Canning Thread

[Zee]

My interest in purchasing a can seamer canning machine is increasing.

Does anyone own a can seamer they can recommend or review?

Any advice on options available?

Is it worth it?

So far I’ve just looked at the Kegland Cannular.

Tia

 

[RichardM]

I can answer the "is it worth it" question.
No, the machines and the cans are expensive and you have to question what benefit you, as a home brewer, would get over bottling or kegging.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I worked for Coca Cola, Heinz and Nestlé Purina Petfood and I know getting can seaming right is tough do not attempt it. As Richard said stick to bottles and kegs.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The only forum member that I know routinely cans his brews is @Hopsteep so it might be worth speaking with him?

 

[steve123]

I’d been thinking it would be pretty cool to have your beer in a can, I’ve been giving quite a bit away lately, think it would be pretty cool in a can. But like the comments say may not be practical or may not work that well within a budget I would spend on one. Hope you find something suitable

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Steve/Zee
Find a micro brewery near you that cans it's beer and ask if you could come and discuss the process.

 

[user 18729]

The only forum member that I know routinely cans his brews is @Hopsteep so it might be worth speaking with him?

I’ll reply later on with my thoughts!

 

[Zee]

My initial reason for looking into it is long term storage, easy to transport and giveaways.

Long terms storage means I can brew some stouts/porters etc and not have keg tied up for months. Also sour beers. Cans can be stacked in the fridge too. I have the tap cooler for counter pressure filling.

Easy transport for going on staycations etc. I’ve tried minikegs and 9ltr corny but there is never enough space to keep it all chilled and taking gas is a pita!

Giveaways in exchange for logs (wood burner). If I can get a winters load of logs it almost pays for itself, so financials will balance out.

Most reviews on the Cannular (not many) are positive. Once set up it’s reliable.

Cans are about 25/30p each.

I was hoping for advice from peeps that use a can seamer but subjective opinions are still considered

I have spoken to breweries that can and the main issue seems to be the automation of the system rather than just the seaming. The HB scale is far more hands on, therefore slower and more controllable.

I look forward to @Hopsteep comments later.

 

[Clint]

Taking beer on hols...I usually take a milk crate with 20 bottles for a week,2 crates anything longer. Fit in the boot easy and I fetch the empties home.

 

[user 18729]

My initial reason for looking into it is long term storage, easy to transport and giveaways.

Long terms storage means I can brew some stouts/porters etc and not have keg tied up for months. Also sour beers. Cans can be stacked in the fridge too. I have the tap cooler for counter pressure filling.

Easy transport for going on staycations etc. I’ve tried minikegs and 9ltr corny but there is never enough space to keep it all chilled and taking gas is a pita!

Giveaways in exchange for logs (wood burner). If I can get a winters load of logs it almost pays for itself, so financials will balance out.

Most reviews on the Cannular (not many) are positive. Once set up it’s reliable.

Cans are about 25/30p each.

I was hoping for advice from peeps that use a can seamer but subjective opinions are still considered

I have spoken to breweries that can and the main issue seems to be the automation of the system rather than just the seaming. The HB scale is far more hands on, therefore slower and more controllable.

I look forward to @Hopsteep comments later.

Sorry for the late reply, been a long old day!

I bought the Mk1 cannular about 12 months ago (mk1 being the manual one without the splash guard or the additional Chuck). I bought the European Chuck for it and that works perfectly.

I was authorised to buy it so that I could brew a few batches and can each one for our wedding. I don’t think I would have been allowed otherwise

It’s very very tedious to set it up and it is equally difficult to use it consistently. Basically you have to apply just the right amount of force to the leaver when seaming and you also have to seam for the right amount of time (about 0.5 seconds to a second on each roller) otherwise you’ll get a poor seam.

It took me a lot of cans, trial and error and perseverance to get it right but every now and then you’ll get a dodgy seam through human error (usually 4 or 5 cans out of say 60).

I think the build quality is very good. The design is poor- very little room for adjusting the rollers and it’s impossible to get a feeler gauge in there properly. Also the power supply seems unnecessary and is very expensive

I think kegland must have had a lot of people getting in touch with problems from people not calibrating it properly or who were using the wrong technique with the manual leaver. Just my opinion, but I imagine that is why the newer cannular is ‘automatic’ to remove human error!

If the automatic machine is easy to strip, repair and service then I would lean towards that. However, the beauty of my older machine is that it’s very very simple and if anything ever breaks it will be straight forward to take apart.

Overall I love the machine. For me it’s well worth the money. I don’t can every batch, usually just a few cans to give to friends. It won’t improve your beer, it’s unnecessary at a home brew level, but it’s a great little thing to have!

 

[Zee]

Sorry for the late reply, been a long old day!

I bought the Mk1 cannular about 12 months ago (mk1 being the manual one without the splash guard or the additional Chuck). I bought the European Chuck for it and that works perfectly.

I was authorised to buy it so that I could brew a few batches and can each one for our wedding. I don’t think I would have been allowed otherwise

It’s very very tedious to set it up and it is equally difficult to use it consistently. Basically you have to apply just the right amount of force to the leaver when seaming and you also have to seam for the right amount of time (about 0.5 seconds to a second on each roller) otherwise you’ll get a poor seam.

It took me a lot of cans, trial and error and perseverance to get it right but every now and then you’ll get a dodgy seam through human error (usually 4 or 5 cans out of say 60).

I think the build quality is very good. The design is poor- very little room for adjusting the rollers and it’s impossible to get a feeler gauge in there properly. Also the power supply seems unnecessary and is very expensive

I think kegland must have had a lot of people getting in touch with problems from people not calibrating it properly or who were using the wrong technique with the manual leaver. Just my opinion, but I imagine that is why the newer cannular is ‘automatic’ to remove human error!

If the automatic machine is easy to strip, repair and service then I would lean towards that. However, the beauty of my older machine is that it’s very very simple and if anything ever breaks it will be straight forward to take apart.

Overall I love the machine. For me it’s well worth the money. I don’t can every batch, usually just a few cans to give to friends. It won’t improve your beer, it’s unnecessary at a home brew level, but it’s a great little thing to have!

Thank you, that very helpful. I will look into the semi pro version rather than the manual.

 

[itry]

Not a lot of help Here, but I purchased a canular for a later on project.... its sat their waiting to be used but I just havnt got round to playing with it yet. Might be a job for today

 

[DocAnna]

Reopening an old thread, as I'd appreciate a bit of discussion on the merits of canning and if anyone has any experience with the semiautomatic version of the cannular?

My bottle supply is really quite depleted at the moment, after giving away quite a lot at Christmas and then the OH had a work thing which I contributed 30 something bottles to. That's not a bad thing by any means, as I love giving my brewing efforts away to other people. However I do need to order some new bottles as though I do put beer in kegs, that's really just for home use and I need some way to be able to give out the beer. I appreciate bottles are reusable but in most settings I don't get the bottles back. So I'm thinking again about canning as the cans are cheaper than the bottles, can be stacked to take up less space, and are more easily transported.

One of my issues is counter pressure filling which I do at present for my bottles, I'm not sure how you stop the beer all foaming up when filling a can, is it just a case of chilling the keg for filling right down first?

Not sure if @Zee is still reading the forum but if so, did you end up getting a can seamer? Thanks.

 

[The Baron]

Hi Anna, Zee was last seen on the forum in November last year

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Not sure if @Zee is still reading the forum but if so, did you end up getting a can seamer? Thanks.

Last seen Nov 8, 2021

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This is something i posted in another can machine thread, seems a lot of faffing about compared to bottling.

It took her 101 seconds from starting to spray the empty can with sanitiser to pulling the sealed can from the machine call it 90 seconds without the chat, its still going to be a long canning day.



You can get a semi auto machine for £700 but as Worf says they are slow to use and expensive compared to bottles.



CANNULAR COMPACT SEMI-AUTO CANNING MACHINE
£695.00
£579.17 tax excl.

Cannular Compact Semi-Auto Canning Machine - Bench-top Can Seamer with CDL/ISE chuck to work with UK/European cans. The awesome Cannular can seamer just got even better with this new semi-automatic model. Even easier to use, reliable and beautifully simple. Now you don't even have to push and pull a lever to seam the can, just press the button. The seaming process takes only 3 Seconds! That's crazy fast.

https://www.angelhomebrew.co.uk/can...l#/47-power_supply-none/165-splash_guard-none

View attachment 57334

 

[user 18729]

This is something i posted in another can machine thread, seems a lot of faffing about compared to bottling.

It took her 101 seconds from starting to spray the empty can with sanitiser to pulling the sealed can from the machine call it 90 seconds without the chat, its still going to be a long canning day.



You can get a semi auto machine for £700 but as Worf says they are slow to use and expensive compared to bottles.



CANNULAR COMPACT SEMI-AUTO CANNING MACHINE
£695.00
£579.17 tax excl.

Cannular Compact Semi-Auto Canning Machine - Bench-top Can Seamer with CDL/ISE chuck to work with UK/European cans. The awesome Cannular can seamer just got even better with this new semi-automatic model. Even easier to use, reliable and beautifully simple. Now you don't even have to push and pull a lever to seam the can, just press the button. The seaming process takes only 3 Seconds! That's crazy fast.

https://www.angelhomebrew.co.uk/can...l#/47-power_supply-none/165-splash_guard-none

View attachment 57334

I now use mine commercially with my small nano brewery and I manage a case (24 cans) in about 8 minutes. If you get your process nailed down there’s no way it should take you 100 seconds

 

[MickDundee]

I now use mine commercially with my small nano brewery and I manage a case (24 cans) in about 8 minutes. If you get your process nailed down there’s no way it should take you 100 seconds

She’s also taking her time so that you can see the process. If she wasn’t filming it for her YouTube channel she’d be a lot quicker.

 

[DocAnna]

I now use mine commercially with my small nano brewery and I manage a case (24 cans) in about 8 minutes. If you get your process nailed down there’s no way it should take you 100 seconds

Thanks, that's really helpful. How do you fill your cans, ie without more foam than beer?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

She’s also taking her time so that you can see the process. If she wasn’t filming it for her YouTube channel she’d be a lot quicker.

She took 101 and i knocked it down to 90 if you cut out al the chat still a long time but as @Hopsteep says you can do it a lot faster once you get it nailed.