Decades of Building Fermenters | Shop Talk Podcast Episode 4 | Enerfab
In this episode of Shop Talk, host Dan Creech sits down with Sean Ballinger (Vice President of Business Development) and Kevin Link (Vice President of Estimating) to break down one of Enerfab’s deepest areas of expertise: large-scale fermenters.
From our roots in the brewing industry to today’s high-pressure bioplastics, biofuels, industrial enzymes, and food-ingredient projects, Enerfab has spent decades advancing the way fermenters are designed, fabricated, transported, and installed.
Sean and Kevin share real project stories and lessons learned from the last 30+ years — from brewery expansions in the ‘90s to modern fermenters with internal coils, polished finishes, half-pipe jackets, and complex heat-transfer and hygienic design requirements.
🍺 What We Cover in This Episode:
- How Enerfab’s fermentation work began with macro-brewery giants
- The evolution from low-pressure brewing tanks to high-pressure industrial fermenters
- Innovating shop processes: vertical half-pipe application, large-diameter head forming, and electropolishing
- Strategies for optimizing shop vs. field labor to reduce cost, risk, and schedule delays
- How internal coils, jackets, polishing, and RA requirements shape fabrication strategy
- Why logistics, shipping width, and plant access matter as much as engineering
- Lessons learned from decades of brewery, biochemical, enzyme, and food-grade projects
- How Enerfab uses engineering tools like FEA to solve complex vessel challenges
- Real stories from oversize builds, barge shipments, and multi-plant logistics
- How shop culture, field culture, and customer collaboration drive better outcomes
Whether you’re in brewing, biofuels, specialty chemicals, food ingredients, or just interested in industrial fermentation, this episode gives you behind-the-scenes insights into how large fermentation vessels actually get built.
