Description
A pilot kit sits between a kitchen hobby setup and a small brewpub brewhouse. Most of the inquiries we handle come from home brewers stepping up to 50–100 L batches, or from a taproom that wants a test line before committing to a 5 BBL brewhouse. The real question behind the question is usually the same: will this hold fermentation temperature on a 40 L batch without someone watching it overnight?
Build and materials
The fermenter is SUS304 as standard, 316L when the customer brews sours or works with high-chloride water. Body and cone are 2 mm sheet, TIG welded, welds ground flush and pickled, internal finish Ra ≤ 0.8 µm. Dimple cooling jacket covers the lower cylinder and part of the cone; a single zone is enough at this scale, and it keeps glycol volume down.
Lid fittings: 1.5 in tri-clamp for the airlock or blow-off, a 3 in dry-hop port, thermowell for the probe, and a 1/2 in sample valve. Pressure-rated units get a 0.2 MPa relief valve — set above your working pressure, never at it. We have seen home kits sold with no relief at all, which is a hard stop for us.
Where these kits fit
Recipe development, yeast propagation trials, taproom seasonals, and staff training batches. Not suited to continuous production; the cone angle and jacket area are sized for 20–100 L, and efficiency drops when you push a small tank past its rated fill.
| Item | 20 L | 50 L | 100 L |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batch volume | 20 L | 50 L | 100 L |
| Material | SUS304 / 316L | SUS304 / 316L | SUS304 / 316L |
| Working pressure | 0.15 MPa | 0.15 MPa | 0.15 MPa |
| Relief valve | 0.2 MPa | 0.2 MPa | 0.2 MPa |
| Cooling | 1 zone dimple jacket | 1 zone | 1 zone, larger area |
| Glycol supply | 2–4 °C | 2–4 °C | 2–4 °C |
| Ports | Tri-clamp lid, racking arm, sample valve, thermowell, CIP spray ball port | ||
Questions we get before quoting
Can I CIP it? Yes, with a spray ball in the lid port and a small pump. At this volume, a 10-minute caustic cycle at 60–70 °C, then rinse, then peracetic. Pull the sample valve apart anyway — spray balls miss them.
Cone or flat bottom? Cone, if you plan to drop yeast and harvest it. Flat bottom is cheaper and fine for cask-style ales where you rack off rather than dump.
Do I need a chiller? A jacket without a glycol source is a decoration. Budget for a small chiller or a cold-room feed at 2–4 °C.
304 or 316L? 304 handles clean wort and standard cleaning. Sour programs and chloride above roughly 50 ppm push us toward 316L.
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.
Related products
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A 7BBL stainless steel conical unitank for micro breweries and brewpubs. Built from SUS304 or 316L with dimple cooling jackets, 15 PSI working pressure, 60-degree cone, and 0.4-0.6μm interior polish. Handles fermentation and conditioning in one vessel, reducing transfers and oxygen pickup. Available with custom fittings for glycol, CIP, and carbonation setups.
1000L 10HL Insulated Conical Beer Fermenter, Jacket & PRV
A 1000L (10HL) insulated conical fermenter built for brewpubs and small production breweries. 3mm SUS304 shell, dimple-plate glycol jacket on cone and body, 60° cone, 1.5 bar working pressure with a 1.8–2.0 bar relief valve. Standard manway, racking arm, sample valve and CIP spray ball, with 316L, dry hop ports and mirror polishing available on request.
10000L Conical Beer Fermentation Tank | 100HL Stainless Steel Fermenter
A 10,000 L conical fermenter suits 100 hl brewing schedules, double-batch 50 hl brewhouses, and commercial lager or ale production. Built in SUS304 or SUS316L with dimple glycol jackets, 0.2–0.3 MPa working pressure, CIP spray ball, and optional dry hopping or carbonation ports. Configured to your batch size, available height, and cooling capacity.
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I want to express my 100% satisfaction with Ace . The service was outstanding: quick, professional, and friendly. Polly provided excellent support throughout. The delivered 100 gallon copper pot still distillery equipment product perfectly meets my expectations and stands out fo r its excellent quality. I feel well taken care of and will recommend you without hesitation.
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Best regards,
Oliver Brown
