7bbl fermentors on wheels

[MetroMan]

Hi I would like to consider pumping the wort from our brewhouse upstairs to our basement to ferment at room temp. then rolling the single wall fermentors into a cold room to crash. Any one have experience with this method.
Ken
Yonkers NY

[othevad]

7bbl single wall

Hey Ken.

I don't have any direct experience with 7 bbl single walled, but I'd be hesitant to ferment with no control whatsoever.
In doing a 3bbl batch in a temp controlled room when I was starting out, I would get about a 5 degree spike during ferment... i.e. pitch yeast at 65 it would ride to 70 f)
With over double the thermal mass, I reckon that your 7 bbl's will create much more than a 5 degree bump.
Crashing will work if you can get the room down low enough, just be aware to have a real smooth floor as a 7 bbl full fermenter is going to weight almost a ton...

[MetroMan]

Hey Ken.

I don't have any direct experience with 7 bbl single walled, but I'd be hesitant to ferment with no control whatsoever.
In doing a 3bbl batch in a temp controlled room when I was starting out, I would get about a 5 degree spike during ferment... i.e. pitch yeast at 65 it would ride to 70 f)
With over double the thermal mass, I reckon that your 7 bbl's will create much more than a 5 degree bump.
Crashing will work if you can get the room down low enough, just be aware to have a real smooth floor as a 7 bbl full fermenter is going to weight almost a ton...

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Should have said the basement section I will ferment in would be an ac control space to work the "room temp". The "roll in" room will be a coolbot controlled space that will be at about 38. My real question is the rolling of the fermentors. I want to eliminate a avoid a glycol system

[dantose]

Keep in mind, 7 BBL of beer will weigh over 2000 lbs, so even on wheels it will be a pretty substantial job moving them.

What may be more useful is putting the fermenter on a good, sturdy pallet and moving them with a powered pallet jack or even a small electric forklift. Fair warning though, i haven't actually seen such a system in operation, so there may be more pitfalls I'm not seeing.

[porter]

We do our mixed fermentations of 15bbl at ambient temp in square totes. We can move them with a pallet jack with 2 or 3 guys- but it isn't easy.

Plus, FV's are top heavy. I would hesitate to roll one of those things around.

Also, with 210 gals, you will prob see more than 10F rise during fermentation depending on yeast strain, pitch rate, etc.

I understand the cost cutting approach, but I find that the biggest difference between home brew and "pro" craft beer is the control of fermentation- temperature being the most important.

[almalkin]

When we first started, I would roll 2 bbl tanks into the cold room to crash. It worked, but the logistics were not ideal and it could get a little hairy and downright dangerous.
I would be very concerned about the safety of moving that large a tank around. I wouldn't want to do it solo, with no mechanical support. A pallet jack would be the bare minimum. If your floor is even remotely uneven it might be tough.

[MetroMan]

When we first started, I would roll 2 bbl tanks into the cold room to crash. It worked, but the logistics were not ideal and it could get a little hairy and downright dangerous.
I would be very concerned about the safety of moving that large a tank around. I wouldn't want to do it solo, with no mechanical support. A pallet jack would be the bare minimum. If your floor is even remotely uneven it might be tough.

Thanks everyone. Money sucks "when you don't have it" lol

[mswebb]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Should have said the basement section I will ferment in would be an ac control space to work the "room temp". The "roll in" room will be a coolbot controlled space that will be at about 38. My real question is the rolling of the fermentors. I want to eliminate a avoid a glycol system

In addition to the safety issues mentioned above, you will have a difficult time crashing a 7Bbl fermenter in a cool room at 38. I move 1Bbl fermenters from cold room 1 (65 ambient, beer routinely runs up to 75-78 so I have yeast that works in that range) to cold room 2 (33 ambient) and it takes up to 3 days to get the beer down to about 38.

[CbP Brewing]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Should have said the basement section I will ferment in wuld be an ac control space to work the "room temp". The "roll in" room will be a coolbot controlled space that will be at about 38. My real question is the rolling of the fermentors. I want to eliminate a avoid a glycol system

I have a Coolbot walk in cooler, and I don't think it would do a very good job at chilling that much liquid. Their own website talks about the limitations of their own device.

[populuxebrewing]

We roll 1.5bbl conicals in and out of our cold room for temperature management, and I hate it. All it takes is one little divit, or small rock, and the hard casters they're on will snag. Since the frame is on 3 legs it's even more unstable and can get very tippy. We've lost at least 1 beer that way. Nothing like 50 gallons of fresh wort all over the floor after a long brew day.

We also have some jacketed 7bbl fermenters now, and at that size it's pretty difficult for me to imagine it working. You would need soft tires, or better yet, some kind of rail system, like they use to move the space shuttle. Even then, the time it would take to get the thing to crash in a cold room is going to add an extra week or two to the brew schedule. You'll end up shorting yourself 10 or 20 brews a year just in crashing time. More than enough to make up for the expense of a chiller.

I'd look at somehow retrofitting the single walled vessel you have to allow temperature control in place rather than moving it. Put a coil in it if you absolutely have to and circulate cold water. I've seen it done that way, and I'm told it's pretty cheap to do.

Good luck.

Peter
Populuxe Brewing