The Crafty Pint first appeared in 2010 as an online magazine and resource focusing on the fast-growing Australian craft beer scene and the culture that surrounds it.
The mission was to tell the stories worth telling that can be found in every corner of the local beer world, and to provide insight and knowledge for anyone interested in beer to help create a better informed and engaged community of beer lovers.
Initially, this was in the hands of one person, James Smith, a journalist who moved to Melbourne from the UK in 2008. Today, he heads a team of staff and freelance contributors – including three winners of the AIBA Best Beer Media trophy – spread across Australia and New Zealand, but the mission remains unchanged.
And, following a major redesign unveiled in July 2023, we believe we're following our mission better than ever, not least with the introduction of the Beer Knowledge section, designed to be the best online guide to all things beer and brewing in Australia.
The Crafty Pint is an independent, family-owned publication which brings an honest, old-fashioned journalistic approach to beer – you'll find no native advertising or paid-for feature stories on the site. Any advertorials in our Friday newsletters are clearly marked as such too.
We also publish a free, regularly updated app that helps users find the nearest brewery or good beer venue wherever they are in Australia, and we run a beer club, The Crafty Cabal, for beer lovers wanting to boost their beer experience via exclusive events, deals at breweries and venues, and regular giveaways.
Hundreds of breweries, venues, bottleshops and other beer businesses have signed up for listings in our directory in order to reach our highly engaged audience – The Crafty Pint has been named Australia's favourite craft beer news site in Beer Cartel's annual survey of beer drinkers every year since it was launched in 2016. We have more than 70,000 followers across key social media platforms and our newsletters go out to more than 24,500 people with an average open rate above 35 percent.
We also get involved in events. James was a founding member of Good Beer Week and its festival director until June 2015, and to this day The Crafty Pint team runs the popular Pint of Origin that started out as part of Good Beer Week. We partner with many of the country's best festivals and you'll often find us hosting blind tastings that allow us to combine education, entertainment and fun at the same time.
