Ask The Brewmasters

At the end of the shift, the packaging crew painstakingly opens and dumps by hand anywhere from 50-200 cans depending on the shift. It takes time and is super inefficient. We don't have a lot of space so we can't purchase one of those nice automatic can crusher/balers. Does anyone have any cool homemade solutions for this task or something small they've used that they thought worked well? 

Thanks in advance!

------------------------------
Clay Brendel
Director of Maintenance & Engineering
Downeast Cider
Saugus MA
(816) 877-6173
------------------------------

Hi Clay,

Our team in UT (Squatters/Wasatch) has a solution that collects the low fill cans in an open tote which is then taken to a company called Wasatch Resource Recovery. 

They operate an Anaerobic digester and accept food waste from all over the valley. Solid and liquid waste from restaurants, grocery stores, food plants, Brewery's...

For the cans they have a crusher that they dump these open totes into and the beer is collected and sent to the digester, then the scrap aluminum is recycled after the cans are crushed. 

And a side note the team in UT also collects the high strength BOD waste into an 8,000 gallon tank which is also sent to this digester using a hauling service that typically takes around 4,500-5,000 gallons each load.

Product from the Digester is then fed into the City Gate system for Natural gas distribution back to Salt Lake City! Closing the loop and powering the boiler at the brewery...

Solution in play here and perhaps there's a similar food waste recycling operation you could lean on in MA? 

------------------------------
Jon Lee
VP West Coast Operations
Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective LLC
------------------------------

Clay, 

A few options we've heard of folks utilizing low-fills for: 

1. Samples for a Company's Sales Staff to use when selling-in to potential buying accounts in the event the brewery/cidery distributes
2. Offer the product to both front-and-back of house employees.
3. If the brewery/cidery distributes, there is a chance one of the distributor has a baler to crush these cans.
4. Although it will come with a cost, a local recycling center may also have a baler to crush the cans, and you may be able negotiate the cost down given they get the benefit of the aluminum.

Pat

------------------------------
Pat Craddock
Birmingham MI
------------------------------

https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287159833

We modified a tile saw with some mounted PVC tubing as a shoot that runs through the blade. Mount it above a drain and have the PVC tubing fall into an empty IBC tote for empty cans. Recommend a tile saw specifically because they are designed to use in wet environments. Every once in awhile a can may get stuck or the blade would get jammed from the aluminum fragments... stop the blade and push the cans through with a rod.

------------------------------
Shane Bird
Brewing Supervisor
JuneShine
------------------------------

Our maintenance team came up with something for us that's pneumatic.  Usually the person doing it needs to wear a rain coat but its definitely sped up the process.  We prop it up on an upside down bucket and the cans fall out the crusher bottom, into another bucket with holes so beer can drain.  That bucket gets dumped into our recycling bin. 

Photos are uploaded, first time trying this so someone will have to tell me if it worked. 

------------------------------
David Delcourt
Denali Brewing Co
Talkeetna AK
------------------------------