What a 30,000 L Tank Is Actually For

A 30,000 L fermenter usually shows up in a winery crushing 150–400 tons a season, or in a facility that ferments reds in tank and needs the same vessel for post-fermentation storage. It is not a scaled-up small tank — the thermal load, the must depth, and the CIP volume all change the design. We build these as vertical cylindrical vessels with a sloped or conical bottom, sized around your actual working volume rather than the nominal figure. A 30,000 L tank typically holds 26,000–27,000 L of must with adequate headspace for cap management.

Material and Fabrication Choices

Shell and bottom are normally 304 stainless, 3 mm minimum on the shell, 4 mm on the cone or sloped bottom where the weight of must and the racking loads concentrate. We switch to 316L when the fruit or the process brings chlorides into contact with the steel, or when the tank will also carry juice with high SO2 and long storage cycles. Internal welds are ground flush, pickled and passivated; wine contact surfaces finish at Ra ≤ 0.8 µm. Outside surfaces stay at a 2B mill finish, with No. 4 polishing only where you ask for it.

Cooling jackets are dimple plate, 3–4 mm, split into two or three independently controlled zones on the shell plus one on the cone. For active red fermentation, plan roughly 1.2–1.5 m² of jacket area per 1,000 L — pulling 30,000 L from 28 °C down to 22 °C in a working day is a heat-transfer problem, not a tank-volume problem. Glycol connections are 2\” tri-clamp, and each zone gets its own inlet and outlet so you can run partial cooling on a half-full tank.

Fittings and Cleaning

Standard configuration includes a top manway, 2\” CIP spray ball on a removable lance, sample valve, rotating racking arm, bottom outlet, and a pressure/vacuum relief valve. The relief valve is not optional on a closed tank: a 30,000 L vessel with a blocked vent and a temperature swing will find a weak point on its own. Insulation is 80–100 mm polyurethane under a stainless cladding.

Typical Specifications

Questions We Get Before an Order

Can one tank handle both red and white? Yes, if the jacket area is sized for the red fermentation load. Whites need less cooling, so oversizing costs you a little glycol capacity and nothing else.

Conical or sloped bottom? A cone helps with lees separation and dry hopping-style additions; a sloped bottom is easier to fabricate at this diameter and works fine when you rack rather than dump.

How is CIP handled? A single spray ball covers the top head; the sidewalls rely on flow rate and contact time. If you use heavy lees, add a second ball or a rotating spray head.

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