Do Most Microbreweries Use Jacketed Fermenters?

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Monsterc

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Do Most Microbreweries Use Jacketed Fermenters?
Anyone know? Or do they just ferment at room temp?
I would think there might be more heat created during fermentation on the larger scale.
 
The ones that I have seen, which are few, are jacketed... otherwise it woud be hard to have much quality control over your product.
 
It depends...Anchor Brewery uses open fermentors that are low and wide, about 3ft high and probably 20X15ft long/wide, and they are in a climate controlled room. I'm pretty sure they are rather unique, using old-school open fermentors with a huge surface/volume ratio to control temps.
 
using jacketed fermenters is a lot more efficient and cost effective than cooling an entire room. Plus if you have 4 fermenters in a room, they can all be at different temps for different styles of beer.
 
Yes, the breweries I have seen all have jacketed fermenters. Some of the ones that I have seen have a fermenter at lager temperatures right next to one at ale temperatures. The consistent temperature control and ability to vary the fermenter temperature for the style are distinct advantages.
 
TwoHeadsBrewing said:
using jacketed fermenters is a lot more efficient and cost effective than cooling an entire room. Plus if you have 4 fermenters in a room, they can all be at different temps for different styles of beer.
Click to expand...

That's what I was wondering. If it would be more efficient. And if the glycol condenser unit is placed outside it would be even more efficient.
I've also heard of a micro reusing their wort cooling water
to to heat up their next mash.
That could really cut down on energy cost when doing back to back
batches!
 
yeah jacket is the way to go. the brewery i work at we can keep fermentation temp under control then when they are done we can cold crash them to drop out more yeast. then transfer to conditioning tanks or filter them out of the same vessal.
 
Monsterc said:
That's what I was wondering. If it would be more efficient. And if the glycol condenser unit is placed outside it would be even more efficient.
I've also heard of a micro reusing their wort cooling water
to to heat up their next mash.
That could really cut down on energy cost when doing back to back
batches!
Click to expand...

It's actually very common for the cooling water to go right into the HLT. I've seen this at a large number of breweries.
 
All of the breweries I've toured use active cooling. Even the ones that used open fermentors had cooling lines on the underside of the vessel.
 

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