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  • Tank Size Question

    Hi all,

    I am building a 10bbl hot side system from used dairy tanks. I have been planning on using a rectangular dairy cooling tank like...Click image for larger version

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ID:	193631 mostly in the 350 to 400 gallon range. Recently an opportunity came up to purchase a 500 gallon tank of the same construction. Does anyone with knowledge of these tanks know if we will be able to maintain an adequate mash bed with smaller batches? Some of the planned beers will only require 200 gallons of water in the mash and my fear is a thin grain bed where as our larger OG brews will be close to 400 gallons of mash water.

    Thanks for any help on this!

    John

  • #2
    We just bought a 400 gallon tank like this.....

    I would be interested in this as well. I know a wide shallow bed is more desirable than a narrow thick one, but I have never heard what would happen if the bed were too shallow. I am thinking that the lack of thermal mass may make it difficult to maintain temps. That being said, ours is jacketed and in the spring we were going to run tests with hot water to see if we could do step mashes. I wonder if that same system could be used to mitigate the above thermal mass issue. Barring that, could you build a removeable wall in the tun to do the smaller mashes in so you can maintain a thicker mash bed?

    Click image for larger version

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    Click image for larger version

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    I found this in an old post -

    "The bed thickness for a dry, two roll mill should generally be around 12 - 15 inches, whereas with most types of wet mills, the thickness will reach 20 -25 inches. Some of you may think this is too short; however, if you take a look at a brewhouse with a dedicated lauter tun (i.e. no combi-vessel), you'll notice that it is usually the vessel with the largest diameter in the brewhouse, and for good reason." - crassbrauer 07-30-2007 http://discussions.probrewer.com/sho...506-Filter-bed

    I am still looking in to this cause my poor little mind wants to know.....
    Bill Walden
    Oddball Brewing Co.
    Suncook, NH

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