annealed stainless tubing

[austinbeer]

Hello all-
I am looking to hard pipe some of my brewhouse and cellar and have found an impressively cheap, semi-local (2 hour drive) source of 316L stainless steel 1" ID annealed thin-wall tubing. The seller told me that it is seamless on the inside. I understand that annealing is a hardening/stress tempering process that allows stainless to be bent without cracking, but are there any other properties of annealing that would make it less than desirable for hotside or fermentation side applications?

I know the exterior of the pipe is at least a #4 finish, possibly more highly polished. I do not know anything about the inside finish of the pipe other than that it doesn't have a seam.

As I have never purchased hard piping before nor am I aware of the make or model of hard piping I've used at breweries in the past, I was hoping one of you could help me figure out if this piping can be used successfully and without fear of contamination in my brewery. Any and all thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks.
abw

[Buster]

My first thoughts are that 1" seems kind of small. I don't know how much beer your brewing or more importantly how much you plan on brewing some day, but we piped our place in 1.5".

[austinbeer]

I too would prefer 1.5 inch, but at the price I'm looking at I'm willing to sacrifice a little flow capacity. We're not casting out batches larger than 15-20 bbls.

[aarongarcia]

Care to share the supplier?

Hey @Austinbeer, I'm up in Dallas and am looking for some stainless tubing just like you mentioned. I realize this is 4 years later but just in case... would you be able to share your suppliers contact info?

Email me if you want: aaron@smallbrewpub.com

Thanks!

[dick murton]

On those volumes, you should stick to 1" pipework, otherwise you are likely to run the CIP too slowly to clean properly. You should be looking at about 25 brl / hr for good mains cleaning. 1.5" requires about 60 brl / hr to clean effectively.