500L Steam-Heated Brewhouse and PLC-Controlled Fermentation

A 500L system sits in an awkward but useful place. It is large enough to supply a taproom or a small distribution account, yet small enough to fit a 60–80 m² room with a 3.2 m ceiling. Most buyers we work with are stepping up from 200–300L pilot kits or adding a second brewhouse to relieve a bottleneck on their main line. The real question is rarely volume — it is whether the heating, cooling, and control package can hold repeatable profiles across a 500L batch.

Why steam instead of direct electric

Steam jackets spread heat across the kettle wall instead of concentrating it on an element. For 500L, that matters during step mashing and the ramp to boil. Electric elements scorch wort on high-gravity batches, and replacing them means draining the vessel. A low-pressure steam jacket (typically 0.2–0.3 MPa working pressure) with a separate boiler keeps the heat source outside the product zone. If you do not have a boiler and cannot install one, say so early — direct-fired or electric alternatives change the whole layout.

Tank construction and materials

We build the brewhouse and fermenter in SUS304 as standard; SUS316L is specified for the fermenter interior when chloride exposure or aggressive CIP chemistry is expected. Interior welds are ground and passivated, with a Ra ≤ 0.8 µm finish on product contact surfaces. Exterior is brushed or mirror-polished to your preference — mirror looks better in a public brewhouse, brushed hides fingerprints in a working cellar. Dimple jackets on the cone and lower cylinder handle glycol at 2–4 °C; the cone angle is normally 60° for yeast dropout, with 90° available when floor height is tight.

Control and cleaning

The PLC handles temperature ramps, jacket valve sequencing, and CIP cycles. We include a recipe screen so operators can store house profiles rather than retyping setpoints. Fermenters ship with a separate thermowell and a sample valve at mid-cone; a racking arm is optional but worth adding if you dry hop heavily. All vessels carry CIP spray balls sized for the tank diameter, plus 1.5\” TC ports for racking, blow-off, and pressure relief. The safety valve setting must stay below the tank\’s design pressure — do not let anyone adjust it on site without checking the nameplate.

Technical specifications

Practical notes before ordering

Check your floor drain location and ceiling clearance against the tank height plus CIP ball. Confirm glycol chiller capacity against total jacket volume, not just tank count. And decide early whether the PLC needs remote access — adding it later means pulling new cable through finished walls.

Small brewpubs often run one fermenter with a single jacket zone; commercial sites with distribution commitments usually want two or three vessels per brewhouse so fermentation does not block packaging. 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.