Unitank for both fermenting and packaging out of? Thoughts?

[OGBrewer76]

Hey Folks,
I am considering getting uni-tanks with carb ports so that I can ferment and package kegs and bottles from the uni-tank and would appreciate thoughts from those who have worked in this setup before. I seem to recall Avery did something like this but can't find it on the internet anymore, making me suspicious of my memory.
Thanks in advance
John

[soia1138]

We've been doing that since the start, no brite tanks. We installed a tee on the sample ports for our carb stone/sample valve. No issues with anything from fermenting to bottling and keg filling off the tanks. All the beer is brilliantly clear with good trub dumps and proper biofine dosing. The carbing might take a little longer than a brite with the carb stone being just above the cone but it works just fine.

[AnthonyB]

We've been doing that since the start, no brite tanks. We installed a tee on the sample ports for our carb stone/sample valve. No issues with anything from fermenting to bottling and keg filling off the tanks. All the beer is brilliantly clear with good trub dumps and proper biofine dosing. The carbing might take a little longer than a brite with the carb stone being just above the cone but it works just fine.

Are you dosing biofine and then recirculating in the tank? Where do you pull beer from and where do you beer return to during the recirculation?

[wailingguitar]

I have a couple brites, but most of my beer is packaged from the unitanks. I only use biotin clear on my lagers, my ale yeast drops pretty clear on it's own. When I use biofine, I crash the beer for a few days, drop all the yeast that I can out of the cone, pump out of the cone and back in through the racking arm, which is pointed straight up. Once the beer is circulating, I pour the biofine clear in through the dry hop port. Circulate for about 30 to 45 minutes and then let it sit a few days.

[soia1138]

Are you dosing biofine and then recirculating in the tank? Where do you pull beer from and where do you beer return to during the recirculation?

I use a slightly different method. I dose just prior to carbing the tank and run co2 through the stone lightly as I slowly dose in through the port on top of the tank. Once dosed ( using 50ml/bbl) I leave the stone running while I am slowly bringing my head pressure up to just shy of my saturation point for the desired carb level. At the same time I am gradually increasing the co2 pressure to maintain a nice slow flow through the stone. By the time my head pressure is where I want it the biofine is plenty mixed. It gets one day to rest then package the next.

[Thirsty_Monk]

Are you dosing biofine and then recirculating in the tank? Where do you pull beer from and where do you beer return to during the recirculation?

If you put Biofine clear into the tank and then start carbonation, injecting CO2 will create enough turbulence.

[AnthonyB]

When I originally brought Biofine into our setup, I guess I just wasn't dosing aggressively enough because I could never get it to completely clear by only using carbonation as the agitation. Once I started dosing inline on the way to the brite tank, things cleared up considerably faster, but we only use 30mL/BBL and I never go much beyond that. I can't get my brite tanks as cold as I can get my fermenters though, so I've been exploring some alternate procedures for carbonating more effervescent beers.

[wailingguitar]

I recirc the biofine clear because that was the method my BSG rep suggested for clearing in a uni, but the CO2 method sounds good too

[OGBrewer76]

I have a couple brites, but most of my beer is packaged from the unitanks. I only use biotin clear on my lagers, my ale yeast drops pretty clear on it's own. When I use biofine, I crash the beer for a few days, drop all the yeast that I can out of the cone, pump out of the cone and back in through the racking arm, which is pointed straight up. Once the beer is circulating, I pour the biofine clear in through the dry hop port. Circulate for about 30 to 45 minutes and then let it sit a few days.

Question then....do you use the same uni for both fermenting and packaging out of or do you transfer your ales from a fermenting uni to a packaging uni?

[soia1138]

For us it's all in the same tank, no transfer. That would kind of defeat the purpose.

[othevad]

Unitank

Hey hey.

I started doing the same process about a month ago when we upgraded some tanks.
Works well now, but I will say that we only do draft/bottle conditioned beers.
I send my hoppy beers out slightly hazy and like them that way.
The only thing to know is that it is doable.

[wailingguitar]

Question then....do you use the same uni for both fermenting and packaging out of or do you transfer your ales from a fermenting uni to a packaging uni?

Ferment, carb, and package out from a single tank. Basically just using brites for production overflow- I am going to need to brew, let's move beer X to B1 and clear up the fermenter

[anthonybaraff]

I'm intrigued by the idea of avoiding all the extra transfers (cleaning, purging and risk of oxygen pickup) by using unitanks for fermentation, conditioning and packaging. We usually stick a hop screen between the fermenter and the bright when doing transfers, and based on what I see trapped in it after racking, I think that there's almost always a raft of yeast and hop filled krausen that is stuck to the inside of the tank which breaks loose at some point and gets racked out with the beer. Is there some part of fining or carbing in the tanks which is preventing this? Usually we do this in the bright and still see a not insignificant deposit of hop material and yeast in the bottom of the tank after packaging. Those of you who are doing this, are your bottles free of hop particles? Does it not cause an issue with your bottling line?

Thanks in advance,

Anthony

[barleyfreak]

We've been doing that since the start, no brite tanks. We installed a tee on the sample ports for our carb stone/sample valve. No issues with anything from fermenting to bottling and keg filling off the tanks. All the beer is brilliantly clear with good trub dumps and proper biofine dosing. The carbing might take a little longer than a brite with the carb stone being just above the cone but it works just fine.

I currently transfer to brites (in a walk-in) to carb all my beers. But I am looking to add two more double sized FV's and want to use the unis this way. A couple questions:

1) You ferment with the carb stone inserted in the T. You have no issues with yeast for anything clogging it up?
2) Since we're a brewpub, I can easily see a situation where I'd want to transfer 1/2 of the 15bbl to a brite (all BTs are 7bbl) to service the taps, and the other would remain in the uni for carbing and kegging/bottling. Can you see a problem carbing the remainder in the uni -- roughly filled only half way? Or would I need to carb the whole thing, and then transfer the carbed beer to the BT?

[mmussen]

Dave,

1) I have found that stones in a FV require extra cleaning and maintenance in the long term to make sure the pores dont clog over time. Never had an issue with in batch, but make sure you can circulate cleaners through your stones on cleaning cycles to make sure nothing is sitting in the pores.
2)The design of your new FV's will determine how you can do things. Depending on the size of the cone jacket positioning etc you may or may not be able to carb in the uni once you've transferred half the beer. I've had tanks where the ports were too high to carb properly after some of the beer was removed, or you may not be able to keep the rest of the beer at temperature depending on the jacket and temp probe positions.

Cheers