Part of Lion’s $70m refurbishment of the West End Brewery in South Australia included an upgrade to the cellar allowing for full automation through the maturation and fermentation phases of the brewing process.

For the cellar upgrade and associated system installations, Lion engaged mechanical installation experts TFG Group to work alongside engineering firm Process Partners. TFG and Process Partners jointly managed the project, combining their experience and expertise to provide a total project solution for Lion.

TFG was tasked to complete the following scope of works at the West End Brewery site:

• New cellar installation including full automation
• Maturation and fermentation vessels
• Bulk chemical handling upgrade
• New Cross Flow Filtration system
• Inbuilt Clean in Place (CIP) within filtration system
• Sugar Upgrade

The West End brewery upgrade ran for two years with 35 specialised welders from TFG onsite full time.

To ensure the safety of their employees, sub-contractors and operations staff, TFG employed a dedicated onsite safety officer to oversee the project. As a result, 68,000 man hours were worked with zero safety incidents, MTIs or LTIs.

This safety first approach was particularly pertinent given that the total shut down time for the installation was only seven weeks.