Where horizontal geometry earns its place

A horizontal tank gives shallow liquid depth and a wide surface area per barrel. For lagering and bright beer service that means less hydrostatic load on the yeast bed, quicker settling, and cleaner draws off the racking arm. Breweries running 10–60 BBL batches typically go horizontal when ceiling height is tight, when the tank lives inside a cold room instead of a dedicated cellar, or when the vessel doubles as a serving tank in the taproom.

Fabrication choices we make before welding starts

Shell and dished ends in SUS304; we move to 316L when the cleaning chemistry is aggressive or the water is high in chloride. Plate runs 3 mm shell and 4 mm heads up to about 30 BBL, thicker as diameter grows, because the unsupported span between saddles drives the calculation more than volume does. Product-contact joints are full-penetration TIG, ground, and passivated. Interior finishes at Ra ≤ 0.8 µm for beer contact; exteriors in 2B mill or brushed.

Cooling comes from dimple or channel jackets on the shell, split into two zones so you can crash one end while holding the other. Insulation is 80–100 mm polyurethane under stainless cladding. Saddle supports get doubler plates so the shell isn\’t stressed at the attachment point.

Pressure, CIP, and piping

Working pressure lands at 1.5–3 bar depending on whether the tank is used for carbonation. Every unit ships with a sanitary pressure/vacuum relief valve sized to the design pressure — the single item most often undersized when buyers spec tanks themselves. Cleaning runs through a rotating spray ball on a dedicated port, with the return at the low point of the dish. Standard fittings include racking arm, sample valve, carbonation stone port, gauge, and tri-clamp connections throughout. Glycol in and out on each jacket zone.

Typical specifications

Questions we get from buyers

Can one tank serve both lagering and bright beer? Yes, if it has a racking arm and a carbonation port. Dedicated bright tanks usually skip the cone jacket.

Do I need a cone on a horizontal tank? Not always. A dished end with a sloped bottom works for bright beer; a cone helps when you\’re dumping yeast regularly.

How much glycol capacity? Size the chiller for the crash-cooling load, not the steady-state load. We\’ll send the jacket surface area and flow rate per zone.

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.