PERFECT PINTS: New machine will pour your beer flawlessly

Todd Meredith looks just like a man who should know how to pull a perfect beer, and he most definitely can.

Beyond the perfectly-manicured hipster beard, its actually his combination of robotics engineering knowledge and astute entrepreneurial drive that has the Landsdale businessman tapping a course to greatness.

Mr Meredith’s start-up company Frothstop designs and builds machines capable of not just pouring a beer at the press of a button, but doing so without spilling a drop and producing a perfect frothy head finish each time.

He estimates the technology could save 20 per cent wastage from each keg by eliminating bad pours and spillage, as well as allowing hospitality staff more time to do what they are paid to do best: engage with customers.

“We want to let our machines do the heavy lifting while staff do the customer service,” Mr Meredith said.

With each machine able to hold and pour six drinks in succession, its a no-brainer that the innovation will revolution busy bars, pubs, events and festivals.

Those possibilities were quickly apparent to Federal Minister for Science and Technology Ed Husic when he toured the workshop last December.

The Minister was fascinated by the potential to integrate a payment platform and facial recognition into the machines, which would make them extremely alluring to WA’s mining industry for use in wet mess areas at remote sites.

Minesite workers could be scanned as they approach a machine, which would track how many of their daily quota of drinks had been poured, and even be programmed in accordance with a user’s taste preferences.

“I’ve always said its not a race against the robots, but with them,” Mr Husic said.

Frothstop operates out of a corner of Bill’s Machinery, the northern suburbs institution recognisable for its front-yard airplane but just as famous for the enduring efforts of 88-year-old founder Bill Meredith, who still turns up to work in his Gnangara Road office most days.

Todd is Bill’s grandson, and the family lineage has both strongly encouraged and heavily financed his venture to solve the quintessential Aussie problem, a long wait for a beer, and to market his solution to destinations across the world.

The story goes that a couple of years ago, Todd’s mate had waited way too long for a drink at a country pub. By the time they had finished up and returned to their ute, the frustrated drinker asked his robotics whiz of a mate to “have a crack at creating something that can get us all a beer quicker”.

Mr Meredith obliged, but he discovered quite early on that a Polish company was working on a product to achieve the same aim.

So they bought in to that operation, became its majority shareholder and set about transplanting its manufacturing arm from Poland to Landsdale.

The centralised approach is critical to Mr Meredith’s long-term intent to scale up Frothstop to become a global organisation that not just produces pouring prototypes in Perth, but brings in-house all of the manufacturing and machine servicing as well, using parts sourced locally.

Locally, Frothstop has spent six months working with the hospitality industry — local bars and events — to see what works and tinkering in the workshop to ensure that when it hits the big-time, the machines will be just right.

Overseas, he’s set up offices, including recently in London, to supply machines to festivals and stadiums.

“We have got it to a point where we are just about to explode,” Mr Meredith told PerthNow.

And the innovation is continually evolving, Mr Meredith said, with one of the more recent additions new software coding specifically for Guinness, which unlike most lagers and ales should always be poured in two phases.

Their machines are now capable of 70,000-75,000 pours without a service, meaning one alone could provide a drink for every ticketholder at a sold-out Optus Stadium.

Frothstop’s pourers were in action at multiple local events in 2022, including the WAFL semifinal played at Joondalup where West Perth needed extra support to cater for a bigger-than-average football crowd.

Machine-poured beers and ciders also quenched the thirst of festival-goers at Rottnest Island’s Castaway just before Christmas.

Pearce MHR Tracey Roberts has known Mr Meredith since he was a high school student at Peter Moyes Anglican Community School, where she taught before becoming mayor of Wanneroo and last year the region’s Federal politician.

She brought Mr Husic to the Landsdale workshop — his only stop in the district during his quick WA visit in December — because she believes Frothstop can be as big a success for Australian manufacturing and innovation as it could be for Mr Meredith and his ambitions.

Mr Husic is currently reforming innovation government funding for Australian start-ups to provide growth capital, supporting equity or loans to businesses that need a boost to make it big.