Breweries &
distilleries.
Tell us which loop it is for — glycol, liquor, grain, product — and the grade answer changes completely.
A craft brewery or distillery usually needs three different grades at once, and buying one grade for all three jobs is where the money goes. Glycol loops and wash water: Grade A at $155–$225. Spent grain and trub: top-cut technical at $95–$145 plus $65 for the cut. Product contact and anything hot or high-proof: food grade, rebottled, or stainless.
Job by job
| Application | Correct grade |
|---|---|
| Glycol reservoir / chiller loop | Grade A, + insulating jacket if unheated |
| Cold liquor hold | Food grade or rebottled |
| Hot liquor above 140 °F | Stainless — poly creeps at temperature |
| Caustic / PAA CIP chemistry | Technical, dedicated and labelled |
| Spent grain, trub, yeast slurry | Technical, top-cut, on a stand |
| Wort or beer, short transfer | Food grade or rebottled |
| Beer held more than a few weeks | Stainless — HDPE is oxygen permeable |
| Low wines / feints | Stainless 304 |
| High-proof spirit above 60% ABV | Stainless 304 — ethanol attacks some HDPE |
| Brine / pickling for food side | Stainless 316L |
The oxygen problem, specifically
HDPE has a measurable oxygen transmission rate. Over a week it is irrelevant. Over three months it is the difference between a clean beer and a cardboard one, and over a year in a low-ABV spirit it will flatten the nose. This is the single most common reason a brewery that started with poly totes ends up with stainless, and it is worth skipping straight to stainless if the vessel is for holding rather than moving.
Glycol: where to not overspend
Glycol never touches product, so food-grade documentation on a glycol reservoir is pure waste. Grade A is correct: you want the pressure test because a glycol leak is expensive and messy, and you want nothing else. Add the $210 insulating jacket if the tote sits in an unheated brewhouse corner — a reservoir that swings forty degrees a day costs your chiller real duty cycle.
Spent grain handling, done properly
A top-cut technical-grade tote on a 24-inch welded stand with a 3-inch bottom outlet is the cheapest spent-grain solution available. The cage stays intact so a forklift moves it full; the open top means you can shovel or auger into it; the outlet means a farmer can drain the liquor off before loading. $95–$145 for the tote, $65 for the jig cut with a finished edge, $180 for the stand. See fabrication.
Taproom and front-of-house
Half the breweries we supply also buy cage-only lots at $35–$60 for shelving, planters, bar fronts and patio barriers. It is cheap, it is galvanised steel, and it looks right in a brewery in a way that is hard to buy deliberately.
A typical first order
- 2 × Grade A
- Glycol + wash water · ≈$380
- 2 × technical, top-cut
- Spent grain + trub · ≈$370
- 1 × food grade
- Cold liquor · ≈$280
- 2 × stands
- Gravity drain · $360
- 4 × cage only
- Taproom shelving · ≈$190
- Total
- ≈$1,580 + freight
Stainless when it matters
Reconditioned 304 and 316L, 350 to 550 gallon, $1,400–$3,200. Tri-clamp outlets, manways, spray balls and sight glasses fitted in our shop.
Stainless IBCsBrewing & distilling questions
Can I store beer or spirit in a poly IBC?
For short-term holding and transfer, a food-grade or rebottled poly tote is workable and widely done. For anything sitting more than a few weeks, go stainless: HDPE is slightly oxygen-permeable, which matters enormously to beer and matters to a low-ABV spirit over months. For high-proof spirit, poly is also a solvent question — ethanol above about 60% ABV will slowly attack some HDPE formulations and will certainly leach plasticiser from a cheap gasket.
What do I use for a glycol loop?
Grade A industrial. Glycol is non-edible, non-aggressive and does not touch your product, so food-grade documentation is money wasted — a pressure-tested Grade A unit at $155 to $225 is exactly right. Add an insulating jacket ($210) if the tote sits in an unheated space, because a glycol reservoir that swings 40 degrees a day costs you chiller efficiency.
Are totes any use for spent grain or trub?
Very. A top-cut technical-grade tote on a stand, with a 3-inch bottom outlet, makes an excellent spent-grain or trub collection vessel that a forklift can move full and a farmer can empty. We cut and fit them regularly. Keep it technical grade — nothing about wet grain cares about a stain.
Can you supply stainless with tri-clamp and a spray ball?
Yes, and if the unit does not have them we will fit them. Tri-clamp port into stainless is $185 TIG welded and passivated; a CIP spray ball fitted into the lid is $240. Passivation after welding is the step that separates a tank that stays clean from one that pits at every weld, and a lot of shops skip it.
Three jobs, three grades
Send us the list of what you need totes for and we will spec each line separately. It is almost always cheaper than one grade for everything.