What this vessel actually does

These tanks sit in the gap between pilot brewing and a fully automated brewhouse. At 2500L, 3500L and 5000L, they cover roughly 20–45 bbl of fermenter capacity, and the same fabrication drawings scale across all three sizes, so a growing brewery can add volume without retraining staff on a new design.

Materials and fabrication

The shell and dishes are 3 mm SUS304 as standard; 316L is what we recommend for sour programs, cider and any wash with a chloride load, since pitting shows up in the cone long before it shows up anywhere else. Shell seams are TIG welded, welds ground flush on the product side, then pickled and passivated before mechanical polishing to Ra ≤ 0.8 µm. We do not polish over an unpickled weld — that hides porosity instead of removing it.

Dimple-plate jackets are welded to the cone and lower cylinder. Jacket area is sized to volume, generally 1.2–1.5 m² per 1000L, which keeps a crash from 18°C to 2°C inside one shift with a 2°C glycol supply. Insulation is 80–100 mm polyurethane under a 2 mm stainless cladding; on tanks installed in unheated rooms, that thickness is the difference between stable fermentation and a glycol bill you did not budget for.

Where the details matter

A 60° cone drains clean and gives you yeast cropping without a rake. Working pressure is 0.15–0.2 MPa with a 0.3 MPa design rating, and the safety valve and pressure gauge are mounted on a dedicated fitting — never on the CIP arm. Cleaning runs through a rotating spray ball on the top manway, with the CIP supply, return and glycol inlets brought to a single port cluster so the operator is not chasing hoses around the tank.

Specifications

Questions we get before an order

Which volume? Match to your brew length, not your ambition. One 5000L tank beats two 2500L tanks only if your kettle fills it in a single cast.

Do I need the jacket? If you ferment anything above 12°C ambient or package on a schedule, yes.

How is CIP connected? Spray ball on the top manway, return from the cone outlet, both to the port cluster.

Can I run 316L later? No — the grade is set at fabrication, so decide before the deposit.

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.