Craft Brewing Solution Enables Expansion

Burnley Brewing had reached capacity at its Dandenong facility and faced mounting pressure to expand production to meet growing consumer demand. In the craft beverage sector, scaling operations without sacrificing product consistency is a defining challenge — process variables like temperature, flow rate, and pressure must remain tightly controlled across every batch. The new greenfield brewery needed to be operationally flexible from day one while preserving a path to further scale. During installation, technically complex steps such as managing pressure differentials throughout the lauter tun process created real engineering obstacles that required expert intervention to resolve.

Burnley Brewing implemented FactoryTalk® Craft Brew, Rockwell Automation's purpose-built industrial automation software for craft beverage producers. The platform was deployed across the new brewery in a standardised configuration that maps directly to common brewing unit operations — milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermentation, and packaging — reducing the engineering burden during commissioning. Rather than building a bespoke control system, Burnley adopted a packaged solution with pre-configured logic tailored to craft brewing workflows. Rockwell Automation's local Australian support team worked alongside the brewery's engineering staff during set-up, resolving the lauter process pressure challenges through direct technical collaboration. The modular architecture of FactoryTalk Craft Brew was central to the selection, ensuring the system could grow alongside the business without requiring a platform replacement.

The new brewery launched with an automation platform operators could use without extensive specialist training, reducing onboarding time and dependence on outside control system expertise. Key outcomes include:

• Reduced operator training burden — the standardised FactoryTalk Craft Brew interface meant existing staff could transition to the new facility without bespoke programming knowledge
• Built-in scalability — modular software architecture allows additional capacity to be brought online without redesigning the control system
• Continuous support coverage — Rockwell Automation's combination of global expertise and local Australian presence ensures rapid response for both routine queries and critical operational issues throughout the system lifecycle

• Standardised platforms reduce commissioning risk — purpose-built brewing automation software shortens the gap between installation and production-ready operation compared to custom-engineered solutions.
• Plan for scale at the design stage — selecting a modular control architecture from the outset avoids costly system replacements as throughput grows.
• Vendor proximity matters — technical challenges during installation (such as pressure differential tuning) are resolved faster when the automation supplier has local engineering support available.
• Operator usability is a business continuity factor — systems that require minimal specialist knowledge lower labour dependency and support knowledge transfer across shifts and sites.