2007-09-11 08:56:30 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Food & Drink ➔ Beer, Wine & Spirits
It's for efficiency of space and cost of the container. To manufacture a tank where the brewer needs to get in and out of it for checking the fermentation and to sanitize it between batches, the vertical arrangement works much better. It's easer to make a lid for a flat surface than for a curved surface (as it would be if the tank were on its side). It's also to gauge the volume of the contents by simply looking at how full it is...it's directly proportional to the depth in the tank. If the tank is sideways, there isn't a direct correlation between the depth and the volume as there is with a vertical tank.
Besides, a lot of breweries have only so much room for fermenters (particularly micro-breweries). If you want to get a bigger fermenter into the same space, you have to make it taller. If you start out with vertical fermenters, all your piping will already be properly oriented and all you'd have to do is extend upward.
2007-09-11 14:43:34 · answer #1 · answered by Trid 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Minimizes the exposure to air and minimizes the volume over the fermenting wort.
2007-09-11 10:33:55 · answer #2 · answered by ironbrew 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gravity
2007-09-11 09:04:26 · answer #3 · answered by Wounded Duck 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've seen both.
The vertical ones are more popular as they take up less floor space and because it's easier to draw yeast from them to reuse later.
2007-09-11 16:40:53 · answer #4 · answered by dogglebe 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cuz you'd never get to the bottom of the barrel if it was on it's side..
2007-09-11 09:10:01 · answer #5 · answered by Barry 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋