.
The button stopped working. I contacted MoreBeer and they sent a replacement. But I found it works better to manually control the seamer over the automatic.
Cans are nicer than bottles because new cans come clean (no scrubbing bottles and labels). However, you can't reuse them like bottles
Cans are more shelf stable than bottles.
It does fling foam everywhere. There is a shield you can buy. I just use a towel.
There's less headspace and less volume for oxidation.
You still have the problem of oxidation while filling. I haven't found any homebrew scale counterpressure fillers for cans. BeerGun gets close, but you still get oxygen in. I'm working on a home engineered solution.

I recommend the Cannular Pro over the regular (hand-operated) Cannular for consistent operation and process control.

Is it worth it? If you want near professional quality packaging of your beer and are willing to spend almost $1000, absolutely. But it's not that much of an improvement over bottling.

 

[JAReeves]

I have the Cannular Pro and did around 700 cans this past year. Here are some thoughts.

It took some time to get it dialed in. One of my early batches had almost all of them leak (~50 cans). I had to rework the entire batch.
I gradually reduced the leaking cans from over half to 20% to 10%. Now I rarely get leaks.
The button stopped working. I contacted MoreBeer and they sent a replacement. But I found it works better to manually control the seamer over the automatic.
Cans are nicer than bottles because new cans come clean (no scrubbing bottles and labels). However, you can't reuse them like bottles
Cans are more shelf stable than bottles.
It does fling foam everywhere. There is a shield you can buy. I just use a towel.
There's less headspace and less volume for oxidation.
You still have the problem of oxidation while filling. I haven't found any homebrew scale counterpressure fillers for cans. BeerGun gets close, but you still get oxygen in. I'm working on a home engineered solution.

I recommend the Cannular Pro over the regular (hand-operated) Cannular for consistent operation and process control.

Is it worth it? If you want near professional quality packaging of your beer and are willing to spend almost $1000, absolutely. But it's not that much of an improvement over bottling.

Thank you, honest reviews matter most!

 

[Wagon_6]

I have the cannular manual and love it. I use the tapcooler counterpressure setup to fill them. With some experience, I got a good rhythm going to seal one can while another fills. I brew 10 gallon batches so it’s easy to throw 5 g on the kegerator and can the other 5 g. Like others said, cans allow you to take beer to a lot of places where glass would be a pain.

I really like designing/using labels too and Grogtag has a 16oz can label that covers nearly all of it.

 

[DuncB]

Williams warn counter pressure bottle filler for me. flushes bottle with CO2, fills it. Cap on foam, great shelf life with it and not had problems.
Very little mess, doesn't require power, bottles are reusable or give to person for them to recycle.
Works with PET bottles as well.
I've toyed with the canning idea but it would have to be a lot better and cheaper to make it worthwhile for me.
Bottles rarely die but cans are always consumed.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I like my big 5 gallon cans. Less work to fill, and they're reusable.

 

[DuncB]

I like my big 5 gallon cans. Less work to fill, and they're reusable.

But difficult to carry as a 6 pack

 

[OLBrews]

I've been using the Oktober SL1 for about a year now - the unit is absolutely solid and I have had zero issues. No adjustments or dial-in time required: first can was spot on and every one since has sealed without any problems.

 

[JAReeves]

Again, thanks for the feedback! I do bottles off my kegs to share beer with neighbors and friends, but when I ship to family or beer shares, I am always concerned about breakage. Always needing extra layers of plastic to seal in leaks and/or broken glass when UPS/FedEx get excitable is kind of frustrating.

 

[matt_m]

I also have the Oktober SL1 and mine just worked out of the box as well. And its nice they are made here in the US.

I'm still figuring out the best way to fill. I've used a beer gun, tried and sold the Tapcooler filler, now using a Duofiller which I was having trouble getting it to stay dialed in but they sent me new tubing that should solve that problem--just haven't tested it yet. Beer gun is fine just a little slow unless you can get someone to help. When the Duofiller is dialed in, things go fast.

 

[DuncB]

Again, thanks for the feedback! I do bottles off my kegs to share beer with neighbors and friends, but when I ship to family or beer shares, I am always concerned about breakage. Always needing extra layers of plastic to seal in leaks and/or broken glass when UPS/FedEx get excitable is kind of frustrating.

Pet Bottles are super robust. I just put in a cardboard sleeve when I post them for competitions etc.

 

[Ballaratguy]

I’ve got the automatic filler that’s in eBay. Got mine secondhand with the centre clutch made out of nylon and not right
After a lot of wrecked cans and various clutch modifications I ended up with a couple of the cannular clutches (G64 & CDLE lid styles
I’ve now got it dialed in by a lot of trial and error. I’ve done about 600 cans since I got it dialed in
I made a Perspex screen to contain the foam/liquid spray when sealing the cans
I love this machine put the can in shut the door press the foot switch and it’s done
I also made my version of the tap cooler filler (from a standard counter pressure bottle filler) which works quite well