Most 7BBL breweries don\’t buy a single tank. They buy a set that has to work together: a fermenter for primary, a bright beer tank for conditioning and carbonation, and storage vessels that hold finished beer until packaging day. We build all three roles to the same drawing standards so the jackets, ports and CIP paths line up once the tanks reach your cellar.

Matching tank type to the job

Conical fermenters at this scale normally run a 60-degree cone, which lets yeast and trub drop cleanly through the bottom outlet without a rake. Headspace is the detail buyers underestimate — allow 25 to 30 percent above working volume, because krausen on a high-gravity batch will climb higher than the batch sheet suggests.

Bright beer tanks are typically built single-wall with a jacket on the body only, rated 2.0 to 3.0 bar so carbonation can happen in the tank instead of in the package. Where the process gets rough is temperature. A 7BBL batch throws heat fast in the first 48 hours, and a jacket sized for the body alone lets the cone run warm. We put dimpled cooling jackets on both cone and lower body, split into separate zones when you plan to crash cool.

Materials, welding and finish

Contact surfaces are SUS304 as standard. 316L is worth the upcharge if you brew sours or run high-chloride cleaning cycles. Inner shells run 3mm, outer 2mm, TIG welded, passivated, and polished to Ra ≤0.8µm internally, with a coarser external finish that survives a wet cellar floor. Each vessel is hydro-tested, and the pressure relief valve is set and tagged before it leaves the shop.

Typical 7BBL configuration

Questions we get before quoting

Can one tank ferment and carbonate? Yes, if it is pressure-rated and the cone is jacketed. A dedicated bright tank still gives clearer beer and frees the fermenter for the next batch.

How many tanks do I need? Count your turn rate, not your brewhouse size. A brewpub packaging kegs twice a week runs a different tank count than a production brewery fermenting every day.

How is CIP handled? Spray ball in the dome, drain at the cone tip, and CIP return routed so the pump never runs dry. Keep the CIP loop and the glycol loop on separate manifolds.

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.