Anyone using 15bbl single wall fermenters in cold rooms?

[Swags]

i'm looking at leasing a building that already has a large amount of refrigerated space. These rooms look good for fermenting in tanks without using a glycol system. Is anyone doing this with 15bbl tanks? If so, how cold should the room be for ale fermentation? seems like keeping the room around 60* F would be cold enough, but I'm not sure if the fermentation process will create too much heat at this scale.

this building also has relatively low ceilings (9'6" in the main fermentation area) so i'm considering using refrigerated dairy tanks (horizontal 600 gal) for 15 bbl batches. Would using the horizontal tanks for primary fermentation pose too many difficulties with yeast harvesting and transferring to bright tanks? I'm thinking I could elevate one end of the tank by 6" or so to make draining yeast to one end easier. then have a racking arm a few inches above the yeast level so I would transfer clean beer to the bright tanks.

thanks for any input.

[Baldrick]

The surface area could be greater in a horizontal tank than a vertical unitank, so you ought to be able to dissipate the heat from fermentation. Is 60F the temperature you want to ferment at?
Will all your beers be happy fermenting at the same temperature? Do you plan to use the same yeast in all your beers?
Will you be able to perform a diacetyl rest (probably not) if needed?

Seems like more trouble than it's worth.

[gitchegumee]

Totally agree with Baldrick. More trouble than it's worth. You would get good sedimentation in a horizontal tank at the expense of harvesting anything worthwhile. Shorter path for yeast to fall, but #1 It's spread out over the entire floor of the vessel so that #2 you cannot harvest it in a closed, sanitary method, and #3 it will not stratify into early, mid, and late flocculation yeasts. Besides this, a constant fermentation temperature precludes crash cooling without transfer to another, colder vessel somewhere, and lends a "house taste" to different beers fermented at same temperature with the same yeast. And it isn't pleasant to work inside a cold room. It limits your fermenter cleaning to a cold cycle and fills the room with CO2 during fermentation and after transfer. I'm a firm believer that each fermenter should be independently controlled with at least two jackets. And if you will harvest your yeast, then your fermenter should also be a 60 degree cone bottom cylindroconical tank for good harvesting technique. And let's not forget that this building you are looking at has this space apparently with old refrigeration? Don't count on ancient, used equipment for your #1 utility. Buy a quality chiller right from the start. I'm sure there may be some positive to using a cold room for fermentation, but unless it's related to cutting corners, I don't see it.

[Swags]

thanks

thanks for the reality check gentlemen. i appreciate it.

[gitchegumee]

I know there are many out there using what SWAGS proposed. Does anyone find positive aspects of this situation that I'm missing? Is the one-and-only, sole advantage the money saved? Not to belittle that, but I want to get this in the right perspective. Maybe testimony from those that started this way and changed later?

[Luch15]

Well since you asked... here is my experience.
Until 6 months ago we were using single wall 5bbl (gross volume) stainless unitanks in a cold room to do all our beers. We kept the cold room at about 61f and knocked out the wort at different temps depending on style. We got really good at knowing how long the yeast would take to start and produce heat so as to manage the ferment temps. Hefe we would pump out at 78f so that is would start at 72 and peak at 78, IPA at 62 so it would peak at 68, etc. etc. There were a number of reasons we went the route of single wall in a cold room, we also operate as a BOP so all of those batches (10 gallon) go into a cold room we already had, economics also played a roll. We now run 10bbl fermenters and brite on glycol cooling and I do agree it is easier but there is of course a cost associated with it. I honestly don't see a problem doing this on small batches like the 4-5bbl we do (by the way we are still using the single walls to do batches of our non core brands) the ferment temps can be kept reasonably stable, certainly well enough to produce consistent, good beers. It does take some experience and diligence but can pay off. I am not sure how a 15bbl batch would behave but based on my experience I think it would be difficult to manage the temps on that much wort. My 2 cents.