We’ve launched a brand new brewing production facility, which is double the size of our original outpost located just a few doors down at the Bistro, and bolstered our onsite team.
Sam ‘Macca’ McDonough has joined as Head Brewer, and brings eight years’ industry experience to the role. McDonough first honed his craft at Stone & Wood, where during his four-year tenure there, progressed from Brewer to Innovation Brewer. He has since worked at Hope Estate in The Hunter Valley, White Bay Beer Co., Philter Brewing, and most recently, Shambles Brewery in Tasmania.
In this new position McDonough manages the brewery’s end-to-end operations, from recipe creation and quality control, through to production development, scheduling and forecasting, and team management.
Garth Jones has been appointed to the role of Brewer, and brings experience in developing European style beers to Frenchies, following his time at Slow Lane Brewing. He works alongside existing team members including Evan Belogiannis and Chris Farrell, who collectively ensure Frenchies continues to brew standout beers for its valued beer-loving customers and clients.
On the production facility front, our new brewery space provides an extra 300,000 litres of fermenting capacity. It features five new 6,000 litre tanks, including two horizontal Bright Beer Tanks, fermenters, brewing vessels and a filtration plant. It operates in conjunction with the existing brewery space, which is quite literally connected to the Bistro through 225 metres of beer piping.
Our Co-Founder and Master Brewer, Vincent De Soyres says: “Frenchies is undergoing an exciting period of growth right now. Our beers and seltzers are not only increasing in popularity, enquiries for our contract brewing services have really risen over the last few years.
“This is what prompted us to expand into a second space, invest in a wealth of new, state-of-the-art brewing and production equipment, and bring some new brewers onboard. Sam and Garth add great knowledge, experience, and super important for us, passion to our already legendary crew. I’m very much still involved in all aspects of the business, and am really looking forward to working and continuing to grow our local, independent operation with them, our wider team, and awesome customers.”
McDonough adds: “On first meeting Vince and trying more of the brewery’s beers, I knew Frenchies was for me. The quality of their brews and talented, close-knit team really resonated, and I’m stoked to be bringing my past experience to the Head Brewer role at Frenchies, while also continuing to grow and develop my own skills under Vince’s watchful eye.”
