Plastic Fermentation Tanks

[ChesterBrew]

Where to get and how big is that plate chiller in the above posted thread?

It's possibly from Duda Diesel:

http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php

[mmmatt]

I have a 3 bbl brewpub in Milwaukee. I have 10 @ 115 gal plastic conicals, and here is some of what I have learned. My options were 10 plastic tanks & stands for about $3500, vs $40-50k for stainless jacketed and a glycol system. Cost savings is huge. Biggest drawbacks are, first off they aren't sealed for pressurizing. I'm building some bigger beers lately and currently have a beer overflowing like crazy in my ferm room. Not only does lack of sealing mean you can't push beers out with co2, but it also means that a blow-off tube is useless. There is a particular size of silicone gasket available from Stout Tanks that will work on these tank lids and supposedly control the blowoff issue, though I have tested one and couldn't push hard enough with co2 to even prime my pump so I know they don't seal good enough for that, but I am going to probably buy them for all my tanks now just to keep my floor from getting trashed.

The 2nd issue is the bulkheads (if you use them) have to be threaded and as we all know, threaded fittings are far from ideal. You also cant easily remove the bulkheads for that most people install in the cones for cleaning and that is probably why people are so crazy about surpassing pasteurization temps when they clean. I run 5 gal pbw in 140-150 deg f tap water for about 30 min with a 2" spray ball drilled into a spare lid. I spray out with a hose for a rinse, and then run the sprayball again with 5 gal of star san. I have no problems keeping my tanks clean. I use a 1/2 hp cast iron "Barracuda" transfer pump I bought from Menards/Home Depot just for the cip balls on my tanks. A little magnetic brew pump wont work the ball.

Personally, I dump trub and yeast out the bottom about a week into fermentation or whenever I need to reuse it, and then again a day or two before transferring and then a little more as I'm hooking up for the transfer. I then just transfer out the bottom of the tank and use a racking arm in my brite tank that I keep in my walk-in. I end up with a pretty fair bit of cloudiness in my beers for about a week after kegging and blow a couple pints worth of sediment from each keg after tapping, but since I don't distribute, that is nbd for me. ymmv

This kind of cheap, still isn't cheap though... In addition to the cost of the tanks you need to add the stands so make sure your quote is for everything including shipping. After getting the tanks you need to add a 2" threaded > 1 1/2" TC adapter for each tank and then an 1 1/2" butterfly valve per tank, so figure another $100 min per tank for that. Then lid gaskets and blowoff tubes for another $25 per tank. Put a TC/hose barb on the bucket end and you can more easily clean the tubes with your pump, so another $25 per tank. The valves are super close to the ground and difficult to get to, so you will want a stainless 90 elbow and a 1 1/2" ID hose if you are harvesting or otherwise removing yeast. Otherwise you wont get the tube to pass the yeast cake if it is too thin an ID. It would be nice to have an elbow on each tank before the valve, but since I have 10 it is a big expense for me and I only have one that I use after the valve.

as for temp control, you can use ambient temperature. At least for 3bbl sized tanks you can. Maybe something changes when you double or tripple that, IDK. I use part of my basement space for my ferm room and it holds to about 60deg F most of the year. Peak of summer came close to 70. The space is about 6-800 sq ft and the tanks don't effect the ambient temperature at all. maybe if I had 10 rocking all at once, but that is impossible for me to knock out that many beers all at once!! I see a lot of people talking about you have to do this and you have to do that in all maters of brewing, but a lot of that is just talk to be truthful. Temperature is a good example of this. You don't need to control the temperature of your ferments to make awesome beer. To make consistent beer maybe so, but that isn't necessarily what the market is after these days. You will need to work with the right yeasts that work for your space if you are in the extremes of temp, but keep in mind people have been doing this for a long time and the variations in yeast were largely out of necessity. There is a way to make great beer almost anywhere!!

Good luck!

Matt
Owner/Brewmaster
District 14 Brewery & Pub
Milwaukee, wi

[johnnymax]

If you add firmcap S (Spelling?) to the fermenting beer you won't have a mess on the floor. It also will stop boil overs in the kettle.

[mmmatt]

If you add firmcap S (Spelling?) to the fermenting beer you won't have a mess on the floor. It also will stop boil overs in the kettle.

Thanks John, that is what actually brought me to the forum today. Fermcap is silicone however and the fda says you can only use it if you filter. I don't filter, so I am looking for another solution. I was just going to post a thread about it, but I will mention here if anyone knows anything about the non silicone antifoam products. I have come across 2 that look interesting. One is Birko Patcote 376 which is canola oil based and the other is HopAid Antifoam which is made from hop oils. They both claim to increase head retention and also improve hop utilization.


Matt