Fermenter Minimum Volume

[Brewing207]

Maybe a strange question but I'll cut straight to the chase. I'm trying to determine if it is possible to ferment 10 to 7bbl in a 20 bbl conical fermenter. We are planning on using two 20bbl fermenters and are trying to determine if it's possible to scale down if needed, mostly smaller specialty beers for the taproom.

Thanks!

[TGTimm]

If your cooling jackets are properly placed, it's quite practical to brew half a fermenter. The biggest problem you'll face is stratification of the beer in the ferm, and the best way to prevent this is to use the highest jacket that is covered by the wort/beer, so three jackets--two in the wall, one in the cone, would make sense if you intend to brew a lot of small batches. If you want to use only two, I'd skip the cone jacket--we rarely use ours.