A 1000L conical fermenter sits in an awkward middle ground: too large for pilot batches, too small to carry a regional brewery\’s core brands. In practice these tanks land in taprooms, brewpubs, and contract facilities running 8–12 brews a month, where one vessel has to handle ales, lagers, and the occasional fruit addition without being torn apart for a rebuild.

We build the body from SS304 sheet, 3 mm on the shell and 4 mm on the cone for standard units. Breweries moving into sours or chloride-heavy cleaning usually step up to 316L, particularly at the cone and bottom outlet where pitting shows up first. Welds are TIG, purged on the product side, then ground and passivated. Interior finish is 2B mill or 320-grit polish; a mirror finish photographs well but costs more to keep up.

The cooling jacket decides your fermentation schedule. Single-zone jackets on the cone and lower cylinder handle ales without trouble. For lagers or crash cooling we add a second zone on the upper cylinder, so dropping from 68°F to 34°F takes hours instead of days. Glycol inlets and outlets are 1.5-inch tri-clamp, positioned to match your chiller layout rather than forcing a hose run around the tank.

Working pressure is 15 psi standard, 30 psi optional. Each vessel and jacket is hydro-tested and fitted with an adjustable relief valve sized to the tank volume — undersized relief valves are the most common flaw we find on imported tanks. Cone angle is 60° for yeast collection; 90° cones look dramatic but leave hops and trub sitting on the slope.

CIP runs through a rotating spray ball in the top manway, positioned so the spray pattern reaches the cone. Dry hopping, sampling, racking, and the bottom dump each get their own tri-clamp port, so you can reconfigure without welding.

Common questions

Can I lager in a single-zone tank? You can, but expect slow pull-down and uneven temperature near the top of the cone. Add the upper zone if lagers are more than a seasonal product.

Is 316L necessary? For clean ales, no. For kettle sours, salted beers, or aggressive acid cleaning, the extra cost pays back in years of service.

How many tanks do I need? Match tank count to your brew house turns per week and your longest conditioning time, not to your tap list.

Tell us your batch size, beer type, number of fermentation tanks and available space. We can recommend the tank volume, cooling area and configuration for your brewery.