Craft beer can seaming

Can x Lab’s mobile canning unit in action

Evert van de Weg revisits Can x Lab to discuss its additional services and expertise in seaming for beverage cans in the craft beer sector

 

All images courtesy of Can x Lab

 

In my small Dutch village, I know a man who has indulged in the hobby of brewing his own special type of beer since 1992. These types of craft beers are usually prepared in breweries that produce small amounts of beer. Craft breweries generally put an emphasis on new flavours, special ingredients and varied brewing techniques.

In the last few decades, as was explored in CanTech International November 2022, craft beer brewing has received an enormous boost, especially in the United States and in Europe. In the US, there are now over 9,000 craft breweries of various sizes. In Europe, the number of craft breweries rose from approximately 2,000 microbreweries in 2008, to more than 9,500 in 2020, and the growth only continues. Social media, local events and promotion have been and are important tools to growing the market. Brewers of Europe predicts that the European craft beer market will grow annually about nine per cent in the next five years.

Some 20 years ago, the mark of a good beer was the glass bottle, but that soon changed. I remember seeing the slogan: “Canning is now the unsung hero of the craft beer revolution.” A major consideration in adopting cans for craft beer is its logistical advantages: minimal weight, strength, lower costs and moreover the eternal recyclability of the aluminium used.

However, the often-limited quantities of a startup craft brewery presented a barrier to investing in a canning line. This situation opened opportunities for companies all over the world that were able to help. Dutch company, Can x Lab, is one of them.

Arjen van Zurk

The craft brewing effect

The company Can x Lab originates from the Dutch company Mus Verpakkingen, a specialised wholesaler in metal packaging since 1986. The company offers a wide range of non-food and food cans.

I spoke to Can x Lab co-founder and chief commercial officer, Arjen van Zurk, (former commercial manager at Rexam, later Ball), and Can x Lab’s technical manager, Sjoerd Wolf, in the company’s plant and warehouse in Deventer, where employees were working on a sleeving line for unprinted beverage cans.

Van Zurk commented, “As a commercial manager of a big beverage can producer, I saw how the enormous popularity of craft beer brewing in the US caused big waves in the UK beer market and, via the Scandinavian markets, landed in the Benelux countries, as well as France, Spain, Italy and Eastern European countries. The striking thing about the packaging choice is that where craft brewers often started out by using glass bottles and then moved onto cans, the newcomers now start straight away in cans.”

Sjoerd Wolf added, “What I hear now from all the customers I visit, is that glass bottles have become extremely expensive by the high amount of energy used in glass production. Moreover, the logistical advantages of cans are very convincing.”

Can x Lab witnessed the growth of the niche market which was created by the boom of craft brewers that were often not sufficiently equipped to put their special beers in personalised cans on the market.

“The services we can offer [craft brewers] are warehousing the cans for them, on the pallet size they need. Startup brewers are mostly unable to work with the standard pallet height of large can makers. If required, we can personalise the cans for them at our premises with sleeves printed with their branding, and keep these on stock until they need them,” said van Zurk.

“We have a rather unique system to sleeve open cans without the need of a steamer. We even offer support when it comes to the design and the supply of digitally printed sleeves in runs of small or bigger sizes. To be able to supply cans in the size and quantities the brewers need, we have successfully established agreements because of long-standing relations with all the leading can manufacturers.”

Sjoerd Wolf

Additional services and seam checks

Apart from the tailor-made supply of bare, labelled, sleeved or (soon) digitally printed cans from 150 to 500ml, Can x Lab offers a unique service to craft brewers, namely filling and seaming the cans at the brewer’s location.

Wolf said, “We have already been able to serve some brewers with our canning unit, so we have a lot of experience. For a minimum volume of 1,500 litres or more, we can provide a mobile canning line in the form of the very reliable Wild Goose WG 4 system. What we then need is beer of the right temperature, electricity, filtration and carbonisation equipment, and some helping hands.

“Extreme hygiene during the whole canning process is essential and we take that fully into account. Our canning line has a capacity of 40 cans per minute, so we can fill 2,400 cans of 33cl per hour, which is equal to 800 litres per hour. Doing the right things in the critical filling process is extremely important for the final beer quality, but with our many years of experience, we are equipped to handle that.”

A critical step just before filling the cans is purging them with CO2, and, after filling, a process of underlid gassing and putting the end on a thin layer of beer foam is then applied. “In general, oxygen is the enemy of beer quality, so we try to keep those numbers as low as possible. If it is too high, we immediately stop the line,” stated Wolf.

Seaming the cans properly is the essential finishing touch of the canning process. Can x Lab has built up significant experience in this technology.

Wolf explained, “We are aware that the right seaming operation is critical for the closure of the can, so we are regularly checking the seams by means of an inspection unit from the Swedish company Metop. They are specialised in this type of equipment, and we are quite satisfied with it. We use their rather simple Double Seam Teardown Kit, which enables manual seam evaluations, both externally and internally. Some measuring parameters we take with the Metop kit are first and second operation seam thickness, seam height and countersink depth. For operation two, we take bodyhook and end-hook measurements as well.”

Wolf highlighted the support Can x Lab recieves from Q-lise, a company based in Raalte, the Netherlands, that is fully specialised in the seaming process.

“Q-lise maintains for us, in an agreed scheme, the seaming unit, including the seaming heads. Moreover, we send them regularly seamed cans filled with beer and then they analyse the seam quality for us on all relevant aspects. We receive a full report on the seam quality from them. We have very good experiences in working with Q-lise,” said Wolf.

Seaming check with camera at Q-lise

Q-lise seaming technology

I found Wolf’s positive recommendation a good reason to speak to Niek Kappert, the owner of Q-lise.

Kappert expanded on the company’s development: “My father worked for many years at the technical customer service unit of Thomassen & Drijver – Verblifa, can maker in the Benelux countries, as a seaming specialist. He advised many important canners about seaming issues and how to overcome them. At a certain point he became independent and he – and later myself – expanded the range of services, all focused on seaming. Today, Q-lise supports companies like Krombacher, Heineken, Nestlé, Refresco, Wyeth Nutrition, FrieslandCampina and many others, all related to their seaming operations.”

Q-lise has a solid team of specialised engineers who have extensive knowledge about the seaming process. They have specific and detailed knowledge about the seamers of the following seamer brands: Ferrum, Angelus, FMC/JBT, Continental, IMC, Comaco and Sima.

Kappert stated, “We conduct, for example, so-called zero inspections of the seamers [for the seamer brands], preventive maintenance, overhaul, upgrades, audits, etc. Aside from that, we are also active in the craft brewing market. We offer them, for instance, extensive seam measurements, which they often cannot do themselves.”

Q-lise also runs a training school for customers wanting to increase the knowledge of their operators, mechanics and quality staff about seaming. “We have different seamers and a fully operational double seam measurement system for that training available on site,” said Kappert.

Can x Lab continues to develop

Arjen van Zurk concluded our interview by telling CanTech International about further developments at Can x Lab: “We estimate that, by the second quarter of this year, we will be able to print cans for craft brewers on a digital printing line. That will be an important step to offering even more high-quality services to our customers, in the Netherlands but also further abroad too. In the meantime, we are servicing more fillers of drinks other than beer, for instance wine, hard seltzers, mixed drinks and kombucha. Fortunately, we’ll never be bored!”

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