Ask The Brewmasters

Hello! 
My question today regards reusing PakTech handles (spcifically the QPCE-202-260-PCR, which I believe many of us use) in our applicator. We get a large amount of handles returned to our facility from taproom sales as well as the sales team, and we have not been able to successfully run them through our CCA-120 a second time. Any slight distortion in the handles shape causes jam/double feeds by the indexing skewers. Has anyone been able to reuse handles in their applicators successfully? Has anyone discovered a "pretreatment" to used handles that make them more likely to be salvaged? Sustainability and environmentally sound practices are a major facet of our company's philosophy so any tips/tricks would be hugely welcomed. I hope we can all benefit from this discussion! Thank you!  

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Eddie Padilla
Production Manager
Smog City Brewing Co
Torrance CA
(310) 320-7664
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Hi Eddie,

Torrance native saying howdy!

We reuse our 6PCE-202-260-PCR handles all the time on our american canning acm02 applicator. It's not a huge or steady stream for us but maybe close to a full stack every run or two. We make sure that there are no overlaps and no broken ones (very rare) and never have a problem. Hope you're able to start reusing them. 

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Rob Schwarz
Director of Operations
Storm Peak Brewing Co.
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We have been re-using these from the beginning of canning, when we were hand applying them. now with an applicator, as long as they stack flat, they work over and over again. Having a tall stack of "freshies" on top seems to help flatten these out.

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Alexander Kopf
Lead Brewer
Northwoods Brewing Company
alex@northwoodsbrewingcompany.com
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