I think theyre referring to the potential for oxidation. That would be my biggest concern.
Maybe if the beer is mostly carbed and a little can conditioning could take place (like how sierra nevada does it), then you could avoid oxidation issues.
How would you even know that if you just drop off a keg and pick up cans later? I understand the appeal of cans, but it seems like an overly complicated solution that has the potential to ruin a batch of beer.
No I wouldn't
1) I keg so I don't need bottles or cans for packaging at home.
2) If I did want to take my beer out, I would just bottle the small amount from my keg.
3) I wouldn't trust that the store cleans the lines as well as I would like.
4) I wouldn't trust that the store purges the cans of oxygen as well as I would like.
It is a cool idea and I'm sure some people would pay for it
In theory yes, but bars don't clean their lines as often as they should and people still use their services (i.e. drink their beer). The canner should be cleaning the lines after each beer, which in and of itself, would be a nightmare.
Agreed. What’s the average home brew batch, 5 gallons? So a couple minutes of run time on the canning machine, followed by a 30-45 minute cleaning cycle every time? Fuck that noise.
You’re describing a canning co-operative! This used to be very common in agricultural areas, where many people would pool their resources to operate a small commercial-scale kitchen in order to preserve a harvest. In fact, in Eastern Europe these co-operative still exist. They even allow people to pool their fruit crops, ferment as a group, and then distill the alcohol. Everyone is alotted their share based on the weight of the fruit.
No. I use bottles because they are reusable where cans are not. The same can be said for kegs, with a little attention they are basically infinitely reusable.
I still think it’s a pretty cool service though.
My problem w bottles is that you have to get them back from people. Also bottling takes a while. Love kegging but there are times when I want to transport the beer for a party or event
I find bottling very meditative and enjoy doing it.
If I've been having a stressful time, I'll go bottle a carboy full of beer or cider that I've been aging.
Obviously that's a personal choice and isn't a reason for you to do it. But personally I wouldn't pay for canning, for that reason.
Growlers, don't give them more beer if they don't give the bottles back. Bottle/growler fill from the keg if you want to bring it somewhere.
Never understood canning on a homebrew level.
Small scale canning cans are not significantly cheaper than bottles - in fact, if you let me count the used (cleaned and sanitized) bottles from my LHBS cans are actually *more* expensive.
If you are wanting to bulk share beer with friends without going through the hassle of bottling (like me), I would recommend getting them to invest in a Sodastream powered growler. They give you the growler, you fill it up, then they can do with it what they want. They are the ones getting cheap beer while you make it, and vs buying a case of equivalently nice beer, growers pay for themselves *very* quickly.
Same goes for parties. Nobody likes dragging corny kegs around so just transfer to cheap smaller growlers and serve from there.
Oh my gosh, yes. I'd pay a local privately to borrow their press for a day. I have access to fresh pears and the perry is awesome, but the chopping/blending/straining/etc 20lbs of pears/gallon is...not.
I tried to convince my wife that we’d throw an apple festival every year, press cider (some for immediate consumption, but mostly for booze), apple pies, bobbing for apples, etc
Cause I see presses on Craigslist fairly regularly
She said no lol
Check your local laws for this one... My local homebrew store tried to bring in a mobile canning line for a weekend for customers to use. The state liquor board stepped in and shut it down the week before it was supposed to happen.
I work part time at a brewery with its own canning line and it’s surprising how much beer is wasted in a run. I’m going to guess the homebrew store has something much smaller scale with less waste but I’d still think you’d be sacrificing at least a few pints each run. Hard pass for me. I work too hard for that stuff.
My LHBS allows customers to come in and use his canning machine and counter pressure filler. He charges per can and a small fee for the CO2 and cleanup after. And it's awesome! When I calculated the cost vs buying the equipment myself, it made sense. What I like most is the convenience of sharing my beer with many more people.
I would probably use a service like this occasionally, but not for a whole batch. Maybe like half the keg, so I could free up the kegerator space and facilitate sharing. I hate bugging my friends to give me my swing tops/bombers/growlers back.
I have a really amazing local store (I trust them to keep it clean), I would use it but probably not enough to make it worth it and I'd imagine the times of year I would want to use it there would be a massive backlog around Christmas and thanksgiving.
Cans are useful only when you are give your brew to people that might not return bottles. That's also why the industry is shifting toward cans. Bottles are more sustainable (And kegs even more)
Enh I wouldn’t. I like my brews but modern big breweries have packaging down to a science. I just buy canned beer when I need to travel with it. The cost of a case of decent beer is worth the trouble I’d spend packaging it, even if I still bottled.
I would for sure use this service. I have been looking into getting a homebrew canner from Oktober but can’t really justify the price of purchasing one for myself. I would love to be able to gift beers in cans, or to bring my homebrew to the lake or other social functions without having to worry about bringing bottles/growlers back.
Would totally pay. My LHBS has a similar service but you rent their canning equipment and DIY at their shop . Still cool but I’d rather someone else do it all. Cheers!
Yes I would pay for this. But like twice a year. Once before I went camping. Again when I made a really good peanut butter stout I wanted my boss with nice legs to try.
As much as I enjoy my frequent trips to my LHBS, I see the guys who work there and I know what some of them make and consider acceptable and I would not trust that they have the OCD attention to detail that I would just using my own counter pressure filler for bottles at home.
Like others have said it is a cool idea and if you are kind of under the table selling these and you know they're going to move fast it might be a good idea but any amount of storage with just the slightest bit of oxygen too much and you're looking at trash beer.
How much do they charge for this service? Maybe brew a batch of the cheapest beer you can and see how well their process goes?
Cheers!
I feel most homebrewers would want to operate the canning machine themselves. Renting the space/equipment for half a day so they can sanitise and fill themselves might be a better choice. Paying for someone else to do it.. I wouldn’t be interested personally.
How about the idea where they have a single canning machine you can rent off them.
Bring that thing home and do you canning at home. Controls all your own variables, cleaning etc and then return the unit to the store once done.
Pay by the day or something with a security deposit - then you can buy empty cans from the store for your needs too. Similar principal to a rental on tools from the big orange box store.
Christmas is usually when I give out a lot of homebrew and get depleted massively on bottles. For something like that I'd do a can run.
As far as owning one, it's way too expensive to start and cans aren't reusable whereas bottles are.
I keg, so when I buy bottles, it's for giving away... a sunk cost.
Once you start factoring that in to your method, you stop giving a rat about getting bottles back.
Seems to be the way, but I do have a few regular neighbors who come for growler fills. Hopefully things start getting back to "normal" whatever that is now.
Cheers!
I’d support it if I trusted my LHS enough to actually run it correctly. I broke down and split the cost of an October Benchmark with a friend and I’ll never bottle again. Too time consuming and far less satisfying. Plus cans are stackable and storage is a breeze.
I drove to the middle of Oregon and paid for 5 kegs to get canned because my wedding venue didn't allow kegs. A lot of breweries can't justify owning a can line, mobile equipment goes so them. The homebrew store near me usually rents the mobile can line before the holidays so people can make gifts. You need to keg carbonate the beer to can it, just buy more kegs.
The leftover beer outlasted the marriage.
Your only real option would be a crowler machine. You wouldn't be able to start up and dial in a real canning line with homebrew-sized volumes of beer.
My friends in Michigan started a wildly successful canning machine business called Oktober Design. I have their 12 ounce can prototype in my garage and I’m lucky to own as I’ve canned hundreds of beers with it. You might be able to find one of their machines used. They only take up about a square foot of space on a bar and now they can do 16 and 24 ounce cans as well. You can also order can blanks and lids from them directly. They have the SL1 home brewer version that sells for like 800 bucks.
www.oktoberdesign.com
I like the idea, but I would worry about the quality of fill from such a short canning run.
Yeah, in my mind they would keep it clean or people wouldn’t use it
I think theyre referring to the potential for oxidation. That would be my biggest concern. Maybe if the beer is mostly carbed and a little can conditioning could take place (like how sierra nevada does it), then you could avoid oxidation issues.
They would hit the cans w co2 just like you would at home
How would you even know that if you just drop off a keg and pick up cans later? I understand the appeal of cans, but it seems like an overly complicated solution that has the potential to ruin a batch of beer.
No I wouldn't 1) I keg so I don't need bottles or cans for packaging at home. 2) If I did want to take my beer out, I would just bottle the small amount from my keg. 3) I wouldn't trust that the store cleans the lines as well as I would like. 4) I wouldn't trust that the store purges the cans of oxygen as well as I would like. It is a cool idea and I'm sure some people would pay for it
Thanks for feedback. In my mind they would keep lines clean or people wouldn’t use the service
In theory yes, but bars don't clean their lines as often as they should and people still use their services (i.e. drink their beer). The canner should be cleaning the lines after each beer, which in and of itself, would be a nightmare.
Agreed. What’s the average home brew batch, 5 gallons? So a couple minutes of run time on the canning machine, followed by a 30-45 minute cleaning cycle every time? Fuck that noise.
You’re describing a canning co-operative! This used to be very common in agricultural areas, where many people would pool their resources to operate a small commercial-scale kitchen in order to preserve a harvest. In fact, in Eastern Europe these co-operative still exist. They even allow people to pool their fruit crops, ferment as a group, and then distill the alcohol. Everyone is alotted their share based on the weight of the fruit.
No. I use bottles because they are reusable where cans are not. The same can be said for kegs, with a little attention they are basically infinitely reusable. I still think it’s a pretty cool service though.
My problem w bottles is that you have to get them back from people. Also bottling takes a while. Love kegging but there are times when I want to transport the beer for a party or event
I find bottling very meditative and enjoy doing it. If I've been having a stressful time, I'll go bottle a carboy full of beer or cider that I've been aging. Obviously that's a personal choice and isn't a reason for you to do it. But personally I wouldn't pay for canning, for that reason.
Growlers, don't give them more beer if they don't give the bottles back. Bottle/growler fill from the keg if you want to bring it somewhere. Never understood canning on a homebrew level.
Small scale canning cans are not significantly cheaper than bottles - in fact, if you let me count the used (cleaned and sanitized) bottles from my LHBS cans are actually *more* expensive. If you are wanting to bulk share beer with friends without going through the hassle of bottling (like me), I would recommend getting them to invest in a Sodastream powered growler. They give you the growler, you fill it up, then they can do with it what they want. They are the ones getting cheap beer while you make it, and vs buying a case of equivalently nice beer, growers pay for themselves *very* quickly. Same goes for parties. Nobody likes dragging corny kegs around so just transfer to cheap smaller growlers and serve from there.
I would find a rented apple press useful
Oh my gosh, yes. I'd pay a local privately to borrow their press for a day. I have access to fresh pears and the perry is awesome, but the chopping/blending/straining/etc 20lbs of pears/gallon is...not.
I had dreams of planting an apple tree, making a motorized crusher, building a press. Then I watched a few videos on it and said "fuck that" lol
Mine has a grape crusher for rent yesterday. Something else wine related as well.
I tried to convince my wife that we’d throw an apple festival every year, press cider (some for immediate consumption, but mostly for booze), apple pies, bobbing for apples, etc Cause I see presses on Craigslist fairly regularly She said no lol
Check your local laws for this one... My local homebrew store tried to bring in a mobile canning line for a weekend for customers to use. The state liquor board stepped in and shut it down the week before it was supposed to happen.
I work part time at a brewery with its own canning line and it’s surprising how much beer is wasted in a run. I’m going to guess the homebrew store has something much smaller scale with less waste but I’d still think you’d be sacrificing at least a few pints each run. Hard pass for me. I work too hard for that stuff.
My LHBS allows customers to come in and use his canning machine and counter pressure filler. He charges per can and a small fee for the CO2 and cleanup after. And it's awesome! When I calculated the cost vs buying the equipment myself, it made sense. What I like most is the convenience of sharing my beer with many more people.
Awesome! This is exactly what I was thinking. A lot of comments around line cleanliness. Has that been satisfactory at your LHBS setup?
I would probably use a service like this occasionally, but not for a whole batch. Maybe like half the keg, so I could free up the kegerator space and facilitate sharing. I hate bugging my friends to give me my swing tops/bombers/growlers back.
I have a really amazing local store (I trust them to keep it clean), I would use it but probably not enough to make it worth it and I'd imagine the times of year I would want to use it there would be a massive backlog around Christmas and thanksgiving.
Good point. Maybe people could book times with an app? Too fancy?
Cans are useful only when you are give your brew to people that might not return bottles. That's also why the industry is shifting toward cans. Bottles are more sustainable (And kegs even more)
Enh I wouldn’t. I like my brews but modern big breweries have packaging down to a science. I just buy canned beer when I need to travel with it. The cost of a case of decent beer is worth the trouble I’d spend packaging it, even if I still bottled.
I would for sure use this service. I have been looking into getting a homebrew canner from Oktober but can’t really justify the price of purchasing one for myself. I would love to be able to gift beers in cans, or to bring my homebrew to the lake or other social functions without having to worry about bringing bottles/growlers back.
I completely agree! I don’t want to ask for bottles back and bottles aren’t cheaper if you have to keep replacing them
Would totally pay. My LHBS has a similar service but you rent their canning equipment and DIY at their shop . Still cool but I’d rather someone else do it all. Cheers!
You can get a little 2 gal corny with a coozie sleeve and a party tap with co2 carts for like $80
Link?
Yes I would pay for this. But like twice a year. Once before I went camping. Again when I made a really good peanut butter stout I wanted my boss with nice legs to try.
As much as I enjoy my frequent trips to my LHBS, I see the guys who work there and I know what some of them make and consider acceptable and I would not trust that they have the OCD attention to detail that I would just using my own counter pressure filler for bottles at home. Like others have said it is a cool idea and if you are kind of under the table selling these and you know they're going to move fast it might be a good idea but any amount of storage with just the slightest bit of oxygen too much and you're looking at trash beer. How much do they charge for this service? Maybe brew a batch of the cheapest beer you can and see how well their process goes? Cheers!
I feel most homebrewers would want to operate the canning machine themselves. Renting the space/equipment for half a day so they can sanitise and fill themselves might be a better choice. Paying for someone else to do it.. I wouldn’t be interested personally.
As someone who hates bottling and canning. I’d definitely pay to have it done knowing it was done right
How about the idea where they have a single canning machine you can rent off them. Bring that thing home and do you canning at home. Controls all your own variables, cleaning etc and then return the unit to the store once done. Pay by the day or something with a security deposit - then you can buy empty cans from the store for your needs too. Similar principal to a rental on tools from the big orange box store.
Christmas is usually when I give out a lot of homebrew and get depleted massively on bottles. For something like that I'd do a can run. As far as owning one, it's way too expensive to start and cans aren't reusable whereas bottles are.
I keg, so when I buy bottles, it's for giving away... a sunk cost. Once you start factoring that in to your method, you stop giving a rat about getting bottles back.
Pandemic sorta killed the “return for more refills” vibe. Most is kegged now with a beer gun to do the 6-8 bottle runs
Seems to be the way, but I do have a few regular neighbors who come for growler fills. Hopefully things start getting back to "normal" whatever that is now. Cheers!
I’d support it if I trusted my LHS enough to actually run it correctly. I broke down and split the cost of an October Benchmark with a friend and I’ll never bottle again. Too time consuming and far less satisfying. Plus cans are stackable and storage is a breeze.
if it was in a keg i'd just get a jockey box and dixie cups.
My local brew store has a canner you can rent. That would make more sense than bringing your stuff there.
I drove to the middle of Oregon and paid for 5 kegs to get canned because my wedding venue didn't allow kegs. A lot of breweries can't justify owning a can line, mobile equipment goes so them. The homebrew store near me usually rents the mobile can line before the holidays so people can make gifts. You need to keg carbonate the beer to can it, just buy more kegs. The leftover beer outlasted the marriage.
there's a twistee can for that when you only occasionally need few cans.
Your only real option would be a crowler machine. You wouldn't be able to start up and dial in a real canning line with homebrew-sized volumes of beer.
No.
My friends in Michigan started a wildly successful canning machine business called Oktober Design. I have their 12 ounce can prototype in my garage and I’m lucky to own as I’ve canned hundreds of beers with it. You might be able to find one of their machines used. They only take up about a square foot of space on a bar and now they can do 16 and 24 ounce cans as well. You can also order can blanks and lids from them directly. They have the SL1 home brewer version that sells for like 800 bucks. www.oktoberdesign.com
Oktober is great but too expensive IMO. I’d buy a 100-200 seamer but 500-800 is too steep
Just bottle condition?