Pint of Origin returns to Melbourne for a twelfth time from May 10 to 19 with another huge lineup of brewers, beers and events awaiting attendees. At last count, beer lovers will be able to hunt down beers from more than 225 breweries located on four continents at the 21 #PoO24 host venues.
To help attendees make the most of the adventures, we've made improvements to the Pint of Origin Passports, creating Mini-Crawls in different regions of the city and amassing our biggest prize pool to date. Thanks to our prize sponsors Brompton Bikes, Beervana, Bogs, Thirsty Merchants and The Crafty Cabal, there's prizes worth $9,000 up for grabs.
You can sign up for your Passport via the festival website now – or sign back in to your existing one from previous years – ready to reap the rewards when it all kicks off on May 10.
The Rewards
The best way to enjoy Pint of Origin is with a digital #PoO24 Passport on your phone. It allows you to track where you've been when you head out on a crawl with mates, but also brings added benefits.
Bonus Beers!
- Collect stamps at each #PoO24 venue you visit: ask bar staff to scan their Passport QR Sheet when you buy your first beer
- When you buy a beer and collect a stamp at your sixth, twelfth and eighteenth venues, you'll get a free beer*
Win Prizes!
One of the big changes for 2024 is a major expansion of the Passport Prize Draw. In previous years, the draw has been for attendees who make it to the most venues over the festival which has ended up being between those who "complete" the festival and make it to every single one.
While we love our most ardent Pint of Origin fans, we know not everybody has the time to traverse the city to visit 21 pubs and bars in ten days. So we've divided the city into five Mini-Crawls – see below – with prizes up for grabs for anyone that completes any of those on top of the draw for those that hit the lot.
The Prize Pool!
To be drawn from those who complete all 21 venues:
- First prize: A Brompton C-Line (Fire Coral) Explorer 6-Speed + Carradice Rydal Rucksack – RRP $3,189
- Runners-up: Two Beervana packages featuring three nights accomodation in The Oaks in Wellington plus early access to any two sessions – Value approx $1,500 per package**
- PLUS! Every attendee that makes it to all 21 venues gets a personalised Pint of Origin beanie from Thirsty Merchants featuring your choice of name / nickname
- AND! We'll draw five more winners of a 12-month Crafty Cabal membership plus branded glassware and a stubby holder
We'll also draw winners from each of the five Mini-Crawls:
- Two winners of a pair of Bogs boots per Mini-Crawl, with a choice of Digger Mid or Holly – RRP $129.95
- Plus one runner-up per Mini-Crawl wins a 12-month membership to The Crafty Pint's beer club, The Crafty Cabal – value $99
Register for a #PoO24 Passport now!
The 2024 Mini-Crawls
Look out for details of the #PoO24 2-FOR-1 beers promo for Crafty Cabal members in the coming days...
*NB Conditions may apply as to which beers are available for the bonus pot, as stipulated by the venue. Due to the high cost of many Pint of Origin beers, venues might offer a specific beer or beers, or a smaller serving size for their bonus beer. Please respect their decision and be kind.
**If you are unable to travel to Beervana for the festival on August 23 and 24, we will redraw that prize, and award you one of the Cabal prizes.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
