Home » Stainless Steel Tank Parts Fabrication For Brewing
Stainless Steel Tank Parts Fabrication For Brewing
Recently, a batch of brewing tank parts was successfully shipped.
What is brewing? Steps, process & products
Brewing is the process of making alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, and hard cider, from ingredients such as grains, fruits, and vegetables. The process of brewing involves several steps, including mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, and packaging:
Mashing is about combining milled grain (usually barley) with water and heating it to activate enzymes. These enzymes convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars, which will be used in the fermentation process.
Lautering is the process of separating the sugars from the grain. This is done by adding hot water to the mash and filtering out the grain particles.
Then, the wort (the liquid that is produced in the lautering process) is boiled in order to concentrate the sugars, kill any bacteria, and add hop flavors and aromas.
Next, it’s time to add yeast to the wort, which converts the sugars into alcohol. Depending on what type of fermentation is used, this process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
Finally, we enter the conditioning phase. This is the process of aging the beverage to allow for flavor development and clarification. When this is done, the alcohol can be bottled or put in other containers.
All types of tanks for brewing
Each individual piece of brewing equipment brings benefits to your brewing process that you can’t get anywhere else. Brewing tanks come in a variety of shapes and sizes. To give you a better idea of what your options are, we wanted to create a guide to the different types of brewing tanks.
BRITE TANKS
There aren’t many beers that taste good when they’re flat. That perfect amount of carbonation can make a decent beer into a fantastic one. To that end, you’ll need to carefully control the carbonation of your beer if you want to make the best final product possible. Brite tanks are crucial components in the brewing process for creating the right amount of carbonation, as well as keeping it carbonated for long periods of time. A brite tank will be one of the last stops your beer sees before you bottle it or serve it up for consumption.
UNITANKS AND FERMENTORS
Fermentation and maturation of your beer are crucial steps that ultimately create the final taste and texture of your brews. In the past, fermentation tanks were always completely separate from the tanks you would use for carbonation and maturation. Unitanks can fill both roles and allow you to save on space and cost of operation while using just one tank. Unitanks give you the option to carbonate your beer after most of the fermentation has finished.
Like the brite tanks we’ve already talked about, unitanks often come jacketed to ensure that you have full control over the temperature of the liquid inside. The conical shape at the bottom of these tanks allows you to separate the yeast from the beer much easier than with a standard cylindrical tank.
YEAST BRINKS
These tanks allow you to cleanly and safely store and transport yeast between multiple batches. Yeast brinks are pressurized to keep the re-pitched yeast safe for future use in more batches.
KETTLES
Large industrial kettles are going to be your go-to for boiling large quantities of your wort. Very basic kettles that have open burners beneath them do exist, but these tend to be less reliable and can char your wort if you don’t watch it very carefully. Burnt wort is one ingredient that won’t make beer taste how you want it to.
MASH TUN
The proper balance between malt and water early on is one of the most important aspects to focus on. We couldn’t create a guide to the different types of brewing tanks without mentioning the mash tun. As your brewery grows, a mash tun is essential for starting off a brew the right way. Without a reliable mash tun, you could spend a lot of time and effort on a beer that simply won’t end up with the taste you’re hoping for.
LAGERING TANKS
For a true and proper lager, you’ll need a specialized tank that helps develop the flavor in the correct way. That’s where a horizontal lagering tank comes in handy. The bottom of the tank has a large surface area that creates the proper conditions for brewing a lager the right way. Because it’s horizontal, a lagering tank also has more surface area available at the top of the liquid inside. Both factors help create the lager you’re looking for.
STORAGE TANKS
Depending on the setup of your brewery, your storage tanks and brewing tanks could be one and the same. However, larger operations that need to churn out more product at a faster pace could cripple themselves if they rely on their fermentors to also serve as storage tanks. Separate storage tanks give you plenty of room to hold finished product, while also freeing up space in your other brewing tanks to create more batches.
What do we do for brewing with our metal fabrication services?
Except for various stainless steel tank parts fabrication, we're also proud to have worked on constructing brewing tanks. The tank's fabrication required us to use every skill, tool, and technique at our disposal. From the start, the project required Laser Cutting, Waterjet Cutting, saw cutting, CNC Machining, Bending and Rolling, Welding and Weld Inspection, Assembly and Finishing.
Waterjet Cutting
Waterjet cutting is an exact and reliable technique. Using a powerful stream of water that cuts cleanly and evenly, water jet cutting provides highly accurate cuts with a high degree of repeatability over a wide range of materials and endless shapes and configurations. We use waterjet cutting to cut the thin sheet and thick plate parts required for the beer tank. Waterjet cutting left all edges clean and provided quality edges for welding.
Forming
We used a variety of bending and forming techniques on the beer tank. First, we use CNC Press Brakes to make the straight bends. But as you can see, there are not many straight surfaces here. To achieve the round and conical shapes, we had to both roll and bump from the radiused and conical shapes. All of the bent, rolled, and formed pieces had to but up to each other with a high degree of precision so that our welders could achieve a leak-proof tank.
Welding & Weld Inspection
Welding is used to join together disparate pieces of metal. The difference between joints and attachments welded by a craftsman and those by amateurs is visibly noticeable. Without a professional welder, it’s likely that you would notice ridges, crevices, imperfections, and weak points that eventually lead to contamination, corrosion, and product failure. All welds performed on commercial beverage parts and equipment should be of the highest quality so they support and uphold the integrity of the equipment rather than detract from it. Of course, after the necessary welding was completed, the product underwent strict welding inspection as there can be no leaks with a container designed to hold liquids.
Contact us at sales3@openex.com.cn or call us at +86 186 5928 0806 for more information about our fabrication service for brewing or to receive a free project quote today.
Openex is home to a full-service, one-stop-shop, contract manufacturing company producing custom large machined parts and fabrications. Our full large fabrication services including large machining, cutting, welding, rolling, punching, braking, testing, painting, and others.