Colourful Brewery Floors

The adjectives rich, full bodied and crisp don’t just apply to beer, as we often hear them being used to describe how the floor within a brewery is meant to look as well.

This is because aesthetics have become increasingly important to brewers as production facilities simultaneously become tourist attractions. However, this does mean choosing flooring materials that will support the challenges of making beer while maintaining a pleasing, on-brand appearance – which is not always an easy task.

Many craft brewers are rightfully proud of their brand’s image and want this identity to extend into the very fabric of the building around them. Achieving this in the bar area is one thing, but getting it right in the production spaces means considering a whole new set of practical issues and challenges.

The floor is one of the largest surfaces within any facility and getting its colour right is critical for setting the scene. Brewers may want to reflect branding, dazzle with bold tones or inject a specific atmosphere, such as using urban greys and browns to create an industrial aesthetic.

This design element is all the more imperative for breweries that allow customers to see into the production zone or that run tours of the facility. Sites like these have to constantly present a clean and engaging space in order to impress the clientele.

However, before letting the imagination run completely wild, it is important to bear in mind that whatever design is planned needs to be able to survive the daily operational activity.

The movement of barrels, spillages of beer and ingredients, steam cleaning, point loading, UV exposure, impacts, foot traffic and heavy pallets will all quickly take a toll on an insufficiently robust finish. To make sure that the floor’s appearance survives all of these demands, a very hard-wearing material is required.

To meet the dual demands of visuals and durability, many breweries have utilised colourful polyurethane coatings thanks to the tough, long-lasting properties of this material.

This has been illustrated recently at a couple of leading Australian craft brewers. For example, Bright Brewery in Victoria installed a surface that matched its name, choosing a vivid yellow finish for the main floor area with a complementary red used for walkways.

This was not only an eye-catching choice, but is also a clever way to make the site safer. The clear distinction between the two colours makes it easy for staff and customers to navigate around the facility and avoid the potentially dangerous equipment.          

The White Rabbit Brewery, located in the Little Creatures Brewery Village in Victoria, chose a floor that reflected a different style. The village has been designed to give visitors an insight into the beer and how it is made while providing its customers with a fun and interesting experience.

Every inch of this area would be visible to visitors taking the brewery tour so a coral red colour was chosen for the production room’s floor that tied into the subdued traditional tones of the old-brick building as well as the iconic vintage style of the White Rabbit brand.

Polyurethane coatings are quick and easy to clean thanks to the seamless and impervious nature of this material. This is a significant advantage within busy beer production environments, as it means that any spillages, dust or contaminants can be rapidly removed from the space to maintain a fresh and unblemished finish.

To find out more about choosing a floor that meets both the aesthetic and practical challenges of a brewery, get in touch with the resin flooring experts Flowcrete Australia today.