Why use a lagering tank?

[Kushal]

I believe that the general reason to use a lagering tank is for increased bottom surface area for more yeast contact.

I have only ever lagered (or fermented at all) in conical bottomed uni tanks.

Is there a noticeable difference in final product or lagering time when using a horizontal lagering tank vs a conical unitank?

Thanks[emoji1]

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Rooh]

I think one of the main reasons for a horizontal tank is so the yeast have a much shorter distance to fall, thereby reducing the time needed to lager.

Cheers,

Rich DeLano
rich@thebrewinglair.com

[beerme]

horizontal ageing tanks

lagering beer in horizontal ageing tanks is an old traditional way of doing it.

we finish fermenting, diacetyl rest in the primary and crash chill to drop the bulk of the yeast out. 7-10 days.
then we rack the beer from the racking arm to the conditioning tank and let it lager for 2+ weeks.
It is much easier to collect the yeast from the conical fermenter after racking the beer off. Otherwise you have to draw off a bit, let it settle and repeat over a few days. You can never be sure you have got all of the yeast out. Leaving it behind will potentially risk autolysis and the yeast will lose viability and vitality for repitching.

the beer in the horizontal ageing tank settles well because of large surface area and less height to fall (see stokes law). Think of it as a 1G centrifuge.
After 2 weeks of lagering the beer is often almost bright and needs only a light polish filter, or even no filter at all.

Horizontal conditioning tanks are also often cheaper to buy than conicals.


Some breweries rack off to another clean tank to dry hop so they can separate out as much yeast as possible. This can be done in horizontal or vertical conical tanks. We dry hop in line on the way to the horizontal and then use a bag filter and racking arm to keep out any stray hop bits.


The downside is you have to clean another tank and transfer beer. You want to take care to avoid air pickup in transfer.
Some people feel they are hard to clean out, especially with automated cip systems. Our tanks have a manway on the end, and we spray with a hose to loosen up the sedimented lees, starting at the front and working our way back. Our tanks also have 3" butterfly valves on the drain which makes cleaning fairly easy.
We can rinse the tank with minimal water usage.
The CO2 seems to fall out the manway and is quickly gone allowing caustic cleaning.
I want to come up with a system where i can keep the tank closed and wash with an acid cleaner so i don't need to use as much co2 to purge the tank afterwards.