News & Feature Stories
Beer Travel: Bavaria
Himmel Hünd Brewery co-founder Annabel Meagher won a Pink Boots Society scholarship last year that saw her travel to Germany's south. There, she immersed herself in Bavarian beer culture –
Behind The Hottest 100 Beers Of 2017
There were plenty of stories and talking points to be found in this year's GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers results. Here, we chat to the brewers behind four of them, from Balter, BentSpoke, Black Hops and Hop Nation.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017: The Results
The results from the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll are set to be revealed from 100 to one on January 27. We'll be announcing the results as they come in here from 12.35pm AEDT before publishing our analysis and annual infographic.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017: Infographic
The results of the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017 are in, which means it's time for the annual Crafty Pint Infographic. Here, we break down some of the stats and trends from this and previous years.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017: Analysis
At a glance, there are some obvious stories that leap from the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017 list. Yet, if you drill down a little deeper and look at how the list has evolved over the years, you find much more revealed.
Trailblazing Women Of The West
The trailblazing women of Two Birds Brewing and the AFL Women's team Western Bulldogs have launched a new beer together. The Trail Blazer lager will be available throughout the 2018 season and sold across Australia too.
Newstead Forges An Old Alliance
It's 90 years since Sir Charles Kingsford Smith made the first trans-Pacific flight. To mark the occasion, Alliance Airlines has had one of its aircraft specially decorated and created a new collaboration beer with Newstead Brewing.
Throw A Foo Town Down
Newtown brewery Young Henrys is no stranger to the rock 'n' roll collaboration. But, as someone commented to us the other day, they may have reach peak collab with their latest, a beer brewed for the Foo Fighters 2018 Australian tour.
The Gang Of Sour
A Brunswick warehouse that initially housed Himmel Hünd's brewery has been turned into an incubator of sorts for small brewing companies playing with barrels. Will Ziebell finds out more.
Help Us Get Blind: Session Sours
For our first Getting Blind With Crafty tasting of 2018, we're going to embrace the broad church of beers that might be tagged "session sours" – Berliner weisse, gose, kettle sours and so on. And now is your chance to help us decide which to feature.
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Beer Travel: The South Of The Great Southern State
While better known for its wineries, the region to the south of Adelaide has long been home to a number of small breweries too. With three more set to open venues in and around McLaren Vale in 2018, we figured it was ripe for a beer-themed travel guide...
More On The Perth Stadium Beer Announcement
Yesterday, the beer lineup was announced for Perth's new Optus Stadium, the first major stadium in the country to award pouring rights to an independent Australian brewery. Here, we find out more from Gage Roads' head brewers and COO Aaron Heary.
Beer Lineup Revealed For Perth Stadium
The new Perth Stadium is set to open this weekend and the beer lineup has been confirmed. While all general admission areas will only be pouring mid-strength beers due to liquor licensing restrictions, Gage Roads has brewed special versions of a number of its beers too.
The View From The Top
When we published our series of Best New Beers features for 2017, there was one thing missing: an entry for the Northern Territory. With a new brewery opening soon, that may change in 2018. For now, an update from NT's original craft brewery, One Mile.
The Collaborators: Rostrevor Hop Gardens
We took a trip to one of Australia's largest hop farms months out from harvest to learn about the farm's history, its ups and downs, the invigorating effect of craft beer and more in the company of the third generation family that runs it.
Who Brews Mitta Mitta Beers?
The town of Mitta Mitta, in Victoria’s northeast, is a place better know for dairy farms and outdoor pursuits. But now it's got a brewery too so we asked founder and brewer Tim Cabelka to join us for the latest in our Who Brews? series.
Big Shed Help West Thebby Get Social
The Big Shed team has a new home from home for its beer after hooking up with the owners of an Adelaide hotel to create a new craft beer venue. Matt King finds out more about the West Thebby Social Club.
What's In A Name?
While many brewers are happy to stick to the [Brewery Name] [Beer Style] format when naming their beers, there are plenty who take great pleasure coming up with beer titles. We find out why from three of the most avid fans of beery wordplay.
Show Us Your Sour Side
For the first Getting Blind With Crafty of 2018, we've decided to focus on all things acid. Alongside NEIPAs, at the pointier end of the beer world, sours have started appearing in ever greater numbers so we figure we should give them a blind taste test.
Who Brews Jetty Road Beers?
Towards the end of last year the Mornington Peninsula gained another two new breweries. Blake Bowden is the head brewer of Jetty Road, which launched with a contract brewed pale ale and has just opened its own venue in Dromana.
Bright Bares All For Mental Health
The issue of mental health is one that's been discussed increasingly openly in the beer world over the past year. Now, Bright Brewery's staff are looking to raise funds and awareness via the release of a new calendar in which they bare all.
Best New ACT Beers Of 2017
With new openings, new venues and growth aplenty, it's been a big year in beer for the nation's capital. Here, we sift through around 40 new releases from ACT's brewing companies and try to agree upon the best.
Through The Looking Glass II
As in 2017, we attempt to peer into the future and decipher where the industry is headed and what issues are likely to dominate the coming 12 months. From independence and education to packaging and brewpubs, here's our thoughts on what lies ahead.
Best New Tasmanian Beers Of 2017
For our roundup of the Best New Tasmanian Beers Of 2017, our inimitable wandering contributor Bert Spinks seeks the thoughts of beer folks across the state and ponders whether, in 2018, he should deliver the outcome in sonnet form.
Best New Queensland Beers Of 2017
We head to the Sunshine State to find out what our panelists thought were the best new beers released by Queensland brewers in 2017. There were so many, the ten became 11 – and even then there's some honourably mentions too.
The Crafty Pint's Top Stories Of 2017
There's no denying 2017 has been a tumultuous year for craft beer in Australia, with multiple high profile sales, the odd closure, masses of new breweries, venues and bottleshops opening and thousands of new beers released. But which stories most caught the imagination of our readers?
Best New NSW Beers Of 2017
With more new releases to try than ever before, we invited contributors from across the state to sift through the buyouts and the startups, the hops and the haze to come up with a list of the ten (or so) best new beers to come out of New South Wales in 2017.
Best New Victorian Beers Of 2017
It's the state with the most brewing companies in Australia, which means there were plenty of new beers to taste in 2017. So, we cast our net wider than ever before seeking input before getting our panel together to select ten of the very best new Victorian releases of the year.
Behind Bars: Adam Lesk
It's not be that long since Adam Lesk switched working for a builder for running one of the craftiest bottleshops in Australia, but he's wasted little time becoming a guru. Already a Certified Cicerone and hunter of the world's best beers, here he offers some insight as part of our Behind Bars series.
Best New SA Beers Of 2017
We kicked off our annual Best New Beers lists in WA and now move across the Nullarbor to SA where a panel convened to cast their eyes over another big year for beer in the state. Who made their top ten?
Who Brews At The Mill?
At the start of 217, The Mill Brewery opened its doors in Collingwood for the first time, joining the suburb's ever expanding craft community. As the year draws to a close, The Crafty Pint called in for a chat with the brewery's founder, Mirek Aldridge.
Melbourne Airport Gets Crafty For Summer
Melbourne has a deserved reputation as Australia's craft beer capital. But anyone arriving here for the first time at Tullamarine Airport would be hard pressed to know. That's set to change for summer, however, with a ten-tap Stomping Ground pop-up bar.
Best New WA Beers of 2017
Big beers. Small beers. Hazy beers. Crazy beers. Which new releases from WA's brewers made our Best New Beers of 2017 list? Here, Guy Southern and Pia Poynton present the rundown selected by beer gurus from across the state.
The Crafty Dozen: December 2017
As a momentous year for beer in Australia draws to a close, it's time to round up the latest dozen new brewery and venue listings added to our directory.
Pioneer Brewing
Pioneer Brewing is a new farm-based brewery in rural New South Wales. It uses its own grain in its beers and has started growing hops with the intention of using as much of its homegrown crops in the brewing process.
Voting Open For The Tenth Hottest 100 Beers
We've seen a growing number of breweries celebrate major milestones in recent years. Now even events celebrating the local craft beer industry are growing up. As voting opens in the tenth Hottest 100 Beers poll, we chat to one of its instigators.
Bottling The Farm
Van Dieman have released the first of their "estate ales" – beers brewed with ingredients grown and sourced entirely on Will Tatchell's family farm south of Launceston. Bert Spinks joined him for a tasting and tour of the farm he's finally bottled.
All Inn Goes All Out
All Inn Brewing was one of the first of the new wave of Brisbane breweries to open. Now, five years on, the Banyo operation has unveiled a new look, new beers and eye-catching new tinnies too.
Who Brews Whalebone Beers?
Hoping to add local beer to the long list of reasons for visiting Exmouth is Whalebone Brewing Company, which takes its name - and some of its building materials - from the area it calls home.
Kicking Goals
The connections between the country's smaller brewers and professional sports continue to grow. Stomping Ground is now pouring beers at Melbourne City home games, Six String has released a Central Coast Mariners beer and the trend looks likely to grow.
Music To Our Ears
Forum Melbourne has long been regarded by many as the city's best music venue. If you're a fan of local craft beer, it's got a whole lot better. During a major refurb, the owners installed their own tap system and now pour all Victorian beers.
Beer Power
Beer is once again being used as a force for good thanks to the team behind the Little Gippsland Brewing Co. They have launched Craft Draught with the aim of supporting community projects in their home region.
Getting Blind With Crafty: Pale Ales Pt II
Two months on from our look at American pale ales, we completed our two part blind tasting with a look at New World style pales. Who came out on top according to our panel of experts?
Crafty Cabal Update – 01.12.17
We've been a little slack in providing updates on what's been going on with The Crafty Cabal via the main Crafty site recently, relying on socials and the EDM. But we're here with plenty of updates now...
Pirate Life Sold To CUB
Pirate Life Brewing has been sold to CUB / AB InBev. You can read the media release here and find our interview with co-founder Mick Cameron linked below too.
More On The Pirate Life Sale to AB InBev
Following the announcement that Pirate Life has been sold to CUB/AB InBev, we chatted to the Adelaide brewery's co-founder Mick Cameron and Peter Filipovic of AB InBev to find out more.
Igniting A Sparkke
Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, an all female beer (and other booze) company has set about raising awareness and funds for a range of causes with slogan-plastered cans. Matt King caught up with two of the members of the Sparkke Change team.
Changing The Date
Following the ABC's decision to move the date of the annual triple j Hottest 100 from Australia Day, the team behind the GABS Hottest 100 Beers poll has followed suit. The countdown for the best new beers of 2017 will take place on the fourth Saturday of January, with voting opening mid-December.
Confusion Deposit Scheme
New legislation designed to tackle litter in New South Wales is set to go live this Friday. Yet there are serious and growing concerns throughout the craft beer industry that the scheme is flawed and is set to affect small brewers disproportionately.
Crafty Crawls: The Hunter Valley
It's not all wine, you know. The Hunter Valley now has four breweries amid the vines. Neil Richardson took a tour of them all for this Crafty Crawl.
