Nanobrewery CO2 Tank(s)

[NigeltheBold]

For those of you who have a small brewery (less than a 5bbl system), how to you store your CO2? Do you have a bulk liquid tank, or do you use smaller tanks?

We're starting a brew-on-premise with a 3bbl brewpub in the same building. We'll need CO2 to carbonate customers' beer as well as the beer for the pub. We were thinking of just having a few larger CO2 tanks instead of getting a bulk liquid CO2 tank.

What would you all recommend?

[TL Services]

Unless you are going to be using significant quantities of CO2, then I would advise cylinders.

Whilst bulk CO2 is cheaper to buy, the initial outlay for a tank plus the ongoing cost of maintenance, safety checks, etc. is going to be expensive.

Cylinders can be used singly or on a manifold, so you can 'tune' the set-up to needs.

It also means that you can separate dispense CO2 from brewery CO2, so keeping your sales side away from any potential infection/wild yeast, etc.

[NigeltheBold]

Unless you are going to be using significant quantities of CO2, then I would advise cylinders.

Whilst bulk CO2 is cheaper to buy, the initial outlay for a tank plus the ongoing cost of maintenance, safety checks, etc. is going to be expensive.

Cylinders can be used singly or on a manifold, so you can 'tune' the set-up to needs.

It also means that you can separate dispense CO2 from brewery CO2, so keeping your sales side away from any potential infection/wild yeast, etc.

Thanks for the advice! And this is a stupid question, but I guess I've never really thought about it before. Do I need to filter all of the CO2 I use? Do I need to worry about having "sanitary" CO2 or is it not a big deal? As a homebrewer, I haven't had to worry about filtering or sanitizing CO2 that I use for carbonating, but maybe it's different when brewing on a larger scale?

[TL Services]

As long as you're buying from a reputable supplier you shouldn't have any worries about the CO2 itself. Always worth talking to them so they can advise.

However it is important to ensure any fittings (eg. carbonation stones, etc.) that come into contact with your beer are cleaned/sterilised after use to minimise the risk of contamination.