What Diameter Should Be My Lauter Tun ?

What Diameter Should Be My Lauter Tun ?

The lauter tun diameter vary among different capacity of brewhouse brewery. 

For example, the standard diameter of lauter tank for 5bbl brewhouse price is 1060mm, 

7bbl brewhouse is 1210mm in diameter, 10bbl brewhouse with 1460mm diameter.

 But is the standard diameter okay for my brewery brewhouse?

Well it depends on how many KG barley malts will you often use in brewing. 

As we all know, the barley malt will go to mashing, the spent skin will form a lautering bed in the lauter tun. 

It is used for wort lautering. Too thin or too thick grain bed is not good. 

As the wort is cloudy if the lauter tun grain bed is too thin. 

If too thick, it takes a long time to finish the lautering process, 

that is not good for wort and add the risk for wort oxidation.

So what thickness is good for the lauter tun grain bed? 

The suggested grain bed thickness is 30-40cm, while 35cm go for the best thickness. 

In 35cm thickness, the wort can achieve both good lautering time and wort clarity.

For you better understanding, let's take 10bbl brewhouse for example. 

We assume the barley malts is the only ingredients for beer brewing. 

Let’s skip wheat malt or other adjunct like corn.

As barley malts will form lautering grain bed.

Our standard external diameter of 10bbl brewhouse is 1460mm, 

that means 1300mm interior diameter with 80mm insulation on two sides.

Normally, many brewers use the ratio of water and malt is 1:4.

For 10bbl brewhouse, it needs about 240KG barley malt. 

The volume of 240KG malt is about 0.48M3. (According to rule, 1000kg malt =2M3)

Based on the best grain bed thickness 0.35m,

0.48=πr²*0.35 

We can find that best diameter is 1300mm, which is exactly the one we design.

So please inform us if you brew high gravity beer. 

The diameter of brewhouse need to redesign according to the barley malt you use in beer brewing tanks:-)

Contact with brewman and get your suitable diameter of mash lauter tun.