Ferm tanks outside?

[boussh]

We are looking to expand our brewery operations, how ever the footpad of there brew house is too small to accomidate any new tanks. We are considering going outside the rear brewery wall and placing 1-3 30 bbl tanks on a new concrete pad. We will hard pipe into the brewhouse with automated valves to cutdown on the chance of the outside tampering. Does anyone have tanks outside, did you add any extra insulation. Our climate in Nor Cal is temperate, but some winter nights hit low 20's and some summer days hit 115.
Any thoughts would be great.
Thanks
Nick

[PMR]

Check out what Lagunitas did with their JVNW tanks they have outside. I think they're 120 bbl tanks, and they have about 10 along the outer wall of their brewery.

[LoLotfb]

Tankage

You probably want cladded and insulated tanks for this application. Your chilling will need to be upgraded most likely. Stainless sucks up less heat because it is reflective so use a standard load chart for your refer needs and oversize by 20% in case you want to upgrade later. It's more $ to reinstall. Just a suggestion. Cheers, LoLo.

[gabewilson50]

At Sac Brew we had (they still have, I just don't work there anymore) 6-60 bbl fermenters outside. We never really had any problems with them, even after crashing them on hot days and having them hold some temp close to 32F. Nothing unusual was done to the fermenters, although a couple were shaded by a corrugated metal roof. I don't see any problem with it, just size your glycol appropriately.