Floating Roof Wine Fermenters, 1,000 L to 50,000 L

Red wine fermentation builds a cap that has to stay wet. A floating roof — a pontoon lid riding on the must, or a sealed cover sitting on a gas blanket — holds that cap under the liquid, limits oxygen pickup, and lets one vessel work across a range of fill volumes instead of tying you to a single batch size.

Standard shells run at 1000, 2000, 3000, 5000, 10000, 20000 and 50000 L, and we cut non-standard sizes when the cellar demands it. Diameter and height are usually decided by the door width and ceiling height of the room the tank has to enter, not by volume alone. Give us the room dimensions and the shell gets sized to fit.

Materials and fabrication

Shell, dish ends and floating lid are typically 304 stainless, 2B outside and pickled or mirror-polished to 0.4 µm Ra on the wine contact side. High-acid must, juice with elevated chloride, or a tank that will double as long-term storage pushes the choice toward 316L. Dimple jackets are laser-welded to the shell for glycol or chilled water; the roof stays unjacketed, since the liquid beneath it is what needs the temperature control. Internal welds are ground flush and passivated so tartrate and lees have nowhere to lodge.

Every tank leaves with a pressure/vacuum relief valve sized to the shell, a top manway, sample valve, racking port, and tri-clamp connections for CO2, inert gas, CIP and the glycol loop. The floating lid runs on a food-grade gasket and a center guide rod; some cellars prefer a fully sealed cover with an inflatable seal for near-zero headspace.

Where these tanks get used

• Red wine maceration and cap management in small wineries
• Variable-capacity fermentation where batch sizes change week to week
• White juice settling and cold stabilization
• Inert-gas storage of finished wine before bottling
• Cider, mead and fruit wine on the same shell

Typical specifications

Dimensions shift with insulation thickness, jacket coverage and the fittings you specify, so treat the table as a starting point for layout drawings.

Questions we get before an order

How do I choose a volume? Work from your largest realistic batch, then add 20–25 percent headspace for foam and cap. Oversizing a tank to cover a rare large lot usually costs more in cooling surface and floor space than it saves.

Conical or flat bottom? Cones help with lees removal and yeast recovery on smaller tanks. Above roughly 20,000 L, a sloped flat bottom with a side racking arm is often easier to build and clean.

What working pressure? These are atmospheric vessels. The relief valve handles normal CO2 evolution and CIP surges; they are not pressure fermenters. Say so up front if you need 1–3 bar.

How is CIP handled? A spray ball on the top manway plus a bottom drain outlet, with the floating lid raised and locked during the cycle. Confirm your caustic concentration and temperature so gasket and seal materials match.

Lead time is typically 30–45 days for standard sizes and longer for jacketed or polished custom builds. Shipping is by sea freight on cradles; we supply lifting points and a rigging drawing.

Tell us your batch size, wine type, number of tanks and available floor space. We can recommend the tank volume, cooling area and configuration for your cellar.