News & Feature Stories
In The Mix
“This is the only time you’ll ever see a brewer in a white coat,” says Crown’s head brewer Tully Hadley as he dons one for the 2012 Crown Ambassador blending session. “When the cameras are present.” He…
Foot and Mouth
Long before Bane, Catwoman or the Joker, Batman faced an opponent of equal cunning. He didn’t have a cape, mask or penchant for crazy makeup, but John Pascoe Fawkner did have a ship called the Enterprize…
Blog of the Month: Crafty Ramblings
Given we have a website dedicated to craft beer to keep us busy and in regular attendance at breweries, bars and beer festivals all over Australia and, occasionally, further afield, it’s not often that…
The Crafty Planner: August 6 to 12
Another week, another cavalcade of craft beer events across the country. A week, in fact, that comes heavily loaded with events aimed at the ladies and ends with a couple of west coast beer degustations.…
Stoking The Crafty Coals
Murray's brews out of nearby Port Stephens. Warners at the Bay has long had one of the largest beer selections in Australia. The Albion Hotel has fast become one of the best beer pubs in the country. And…
Big Things Brewing
Last year, the James Halliday Wine Companion launched a bi-monthly magazine. The Crafty Pint was asked to contribute a feature on craft beer in Australia for the launch edition. The mission: tell the tale…
Back To Ballarat
It’s fair to say that the Ballarat Beer Festival took a lot of people by surprise last summer. Some of the brewers ran out of beer. Hundreds – possibly even a couple of thousand people –…
East Of Everything
Of all the works in Michael Palin’s oeuvre, the TV drama East of Ipswich is probably among the least well known. Based on memories of his holidays in miserable British east coast holiday towns, enlivened…
Crafty in the Press III
Over the nigh-on two years that The Crafty Pint has been up and running, we’ve taken the time out on a couple of occasions to wrap up all the Crafty-penned articles that have appeared elsewhere online.…
Craft Beer Crusaders
Back in the 1980s, Saturday mornings in the Pint household were never properly underway until the opening bars of the MASK theme tune kicked in. It was, quite clearly, a poor man’s rip off of Transformers…
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The Crafty Planner: July 30 to August 5
Fancy parmas, a month of Goats, the opportunity for some trans-Tasman love (and a spot of Monty Python quoting), beer movies, events for the ladies and more – the week ahead in craft beer in Australia…
Margs' Monkey Business
Driving from Perth to Margaret River takes less than three hours, which can make it easy to find yourself over-indulging in long winery lunches, strolling on postcard picture beaches or rambling on to…
Beer Travel: Raising The Bar In Sydney
A wonderful thing about history is the way it allows us to look back and pinpoint exactly when things changed. One moment things are following a particular path, then something happens to set things in…
Crafty Snaps: Holgate's Imperial 900
Thirteen years after brew number one, Holgate this month hit 900. To mark the occasion, they invited a few people along for the day, including members of Bendigo Beer and staff from the Royston, The Terminus…
Tasmanian BeerFest 2012
Roll up, roll up: the eighth Tasmanian Beerfest is open for business. Having welcomed more than 12,000 punters through its doors in 2011, the organisers have plans to make the festival at Hobart’s…
Truly New
A few weeks back, we brought you word on the latest moves of Sam Füss, the brewer who has plied her trade from west coast to east and is now striking out on her own as Old Salt Brewing. Her last port…
The Crafty Planner: July 23 to 30
With Queensland Beer Week having drawn to a close yesterday, it’s time for some smaller “weeks”, but no less crafty, to come to the fore as we look ahead to the next seven days in the…
Drinking In The Park
The Crafty Pint has a claim to fame: we once drank craft beer in Werribee. Hard to believe, but it’s true. Admittedly it was a bottle of Mornington Peninsula Brewery beer in the car park before we headed…
Alehouse Rock
With Melbourne seemingly acknowledged as the hotbed for Australia’s flourishing craft beer scene, there’s a good argument to be made for the pocket around Brunswick East being the hottest of…
Salve Vale
They’ve long called McLaren Vale home and now they can rightfully claim to be a McLaren Vale brewery. Four years after their formation – and many months after they originally hoped to flick the switch…
The Crafty Planner: July 16 to 22
Another big week lies ahead in the world of Aussie craft beer, not least with the arrival of the first Queensland Beer Week. A year or so, if someone had suggested such an event could take place they’d…
South Coast Odyssey
There are, no doubt, plenty of Crafty Pint readers who would give anything to enjoy a honeymoon like Grant Byrne’s. Not only did it last 18 months and involve a campervan and a serious road trip around…
Our Man In: Blighty Pt 2
Almost exactly a year ago, we ran a feature – Our Man In: Blighty Pt 1 – looking at the changing pub scene in the UK. The intention was to follow it within a few days with a look at what was going…
Good Beer Week 2013
It’s time to grab your diaries, hand in your holiday request forms at work and start planning for the return of what Moylan’s founder Brendan Moylan this year described as “the best,…
BeerSpace Launches
The efforts to educate Australians about beer are set to redouble next week with the formal launch of BeerSpace in Melbourne. Targeting everyone from craft beer novices to staff at fine dining establishments,…
The Crafty Planner: July 9 to 15
So what lies ahead this week in the world of Aussie craft beer? Plenty, as usual. For The Crafty Pint, there will be a first visit to the new Matilda Bay Brewery Bar and stops to see a few brewers and…
Beer Awards: The Royal Adelaide Beer Show
For the second year running, microbreweries dominated the trophies at the Royal Adelaide Beer Show. There was a changing of the guard, however, with McLaren Vale based craft brewery Goodieson (pictured…
Walkabout Sam
If you’ve spent much time immersed in Aussie craft beer culture, chances are you’ll have come across Sam Füs (above right with the Beer Diva at the Victorian Women of Beer event). She’s brewed from…
Coast To Coast
Time to welcome some newcomers to the Crafty fold as the fruits of our travels from coast to coast over the past few months start to appear on the site. As readers of the Friday newsletter will know, between…
Queensland Beer Week
It’s that time of the year when humans and humpback whales alike flee the colder Aussie climes and head en masse to Queensland for sunshine and, in the case of the whales at least, a spot of breeding.…
Malaysia's Taps Takeover
Despite the rapid growth in the local craft beer market in recent years, we still tend to get a little excited when a venue away from the capitals eschews the financial incentives of tap contracts and…
The Crafty Planner: July 2 to 8
Now that we have a dedicated events bod taking care of the Crafty Pint diary, it’s starting to fill out rather nicely. Brewers and venues are even remembering to take time out from brewing and hawking…
Golden 'Gong
What do you know about Wollongong? That it has the deepest port on Australia's east coast? That, for some reason, it is home to the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere? That it has a Motorlife…
A Generous Pour
Considering Western Australia's justifiable claim to being the home of Australian craft beer, the Perth CBD has always been an infuriatingly difficult place to find a locally brewed pint. OK, the Adelphi…
Good Beer Week: Around the Houses
Missing Good Beer Week? If so, we’ve got good news. In the form of photos. Roving photographer – barman – beer lover Michael Carlson took his trusty camera around to a number of the Melbourne…
Collaboration Crazy
Beer knowledge hasn’t always expanded as fast as the craft beer industry. And, while the world would be a terribly dull place if everyone was an uber-keen beer geek eager to analyse every nuance in their…
Beer Travel: The Beers They Are A-Changin'
Regular readers of The Crafty Pint will be well aware of the activities of Bendigo Beer, a group of beer lovers who have helped turn their city from a virtual craft beer wasteland into a thriving regional…
Over The Hill
At The Crafty Pint, we’ve been lucky enough to visit most of Australia’s microbreweries. We’ve been to those with their own private beach, those with mountain views and those sharing…
Full Steam Ahead
It seems there might be something in this craft beer thing, at least if the number of new festivals popping up all over the country are any guide. Where once the likes of the Australian Hotel’s annual…
Extended Family
If you were planning on introducing a beer into the Australian market, what style would it be? Put that question to a hardcore craft beer drinker and you would perhaps be greeted with a hop bomb, a lambic…
From Little Things...
The Australian beer scene has woken to the news this morning that Lion has made an offer for Little World Beverages – known for brands such as Little Creatures, White Rabbit and Pipsqueak Cider – and…
Beers By The Bay
It’s hardly the weather to be thinking of spending time on Port Phillip Bay, unless of course you’re a masochist. Yet, if you’re a beer lover and can cast your mind forward to what will…
Lovely Jubbly
Let’s take a moment to say thanks for international travel shall we? Sure, national carrier Qantas looks to be going the way of the dodo and our government has a less than favourable take on those…
Perfect Harmony
The word "collaborate" has been thrown about quite a bit lately. In fact, the word probably hasn't had such wide usage since 1990 when Vanilla Ice had a number one hit after urging the world to "Stop,…
Imperial Ambitions
If you're the type who only drinks light, crisp, refreshing lagers, you might be advised to stop reading at this point because things are about to get very dark indeed… July is Dark Beer Month at…
The GBW Golden Ticket
Yes, we know this year’s Good Beer Week has only just finished, but preparations are already underway for 2013. And as part of those preparations the Good Beer Week Team is seeking feedback from…
Crafty Snaps: Stone & Wood's Stone Brew 2012
In what is becoming something of an Aussie craft beer institution, Stone & Wood invited a collection of beer folks – writers, bloggers, bar owners and their friends and family – to their…
Ferry Aged Beer
The journey made by strong, hoppy pale ales from British breweries to the mouths of colonials in the British Empire in India is the most famous in beer’s long and colourful history. Not just because…
Sydney Steps Up
One of the great sights at this year’s Good Beer Week was the arrival in Melbourne of so many interstate and overseas beer lovers, including a fair few from New South Wales. A notable absentee, however,…
Five And Fighting
On May 22, 2007, the independent state representative for Port Macquarie, Rob Oakeshott, officially opened a new brewery in the city. At the time, it just seemed like just another case of a local official…
