Ask Dr. Frankenbrew

8/6/2023

Colorado Boy Serving Tank Room. 6 x 16

I am concentrating on just one question this week because I feel pretty passionate about it and those who are building a brewery, should find it useful.

Question: What are your thoughts on using serving tanks without a walk-in cooler. Just using insulated serving tanks with a glycol chiller?

Answer: First off, serving tanks yes, and not kegs. The exception would be if you are a packaging brewery where you ferment and condition in a conical, then filter and carbonate on your way to a jacketed bright tank, where the beer sits in there only long enough to package out of.

The other exception I should mention about kegs is of course you are going to serve out of kegs but only because you begged off the last of a serving tank, which you fill with either the same beer or a different kind. In that case, of course you are going to serve out of that keg.

Now, getting to this specific question. I think the reason you would want a jacketed serving tank to serve out of, would be so you can place the tank right behind the bar, where the whole tank can be admired by your customers.

What are you thoughts about this? Why do you dear reader like jacketed serving tanks?

The reason I don’t is mainly the cost of them and the lack of flexibility in their use. Let me explain.

A jacketed serving tank costs a lot more than a non-jacketed tank. Simply because it has a welded jacket on it, with insulation and a second layer of stainless steel skin. Then in addition to the cost of the tank, you need a larger glycol chiller to keep them cool, and also a second glycol system with a glycol trunk line to feed the beer to your taps. I say separate because I would want to keep the beer trunk line chilled in a separate system that can keep the beer chilled no matter what ids going on with there tanks.

In addition, you are going to need a walk in cooler anyway to store kegs that you will always use (see above) to serve beer out of. Granted it might be a smaller one, but not by much.

My preferred system for a pub is to have a decent size walk in cooler that can fit as many serving tanks as you would want to grow into. It will also house kegs, and maybe yeast and hops as well.

If you are lucky enough with your brewery space, you can place the walk in cooler directly behind thee bar and add your taps right on the wall. The advantage of that is the the length of the tap lines is shorter so that every time you clean a line (at least once every two weeks) you are wasting less beer. That really adds up over the course of the year.

Plus, There is no separate glycol chiller and trunk line to deliver the beer to the taps. And speaking of taps, you don’t need a tap tower, you can run the shanks right through the wall!

On top of all that, you still can add a window into the cooler so your customers can see your beautiful tanks. One of the first times I saw this was at Deschutes Brewing in Bend. This was when they started and just had a 10 BBL system, and the serving tanks were in a cooler right behind the bar, with a big window so you could see them. But the way, if you build your own walk in cooler - which is easy - simply buy replacement patio door glass from Home Depot. Again, you’ll save buckets of money and it’s good quality double pane made to keep cold winters outside, so it will do the same keeping the cool in your cooler.

So unless someone gives you a bunch or jacketed serving tanks I would go with the non-jacket variety. In fact, if you got them for free, sell them and use the extra money (non jacketed cost less) for something else you need in the brewery.