Project Details

The Scapegrace development is New Zealand’s largest distillery. Scapegrace’s origins are in craft gin distilling, and they now include vodka and whisky production in their offering and they are a highly awarded New Zealand success story. The first stages of the project have involved a large Barrel Longhouse building including bottling hall and head office, and a Distillery building. A dedicated food and beverage hospitality space is also in their future.

Fire HQ were involved from the outset, assisting in the masterplanning of the site. Of particular importance for a large rural industrial site, this allowed us to engage early with FENZ and proactively manage the development of the site-wide masterplan being cognisant of FENZ vehicle access, turning circles and firefighting water, while balancing the functional and operational needs of the Client.

The Barrel Longhouse has a capacity of around 2,000 casks. Given the ethanol level in whisky this represents a potential fire hazard, and so the protection of the facility in compliance with relevant legislation and Client requirements was critical.

Scapegrace Distillery is not only a functioning industrial complex, it is also a hospitality destination. Members of the public are able to visit various parts of the buildings, including taking masterclasses and tours in the distillery. This presented a challenge for the fire engineering design, to incorporate the needs of a crowd type occupancy use, with the functional and H&S requirements of the facility’s operations. This was able to be achieved and managed through the consent process by utilising localised application of fire rated floors and deployment of active fire protection systems to allow public passage across the mezzanines overlooking the stills and distilling processes.