Canning Line Ideas

[Rob Creighton]

RE:

http://www.qbyv.com/seamdefault.htm

Wow! I don't even have a can line and I want one.
Great link!

-Rob-

[Kersten Kloss]

We're excited to find a thread here on canning since this has been our company's preoccupation (and occupation) for the last 6 years. We won't monopolize the thread with a bunch of sales information but we do want to do our part to dispel a few possible misconceptions (and you're all free to contact us for quotes if you'd like further information and customer references)

1) The role of 'counterpressure' in filling - the purpose of counter pressure, whether in bottle or can filling, is not to lower air levels but to control foaming. While it works well to control foam in doing so it actually creates obstacles to lowering air content in your product that are very difficult to overcome. Specifically, it begins by dropping gasketed heads on to the bottles or cans and trapping the air within. This trapped air has to be double or triple purged and vented, and despite these elaborate and expensive procedures, it is never fully removed. In our can filling system we control foam through temperature and flow control so we don't require counter-pressure. As a result air is quickly and easily removed from the wide open neck at the top of the can. Our can filling system also incorporates a pre-fill station which fills waiting cans with CO2 while the cans in front are being filled with beer. They are filled from the bottom up and once again, because there is no restriction, air is easily evacuated out the open top.

2) Air levels - as a result of the above procedure, as well as some other features such as under lid gassing and applying the lids on foam the air levels on our automac filler/seamer system are as low as, or lower than, any other commercial can filling line on the market. We have some independent analyses to which we would be happy to refer anyone who is interested.

3) "Cans are too fragile for counter-pressure filling" - Actually, counter-pressure is the industry standard method for filling cans and the cans themselves are well-suited to it. We're the only manufacturers who don't use it - and the reasons we don't are: a)it makes it hard to lower air content in your beer and b) it is relatively speaking, about 3 times more expensive than the direct-fill, flow control method that we use.

4) "Elimination of essential peripherals to cut the capital cost". All kinds of peripherals for analyzing seams, date coding, etc.. are available for all can seaming and filling lines - including our own. Our systems are not cheaper because they do not incorporate them but you should obviously compare apples to apples. When compared to the next smallest filler/seamers on the market the considerable difference that still remains between 'theirs' and ours, even after accounting for speed and other peripherals is due in our opinion to a) north american instead of european manufacture and assembly, b) the elimination of expensive and unnecessary counter-pressure filling equipment c) filling 'in-line' rather than on a separate rotary system.

5) Labour-intensive manual systems - Our manual can filling and seaming system is guilty as charged. In fact, when we introduced it for microbrewery usage we had no data on which to base production figures. However everything is relative as they say and the can system is much less labor intensive than bottling systems of the same size and even a bit larger. Now that we have over 15 such systems in the field in north american microbreweries we can reliably report that these operators typically produce within the range of 17 - 23 cases per hour of canned beer. At that level, not only is it possible to package and sell beer profitably but at under $10,000 we think that the system does what it was specifically designed to do: remove the barrier to entry into the canned beer market to even the smallest microbrewery.

[Straub]

Canning Line Ideas....

Thank you all for your response. After researching the BC International line of 45 cpm we recieved a quote of about $500,000. (Way too much for the capabilities) Cask Systems has not quoted us but they are still an option. If anyone has any further ideas for a line of about 60-80 cpm we'd be more than grateful to hear your thoughts. Thank you.

[GlacierBrewing]

For aluminum bottles, contact Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, Montana. They have been using them for awhile now. I think they get them from Spain (or used to). Slick looking products!

[Straub]

Cans not Aluminum Bottles

Thank you but we are only looking into cans. We did look at aluminum bottles about 6 years ago and would have been the first ones to offer this product. CCL (same company as Pittsburgh Brewing buys them from) wanted us to be the first company to package beer in these bottles. We tested them on our line and were prepared to bottle them if the price was right. Unfortunately CCL would not come below $10/case (case and partitions included) so we elected to go with PET bottles as another option to our glass. Currently less than 0.25% of our production is in PET bottles, basically just running 100 cases a month. We would really appreciate any help gaining an economical canning line. Thanks again.