What are the abnormal phenomena in the use of beer conical fermentation tank and how to deal with them?

For commercial breweries, micro breweries, nano breweries, Conical tanks have been widely used in China. However, due to the design and manufacture of large tanks, the arrangement of process pipelines, the error of instruments, the improvement of supporting equipment and components and other aspects, there may be some problems. Coupled with the operator's own factors, some abnormal phenomena will appear in the use of conical tanks, which can be summarized as follows.

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(1) Air leakage is a common phenomenon in the use of conical tank, which mainly occurs in the top part of the tank. Over pressure valve, vacuum valve, CIP cleaning device and other accessories are installed on the top of the tank, and they are connected with the tank through flange. If the sealing performance is poor or the sealing is poor due to the action of the valve in the process of entering the tank, fermentation, filtering wine, etc., the conical tank will leak air, which makes it difficult to maintain the tank pressure in the fermentation process, and theCO₂ content of fermentation liquid is low. The solution is to check and clean the overpressure valve and vacuum valve frequently, and replace the sealing gasket in time.

(2) Due to the quality problems of the instrument and improper use of the operator, the data measured by the instrument is distorted, which affects the product quality and normal production to varying degrees. This situation is more common, mainly in the temperature, liquid level, pressure and cleaning effect. To solve this kind of problem, one is to choose the instrument with better quality; the other is to check and calibrate the instrument regularly and prevent the error caused by improper operation.

(3) Gradient distribution because the cone-shaped tank is more than ten meters high, the convection effect is poor, resulting in the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the liquor, the liquor density is not the same, and the CO₂ content is low and high, which makes the fermentation liquor gradient stratification phenomenon, and brings some difficulties to control the liquor quality in the tank. The methods to reduce the gradient distribution are as follows: reasonable use of cooling jacket; setting up two sampling ports to sample and mix separately to make the sample representative; installingCO₂ washing device at the bottom of the tank to wash the fermentation broth and promote the liquor to mix evenly.

④ Due to the large surface area of conical tank, if it is not cleaned properly, it will cause scaling and easy to be contaminated. In addition, there are many external pipes in the tank. If the cleaning and sterilization of each interface is ignored, it is also easy to cause bacteria contamination. In general, the process hygiene requirements of conical tank are very strict. Once the liquor in the tank is contaminated with bacteria, it will seriously affect the product quality and cause great losses. Therefore, it is necessary to clean and sterilize in strict accordance with relevant regulations.

(5) The freezing temperature of beer is called freezing point. The freezing point of beer varies with the alcohol content and the original wort concentration, which can be calculated by formula (4-1)
t=-(N1×0.42+n2×0.04+0.2) (4-1)
Where t beer freezing point, ℃;
N1 alcohol concentration, g / 100g;
N 2, wort concentration, ⁰P.
There are two main reasons for the phenomenon of wine freezing. One is that the temperature of the refrigerant is too low, the other is that the cooling jacket of the conical tank is not designed properly, and this phenomenon often occurs when the external temperature is low. In order to avoid the liquid wine freezing on the tank wall, the refrigerant temperature is generally controlled at - 6 ~ 4 ℃, with a minimum of - 8 ℃. In addition, the inlet of the refrigerant should not be designed in the low temperature area of the large tank, otherwise it is easy to cause the wine to freeze.

(6) The result is serious, the tank is damaged in light and scrapped in heavy. This phenomenon often occurs in the empty tank cleaning, just after the conical tank has finished the wine, a considerable amount of CO2 is still retained in the tank. For example, if the tank is immediately washed with alkaline water (especially hot alkaline water), the CO2 in the tank is immediately absorbed by the alkaline solution, and then washed with cold water, and the temperature drops suddenly. These two factors will cause the vacuum in the tank, and if the vacuum valve inlet speed can not keep up, the tank will be shrunk and deformed. Therefore, before cleaning the empty tank, the CO2 in the tank must be exhausted (it can be replaced by compressed air), and then it can be sprayed with clean water for 10 ~ 20min, and then it can be cleaned with alkaline detergent.
In addition, there is a risk of tank collapse in the following situations: the conical tank is sterilized with steam; the feeding speed of the conical tank is too fast and the air intake is insufficient; after washing with hot water, it is washed with cold water immediately; the vacuum valve on the top of the tank fails.

Thanks for your reading.
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Helen
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