While only opening as we know it in 2019, Freo.Social’s history dates all the way back to 1895 when it was known as the Artillery Drill Hall. In its 120+ year history, this heritage-listed venue served as the Fremantle Prison Military’s market garden and the Fly By Night Musicians Club before it was transformed into a premier live music venue. With four bars inside and out, an entertainment hall and a 500-litre Brewshed, Freo.Social’s expansive space features a grand total of 56 independent beer taps, serving up crisp and fresh beverages from Otherside Brewery. What was the client’s issue that needed fixing? The client required a design and install of two very different spaces requiring draught beer. The main indoor hall area of the building was going to be a live music venue. This often requires fast service and had to have multiple stations. The second part of the venue was going to house a small nano-brewery but the client wanted 24 beer taps hanging from the roof – a structure that was heritage listed and required a great deal of design work. All of this had to run from the same cool room, under existing heritage floorboards, and then required the brewery side pythons to transition up into the roof space to allow for ceiling hung fonts. What was the nature of your solution? We installed a signature Barons beer pump system, CO2 monitor and custom ceiling hung fonts with additional pipework to allow for the python to enter the brewery area – and make it look like the pipes belonged there. We teamed up with the site installers from Practical Products to cut and weld on-site to ensure the pipework was in a perfect position. With 3 x beer stations inside the music hall, another in the outdoor bar area (which later got removed to make way for a kitchen) and 2 x 12-way ceiling hung fonts, all areas of the venue had access to ice-cold draught beer, 24/7 (made possible with a recirculating glycol system). With so many different zones and sizes of fonts, every aspect of the system had to be diligently considered to ensure the glycol chiller could handle the load – because what good is a draught beer system if it doesn’t work on the busiest and hottest day of the year? Think about the high demand that a music concert crowd would have on those 35+ degree Perth summer days! Anything interesting/exciting/different about the job? The beer pythons to the back brewery area were incredibly long and as a result had many changes in direction and elevation, making them very difficult to install. The distance of 60m meant increased line sizing which increases the diameter of the python, so we had to get under the floor and open up the ducts to allow for access areas to help pull them through. Beer Dispense System Information Number of Taps: 56 Font Type: 4 x 8-way Bracton Tee, 2 x Bracton 12-way Ceiling Hung Flanged Tee Font Finish: Stainless Steel System Type: Beer Pumps, Chiller Plate & CO2 monitor. BARONS FACT: Freo.Social is part of the Triple-1-Three group who also owns Otherside Brewing Co, which use the nano-brew kit on-site to develop their test beers. |
