A venue after 17 years in the game
On 20 January 2022, local brewing legends Gage Roads opened their very first premises in a former 100-metre-long cargo shed on Fremantle’s Walyalup Waterfront. With 14 products on tap and 10 in-house bright tanks to draw lines from, Gage Roads appointed Barons to manage their intricate tap installation.
Let’s get technical
Gage Roads required a system that would be able to keep up with busy periods and deliver consistent flow across 84 taps at 6 separate beers stations positioned throughout the venue. They also required 2 hop water taps to dispense carbonated water flavoured with different beer hops. If that wasn’t challenging enough, the beer lines needed to run overhead, along cable trays and then into 150 ml PVC ducting that penetrated underneath the venue, terminating at the bar. To top it off, the venue is half-built over land and half-built over water, putting the Barons team’s problem solving and creativity to the test!
Hurdles along the way
Pythons were originally going to run underground and direct to each beer station, early planning was put in place to have penetrations made into the steel pile wall to allow for this to occur. However, future works to be done under the water side of the venue meant that beer pythons would need to be removed or redirected which would leave the venue without beer during these works – this simply wouldn’t do.
A late request for the hoppy water taps to be added proved to be difficult as it was quickly realised that the lines would freeze sitting in the same beer pythons that have glycol recirculating at -2.8 degrees. Running them externally to the pythons also meant that there was a need to protect the product from direct sunlight as the UV light would cause the product to be light-struck and spoil.
Outcomes
To resolve the hop tap freezing issue, independent beer fonts were installed with separate under-bench ice bank chillers. This ensured that the final product was chilled and refreshing while not freezing in the beer line. The line itself ran separate to the beer pythons so as not to contact freeze with the glycol running in the middle of the beer python. To protect the hops in the hop water, we insulated the line the whole way to the tap to avoid any UV interference.
With beer python lengths ranging greatly across the venue, creating consistent flow rates at all beer stations requires the correct balancing of the system. A sound understanding of line restriction, friction co-efficient and the temperature to gas pressure relationship are essential to make sure every single station achieves the same 10-second pint flow rate.
Pairing this with a signature Barons beer pump installation, insulated fonts and a correctly sized glycol system is what has enabled this venue to be extremely energy efficient.
Beer Dispense System Information
- 84 tap system + 2 hop water taps
- 14 products
- 6 x 14 way fully insulated Westgate fonts
- 14 product beer pump system with 2 x 180-litre 8kw glycol chillers, each with 2 SPK 4-11 glycol pumps.
- The ability for all taps within the venue to switch between dispensing directly from the tank or via keg at any point in time in a matter of seconds.
