Jacketed bright tanks vs a cold room

[norfbrew]

What are the pros vs cons for using jacketed bright tanks vs unjacketed in a cold room at a brewpub? It seems like most brewpubs store bright tanks in coldrooms but if space is tight, couldn't jacketed bright tanks maintain serving temperatures and potentially occupy a smaller footprint? There must be pretty good reason that most bright tanks are kept in cold rooms but I thought I would ask anyway.

[Bainbridge]

Un-jacketed brites are cheaper, and cold rooms aren't too expensive. Our brand-new 12x20 glycol cooled cold room cost about as much as one jacketed US made 10bbl brite.

You're going to need cold storage anyway. Particularly if you also pull kegs or have guest taps (though I guess you could kegerator them.)

The draft lines would need to be insulated, and you'd probably need to be doing some glycol line-cooling.

If they run a long way you'd need to figure out your mixed gas dispensing, which might be at a pressure higher than your brites are rated for.

[AlphaBrews]

The best way to do it is to have both.

I worked at a brewery as an apprentice and we had serving tanks and kegs in the walk in cooler. It was a disaster every time we had to clean a serving tank. The walk in temp would go through the roof and it would take about a day to get the time back under control. In the mean time we would have tons of loss from pouring foam at the taps.

I would get jacketed serving tanks and a smaller walk in to store kegs. That way when you clean a serving tank it doesn't screw up pouring beer.

[THL]

Crashing

I'd agree with AlphaBrews. Plus wouldn't you get your beer to drop bright a lot quicker in a jacket bright, due to getting the temp down really low, lower than you would get in your cold room.

[nohandslance]

Single wall tanks in cold room are good, jacketed tanks are best. Attached pic is of the cellar I work at. With the large volume of cold beer in tank the fluctuation in walk-in cooler temp is not an issue. Only problem I have is the 'fog' during CIP. As stated earlier, make sure your tap lines are well insulated. Contractors think 'walk-in cooler' is for food, not beverage which = no slope to drain.

Lance
Rebel Malting Co.
Silver Peak Rest. Brewery
ljergensen@rebelmalting.com
775.997.6411

[nohandslance]

Specific Stacked Serving Units

Specific Mechanical offers a great, stacked bright beer/serving tank set up with 8 units (glycol jacketed). I used these at a brew-pub and we were able to fit a 7bbl system with 3,7bbl fv's and a 14bbl fv, brewing unit and 8 serving tanks in a 500 sq/ft area. Grain silo outside, mill and specialty malt stored inside.

Lance

[norfbrew]

Specific Mechanical offers a great, stacked bright beer/serving tank set up with 8 units (glycol jacketed). I used these at a brew-pub and we were able to fit a 7bbl system with 3,7bbl fv's and a 14bbl fv, brewing unit and 8 serving tanks in a 500 sq/ft area. Grain silo outside, mill and specialty malt stored inside.

Lance

Lance, do you have any photos of those tanks or the layout? A sketch of the layou?
Thank you!
Dean

[wailingguitar]

I would love to see some pics of these stacked tanks as well. We got a quote on a setup that would have a couple and I have never actually seen one

[SMiller]

Here is a pic of stacked brites. From DryHop in Chicago.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=541623582548751&set=pb.357727097605068.-2207520000.1371824803.&type=3&theater

[colinthehippie]

Here is a pic of stacked brites. From DryHop in Chicago.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

Would you ever have a need to access the bright tanks so that having them stacked would prove a giant pain in the ass? Otherwise the space-savings is awesome.

[dfalken]

If you like working in freezing temps then put unjacketed tanks inside the cold room, personally I think it is a giant pain in the butt and wouldn't even consider it. I spend as little time as possible in my cold room.

[SouthHouseBrew]

Single wall tanks in cold room are good, jacketed tanks are best. Attached pic is of the cellar I work at. With the large volume of cold beer in tank the fluctuation in walk-in cooler temp is not an issue. Only problem I have is the 'fog' during CIP. As stated earlier, make sure your tap lines are well insulated. Contractors think 'walk-in cooler' is for food, not beverage which = no slope to drain.

Lance
Rebel Malting Co.
Silver Peak Rest. Brewery
ljergensen@rebelmalting.com
775.997.6411

Lance,

If you CIP your BTs, how often do you open them up and clean them manually? Seems like even if it were only a few times/year, it would be a huge PITA, esp. with no drain.