Hello brewing brothers! I am going Pro with a winery and we have some dairy equipment we need to convert. Are there any contacts or resources that I can use to help me do this. I’m thinking of converting three 170 Gal upright dairy tanks into 2 mash tuns and 1 boil kettle. Any ideas?
Dimensions?
I’m not an expert by any means, but I know that the geometry of the vessels are important to their function.
Winery?
When Sierra Nevada started, Ken Grossman modified some dairy equipment for the brewhouse. It can be done.
I started with dairy equipment. We had everything welded in for us. Not sure how much help I can give you but I’ve definitely been there. The used dairy tank we had for a MT had a paddle installed when we got it and just had 2 screens designed for the false bottom.
The BK we used a burner attached through the side and had an an element that ran across the bottom 1/3 of the tank.
We did not used dairy equipment for fermentors, we used plastic conicals heat wrapped in a cold room to control fermentation temps.
I can honestly say that dairy tanks are a good way to get started when you are on a budget but no doubt it is a short term solution. Once you move onto professional equipment your life will be much, much better. and so will your product.
Here in Colorado I’d recommend Dairy Engineering. http://dairyengineering.com
Can’t second that enough.
Tom Hennessey of Colorado Boy Brewing Co. presented a seminar at last year’s Homebrew Con in Baltimore on pieced-together brewing systems for homebrewers interested in going pro using equipment like that. I would definitely check it out:
“Frankenbrew: Are Pieced Together Systems Still Viable”