Hand canning your beer

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Brew-school
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Hand canning your beer

Post by Brew-school » Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:34 pm

Hi Guys,

Apologies in advance if I've posted in the wrong section so feel free to move.

Just reaching out to the group to see what kind of advice the group has on hand canning their beer?

Is it a realistic option for home brewers and what kind of equipment is recommended?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

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Nashbrew
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by Nashbrew » Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:50 pm

Falling apart together nicley🍻

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MashBag
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by MashBag » Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:42 pm

Chris,

Got to ask - why canning?

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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by f00b4r » Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:31 pm

Barneey on here has got the Kegland one and can probably give you a decent comment on it.

The Malt Miller also sells an automatic can filler (I’m assuming you still need a seamer though) but I’m not aware of anyone owning one, although it is pretty new:

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... an-filler/

They sell a couple of different seamers:

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... t/canning/

From a couple of people I have talked to it can be a bit of a faff and requires a bit of investment, whether the benefits are worth it is probably up for debate.
Personally I think it might be a nice thing for brew clubs/schools to have as the set up time and investment cost might be worth it with people then being able to bottle various bright beer kegs and being able to share them freely on a (semi) regular basis. I think for individuals it’s a lot more commitment in time/space/money, although there are a handful of people who have had canning machines for a while now so it would be interesting to see what they have to say compared to what others have said to me.

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Cobnut
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by Cobnut » Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:37 pm

My two penceworth:

Upsides:
- Cans are lighter so easier to transport;
- Canned beer won't be affected by light;
- Err...that's all I can think of

Downsides:
- Cost;
- Cans are not re-usable (bottles mostly are);
- Controlling dissolved Oxygen (although why is this not also an issue for bottled beers?);
- Can conditioning: not so easy to avoids decanting any sediment c.f. bottles
- Another large piece of kit to store and find somewhere to use (although I admit that for some another bit of kit is appealing!)

I like the idea of a can filler and seamer as a shared resource for a HBC...perhaps I'll suggest it to my LHBC.
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MashBag
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by MashBag » Tue Sep 28, 2021 7:35 am

I was expecting this to be a counter pressure filler. How do you cleanly control carbonisation then?

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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by f00b4r » Tue Sep 28, 2021 3:46 pm

MashBag wrote:I was expecting this to be a counter pressure filler. How do you cleanly control carbonisation then?
You usually can bright already carbonated beer, you can can condition but you need to be pretty sure that test isn’t going to keep chomping away.
You can either contre pressure fill or fill very carefully with eg a beer gun or filler and then cap on foam.

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barneey
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by barneey » Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:08 pm

Brew-school wrote:
Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:34 pm
Hi Guys,

Apologies in advance if I've posted in the wrong section so feel free to move.

Just reaching out to the group to see what kind of advice the group has on hand canning their beer?

Is it a realistic option for home brewers and what kind of equipment is recommended?

Thanks in advance.

Chris
Chris, I bought an Aussie one a year or more (could be 2). I even posted up an unboxing video + built a sorta pressure filler for the thing as the shop bought thing from Tapcooler was too expensive for me to consider purchasing. At the time there were different jigs for cans /different cans so it was in its infancy. The situation has likely changed since then and there may well be a UK standard can now? (no idea because I haven't been interested). Mine is the manual arm version whereas I believe some are automatic now?

To set mine up correctly you needed to be able to use a set of feeler gauges correctly to set the machine up otherwise the correct sealing of cans was not achieved.

As well as the "pressure fillers" a beer gun or the like can be used, the important thing as with any filling using such a gun is to get the beer in a good condition and then chill the hell out of it. Correct me if I am wrong but quite a few bottling plants chill to say -1c.

Was it a fun thing to play around with = YES, do I intend to use it again in the future = probably not, its currently in loft storage probably never to see the light of day again for some while unless I can be persuaded to sell the thing on at a considerable loss.

Bottom line for me, for personal consumption I keg and tap beer. For swaps /competitions / giving beer away, I bottle from a keg using a counter pressure filler (tried loads of those as well eventually settling on the TapCooler one as its very easy to clean / doesn't rely on a domestic tap cartridge - but that's another story). IMHO canning is more difficult to bottling and like most things in life if its more difficult its not my go to piece of equipment.

BTW just for the record I dislike bottling beer, making it and drink it yes but the easiest and fastest solution is keg from the FV. So I might be slightly biased against anything but kegging :lol:

Cleaning kegs is easy, PBW or the like, soak rinse, peracetic or my fav is to fire up the GF + stainless lid (with hole) and steam the keg inverted, job done.
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MashBag
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by MashBag » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:21 am

barneey wrote:
Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:08 pm


.... and like most things in life if its more difficult its not my go to piece of equipment.
Thanks Barneey

This applies to a lot of my stuff.

Used to think people where beer makers, tinkerers or drinkers. I am now more of a mind to say these are phases, you go through on your beer making journey.

I have been brewing for years, and I have been through different methods, different kit, different processes. The issue for me was a 5 hour brew day, not so much bottling or kegging. After a while, you find your recipe and your processes that fit. I no longer have a brewday.

But no "one size fits all". But I do think we can learn from each other.

Cracking post thanks!

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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by Brew-school » Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:18 pm

Thanks guys useful advice and I can see from home brewers perspective that canning is a faff and without a clear upside. Only really makes sense for a commercial outfit.

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MashBag
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by MashBag » Wed Sep 29, 2021 4:13 pm

Brew-school wrote:
Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:18 pm
Thanks guys useful advice and I can see from home brewers perspective that canning is a faff and without a clear upside. Only really makes sense for a commercial outfit.
Absolutely

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barneey
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Re: Hand canning your beer

Post by barneey » Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:39 pm

Cobnut wrote:
Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:37 pm


I like the idea of a can filler and seamer as a shared resource for a HBC...perhaps I'll suggest it to my LHBC.
Just been reading through your post & that's a very good idea, share the cost between the lot of you, share the machine for those who want to use it and have fun.

:wink: then go back to bottling or kegging beer :lol:
Hair of the dog, bacon, butty.
Hops, cider pips & hello.

Name the Movie + song :)

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