Do your tanks clog with a 1" inner diameter

[DenverDistiller]

Wow, I screwed up the title...Do your fermentation tanks clog with a 1 inch inner diameter valve to pump out the mash?

We are planning on buying this jacketed fermentation tank to crash cool our bourbon (grain in) and rye.

http://conical-fermenter.com/3-Barrel-glycol-jacketed-Conical-Fermenter-with-Top-Man-Wayl.html

The sales rep expressed concern that the inner diameter of the valve to pump the mash out is 1 inch and may get clogged easily. Have you guys experienced this?

If it is a problem we could distill with flour instead of milled grain.

What has your experience been?

By the way we got our DSP - Colorado look out here comes another distillery!

[Mr_Whiskey]

Denver congrats on getting your DSP. Our fermentation tanks have 2" lines and we use milled grain, not flour (grain in fermentation). Never had an issue with clogging but we do have to stir the beer really good to get it to pump out.

If you are doing grain in there is no need for a conical fermentor as you will be distilling everything including the yeast.

I could easily see a 1" clogging up but I do not have any personal experience to prove it

[Tom Lenerz]

We use a 3 inch pipe on the bottom of our fermentors, reduced to a 2 inch for moving mash. We have a 1 inch ID port on the side of our tank for our sight tube. It will properly fill as we fill the tank, but it will easily clog during fermentation. If we want to have it accurate for transfers, we back flush it with water and knock things loose, but it usually clogs again.

I'd highly recommend not using 1 inch for grain-in fermentation, especially if you are using a true conical bottom like that.

[Bier Distillery]

I've seen 2" butterfly valves get clogged so all my 2" ports enlarge to a 3" valve. You can pump through 1" but a 1" drain will get stuck at some point.

[DenverDistiller]

What tanks do you guys use?

We've had a hell of a time finding a cooling tank with a bigger drain.

We'd rather have a jacketed tank.

[bluestar]

For grain-in corn, 1" sounds a bit small. We have small conical fermenters with 2" drain ports, and we reduce these down to 1.5" valves for pump out. Now and then, these will clog, but can be cleared by briefly reversing the pump, in most cases. If our fermenters were bigger, I would keep everything at least 2", including valves. That fermenter is really intended for clear beer (wash) and not for grain-in mashes, if for no other reason than the size of the drain port. So it would be fine if you are using wort/wash for your fermentation.

[iskiebaedistillery]

It might be worth just buying a bigger ferrule and having it welded on. You could get the SS304 ferrule for cheap, the tricky part would be finding a welder that does food grade work. They are out there though.

Im not sure of your wait time, but Larry at Stilldragon can put in whatever size ferrules you want. He takes good care of his customers. With this conical :

http://stilldragon.com/index.php/fermenter-with-cooling-jacket.html

You would have to tell him the desired size of the N1 port. Downfall is it may take months to arrive from China.

[Skaalvenn]

Our still has a 3" drain. Milled to flour it will clog if I let it sit overnight without agitation.

If you had a decent air operated double diaphragm pump it would probably move it without issue, but 1" is still very small.

Remember, you will rarely wish you bought the lesser quality product, but may end up wishing you spent a couple more bucks to get what you want.

[Tom Lenerz]

We work with a local fabricator to design and build our tanks. That way we get exactly what we want and the quality is great.

What size is your still? Opting for a larger fermentor will likely bump up your port size at least to 1.5". Also I recommend that you have fermentors double or more your still size. Twice the ferementor size is always less than twice the price. Smaller footprint and less labor spent cleaning tanks. Also when you upgrade your still or add a second, your fermentors aren't wasted.

[Silk City Distillers]

We have a 1.5" on one of our bulk milk tanks, and occasionally it will lose prime/clog with a corn-based mash when we use a 1.5" butterfly and an elbow. If we use a reducer and a 2" butterfly with no elbow, it runs much smoother. When it clogs up, we really only need to reverse the pump, run it for a second or two, and switch it back to continue pumping.

The 1.5" is probably fine if you have a good displacement pump, but I wouldn't use a 1.5" valve on it. The opening on a 1.5" butterfly is absolutely tiny. A full port ball valve is probably a better choice if you wanted to stay around 1.5".

But 1" for a grain mash? That sounds like regret. If I was having something fabricated, I wouldn't go any less than 2" for grain.