Why can your homebrewed beer?

[Clint]

Yeah get collecting....I got over 200 empties and occasionally add to them if I see something I fancy or stocks drop.
I may have a few spares...£4.99 each plus p+p...

 

[chesters-mild]

Home brewing is an evolving hobby, and has been so for the past 50 odd years. Remember when cutting edge was a large crock pot with a 50W immersion heater in it to keep mash temp. stable - from that to the likes of Grainfather etc. From an old large bucket to shiny SS fermenters, Corny kegs & dedicated beer fridges. I think that canning beer will take on like all the other developments. It's a great idea. The price just has to drop for this to happen.
Cheers

 

[David Heath]

Stupidly expensive and bad for the environment. Let's hope canning at the homebrew level never catches on.

Keg, wash, keg again.
Bottle, wash, bottle again.

Canning is becoming more widespread all the time with breweries. Sure, not every homebrewer will can but its an option.

 

[David Heath]

Home brewing is an evolving hobby, and has been so for the past 50 odd years. Remember when cutting edge was a large crock pot with a 50W immersion heater in it to keep mash temp. stable - from that to the likes of Grainfather etc. From an old large bucket to shiny SS fermenters, Corny kegs & dedicated beer fridges. I think that canning beer will take on like all the other developments. It's a great idea. The price just has to drop for this to happen.
Cheers

Agreed :)

 

[David Heath]

It’s not just the cost of the machines, it puts a huge cost on a pint at a home brew scale.

The cans will have to come down dramatically to get me on board unfortunately.

That price drop has already started thankfully.

 

[David Heath]

I thought the recycling argument was exceptionally weak. Given that as home brewers we are keeping bottles out of the recycling loop the purchasing of more kit and pricy cans that then end up needing processed just seems daft.

It depends on what you class as recycling. I meant it in form of the raw material and what happens when you throw it out. Naturally bottles are multi use, cans are not. Many pros and cons here for sure.

 

[Hoppyland]

I have little doubt that, on a commercial scale, canning is much preferable to bottling environmentally. Also, in my experience the quality of canned beer is equal or, likely, better than that from bottles. But I fail to see how it can be a viable option for the home brewer. If you don't like bottling, then keg. Much better beer anyway - it's easy to simulate a hand-pulled beer at the pub from a keg. Whereas I struggle to keep most of my bottles from being too fizzy.

 

[David Heath]

I have little doubt that, on a commercial scale, canning is much preferable to bottling environmentally. Also, in my experience the quality of canned beer is equal or, likely, better than that from bottles. But I fail to see how it can be a viable option for the home brewer. If you don't like bottling, then keg. Much better beer anyway - it's easy to simulate a hand-pulled beer at the pub from a keg. Whereas I struggle to keep most of my bottles from being too fizzy.

What makes it viable is that the cost of these machines is coming down.

 

[Nicks90]

It's the same with every hobby.
Once the commercial types see there is a market for development, then 'essential kit' comes to market and the community slowly starts to see all this clobber as necessary and the minimum you need.

Had exactly the same with astronomy over the past decade
Started off that the run of the mill kit was a simple refractor of 80-110mm on a fixed wooden tripod or a moderate Newtonian of 200mm
Now entry level scopes are self tracking auto mounts with APO quality scopes with 100deg wide angle eyepieces. Or fully 'go to' auto Newtonian of 12-16" aperture. Then you aren't an astronomer until you do astrophotography, initially using your dslr canon, but now increasingly expensive CCD astro cameras.
It's gone from £300 for a decent " light bucket " Newtonian that you move with your fingers and look at stuff with your eyes - finding targets using a star map and some patience, to £3000+ for imaging rigs.

Edited to add - I will stick with a crappy water heater/tea urn, biab and a plastic FV barrel. Same as I will stick with my 12" 10 year old Newtonian scope and a star map!

 

[Druncan]

 

[David Heath]

It's the same with every hobby.
Once the commercial types see there is a market for development, then 'essential kit' comes to market and the community slowly starts to see all this clobber as necessary and the minimum you need.

Had exactly the same with astronomy over the past decade
Started off that the run of the mill kit was a simple refractor of 80-110mm on a fixed wooden tripod or a moderate Newtonian of 200mm
Now entry level scopes are self tracking auto mounts with APO quality scopes with 100deg wide angle eyepieces. Or fully 'go to' auto Newtonian of 12-16" aperture. Then you aren't an astronomer until you do astrophotography, initially using your dslr canon, but now increasingly expensive CCD astro cameras.
It's gone from £300 for a decent " light bucket " Newtonian that you move with your fingers and look at stuff with your eyes - finding targets using a star map and some patience, to £3000+ for imaging rigs.

Edited to add - I will stick with a crappy water heater/tea urn, biab and a plastic FV barrel. Same as I will stick with my 12" 10 year old Newtonian scope and a star map!

I cannot really see a can seamer as essential at all. It is an option though so worth looking at if you can justify the price.

 

[PJL]

I suppose it would depend on the scale of operations, for me I don't think canning is a viable option. It might be a good option if you like to go out frequently and want to take a few brews with you.
At this stage I'm happy using the big cans.

 

[An Ankoù]

At this stage I'm happy using the big cans.

Shame they don't come with a handle welded onto the side.