A 5000 L tank is usually the point where a winery shifts from small-lot trials to a full production block. We build these as vertical cylindrical vessels with a dimple-plate jacket welded directly to the shell, so there is no separate panel to seal and no dead space between plate and wall.

Shell and dished ends are 304 stainless as standard. We move to 316L when the must runs high in chloride, or when the same tank will also handle cider, perry, or fruit wine. Interior welds are ground flush and passivated, then polished to roughly 0.4–0.6 µm Ra on wine contact surfaces. Dimple plate is spot welded on a 100–120 mm pitch, which holds the jacket tight against the shell and gives a more even heat transfer coefficient than a loosely fitted panel.

Cooling area is sized to the fermentation curve, not to the nominal volume. Red must fermenting at 28 °C releases considerably more heat than a white fermentation held at 16 °C, and a jacket that suits one will undersize the other. We calculate area from your must temperature, target fermentation temperature, glycol supply temperature, and peak heat release, then split the jacket into two or three zones so the cone can be cooled independently during cold soak or post-fermentation settling.

These vessels turn up in small commercial wineries, contract crush facilities, cider houses, and beverage plants running temperature-controlled fermentation. A 5000 L unit typically ships with a conical or dished bottom, 450 mm top manway, racking port, sample valve, CIP spray ball, 80 mm polyurethane insulation, and a 304 outer shell. Legs are dimensioned around your floor loading and available headroom, which matters more often than people expect in older cellars.

Specifications

Questions we get before quoting

What glycol temperature do I need? Most cellars run 28–32 °F supply. Colder glycol lets you shrink jacket area, but it also raises the risk of freezing must against the wall during a stuck fermentation.

Do I need a pressure relief valve? Yes if the tank is closed during fermentation or sparging. We specify the valve to the design pressure of the shell, not to the jacket rating — those are two different numbers and mixing them up is a common and expensive mistake.

How does cleaning work? A rotating spray ball on the manway plus a dedicated CIP port covers the full wetted surface. Cone drains are sized so rinse water and solids clear without pooling.

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