News & Feature Stories
A Crafty Half Dozen
Over the course of the past few months, The Crafty Pint has spent a lot of time on the road, making its way around dozens of craft breweries and the best bottleshops and beer bars in the land. And, slowly…
The South West Beer Festival 2012
When the Western Australian Brewer’s Association (WABA) made its long-talked-about WA Craft Beer Showcase a reality in November last year, it seemed that Kevin Costner’s limited wisdom had finally…
Brew & A: Van Dieman
It’s been a while since we dusted down the old Crafty Brew & A feature. Not our fault necessarily – it seems you lot are drinking so much craft beer that our beloved brewers don’t actually have time…
Diggin' The Quarie
A couple of years ago, The Crafty Pint made a first visit to Freo’s Sail & Anchor. The onsite brewery was no longer pumping out beers and the place felt a little tired, as if it was the end of…
The Scandinavian Invasion
They’re like buses, these Scandinavian brewers. You wait an age for one to come along and then you get three at once. Mind you, they make much better beer than buses. In fact, at the minute they’re…
20 Days To Go!
We’ve had big beers, sweet beers, smoked beers and spicy beers. We’ve had beers for summer, beers for winter, beers for love and beers for the bitter. We’ve had straight humour, toilet…
Enter The Beer Cave
Our prehistoric ancestors lived in them, Batman had one and Nick Cave actually is one by legal deed. But what exactly is the attraction of caves? They’re generally dark, dirty, full of terrifying insects…
New Bay Watch
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But as he prepares to take over the reins at Southern Bay Brewing, Steve “Hendo” Henderson (above right) is confident he can. The Geelong based brewery…
AIBA Deadline Looming
Last year it was the turn of Americans Moylan’s and Brooklyn Brewery to take out the major trophies and for WA to claim domestic dominance with the state’s breweries picking up five gongs.…
Beer: It's Academic
When it comes down to it, the most important aspect of a beer is whether it tastes good in your mouth. Indeed, you may figure that knowing whether something is to your liking or not is more then enough.…
Get more Crafty!
Sign up to our newsletters and get the latest craft beer news delivered free to your inbox. Choose from our Friday Roundup of the week, the quick-read, social feed-like Crafty Cuppa – or both!
What Is The People's Pint?
Friends, beer lovers, countrymen (and women) – lend us your beers! We’re looking for Australia’s first ever People’s Pint. “What’s that?” you ask. Well……
Fed Square Gets Fruity
The bi-annual Victorian Microbreweries Showcase is to get a little fruitier next month with Fed Square turning the BMW Edge into a Cider Garden for the two evenings. The beer free zone will be handed over…
South West Beer Fest
All over the country in recent months, the people have been turning out in droves at beer festivals. Thousands upon thousands have rocked up to events from the Australian Hote’s annual beer festival…
Become A Beer Judge
Ever wondered how trophy winning beers get selected? Ever wondered what it would be like to be one of the chosen few whose magical palate is given the task of tasting loads of beers from all over the world…
Crafty Folks: Brewing With Brendan
Once a year, Fremantle’s iconic Sail & Anchor pub holds a competition in which it challenges home brewers to try and replicate as best they can one of the beers formerly brewed at the venue. This year,…
Looking Good
The lineup for this year’s Good Beer Week in Melbourne is taking shape, with the 2012 festival set to be considerably bigger and – we hope – even better than last year’s triumphant…
Hottest 100 Beers Of 2011
Congratulations Stone & Wood on adding this year’s Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers title to the Critic’s Choice award they picked up last year. Is there no stopping the Pacific Ale juggernaut? And why…
Ballarat Beer Fest 2012
Like most regional cities in Australia, Ballarat has been slow to catch on to the craft beer revolution that has swept the country’s capitals and many of its popular tourism regions. So it was pretty…
Nailed On Funk
Australia is to get its first ever dedicated sour beer brewery, after two of WA’s top brewers finalised plans to move into a joint facility. The decision of Nail and Feral to form Brewcorp and share…
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
If it’s as much of a mouthful as its name, then a new beer brewed especially for Australia Day should be worth hunting down. The snappily titled "100% Australian Owned Real Craft Brewed Australia Day…
Biggest Hottest 100 Yet
Each year that the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll has been run, it has doubled the number of votes of the previous year. Each year, voting has also usually been open for around 12 weeks. So, it’s…
The More The Merrier
It’s a new year, so time to add some new listings to The Crafty Pint. While in NSW for Sydney Craft Beer Week late last year, we headed out on the road to visit a few more breweries, bars and a bottleshop,…
Murray's At Manly Returns
In Herman Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick, Captain Ahab spent a lifetime on rough seas pursuing the elusive white whale, a journey that ultimately consumed him. To follow Ahab’s journey today there…
Hottest 100 Australian Craft Beers of 2011: Vote Here!
It was the biggest and best year yet for craft beer in Australia. Hundreds of beers from scores of breweries enjoyed in greater numbers than ever before by Aussie beer lovers. But which beers stood out…
Hottest 100 Of 2011
Yes, it’s back – the Hottest 100 Australian Craft Beers poll returns for a fourth run, giving you the chance to tell us which beers amazed you in 2011. Since its launch by The Local Taphouse…
Show Us Yer Beers!
It’s time for brewers to put their beers to the test, with submissions opening today for the Australian International Beer Awards. This year the country’s largest beer awards celebrates its…
Tracks Of My Beers
If there’s one things we enjoy more than quality beer at Crafty Towers (yes – more!), it’s quality tunes. The only thing better, as the neighbours had the misfortune to discover on New Year’s Eve,…
Malaysian Invasion
Readers of The Crafty Pint’s Friday newsletter may recall plans for a craft beer bar in Kuala Lumpur serving a selection of Aussie and Kiwi beers. The brainchild of two Malaysian brothers who developed…
The Year In Beer: 2012
Without doubt, 2011 was the biggest year yet for craft beer in Australia. But what about 2012? Can momentum be maintained? Can flavour, passion and creativity overcome marketing? What crazy new beers will…
Year In Beer: WA & QLD
So, just time for the final look back on 2011 before you all go and crack something special for Hogmanay. And as a festive treat, it’s a two states in one bonanza. OK, so we did pose the questions to…
The Year In Beer: TAS
With the Tasmanian Beerfest, the most southerly state lays claim to the biggest-by-numbers beer festival in Australia and, with the Tasmanian Micro Brew Fest, it has events that continue to shine a focus…
The Year In Beer: SA
As the end of the year draws ever closer, time for another look back on 2011, this time in the company of some of the movers and shakers in the South Australian craft beer scene.First up is Al Turnbull,…
Merry Christmas Folks!
A quick festive shout out to wish all Crafty readers a wonderful festive period. Our first full year in operation (well, it’s almost over) has been a blast: manic and marvellous, beery and busy as hell.…
Good Beer Week Update
Good Beer Week returns to Melbourne from May 12 to 19 next year, promising eight days of great beery events. Submissions were due to close today for event ideas for next year, but it seems a number of…
Siren Song
It’s amazing how fast word spreads when a new beer appears, especially when it appears unheralded as if from nowhere. It doesn’t hurt when the beer is of such quality that it impresses all who taste…
Crafty Snaps: A Peak Inside The Temple
After more delays than they’d care to remember, Ron and Renata Feruglio finally opened the doors of their new brewery, bar and brasserie to the world in time for Christmas. And it’s clear that…
The Year In Beer: NSW
This year appears to be the one in which the sleeping giant of NSW began to stir. Sure, the Lord Nelson has been banging the craft beer drum for a quarter century, The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst has…
The Year In Beer: VIC
What a year it’s been. While much of the rest of the world has been at war, suffering from natural disaster, rioting or waiting for its economy to implode, craft beer in Australia has gone from strength…
A Very Beery Christmas
Less than two weeks to go and, if you’re anything like those of us at Crafty Towers, you won’t have made too much progress with Christmas prezzie buying. So, if you’ve got a beer-lovin'…
Hoppy Days
With their big new brewery just a couple of months away from being up and running, the brewers at 4 Pines have been planning for the future of the little system that brewed the beers that kick started…
Happy Birthday To True
True South’s mission to irrigate the Bayside beer desert with craft beer marks its second anniversary today. The brewery and restaurant opened in a converted mechanic’s garage on the beachfront…
A Craft Beer Dive
It wasn’t too long ago that there were plenty bemoaning the narrowing of choice for craft beer lovers in Brisbane with the loss of some tap freedom at the city’s Platform bar. Since then, Nectar bottleshop…
From the Australian Real Craft Brewers Association
A couple of weeks ago we published an open letter to the craft beer community from the people behind Craft Beer Limited, an association created with the aim of bringing together craft brewers and other…
Joining The Pack
Last weekend, another brewery joined the swelling ranks of Aussie micros. The Black Dog Brewery held its South American-themed launch at Taminick Cellars, a winery in Victoria’s north, at which founder…
The Liquid Lounge
A few months back, when we were putting together the concept for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival’s first ever beer and cider MasterClass sessions, we took a call asking if we’d be interested…
Home Sweet Home
Sweetwater is on the move. The microbrewery in the Victorian Alps has been based at the Annapurna Estate winery since opening in 2009, with the brewhouse located in one of the wine sheds and the bar nestled…
Take Two
So, after 27 years without a national body to represent them, Australia’s craft brewers now have two. In the week that we reported on the launch of Craft Beer Limited (CBL) – an organisation that had…
An Open Letter to the Craft Beer Community from Craft Beer Limited
Since publishing this comment piece on the current situation regarding the formation of a national association for craft brewers in Australia, we have been contacted by Craft Beer Limited. They were planning…
Good Beer Week's Back!
OK, so it’s still six months away, but they say time flies when you’re having fun so it’ll be upon us in no time at all. Returning to Melbourne from May 12 to 19 for another massive celebration of…
What's Up, Doc?
Eagle-eyed dwellers of the more esoteric realms of Australia’s craft beer world may have noticed something missing amid the flurry of spring releases: there was no beer from Doctor’s Orders. The absence…
