SS Brewtech BRITE TANKS

[sladeywadey]

thanks Kev - think I'll use a hop tea and add that directly to the corny for maturation.

[Fastline]

Interesting thread, I've had my corny kegs for a while, but I only thought of them as a labour saving alternative to bottling. So haven't bothered completing the set up.

The secondary or maturation or conditioning or whatever your going to call it Mirrors what the big brewers do so must be some big deal or they wouldn't bother.

Theres lots of negative American reviews of ss brewtech kit, usually just saying that another manufacturer does it better.

What I can see in brewtechs advertising is they are saying there are some improvement over a corny, my thinking is the corny are so cheap that it would be difficult to justify the expense.

Looks nice and shiny but then again so do my corny kegs

[Kev888]

well, as always homebrewers will do as budget and preference allows. I'd go for the ss tanks if space and money were conducive, I think they look excellent and its always nice to have the proper tool for the job. But its a luxury and one thats out of my reach for the moment, so kegs will suffice quite adequately; other people may be better placed.

I don't own any yet, but I quite like the SS stuff. It may not have the bells, whistles and last word in quality of some competitors, but it is perfectly decent and is making similar functionality available at much lower prices than many. Thats pretty hard to argue with IMO; not many years ago, similarly priced stainless stuff was (and still can be) pretty crude.

[Matt in Birdham]

The secondary or maturation or conditioning or whatever your going to call it Mirrors what the big brewers do so must be some big deal or they wouldn't bother.

I think this is one of those cases where the commercials do it because they have to, because they want to free up fermenters and carbonate beer before bottling. We don't really need to do either, usually, when home brewing, so I don't necessarily think this is something we need to copy.

In my own process I have come to the conclusion that transfers are the enemy and should be kept to a minimum, since they introduce the twin risks of oxidation and contamination. Hence no secondary for me, and I just briefly crash in the primary, then transfer to a CO2 purged keg and leave it at that. It's obviously also less effort this way, which is a double win.

[Fastline]

Yes I have heard the freeing up fermenters stance before, but I would argue that a fermenter would have little cost difference to a conditioning vessel.

A commercial brewer would also have the same risks transferring and as you say it is more work, which you would assume there must be some benefit or why would they bother.

I have heard that some people are very perceptive to the decaying yeast flavours imparted in beer where it is sat on the trub past primary fermentation.

I think in a similar vane to a commercial brewery, I have space in cupboards for around 200 bottles of beer, I could get more, but maybe a cheaper and more flexible alternative is to use a corny to mature the beer, with the possible added benefit that I may help reduce the trub that ends up in the bottles of beer.

I'm going to give it a go, if I choose to dispense from the corny its going to be a time saver, in that I haven't got to clean, sanitise, fill and cap 40 bottles of beer.

[Matt in Birdham]

I think the yeast autolysis is now completely debunked at the homebrew level, but it can remain an issue for commercials because of the much higher pressure exerted on the yeast due to the large fermenters. I suspect also that many commercial breweries would filter between fermenter/bright tank, and the bright tank needs to be able to hold decent pressure and attain low temps - perhaps something that the FV is unsuited for?

[Kev888]

Yes, most commercials would dump gunk and yeast from the conical and many would filter en-route to the brite tank. The latter can be cheaper and more numerous than conicals, and/or a different capacity. The SS one at our homebrew scale isn't necessarily cheaper, and so for many a second conical would be more flexible, however the brite tank could be used to force carbonate at higher pressure than their conical so it still fulfils a slightly different function. It just depends if its one the buyer wants, or doesn't do in kegs etc.

[simon12]

As Kev888 says commercially these would be used to force carbonate filtered beer before keging or bottling using a counter pressure bottle filler to get crystal clear beer with no sediment. If you wanted to do this at home using a keg would be better as it can take much more pressure.

[flidget]

Hi, I think this is the correct thread - but it is bringing it back from the dead.

I'm in the position of coming from home brew wine, and now want to do beer / larger. Consequently I'm got no barrels, corny kegs etc. But, I've no idea about CO2 injection for carbonation. I have a Ss Brewtech Chronical (53L 14G) Fermentor and am trying to work out how to I will store, carbonate, chill and dispense what the final. The Ss Brite tank looks like an option, but as always, the readily available information is limited to what to unboxing and putting it together from the bits supplied. Not how to use it in a typical cycle. The specific bits I've no idea on are all around using CO2:

1) How to do a pressurised transfer from the Chronical to to the Ss Brite tank
2) What needs connecting from the Brite tank to a CO2 cylinder for carbonating the beer
3) What need connecting where on the Ss Brite tank to dispense the beer

Does anyone know of a resource, or could give any pointers on the above?

[Fil]

welcome to Jims flidget.. most folk make an intro post

you will need a primary regulator to connect to a co2 bottle, and then 3/8" od ldpe gas/beerline. to plumb up 3/8" jg speedfit connectors are easy also 1/4" hosebarb fittings secured with a C or jubilee clip work too..

However setting up to condition and chill a Brite tank is far from the optimum solution, investing in a couple of kegs and keg fridge will be a LOT cheaper and provide a far superior solution. You will need the same co2 setup regardless of container options.

[Matt in Birdham]

What Fil said! The SS Brite tanks are an incredibly sexy looking bit of kit, but to be honest I can't really see a strong case for them as a homebrewer. If you want to carbonate in and dispense from a large pressurised vessel, then corney kegs are the way to go - a 19l keg will cost you around £30-70 used if you look around. If you want to bottle, just bottle from your FV (or a priming bucket). I love the shiny, and have an SS chronical myself, but just can't see the value in £800 (??) worth of brite tank.

[Secla]

There's 450 arnt they ? But I kind of agree, I'd be more inclined on bigger batchs to quick carbonate and then keg but for 50l I'd just buy a large sanke to do the job

[Matt in Birdham]

There's 450 arnt they ? But I kind of agree, I'd be more inclined on bigger batchs to quick carbonate and then keg but for 50l I'd just buy a large sanke to do the job

I think you might be right - I was looking at the 1 barrel version from the other thread! Still a lot though, when you could get a complete kegging setup for much less.