Canning your beer

[Yeswecan]

Good afternoon all,

I'm here to see what the general consensus is on a service I think I can provide to micro brewers.
For some time now we have been canning foods and drinks in different craft sectors. We now have the ability to take beer canning equipment to people who may wish their beer canned. Having conducted trials we can can up to 30 cases of beer per hour. We would visit brewers who had anything over 30 gallons and can in our custom built vehicle. The cost of the can, custom designed labels and canning would be in the region of 35p per can.

The question is - is this something that micro brewers would want ?

Any advice, feedback, thoughts etc are very welcome.

Many thanks

[pads72]

There is a fair bit of discussion and research which points towards canning being a superior method of packaging over bottling, but I fear purists will recoil at ale in a can. However, some in the UK are now canning - Old Speckled Hen; Hobgoblin; Brewdog; Beavertown etc. and many craft brewers do in the US.

As I understand it the advantages are:
- No chance of beer being lightstruck
- Cans allow no oxygen in, unlike bottle caps
- lighter, reducing transport costs
- more portable for the consumer
- aluminium better for the environment, and more recycleable

If I were brewing on a commercial scale, I would be interested in testing the market. What do your labelled cans look like - any images you can share (pun intended)

[Yeswecan]

Thanks Pads for the time taken to reply. Our labels are printed directly onto the can so there are no limits to the detail of the design. I've just emailed a chap to see if he's ok with sharing his on here so all being well I'll post it here later.
Thanks again

[roscoe]

I think its a good idea and surprised at starting out at only 30gallons
I presume the 35p is the unbelievable starter price, what would the all in price for 500ml cans be inc vat
(would you ever visit scotland ?)

Twice a year, 200L each time easy, plus a few other homey brewers and same drop point.

[barneey]

Does the beer to be canned need to be in any particular storage vessel ? ie traditional beer keg & at what temperature would you need the beer to be at?

[Yeswecan]

Roscoe - the 30 gallon is aimed at the smallest brewers - in theory we could can to any volume people wanted. Not sure what you mean by the 'unbelievable price'. Perhaps I didn't make it clear that that is the price per can. 500ml may be a few pence more if anything. And yes, we would travel to where the business was

Barneey - we do not require the beer to be in any particular vessel as our system would syphon it out. Temp is an issue we are currently looking at as ideally the beer needs to be 2 degrees when canned

Thanks again for your comments

[bigdave]

Do you force carbonate whilst canning?

[Yeswecan]

Bigdave, yes that's something we could do if that was required

[Matt12398]

I'm intrigued because the cost seems reasonable but if you're travelling all over the country how on earth do you make any money?

[Yeswecan]

Matt, thanks for your reply. The short version is that we are able to keep the costs low as we can combine the canning of beer with other services we provide to various craft industries. The ultimate question for us right now ( hence putting the feelers out like this) is whether the craft beer industry actually wants a service like this. We are aware that as 'pads' said at the top, that many purists would scoff at the idea. It's a matter of working out how many purists there are out there !!

[Fil]

Brilliant idea its a bit like vanity publishing for me, But so what .. its something i can see myself easily and eagerly buying into,
BUT i dont brew 30gallon batches so would have 7 or so 19l cornies with different beers, a generic Fil lable i could sharpie on the beer ids would work for me, If the system could cope with upto 7 keg changes and line flushing?? if its a service to can 30 gallons of one beer, its not something i could aspire to providing.. which would be a real shame.. i woud lurv a stash of my beer canned..

[fego]

Thanks for sharing your idea.

The majority of people on this site are homebrewers who would love the novelty of having their own beer canned I'm sure. However, there are a few who work at or run micros who hopefully can respond with their views.

I toyed with opening a micro last year and my plan included canning but I struggled to find a supplier capable of providing a service at a fairly small scale. In my view, cans are generally expected to be sold much cheaper than bottles so at 35p a pop, that might make things difficult to sustain profitably although I haven't run the numbers so can't speak with certainty; it just sounds expensive in the overall scheme of things compared to bottling. That said, I'm not sure on the shelf life, but it could be a great way of packaging unsold beer brewed long...

[killer]

I love this idea and find the price quite reasonable - pity I'm not in the UK as I would be interested at that price for an occasional 150L batch.
A friend of mine owns a beer cellar over here and he sells maybe four types of canned beer (out of a selection of 300 bottled beers) from the states for 5.50 (euros) a can, also the occasional can of Brewdog Dead Pony Club. While the french adore the ceremony that goes with opening and serving a bottle of any alcoholic drink, he reckons that the younger craft crowd are not completely against trying out cans, but need to be pushed by him the first time. I've witnessed first hand people make funny faces when he has cracked a can open. It's very much about image, many people just don't realise the benefits of cans. I think any canned beers should emphasize freshness and be bright and colourful.
I wish you the best of luck and do let us know if you wander over here with the can van, man !

[bigdave]

Worth noting that, whilst 35p a can sounds reasonable, the minimum order isn't far off £100!.. which is a lot for a beer that probably cost 1/3 of that to make.

[Yeswecan]

Fil - whilst the lower volume customers could be a problem we have a solution that might help them to (where ever there is a problem - there's a solution !!). Basically I think we could visit an area / group of people so that the equipment can be used by a group. For very small quantities I would suggest they slip putting beer into the hopper and pour into the cans prior to canning. I see this costing far less than the 30p per can.
Fego - I'll try and ask the same question on a micro brewers site and thanks for your comment.
Killer - thanks for your comments, very helpful.
Bigdave - your are correct with your maths. I suppose we are looking at this from a view that some / all of the canned beer might be sold ( given with a donation ?) to friends and family. So costs would be recouped and one could easily make 100% profit on making their beer. Goes back to a pervious point that this may be more suited to the micro brewer
Thanks all - we're learning and adapting !!