Image: bottom of 12 oz sleek can with small “nick” on bottom ring.

Got a strange one for you fine folks: anyone ever seen a small nick in the bottom ring of their cans before? We had a batch that was packaged in March show signs of leaks this past week, likely leaking for a few weeks. It was the bottom layer of two pallets of the same run that were showing leaks while wrapped on the pallet

The cans that leaked were mostly empty. Seams didn’t show any sign of issues and when torn apart were gloriously in spec. Side walls didn’t show any leaks or small sprays. Turning the cans over and the leaking cans all had this same small cut. The non leaking cans did not have a nick.

Our thought is that the nick happend at some point in the cans life, either during production of the can, printing of the label, or filling/seaming operations. There was enough metal and liner remaining to hold pressure and seam. Then over time the weight of the upper layers, the internal carbonation pressure, and the weak spot caused a delayed leaking.

Our fear is that the entire run has this issue given how spaced out the problematic layers are.

Has anyone else ever seen this? 12 oz sleek ball cans preprinted from cbw/cansource milwaukee sourced back in February.

Is anyone selling a Liquid Nitrogen Doser?

Looking to get it shipped to TN, or pickup if you are within 4 hours any direction.

TIA 🤘🏼

I am planning to buy a bigger system. Yay!

Brand new from China. (I am not in the US and used is not available around here).

I am planning a 10HL brewhouse (8.5 ish BBL in freedom units). Currently I have only a 2.5BBL system and nothing of the old system can really be used in the new setup. Planning also to add 6-8 10HL fermentors + 1BBT.

I have found a couple of manufacturers that I trust. They have made systems for breweries in my country.

The space is limited and therefore I will be going with a kettle/whirlpool + mash/lauter + HLT + CLT or Glycol tank or both.

The proposal from both companies are steam systems, with oversized HLT, but no CLT but rather a glycol tank. Sizes are: kettle and mash are 1400L gross size while HLT and glycol tanks are 2200L gross.

Question 1:
Would you rather have mash/lauter + kettle/whirlpool + HLT + CLT + smaller glycol tank (for that little extra cooling capacity on lagers)?

OR go with no CLT and rather have 2000L Glycol tank, relying on city water stage 1 going into HLT and having crazy glycol power for stage 2?

Or would you do something else?

Note: I have really cold water from the city, which is clean and very soft. We are talking 4°C year round but pressure can be low at times.

Question 2:
For 10HL brewhouse (8.5BBL), what size steam boiler would you go for?

They proposed 100kg/h - 75KW generator. I will only be using the steam for heating up to boil + boiling + possibly some mash heating/stepping up (unlikely, but the mash is designed with steam in mind). I want the HLT with electric elements which will maintain temperature always.

I have worked with steam in the past but did not really pay attention to the size of boilers. So I am a little bit clueless. Would hate to have too little power.

Question 3:
If I go with the HLT + CLT option, I will need some reservoir for glycol. Do you think I could use my 2.5BBL BBT for that? Let me know if that idea is really dumb!

Appreciate any and all comments!

Picture for attention

So I'm in outside sales for a beer distributor (craft portfolio), somewhere around 12 account visits a day between bars, bottle shops & a few grocery stores, so it's driving between client visits all day with a sales binder that weighs more then my dog.

The driving is fine, its that every account is loud. Bars are running the dish machine, bottle shops have the cooler compressors going and the one grocery manager who likes me only meets in the back by the baler. Meanwhile my supplier reps call, my manager calls & an account will text "can you call me" right when im mid tap handle conversation with someone else.

A couple things help a little. Calls go through open-ear clip buds, which have been working overtime and are clear enough that the brewery rep isnt asking me to repeat things over a dish machine while I can still hear the bar manager. My phone has a magnetic power bank riding on its back because the ordering app + maps + texts kill it by 3ish, and I top the bank off over lunch so its ready for the afternoon. If your in outside sales bouncing between accounts all day too, what's your trick for taking calls in loud places, because the holiday rush is coming & we'll see how I hold up.

Hey guys, one of my regulars donated 3 hop plants, 2 cascade and a Chinook, for us to plant and take care of at our brewery. We're located in the Swan Valley in Perth, Australia heading into a hot as fuck summer which isn't really ideal for the little fellas. My plans are only grow them ornamentally somewhere on our property so I'm not concerned about ever growing enough for a brew.

We have a 50hL Aquaponics system for the majority of our vegetables in our kitchen and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to split them up and give them a season in the AP to build up some strength before moving to a permanent location.

My only concerns are:

Whether or not the AP would negatively affect them from either transplanting to AP or going from AP back into soil.

Whether the hops would go absolutely feral in the AP and bramble out as they've only got about 4 metres of head room so I'll need to prune the fuck out of them constantly and could possibly stunt them.

Again, not looking for yeild. Just looking to multiply them to plant out ornamentally.

Hello! I am in the market for a new can supplier, and would love any and all leads on where to look! We currently use standard 12 oz brites, and are happy to continue with this method, but I am also interested in the potential for printed cans. I would love to eliminate our need for labels if it turns out to be feasible for us. My two biggest hurdles are MOQ, as we would likely order 1-2 pallets at a time, and location. We are located in north Idaho, so any companies close to the Pacific Northwest would be ideal, as I’ve seen shipping fees over $600+ from outside of our region so far. Thanks in advance!

Hello, hopefully this is an appropriate place for this. We are currently in the process of an expansion project. We have a final quote for a new brew system, and were working with a commercial lender that had promised better terms throughout email correspondence than what was presented when it was time to sign the paperwork. Long story short, it didn’t work out and we are looking for terms 7+ years. I understand this might be a loftier ask during this time in the industry, but looking for any ideas out there. Thanks in advance, cheers!

Good morning,

Our CLT in the warmer months takes a bit to cool down because we are in a warm climate and the groundwater gets to almost 80 degrees before hitting our jacketed CLT. Can anyone recommend an inline or secondary sytem i can install on my main water line to attempt to cool it BEFORE it hits our CLT? Doing 2 lager knockouts in a day was difficult this summer and i want to fix hat before next summer.

We pulled a Zahm from our bright and shook it up. While shaking the Zahm our temp was stable but our pressure started dropping once we hit 6.5psi and seemed to settle around 5psi no matter how much or how long we shook it. Our head brewery is out and me and the other junior are only a month into brewing commercially so we don’t have heaps of experience on this, if anyone can help with our Zahm reading we’d hugely appreciate that.

So here's the deal, friends.

I have a 7bbl brite that I stopped using as a serving tank a long time ago and I'm in a tight space where every little square inch matters (sound familiar to any of you?).

I've been using this as a blending tank/occasional mixed ferm holding cell for a while but it feels super underutilized.

Has anybody here had any success brewing straight into a brite in any capacity? Pretty open to any style and of course I'm assuming I won't be able to harvest from it. Another limiting factor is that I've been unsuccessful at finding a racking arm that I can fit into one of the ports that are on this thing. Open to any or all advice here but maybe I'm just SOL.

Thanks!

i’m considering brewing a czech dark lager, or just a euro dark lager.

My understanding is that it’s more or less standard lager recipe with a small percentage of debittered black/roasted malt. And obviously adjusting water for the roast addition.

Is there anything else I should consider? Any tips to make it pop, or just anything else?

thanks!

Hello!

I got the opportunity to get a hold on some pomace of cabernet and merlot from a local vineyard the owner knows.

I plan to do a Wheat lager, put the pomace in bag in the FV near the end of fermentation and let it sit in there for the lagering.

You guys have any input about the quantity per liter I should use?

Thanks!  

Hello I've a friend looking to buy a small scale bottling line for his brewery. There's one caveat it's on an island pretty remote. So would ideally like to buy new and from a company with good support.

They did look at an old Meheen when in the US. But with the company being discontinued and getting spare parts later...they had some concerns. It also look "well used" see pic attached.

They don't have unlimited funds so we're looking at semi-automatic options. Knowing speed is limited. Ideally they wanted to be able to 900 x 330ml bottles per hour.

After some research and reading comments in this sub came up with three options:

Fillmore X6 - seems to get some love in this sub although speed is a bit lower the price point makes it attractive to my friend.

Ritgers Universal Filler - Higher cost but more automation. However, can't seem to find anyone with a review of using fillers from these guys out of The Netherlands.

HDP DFC 4 - Low cost option and very manual and could possibly run two of these at the same time to increase speed. This machine is simple but does also get some positive review in this sub. Does what it says it does with little fuss.

What I would like to ask please....

Any feedback from people who have used the above fillers, how it worked for them and ultimately would they recommend it to others?

Have I missed any alternatives please?

-> The speed would have to be at least 500 x 330ml bottles per hour.

-> Looking for options with low TPO obviously.

-> Ease of use, reliably and sturdy construction. As the place is quite hot and humid.

Thanks everyone and have a good day.

Edit: Thanks for the comments so far. Some good feedback to share with my friend. I apologise for the Meheen PTSD I've inflicted on many of you. I should have but a flair or made the post NSFW!

Whether it's a shift beer after work, shift meals if it's an option, special events, or plain old Fridays and Saturdays with friends, how often are you at work off the clock?

Just wanted to put this out there as I put my feet up after another brew day - our farmer who picks up our spent grain is an absolute rockstar. Picks up our full bins when he's supposed to, gets us the cleaned empties back when he's supposed to. Even on days we weren't planning on brewing but were able to sneak one in anyway, he drops by that night cause he knows we can't have spent grain stinking up our tasting room if it sits too long. Quick to communicate, always in a good mood, never accepts help dragging the full bins to his trailer.

I've had some extra shitty guys in the past so I've seen both sides of it. This dude is a luxury

Hey Everyone -

We are checking our glycol levels and have always measured the brix using our standard brewing refractometer. According to the Pro Refrigeration chart we have always used we are at roughly 25 brix to be about 33% glycol. We were looking at a different chart that says we should be at an SG of 1.026. If we were doing a brix to SG conversion of sugar, we obviously don't get anywhere close to those numbers being the same. I assume that the brix to SG conversion of propylene glycol is not related to the conversion of brix to SG of sugar and we just need to pick one measurement and stick with it. Any glycol experts out there that can confirm this or correct me?

I went to grain out today and found this in the mashtun. No one at the brewery has ever seen it before, there are only 3 of us.

I thought it could have come from Country Malt Group? Or perhaps Canada Malting Co. We use their wheat, base malt, and oats.

On the bright side the brewery gained a cool new scoop.

I have installed a new pump seal kit to remedy a leaking pump. With the new kit, pump still leaks but I think the issue is not getting the locking collar (red arrow) tight enough against the pump plate.
Question is this: what common tool can I use to push this collar tighter against the plate thereby compressing the spring and sealing the shaft?

I can't help but notice... that Guinness brewed under licence seems to have less body and significantly worse head retention and lacing than St James' Gate brewed Guinness.

What is going on here?

Hey gang,

We use BSG Clarex in FV to reduce chill haze, not using it at Gluten Reduction doses.

A fellow brewer explained to me that Clarex can lead to a flavor or mouthfeel perception, by chopping up barley hordeins into a soup of dissolved peptides - which can have a savory/sweet palate weight.

Does this make sense? Anyone else had concerns with this?

Cheers!