News & Feature Stories
Bring In The Vics
An association formed last year to bring Australian craft breweries and beer companies together has received a boost after the Victorian Association of Microbreweries Incorporated (VAMI) announced it was…
Man of the People
We have a winner! Australia’s first People’s Pint is the Double Hoptendre, conceived by Queenslander Leo Hede. The beer – one of six selected for a shortlist by The Crafty Pint and the…
Go Hog Wild!
Hop Hog from Swan Valley brewer Feral has been named Australia’s best beer by a panel of brewers, beer writers, venue operators and retailers. It tops the list in the second edition of The Critic’s…
The Final Countdown
Time is running out for you to choose your favourite beer from the final six for The People’s Pint. Voting closes at midnight tomorrow (Thursday) for the first beer in Australia invented by the people…
Band Of Gypsies
Denmark is perhaps most famous for providing the world with Lego, nice design and Hans Christian Andersen. But more recently Australia has been on the receiving end of a new kind of Danish export: Gypsy…
Beer & Food: Murray's Belgian Dinner
When Murray’s at Manly reopened a few months ago and we began the news article with a reference to Moby Dick, we didn’t realise how many literary connections would start to stack up. Murray’s already…
A Little Green
The people that have done as much as anyone in Oz to introduce drinkers to hops in beer have been playing around a little. Coinciding with this year’s hop harvest, the brewers at Little Creatures attempted…
Beer Travel: Snag, Beer & Bubbles Fest 2012
The summer festival season stretched into spring for the beer lovers of the Heathcote region when the Snag, Beer and Bubbles Fest returned for 2012. Taking over the Heathcote Agricultural Showgrounds on…
Crafty Snaps: Liquid Lounge at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival
As part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2011, we hosted two Liquid Lounge sessions on the banks of the river featuring a host of Australian brewers and Mikkeller. Here's what went down.
Take Your Pick, People!
A few weeks ago, we launched The People’s Pint, a competition to find a beer invented by the people and chosen by the people for the people. Open to any Australian over 18, all we asked for was a…
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When Gypsy Met Goat
The 20th anniversary Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is about to draw to a close after a massive 20 day celebration. It’s been the biggest ever festival and the one in which craft beer has taken centre…
Good Beer Week Is GO!
As anyone who attended this week’s Fed Square Microbreweries Showcase or has been paying attention on Twitter will know, the Good Beer Week 2012 program is out. That means it’s time to get ready…
Crafty Films: Thunder Road Brewing Gets Dark
When Thunder Road launched its first beer, the Full Steam Pale Lager, the brewery team made it clear that its ultimate aim was to try and win over the 98 per cent of the Australian beer drinkers not yet…
New In Town
The Sydney suburb of Newtown is an eclectic one. Gentrification battles with counter-culture; most stores are independent and there are few chain stores open amidst the walls plastered with anti-corporate…
Head For The Hills
No one should ever need much of a reason to head to Victoria’s northeast. The High Country has plenty going on whether you’re into mountain biking, hiking, fine wine, skiing, gourmet food, extreme…
Mash And Jasper
With the popularity of their Pacific Ale showing no signs of slowing, it seemed for some time that all the Stone & Wood team had time for was brewing more of the beer and installing more and larger…
Come Together. Again.
It’s collaboration time in Australia this week with no fewer than four cross border brews taking place. On Wednesday, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, the man behind Mikkeller, and Dave Bonighton went to work on…
A Crafty Conference
Brewers from all over the world will be gathering in Melbourne at the end of March for the Institute of Brewing and Distilling’s Asia Pacific Conference. Over six days, the event will combine an…
Blog of the Month: Water & Hops & Malt & Yeast
In recent weeks, you may have spotted an article or three on The Crafty Pint from Nick O. Nick is a Kiwi now living in Sydney who has submerged himself in the local craft beer scene then made himself known…
Islands of Gold
It was a mix of old and new at the recent Sydney Royal Fine Food Show’s beer competition. The old: Matilda Bay picked up its usual trophy for the Alpha Pale Ale (but will it mean they start pushing their…
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.…
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…
