A 500 L conical fermenter sits in an awkward but useful spot: big enough to keep a taproom pouring four or five rotating styles, small enough that one brewer can dump yeast and dry hop without a ladder. We build these as jacketed vessels with a 60-degree cone, the angle where yeast actually slides out during cropping instead of baking onto the bottom.

The cylinder is 3 mm SUS304, the cone 4 mm, and both get TIG welded, ground, and passivated before polishing. Internal finish runs 0.4–0.6 µm Ra on standard units; if you are running kettle sours or heavy dry-hop schedules, we switch the cone and racking arm to 316L and raise the polish. Dimple jackets cover the cylinder, with an optional separate cone jacket — that second zone is what makes a 2–3 °C per hour crash possible on a full 500 L batch. Glycol at -4 °C through 1.5-inch TC ports is the usual hookup.

Pressure rating matters more than most buyers expect. These ship rated to 1.5 bar working pressure, hydro-tested at 3 bar, with a 1.8 bar PRV on the CIP arm. That headspace allowance lets you spund and carbonate in the tank rather than pushing everything to a brite. Every vessel leaves with a sample valve, dry hop port, racking arm, and CIP spray ball already fitted, so cleaning is a closed loop from day one.

Questions we get before every order

Can one tank handle both ales and lagers? Yes, if the jacket area is sized for the coldest fermentation you plan to run, not the average. Lager programs at 10 °C need more surface than ale at 20 °C.

Do I need a cone jacket? On 500 L, it speeds crashing and helps hold temperature during cold conditioning. Skip it only if your glycol loop is oversized and your cellar stays stable.

How do I tie it into the rest of the cellar? Plan your CIP return, glycol supply and return, and blow-off route before the tanks arrive. Retro-fitting pipe runs around fixed legs is the most common delay we see.

Small brewpubs usually order two or three 500 L units with a shared glycol chiller; production breweries stepping up from 300 L often buy four at once and add a cone jacket on each. 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.