What beers should not be passed through a canner?

[crafty]

We mobile can, and was recently asked the question 'Do we allow Sour beers and wheat beers to be canned'
My answer was, why wouldn't we. They replied that many canners don't allow it as the yeasts in the beer cant be removed from the system.

Now this is the first I have heard of this. Does anyone out there, especially canners, have any information or experience with this?

Thanks in advance.

[finecreek]

Any sours with Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, or "wild" yeast like Brettanomyces still active (ie not kettle soured to kill of the souring bacteria) can contaminate porous equipment like rubber gaskets and hoses. Any stainless steel parts can be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized but the thought is soft equipment can never be truly chemically sanitized and souring bacteria or Brettanomyces can potentially infect another beer in the future.

In other words any soft equipment should be swapped out and the hard stainless pieces should be diligently cleaned between sours/Brett beers and standard "clean" Sacharomyces beers (ales and lagers). Breweries are incredibly cautious about not introducing these microbes into their brewery, or at least into their main equipment so you would need to do this in order to ensure them that your equipment won't introduce them to their clean beer you're canning, or their equipment you're hooked up to.

Hope this helps,
-Gabe