What is the difference between 2/3/4 vessel brewhouse(beer brewing system)?

The are different setup for a brewhouse. For a small volume less than 1000L, you may need a 2-vessel type, as well as a 3-vessel type. But for a volume more than 2000L per batch, a four-vessel type would be needed for brewing. No matter why type you choose, it has nothing to do with the quality of beer, it is only related to the efficiency and time you spent on brewing.

2-vessel and 3-vessel Brewhouses

2-vessel brewhouses are chosen by most of the American and European small-scale breweries. The brewing volume are from 200L to 2000L, typically.

When we say 2-vessel, it means one vessel for mash/lauter tun and another one for brew kettle/whirlpool. Sometimes you can also make the combination as mash/brew kettle in one and Lauter/Whirpool in the other. The Mash/Lauter tun obtains the grain and heat the water; with blending and agitating, the warm water draws the sugar out of the grain.

Brew kettle/Whirpool tun is a combination tank for boiling the wort as well as whirlpool. The kettle tank is used to concentrate, sterilize, clarifiy and develop color for wort. During and after this process, different hops will be pitched into the tank to get bitterness, flavor and aroma.

The 3-vessel brewhouse is a free match of these four processing tanks. For example, you can have mash tun and Lauter tun independently and then a combination tun of kettle and whirpool.

4-Vessel Brewhouse

For a 4-vessel brewhouse, the four vessels work independently, i.e, mash tun, lauter tun, brew kettle tun, and whirlpool tun at last.

A typical four-vessel brewhouse include a Mash tun, Lauter Tun, Kettle tun and Whirlpool tun. Each vessel is performing a single process, which is different from combination vessel used for performing multiple processes.

The obvious advantage of the 4-vessel system is the capability to carry out multiples actions at the very same time, compared with 2 or 3 vessel brewhouse.

The Mash Tun in one four-vessel system is a simple tank, but it plays an important role in the whole process. The crushed malt is mixed with hot water and allowed to rest for about an hour. This allows for the starches to be broken down into sugars by natural enzymes. These sugar will be utilized later by the yeast.

After the wort is pumped into the lauter tun, the separation of wort from the spent grain begins. The large diameter of the lauter vessel will help to keep grain bed depth at the most efficient level for product offering. A rakeer will be travelling around to help getting more wort.

As soon as the wort been lautered and pumped over to the kettle tun, the boiling process begins and different hops will be pitched at different time. And the whirpool tank performs its task at the last stage before the wort is going to be cooled by the Heat Exchanger. 

To sum up, the four-vessel brwehouses guarantee the highest yield, which will be chosen by the  breweries who want to produce a lot of beer per batch. Two & Three vessel systems are typically used in brew pub operations or in small breweries, which is effective in producing good beer and a good choice for cost conscious customers.

Are you now clear about how to how to choose a brewhouse?