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Canning Discussion For Nano and Brewpubs- 2019/2020

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  • #61
    There has been discussion about beer line length and chilling the beer line. Has anyone ever used a jockey box coil in a cooler of ice water? They are 3/8" and the inlet on the 4500c is also 3/8"

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    • a_shorething
      a_shorething commented
      Editing a comment
      I did- just replied to an earlier post. We tried Jockey box and also a 50' stainless wort chiller converted for this purpose. We couldn't get the thing dialed in enough to prevent foaming. I'm sure it's the right way to drop temps down in a relatively short area, but things like the ice moving away from the coil (in a water bath) and beer flow rate affect it in ways that made it hard for me to ask someone else to work with it if you know what I mean. This process has a lot of variables and anything you can do to reduce that (and setup/cleanup time) is time well spent.

  • #62
    Not really necessary, but if subbing for the 30' of hose in an ice bath it makes sense. Add some rock salt to the water and ice bath. The flow through the tubing will not only bring the temp down but help prevent freezing or separation of the alcohol and water. Also more prolonged contact with stainless rather than vinyl which might have less of an effect on flavor or off-flavors than vinyl would.

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    • #63
      Originally posted by Blu Dragonfly View Post
      Not really necessary, but if subbing for the 30' of hose in an ice bath it makes sense. Add some rock salt to the water and ice bath. The flow through the tubing will not only bring the temp down but help prevent freezing or separation of the alcohol and water. Also more prolonged contact with stainless rather than vinyl which might have less of an effect on flavor or off-flavors than vinyl would.
      Thanks for the insight. Since many of us have jockey box stuff for festivals, I thought it would be worth a try. I ordered my 4500C. Thanks for all the detailed feedback.

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      • #64
        Got the notification that my 4500C shipped today for a Friday, Feb 5 delivery. With the bad weather sweeping across the country and of course the C-word, I betting it won't arrive until next week.

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        • #65
          New 4500c arrived last week. Now, I need to get it cleaned and calibrated.

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          • JT1
            JT1 commented
            Editing a comment
            Hey AGB, just wondering if you done any canning on your new setup and what your thoughts are?

        • #66
          I have been canning with the XF4500C for almost a year and a half and we actually added a second machine to go a little quicker. While one machine is filling, the other is usually ready to go. We haven't really had any problems, except replacing normal wear parts on the Oktober and certain parts on the filler. I have run into some of the problems mentionned earlier, especially with the fill sensor, but all in all, a pretty good machine. You do need a motivated operator though! My operator can usually get through about 50-60 cases in a day, and on my 7bbl tank, he is able to empty it with a few kegs to boot. I am looking to upgrade to a 4 head Fillmore at the moment, so I will keep you posted once I start filling with it. Click image for larger version

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          • ahincapie81
            ahincapie81 commented
            Editing a comment
            Have you done TPO testing on your packaged products using the XF4500C? How many BBls system are you running. Thank you.

        • #67
          Originally posted by danlow35 View Post
          I have been canning with the XF4500C for almost a year and a half and we actually added a second machine to go a little quicker. While one machine is filling, the other is usually ready to go. We haven't really had any problems, except replacing normal wear parts on the Oktober and certain parts on the filler. I have run into some of the problems mentionned earlier, especially with the fill sensor, but all in all, a pretty good machine. You do need a motivated operator though! My operator can usually get through about 50-60 cases in a day, and on my 7bbl tank, he is able to empty it with a few kegs to boot. I am looking to upgrade to a 4 head Fillmore at the moment, so I will keep you posted once I start filling with it. Click image for larger version

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          Looks great. I have now used mine and I must say it was easy to dial in. My beer in the BBTs is at 34F. I used a 50ft stainless coil from a jockey box immersed in ice water between the BBT and the filler and had no issues. It is just not easy for one person to be fast. With two people, it is much quicker. I was going to get either a Wild Goose Gosling or the new Microcanner Atomic or the Twin Monkeys Mancos for 2022 and operate with one person (me). The Atomic is $17k and looks like a winner.

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          • #68
            Our taproom is only open seasonally and last year when that option essentially closed I decided to start offering 12oz cans. We were only doing Crowlers and growler fills to go. We bought an Oktober seamer and a LT50S labeller. Using a Blichmann beer gun my daughter and I managed to can about 7000 over the 5 months doing a little under 4 cases an hour. It saved our ass and the 6pks were a big hit with our customers. But man was my wrist sore! So I've now built what I call my Double Barreled AutoGun.I have essentially tandem Blickmann guns mounted to a panel with with pneumatic cylinders and solenoids to CO2 purge and cylinder actuation. Its all controlled with Arduino code running on a $5 ESP8266 that I interface with a browser to set the purge and fill time depending on the beer being canned. I think I heard on a podcast once that when Jamil Z. was getting Heretic going he strapped 4 Blichmann guns together to fill maybe that is what inspired me. Anyways preliminary testing has been done and it goes into production next month so we'll see how it goes.

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            • #69
              Originally posted by MacDee View Post
              Our taproom is only open seasonally and last year when that option essentially closed I decided to start offering 12oz cans. We were only doing Crowlers and growler fills to go. We bought an Oktober seamer and a LT50S labeller. Using a Blichmann beer gun my daughter and I managed to can about 7000 over the 5 months doing a little under 4 cases an hour. It saved our ass and the 6pks were a big hit with our customers. But man was my wrist sore! So I've now built what I call my Double Barreled AutoGun.I have essentially tandem Blickmann guns mounted to a panel with with pneumatic cylinders and solenoids to CO2 purge and cylinder actuation. Its all controlled with Arduino code running on a $5 ESP8266 that I interface with a browser to set the purge and fill time depending on the beer being canned. I think I heard on a podcast once that when Jamil Z. was getting Heretic going he strapped 4 Blichmann guns together to fill maybe that is what inspired me. Anyways preliminary testing has been done and it goes into production next month so we'll see how it goes.
              Please post pics of this set up, it sounds really innovative!

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              • #70
                DIY filler DoubleBarrelAutoGun & browser interface
                I call this homemade contraption my DoubleBarrelAutogun based on the Blichmann beer gun. I've only done preliminary testing but it is promising. It'll go into operation at the brewery in a couple weeks. Top buttons start a sequence that purges and then fills according to the time that was last submitted through the webpage shown on an old iTouch in this picture. Bottom two buttons on each side momentarily open fill or purge if required. Purge CO2 pressure also the motive force for the cylinders. 110v powers a DC power supply that powers relays and a ESP8266 running Arduino code.

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                • #71
                  I tried to can from a keg and it was just disastrous. I used an entire keg and still never got a single can to fill to the correct level without a crap-ton of foam. I also have my keg in an ice bath and the 25ft of hose is also coiled and in an ice bath. I'm going to read this thread again and try to find a solution. Canning directly from the BBT worked pretty well but was also slow.

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                  • #72
                    No more whining from me! I stepped back and re-approached this like I would have in my previous career. I examined what I had done that did not work and then tried the opposite and that fixed it. I was using too much hose. I'm at 2200 ft and thought I'd need to use about 20ft of hose. But I wound up using 5ft of hose and the CO2 breakout in the hose went away immediately. I have a Kegco coupler with 5 ft of 3/16 id hose. That was connecting to about 20ft of 3/8 hose and there was foam throughout. So, I kept the 5ft of 3/16 and connected it via triclamp to a piece of 3" long 3/16 hose that went into the filler. Voila!

                    I worked in biotech for many years and was actually quite good at solving problems and I had to step back and examine what wasn't working...

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                    • #73
                      We've finally hit a point we have started to outgrow the Xpressfill and Oktober. They have been great pieces of equipment and have gotten us through the pandemic. We've secured a used DK canner/bottler and figure it should be here by November. I'll post about it when it arrives. We will most likely surplus our Xpressfill filler and Oktober canner once the new unit arrives. I've truly appreciated the support from Xpress, not that we've required a lot but it's been outstanding when we needed them with some fill sensor issues. What I finally arrived at was interference with foam in the fill head. Every few cans I'd swipe it out with my (gloved, of course) hand and that seem to put the sensor back in action.

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                      • #74
                        Originally posted by Blu Dragonfly View Post
                        We've finally hit a point we have started to outgrow the Xpressfill and Oktober. They have been great pieces of equipment and have gotten us through the pandemic. We've secured a used DK canner/bottler and figure it should be here by November. I'll post about it when it arrives. We will most likely surplus our Xpressfill filler and Oktober canner once the new unit arrives. I've truly appreciated the support from Xpress, not that we've required a lot but it's been outstanding when we needed them with some fill sensor issues. What I finally arrived at was interference with foam in the fill head. Every few cans I'd swipe it out with my (gloved, of course) hand and that seem to put the sensor back in action.
                        Did you receive the DK unit? I was wondering how it performed.

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                        • #75
                          Originally posted by AGB View Post

                          Did you receive the DK unit? I was wondering how it performed.
                          It didn't get shipped to DK until late November. The previous owner was still using it. I anticipate we will have it late Feb. at this point, it's at DK now. I'm anxious to see how it works for us. We drop shipped it back to DK en-route to New Mexico to add a seamer and get a full check out. The previous owner had been using an Oktober with it. I wanted an onboard seamer.

                          I'll post once we've canned using it in early March

                          Cheers!
                          Colin

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