Uni tanks vs Bright tanks

[THL]

Im in the process of building small 4BBL micro brewery and tap room. Originally planned on having 4 FV's/Uni's and 2 BBT's. I'm now wondering what the benefit of the BBT's would be. We would be paying the same amount either way, both would have the same pressure rating and be jacketed for glycol. The only real difference would be the shape, i.e. conical uni, not so conical bright.

I realise a lot of people in a similar situation, brew pubs etc would use bright for serving, but our projections don't really warrant having tanks for service, so the mane use would be for storage to free up room in the walk in fridge.

The beer would be going into kegs and bottles, and I know a lot of people will say you want a BBT for filling kegs from, but if it's rated the same as the uni I don't any reason not to go straight to keg from uni.

Basically as you can tell I'm pretty set on 6 uni's and forgo the brights, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Thanks in advance

[revolutioned]

Ok, BBTs are used for several reasons:


1. Racking off of yeast from FV (this will help with clarity and open up your FV to make more beer).

2. Crashing beer (the larger cold surface area helps beer to drop BRIGHT more efficiently).

3. Carbonating beer (again the larger surface area and head space allow for more efficient carbonation).

4. Packaging beer (BBTs are usually polished inside and will help yeast fall out of suspension, and in conjunction with a standpipe of some length a BBT will prevent stirred up yeast from entering your bottles, cans or kegs).

BBTs are important for the clarity, quality and efficient production of beer. It is possible to do all of the things listed below without a BBT, but you would tie up FV space and the quality of your beer might suffer. If I were you I would only buy one BBT (mabey double size) and get another FV for better production ability.
good luck,
ED

[THL]

Cheers Ed. some good points. However:

1. You would rack off yeast from uni continually.

2. Uni's would be jacketed and chilled to the same temperature with glycol. I see your point on surface area, but wonder how much difference it would make on a relatively small 4bbl.

3. I thought head space was less on brights?

4. I could get uni's polished also.

I'm not trying to be pedantic, I agree with what your saying, I just wonder if it makes more seance to effectively have 6 FV's and increase production ability, as appose to transfer every day or so to BBT, thus also saving time. I don't disagree that there might be a very slight difference in clarity, but not sure if that would warrant the bright.

Thanks for your help.

[revolutioned]

If your bright was broken or exploded you could get by using your fermenters.

1. You would be wasting FV space while you were waiting for beer to drop bright.

2. You would have to rack above or very high on the cone to keep tumbling yeast out of your bottles, cans or kegs. This would waste beer.

3. The FV is not designed to drop beer bright, the BBT is. Even if you rack yeast off frequently you will not get it all. The beer will push the yeast down into your packaging as it drains.

4. Even if your racking off, conditioning and lagering in a unitank, best practice is to go to BBT before packaging.

5. Even a little clarity difference will mean a lot when it comes to stability of beer.

The BBT is just best practice, and there is no way around that. Can you brew without a BBT? The answer is yes. Brewing is a process that has evolved over hundreds of years of modern beer making. Lots of brewers try to reinvent the wheel and thats great for innovation, but in this case I think your asking for more trouble than its worth. I am all for saving money, but after working at a brewery that skimped too much, I would rather have the right equipment that will save me time and money and improve the quality of my beer. Let me know what you decide.

[THL]

Strong argument

You make a strong argument revolutioned. It's common practice in the Uk to go from fv straight into firkin (with isinglass). Which works great if serving from a beer engine. At brewery's I've worked at we've only used brights for going into key kegs. Quite often the brights take the form of old dairy tanks. Whilst not ideal I know of some very highly regarded brewery's working this way. I guess this practice made me see the primes I would be looking at as an improvement either way, but I think you've got me convinced on having a bright. Any good examples I should be looking at for reference?

[revolutioned]

You are absolutely right, when we do firkins we go off of the FV. There are many ways to use BBTs. Some say 1 BBT for every 4 FVs. If you are brewing the same beer in multiple FVs I would double the size of my bright (ie 8 bbl). You could put 1 batch in an 8 bbl if you wanted to also with extra CO2. I like Premire, Malt USA, GW Kent. I also prefer short squat tanks as opposed to tall thin tanks (this will help with flocking in FVs and BBTs).
Good luck
ED

[THL]

Good tip

You are absolutely right, when we do firkins we go off of the FV. There are many ways to use BBTs. Some say 1 BBT for every 4 FVs. If you are brewing the same beer in multiple FVs I would double the size of my bright (ie 8 bbl). You could put 1 batch in an 8 bbl if you wanted to also with extra CO2. I like Premire, Malt USA, GW Kent. I also prefer short squat tanks as opposed to tall thin tanks (this will help with flocking in FVs and BBTs).
Good luck
ED

Cheers for the tip on the squat tanks Ed.