Well, the new 120 bbl fermenters arrived last Wednesday. I decided to rent a carry-deck crane this time instead of trying to use two forklifts. Yes, there are companies that will rent you a crane! I guess they assume that you must know how to use it, if you are renting one. After practicing for a few minutes, we were ready to unload the truck.
Unloading the truck was a breeze with the crane. We just ran a sling to the top and to the legs, and hoisted the tank up onto our loading dock.
Then, once the tanks were off and the truck was on its way, the hard part began - getting the tanks inside the building and stood up in position. We had our forklift pick up the front (top) of the tank and the crane picked up the legs, and then we slowly drove up the ramp and into the building, stopping every few feet to readjust the boom on the crane to keep from smashing the dock door in.
Now for the tricky part. These 120 bbl tanks are only a few feet shorter than the roof in the brewery - not enough space above them to pick straight up to stand the tanks up. We couldn't use just our forklift to stand them up - its mast only goes up to 16'. We had to position the crane inside the building and boom way out over the tank. Our forklift was on the other side of the tank. The forklift picked the tank up as high as the mast on the forklift could go, and then we hooked the crane to the other side of the tank and started pulling back. The tank gently leaned over onto its feet, held back by the forklift.
Once one of the tanks was up, we repeated the whole procedure again for the second tank. Only now, with a lot less space to work in!
There they both are! Beautiful ain't it! Once all the piping and electrical is done, these babies will be filled and will start happily fermenting away. Which beer do you think we should start off with? I'm thinking Hop Project #64!
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