Wolf of the Willows Brewer
When launching a brewery, sometimes staring down the barrel of brewing history at the great names that have come before you can be an intimidating task. How to reach those heights when you’re only just stepping away from brewing in your own back yard? But Wolf of the Willows founders Scott and Renae…
FogHorn Brewery Brewer
Over the past decade and more, there have been few brewers who have put out as many great beers in as many different styles as Shawn Sherlock. While head brewer at Murray's, he was named Australian Brewer of the Year in recognition of a mastery of brewing that saw beer lovers clamouring for everything…
2 Halfs Brewing Distilling Brewer
Good things take time. It’s a well-known piece of wisdom that few of us take to heart. But spend a little time at 2 Halfs Brewing and you’ll see that Kirk and Dragana Bozinovski apply this wisdom to their brewery. You can taste it in the European-style beers they serve up, but chat with Kirk and…
Bad Shepherd Brewer
It takes a particular set of skills – and a lot of hard work – to set up a brewery and restaurant in a spot very few beer people would have visited – or indeed had cause to visit – and then have people lining up for tables in the first week. But for anyone who makes the trip to Cheltenham brewpub…
Brick Lane Brewing Brewer
They say it takes a village to raise a child and the African proverb certainly runs true for breweries. For Brick Lane, their village was on the smaller side when 25 founders came together to launch the brewery in 2017. But among them were some big names from the world of sport – Billy Slater,…
Burleigh Brewing Company Brewer
“We’re in Burleigh Heads, which is absolutely the best place in the world.” This is a big call, considering Brennan and Peta Fielding’s brewing journey started in beautiful Hawaii – where Brennan grew up on a sailing boat – and included Japan and USA along the way. But from the moment…
KAIJU! Beer Brewer
It's well documented that the rise of craft beer and the popularity of hop forward beer styles have led to frequent hop shortages. Globally, the growers of certain New World varieties are unable to keep up with demand. And it's fair to say the situation could be far worse too. How? Well, if every…
Morrison Brewery Brewer
Presumably, every home brewer in Australia would like to have a family like Paul Morrison's. Having displayed talent for the art of brewing by picking up medals at competitions in his home state of Tasmania and in Melbourne, his dad suggested he should consider doing it commercially. By 2011, along with…
Staves Brewery Brewer
Australia’s fondness for supporting the underdog is well known. Put your humble, hardworking person up against the might and power of the establishment and you know where the neutral’s heart is most likely to lie. That underlying attitude is one of the many reasons craft beer has found such a fast…
Tallboy and Moose Brewer
There’s something special about the part of Melbourne where Thornbury and Preston meet. Whether you want to call it Thornbury North or Preston South, it’s an area that’s become one of Melbourne’s most interesting, with cafés, band rooms, bars and restaurants all making the suburb a place locals…
The Grifter Brewing Company Brewer
The Grifter Brewing Company of today is immeasurably different to the one that Trent Evans, Matt King and Glenn Wignall launched in 2012. Back then they were simply three friends mixing up home brew recipes in the kitchen with little ambition to be brewers. But timing and circumstance saw them presented…
Vale Brewing Brewer
The Barossa Valley is best known for its shiraz, the Coonawarra region for its cabernet sauvignon, Clare Valley for its riesling and the Adelaide Hills for sauvignon blanc and pinot noir varieties. However, in McLaren Vale, while there is a long association with wine, there's a strong and growing argument…
Venom Brewing Brewer
The first time we encountered Joel Drysdale, he was walking up the path to Crafty Towers bearing a four-pack of Moo Brew Imperial Stout bottles. As introductions go, it's up there. Later, we crossed paths regularly in his guise as "The Beer Dude" for Tooborac Hotel & Brewery, charged with getting the…
Wayward Brewing Co Brewer
For several years Peter Philip was one of Sydney’s most archetypal gypsy brewers. He’d brew small test batches at his house, hoard homebrew, fine-tune recipes then head to a local brewery to borrow a bit of tank space and release a commercial batch under the Wayward Brewing label. He certainly got…
Bonny Venue
Brunswick Street is home to many spots for dining while drinking wine, beer or cocktails but nowhere brings them together quite like Bonny Bar. The sleek Fitzroy space opened in early 2020 and with 27 taps it didn’t just boost the neighbourhood’s offering of delicious drinks but ensured each could…
Heartbreaker Venue
“Go to Heartbreaker.” Such is the pull of the Melbourne CBD bar that this is a phrase suited to almost any occasion. Visiting Melbourne? Go to Heartbreaker. Wondering where to meet everyone before a gig? Go to Heartbreaker. Still out at 2am and keen to kick on? Go to Heartbreaker. In…
Blackhearts & Sparrows Bottleshop
Blackhearts & Sparrows started out as a home for boutique and obscure wines but, in a reflection of the nation’s changing drinking habits, has increasingly become one of the best places to unearth good beer. They might still call themselves wine purveyors, but their stores across Melbourne – and,…
Brisbane Brewing Co. Woolloongabba VenueBottleshop
Perched on the cusp of Woolloongabba and South Bank, on the corner of Stanley Street and Annerley Road, the venue previously know as Brewhouse Brisbane represents everything a pub should be. There’s no defined or predictable demographic, there are brews to comfort the lager lovers and excite the…
Copper & Oak Bottleshop
Copper & Oak Liquor Merchants have been serving the people of Perth with fine wine, craft beer and quality spirits for decades but in order to trace the store’s origins you have to go back some years earlier – and cross an ocean. Jose Pestana’s whole working life has been dedicated to the…
Hopheads Altona VenueBottleshop
Build it and they will come might be the mantra central to classic heartstring-tugging flick Field of Dreams but it’s not just Kevin Costner’s character who's driven by that vision. Australia’s beer industry is filled with people who share that same dream, whether it’s small breweries in quiet…
Hops To Home Bottleshop
The nature of commerce in the 21st century is that people can now get their chosen vice – whether it be shoes, books, scented candles, or even animal shaped onesies – over the internet. That shift does not stop at the threshold of a bottleshop either. As a result, a number of beer stores have extended…
Murray's Porters Liquor Glenbrook Bottleshop
In the lower Blue Mountains town of Glenbrook, there’s quite the buzz for a place that’s home for just over 5,000 folks. Weekend markets and great places to eat have made the town a stop worth the trip and not just a refuelling station between Sydney and Katoomba. Trying to find a parking spot…
Nillumbik Cellars Bottleshop
If you were asked where you could find one of Australia’s finest bottleshops, one filled with quality wine from Australia and around the world, chances are it would take you some time before you landed on Diamond Creek. But for nearly 50 years, the suburb in Melbourne’s outer northern edge…
NOLA Adelaide Venue
Swinging jazz beats, Cajun deep fried chicken, Creole soul food, fine whiskies, Louisiana cocktails and 16 rotating taps serving local, interstate and international craft beers: it’s fair to say NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) has brought a heady, intoxicating mix to Adelaide’s now thriving bar scene.…
Saccharomyces Beer Café Venue
For folks fixated on finding tasty treats, South Brisbane’s Fish Lane is quickly becoming a reliable source. Spanning four blocks back from Grey Street to Manning Street, you could almost forget you’re in Brisbane’s busiest tourist precinct. The area has undergone a rejuvenation; once dominated…
Saint John Craft Beer Venue
For years before Adelaide’s bar scene began waking up to the good stuff, beer loving travellers would return from visits to the city like explorers who had chanced upon the Holy Grail. The cause of their epiphany was The Wheaty, the Thebarton pub that would regularly attract declarations along the…
Wolf Of The Willows Acidulus II Beer
Given they were one of the earliest adopters of the now ubiquitous XPA title for one of their beers (their first, no less), we shouldn't be surprised to find Wolf of the Willows potentially angering traditionalists by being one of the first locals* to bring another new "style" to the Aussie beer scene.…
Newstead & BrewCult Milk & Two Pineapples Beer
Another collaboration from Newstead Brewing and one that is kind of a tribute to the collaborator too. In hooking up with Hendo from BrewCult, they've offered a nod and a wink to one of his past glories, the GABS People's Choice winner from 2015: Milk & Two Sugars. Where that was an espresso'd and lactosed…
Clifton Hill Brewpub New World Pilsner - RETIRED Beer
Wheat beers are a funny one. Sure, not too many are brewed in Australia, fewer still brewed anywhere close to the standards of the originals from southern Germany. But even when they are done well – even with those quality imports – they remain possibly the most divisive or unloved by many of styles.…
Newstead Brewing Two to the Valley IPA –SUPERCEDED Beer
While the Porter may have been the first of Newstead's core beers to take our fancy, the Two to the Valley IPA has evolved into a beast that's giving it a good run for its money. It has everything you'd want from a bold American style IPA: hop aromas that flit from piney and tropical to herbaceous, plus…
Newstead & Akasha Vampyre Lovers Red IPA Beer
What kind of beer would a vampire drink? It's a question that has plagued mankind (me) for much of human history (the last six minutes). And, given this little write up is specifically in relation to the Newstead Brewing Co/Akasha collaboration beer, Vampyre Lovers, it’s probably easy to jump to the…
Wolf Of The Willows Acidulus III Beer
Wolf Of The Willows' love of language continues into the third beer in their Acidulus series. The beer's star ingredients are newly developed hop varieties out of Germany – Herkules, Hüll Melon and Hallertau Blanc – so, with the beer soured with lactobacillus, it's been tagged a "Neu Hallertauer…
Riverside Brewing Harvester of Sour Beer
It’s fair to say that 2015 was a fairly quiet year for the Riverside Brewing Company. After their co-founder and head brewer departed just before the beginning of the year, the business more or less concentrated on keeping things ticking over, bedding in a new brewing team, making slight tweaks to…
Modus Pale Ale Beer
The adding of ‘y’ to the end of words is an endearing quirk of the Australian vernacular. Any name to which it’s applied immediately seems to become a little more informal, grounded and familiar; it must be nice walking into a room with a name like Barnesy, Warney or Hughesy – like you’re wearing…
Holgate Brewhouse Temptress Beer
At a beer masterclass many moons ago at which Holgate's beers were paired with different food samples, this chocolate porter was served last with some rich chocolate desserts. It drew gasps. "How could a beer have so much chocolate flavour and still taste like beer?" asked the guests. With the addition…
Newstead Brewing 3 Quarter Time Session Ale – SUPERCEDED Beer
The first time we encountered Newstead's 3 Quarter Time, there was reluctance to give it a go. Not because there was any fear that it would be terrible, but because it was not long after 9.30 in the morning and we had a long day on the road ahead visiting breweries and venues around South East Queensland.…
Best New Beers of 2015: Victoria News
Victoria has long been the state with the greatest number of microbreweries and, in Melbourne especially, has led the way in terms of craft beer in venues too. Yet recent years have seen other cities and states creating quite the buzz while Victoria, Good Beer Week's global appeal notwithstanding, has…
Best New Beers of 2015: ACT News
With Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania in the bag, we're coming towards the end of our Best New Beers of 2015 state-by-state roundups. This one is a little different from the others in that it comes from a territory and also that the panel has presented a top five rather than…
Best New Beers of 2015: Queensland News
We should probably start the year by publishing a forward looking article, but we've still got our final Best New Beers of 2015 piece to run. This time it comes from Queensland where, after a few aborted attempts to pull together a panel featuring some of Brisbane's bloggers, our main man in the state,…
Best New Beers of 2015: Tasmania News
With just a few days left until Christmas, it’s time for us to kick off our annual look back at the best beers of the year just gone. As in previous years, we’re focusing solely on new beers released for the first time in the past 12 months, although this can include new versions or vintages of previous…
Best New Beers of 2015: South Australia News
The beer scene is booming in South Australia. Recent years have seen an explosion of new brewing companies – big and small – and there is a growing number of venues supporting them. Crafty Pint SA Matt King gathered a panel of beer aficionados (all bearded, of course), who together drew up a list…
Best New Beers of 2015: Western Australia News
We're (almost) at the halfway mark in our look back at the best new beers released across Australia in 2015. This time we move to WA, where two of our regular contributors, Pia "girl plus beer" Poynton and Guy "Goodtimes Craft Beverages" Southern joined two local beer experts to select their pick of…
Best New Beers of 2015: New South Wales News
As 2015 draws to a close, so too – nearly – does our seven part look back at the year in beer. Today's Best New Beers of 2015 focuses on New South Wales, where a panel compiled by Nick O came together to nut out the new beers that had impressed them most over the past 12 months. You can read our…
Best New Queensland Beers of 2016 News
This is a difficult topic. Individual palates are different and experiences surrounding the consumption of a good beer can vary immensely. It’s contextual. A keg of your favourite brew could just as easily (albeit cruelly) be rolled off a cliff by your best mate who hated the sight…
Best New WA Beers of 2017 News
Last year’s Best New WA Beers list commented on the growth of WA venues supporting new WA draught only releases. In 2017, this trend has accelerated with more than half of this list’s beers released at festivals, venues and growler filling outlets. Put simply, the best of the West continues…
Best New WA Beers Of 2019 News
Best New NSW Beers Of 2019 News
Well, that’s that. Another decade down the bloody gurgler. Except in New South Wales’ case: if we were to make this metaphor more accurate, there isn’t enough water left to carry this ten year stretch down any kind of plughole, let alone to emit any gurgle-like sound. Oh, and the sink is also on…
Best New SA Beers of 2016 News
A new beer release can be an exciting prospect for anyone in the craft beer community in more ways than one. At the moment of inception, it can send the brewer excitedly reaching for their pilot kit; once fully formed, it can have eager venue managers pursuing the…
Best New Tasmanian Beers of 2016 News
This gig is getting tougher. If you’d made me compile a list of my favourite Tassie beers released a few years ago, it’d be finished in half an hour. Nowadays, though, working out which crafty concoctions deserve a mention in the best of the Tasmania’s brews for 2016 has taken many weeks,…
Best New Queensland Beers Of 2017 News
Queenslanders are notorious for their copious beer consumption. But no longer are they all content to stick to monochromatic cans and decals (and flavours). Now, they cry for something other than just volume – they cry for quality, variety and innovation. New breweries are popping up faster…
Best New Tasmanian Beers Of 2019 News
Tasmania. Known to most as the Apple Isle or for its breathtaking natural beauty (and more recently, a little museum in the northern suburbs of Hobart). However, over time Tasmania is increasingly becoming known as a worthy destination for the Craft Beer Tourist™. …
Best New WA Beers of 2016 News
Looking back at the past 12 months in the Western Australia beer scene, 2016 was a year that saw the growth of double IPAs and the rise of the XPA and niche sours. Interestingly, amid a whirlwind of perceived beer fads, the year also saw one of the state’s most iconic, hop focused craft breweries…
Best New NSW Beers Of 2016 News
In a global context, 2016 was the year when the power grab in the boardroom of the beer gods reached a crescendo. That the world’s biggest beer company, AB InBev, devoured the second biggest, SABMiller, is not entirely astonishing. That the new company is, by some estimates, responsible for making…
Best New WA Beers Of 2018 News
Phew! What a year! If your head is spinning, don't worry as you're not alone. It seems likely 2018 will be remembered as the year that WA beer arrived in a big way. Yes, there’s plenty more to come, but already there are telling signs the market is changing – and rapidly. It’s been a year in which Hop…
Best New Victorian Beers Of 2019 News
When kicking off this article last year, we talked about the Melbourne scene becoming a bloodbath for brewers looking to get their beers onto taps and into fridges – and then keep them there. It remains a challenging market, with many in the hospo world also doing it tough. There are breweries that…
Best New Queensland Beers Of 2021 News
We've cast an eye over the year in beer in Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales so far. Now, in the fourth part of our annual series, we head to the Sunshine State. You all laugh at Queenslanders and say we’re a backwards people. But I swear we’re not. Yes, we close the borders…
