What This Tank Actually Does in a Working Brewery

A 500L unitank sits in a useful middle ground. It is large enough to support a small commercial brewhouse running two or three brews a week, yet still manageable for a brewpub that wants to package a few core beers without committing to a full-scale expansion. The conical bottom lets you drop yeast and trub without disturbing the beer, and the same vessel can handle fermentation, conditioning, and carbonation if you set it up correctly.

We build these tanks with a 60-degree cone as standard. That angle is steep enough for most ale and lager yeast strains to settle cleanly, but not so steep that you lose usable volume in the cone. If you are working with a particularly flocculent strain or plan to harvest yeast for repitching, tell us. We can adjust the cone geometry and outlet size to match your process.

Materials, Welding, and the Details That Matter After Year One

The tank body is 304 stainless steel as standard. For breweries that push high-acid sours, fruit additions, or aggressive CIP cycles, we recommend 316L for the wetted surfaces. The price difference is real, but so is the corrosion resistance. We TIG weld all product-contact joints and fully penetrate them. After welding, we pickle and passivate the interior to restore the passive layer. A rough interior surface will hold beer stone and biofilm no matter how good your CIP program is, so we polish the interior to a sanitary finish and leave the exterior either brushed or mirror-polished depending on your preference.

Cooling jackets cover the cone and lower cylinder. On a 500L tank, that coverage matters because fermentation generates heat unevenly. If the jacket only covers the cylinder, the cone can run warm and the yeast will not flocculate as cleanly. We run separate jacket zones so you can control cone and body temperature independently when needed.

Pressure, CIP, and Connections

These tanks are rated for 1.5 bar working pressure and tested at higher pressure before shipment. The adjustable pressure relief valve is not a formality. It protects the tank if a glycol valve fails closed or if a dry-hop addition causes a sudden fermentation restart. We set the relief valve at the factory but it is field-adjustable within the rated range.

CIP is straightforward. A rotating spray ball sits in the dome, and the cone outlet doubles as the drain for cleaning solution. We can supply the tank with tri-clamp fittings throughout, or with DIN or SMS connections if your existing brewhouse uses those standards. Let us know your preferred connection type before we cut the ports.

Technical Specifications

Common Questions from Brewers

Can I carbonate in this tank? Yes, provided you have the pressure-rated version and a carbonation stone. We can add a stone port in the cone or racking arm area.

How many tanks do I need for a 500L brewhouse? It depends on your fermentation schedule and how many beers you want on tap at once. Most brewpubs run three to six unitanks per brewhouse of this size.

What if my ceiling height is limited? Give us the clearance. We can adjust leg height, dome configuration, and port placement to fit your space.

How do I connect glycol? We supply the jacket with inlet and outlet ports sized for standard glycol hose or hard piping. Tell us your chiller capacity and we can confirm the flow rate the jackets need.

What We Need Before Quoting

Batch size, beer style, number of tanks, available floor space, ceiling height, and your preferred connection standard. Those six details let us recommend the right volume, jacket coverage, and port layout without back-and-forth. 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.