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ABE Craft Can 15

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  • ABE Craft Can 15

    Has anyone used the ABE Craft Can 15 system or know someone who has? It seems to be very comparable to the Cask SAMS but has some other bells and whistles available like a digital brite tank monitor, possibly a better lid chute, and a lid detection/rejection system. From the quotes I have gotten they seem to be about the same price (within a few hundred bucks). Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

  • #2
    Subscribed. I have exactly the same questions. Anybody out there using one of these?
    Scott LaFollette
    Fifty West Brewing Company
    Cincinnati, Ohio

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    • #3
      I've got the 30 coming in a month or so..not a lot of help now but could give some feedback then.

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      • #4
        I have one sitting here waiting for it's first run.

        I'll fill you in once it is operational. We have experience with the SAMS... And decided to try a newer and relatively untested canning brand over that "thing". One of the biggest reasons was its upgradeability. Now that it is here is is pretty easy to see how they can crank this thing up to 60 cpm.

        I can tell you it seems to have a very nice build quality. They're already been a few service bulletins since we got it... One issue they've had is apparently CIP in the seamer area. Currently we've been told to clean it with hot soapy... Not a big deal. Seams easy to clean.

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        • #5
          We have the first CraftCan15 on its way to us at present, should be with us by the end of September. I can then give you a pretty good run down on it.
          I have a few photos of it before it was crated up if you would like me to post them up?

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          • #6
            Originally posted by kappyk66 View Post
            I'll fill you in once it is operational. We have experience with the SAMS... And decided to try a newer and relatively untested canning brand over that "thing". One of the biggest reasons was its upgradeability. Now that it is here is is pretty easy to see how they can crank this thing up to 60 cpm.

            I can tell you it seems to have a very nice build quality. They're already been a few service bulletins since we got it... One issue they've had is apparently CIP in the seamer area. Currently we've been told to clean it with hot soapy... Not a big deal. Seams easy to clean.
            so...anything to report? Very interested in comparisons w/ your Cask SAMS experience (because I'm looking at one with some trepidation based on similar posts to yours...private message fine for that!

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            • #7
              Hey sorry for the delay. We're slated to have them here this coming monday (9/14) and canning that day and or the following. Will report back with opinions and videos...

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              • #8
                Also interested to hear how this does. I too have seen the trouble issues with SAMS from a few users.

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                • #9
                  Initial Reaction

                  Hey guys, I'm sitting in my office taking a water break. We've been at it a few hours. This thing is awesome. SAMS can't even remotely compete. Once we got it dialed in we're running close to 20CPM. We'll be posting videos on our Facebook so check us out @ The Brewing Projekt and you can see for yourselves.

                  Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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                  • #10
                    The next morning

                    Hey guys,

                    So we ran a full pallet of cans through yesterday with minimal issues. I'll lay them out:

                    We had to adjust the lid dropper. Not a bid deal, maybe 30 minutes to perfection.

                    We had to adjust the fill levels. Again not a big deal, probably 30 cans that were just slightly under/over filled.

                    The only "big" issue we had was really our fault. We thought the filter we had at the compressor was coalescing AND water separating but it was only coalescing. So after a while we handsome water making it's way to the line's separator which triggered the float/relief valve on the tsunami separator. We ran to the store and got a separator for the compressor and turned it back on only to find that the provided tsunami separator wouldn't reset it's relief valve. we troubled shooted until we gave up and put a 1/2" valve on it and got back to work. The value was just so the pressure wouldn't drop below operating levels and we could still manually purge.

                    Thats it.

                    A few words about ABE, We are impressed. Apparently they had a few employees who gaffed off their responsibilities and weren't very careful about what got sent out, they've since been fired. (we're running crown cans and the puck we got was setup for ball) Our ABE tech was on time and professional. (We once had a rep fly in from our brewhouse manufacturer who was the opposite, lets just say his first day he spent wandering around, and the second day he came in so hungover he literally went out back and purged behind our glycol chiller.) They had to overnight a handful of little things just to get things working at peak. Not big stuff. Oh and the first thing he did was replace the hydraulic arm that moves the filled cans into the seamer. So they're testing these things out and making revisions. I like that.

                    Our brewer came from a brewery with a SAMS and couldn't/can't get over the difference in build quality, features, and overall reliability. He actually said our first canning day was the smoothest he's ever had. I think we can attribute some of that to the ABE tech being here but really besides making some minor adjustments he spent most of his time slapping pakteks on. We were in-between the SAMS and ABE15 because of our budget. The major factors that pushed us over were the ability to upgrade, and our brewer's past experience with the SAMS. The SAMS works. It does put beer in cans.

                    Wash down was a breeze. It took us maybe 30min to CIP and have it ready to sit overnight. With the big doors and ability to be hit with the wash down hose (setup with a OD water heater and 165deg water) it was very easy.

                    We'll be running a second pallet of cans through this morning and I expect it go roll smoothly again. With the build quality and setup I just don't see how anything could or would go wrong overnight, short of someone hitting it with a baseball bat. I'll keep you guys posted.

                    A few things we did add to the line... Because of our budget and space constraints we knew we would be manually loading and unloading. We also couldn't afford a date coder or rinse area. So what we did is buy a glass rinser, like the one you should have in your taproom to rinse glasses before pouring beer, and bolted it to the line so we could rinse the case right before they were filled. We also devised a rinser and air knife to clean the cans post seamer. It is literally a shower head attached to an aluminum arm that sprays the cans and then an air knife (I got off eBay for $60) after it, mounted at an angle, that blasts 95% of the water off the can.

                    Oh, and one other thing... We were averaging just under 20CPM. Pretty awesome.

                    One piece of advice an industry "expert" gave me years ago was to spend money to buy quality packaging equipment. This thing is just that.

                    Will continue to post updates over the next few weeks.

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                    • #11
                      Thanks for taking the time to give your feedback on this line. I know one of the major issues I've seen with the SAMS unit is that there were sensors located in areas that would get wet, and those sensors weren't meant to get wet and would fail. This at least was true on the unit that I watched run. Any thought on if this is designed differently where it wouldn't have those same issues?

                      Also do you have a craft can 15? From you picture it appears to be the larger line? If you do have the craft can 15 how is it expandable?

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by hokus View Post
                        Thanks for taking the time to give your feedback on this line. I know one of the major issues I've seen with the SAMS unit is that there were sensors located in areas that would get wet, and those sensors weren't meant to get wet and would fail. This at least was true on the unit that I watched run. Any thought on if this is designed differently where it wouldn't have those same issues?

                        Also do you have a craft can 15? From you picture it appears to be the larger line? If you do have the craft can 15 how is it expandable?
                        Honestly I didn't know about the craft can! I've got the LINCAN15. Sorry for the confusion... I don't think the craft was available when we ordered our line. It appears the only difference is the overall length, the controls are above the filler, and it doesn't appear to be as upgradeable as the one we have. Otherwise it looks exactly the same. I'm torn to say if I would've went with this one or the one I have. I'd like to say I'd get the one we have again purely based on the upgradeability factor. in a year or so when we move to our new location (and we can move around with a little more ease) we want to add a depal/twist rinse. I can say that without the longer in feed and off feed space your CPM is going to be hurt. We got ours up to that 19-20CPM with 16 oz cans and there were times when transferring cans to the pallet and laying out flat cases we got behind... But having the "Floater" person really helped.

                        We're a 20BBL brewery, open just under a year, with two people doing 99% of the work. The majority of our equipment came from Premier Stainless. So being able to manage systems with minimal staffing is important and was important when I decided on the Lincan15. I've seen lots of the manual cask systems sell for cheap and a good amount of SAMS units sell at a hefty discount as well. I don't know about you guys but I'd rather invest in something upgradeable than buy something and 6 months later have to sell it off to upgrade. Tying up capital with something that will be outgrown in the foreseeable future doesn't seem very smart. Especially when newer tech keeps coming down the pipe and devaluing used equipment. Everyone's budget is different. But I'm glad we went with what we got.

                        As far as the sensors, I'll refer back to the build quality. I am not an automation or sensor expert but assuming their track record with bottled water filling equipment I'm going to assume they know which sensors to put where. The sensors located in the fill area were put there knowing they'd get wet with beer, water, and CIP. Those sensors are pretty much everywhere. And given the fact that our ABE guy said we could wash down the entire until I'm not worried about getting anything wet that shouldn't get wet. The electronics are all housed in water tight boxes.

                        Again, sorry for not realizing there was such a thing as the craft can model when I wrote the above posts. I can be confident however that, based on ours, the build quality of it's little brother will be top notch. In a couple weeks we will be sending through our second run sans ABE guy so I'll post back after that.

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                        • #13
                          Hi Everyone.

                          We have been using the Craftcan15 for the past month.

                          It runs like a dream, is well engineered and we love it.
                          Support from ABE has been amazing and we cant thank them enough.

                          See the attached video for how smoothly it runs once dialed in.
                          On our last run it was averaging 16 cans per minute.
                          In a 9 hr day including setup and clean down (considering we are mobile) we did 6000 cans

                          Any questions let us know.

                          Paul

                          https://www.facebook.com/craftycanne...37657/?theater

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