Innovation: Brewing Beer

Supported by Onpack

New ideas and technologies helping to drive beer forward.

Innovation
A Yeast For The Senses: Life Inside A Sensory Lab

Getting paid to drink beer - that's the dream, right? "It can be very tough, I tell you, to do beer evaluation in a cage for one hour..." See what sensory analysis is really like with Gabriela Montandon, head of sensory at Fermentis.

Episode 009: Talking Terpenes with Sam Bethune & Scott McKinnon

Terpenes are hot property in the brewing world right now, providing brewers with another tool as they set about creating new beers. But what are they, where do they come from, and why the excitement around them?

Episode 008: Derek Lacey of Bluestone Yeast

While spending time as a stay-at-home dad, medical researcher Derek Lacey had a "Eureka!" moment that inspired him to launch Bluestone Yeast. As he puts finishing touches to his new yeast production facility, we invited him for a chat.

Closing Loops And Brewing Shrooms – Australia's Most Sustainable Beer?

Breweries love to collaborate and many are putting greater focus on brewing more sustainably. Now a new project in SA is exploring just how green brewing can be.

Mash Gang Australia: No Alcohol, No Limits

"Forever experimenting." The non-alc beer space hasn't always been associated with the broadest of choice, but Trenno of Mash Gang Australia is on the case, playing with new styles and creative ingredients with each brew.

The Breeders Bringing New Brewing Yeasts To Life

In June, brewers given a new yeast to play with called LalBrew Pomona. To find out how new yeasts like this hybrid come to life, we chatted to one of its creators at Escarpment Laboratories in Canada.

Small Gods; Big Ideas

Small Gods are tiny by name and nature but have caused a stir with their unique approach. Michael Donaldson explores their story and beers, including the 8 Wired collab named Supreme Winner at the New World Beer & Cider Awards.

Sobah Launch Australia's First Non-Alc Brewery

Sobah's brewery features the stainless you'll find in any Australian brewery yet the Gold Coast operation remains entirely unique. We visited Australia's first non-alc brewery to chat with founders Clinton and Lozen Schultz.

CBCo Take Non-Alc Craft Beer To A New Low

CBCo have entered the alcohol-free space but the brewery's approach has seen them take a different path to most other breweries. We chatted to head brewer Ash Hazell about their new Alfa Laval De-Alc Module.

Phantasm: The Ghost Coming To Your Beer

Hops and their vibrant aromatics create much excitement among beer fans but a ghostly new flavour is attracting attention among brewers. That ghost is Phantasm, so we chatted to the man behind it and one of the first local brewers to try it.

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Bintani Abstrax B
Wild Yeast Zoo

Wild beers are the oldest form of brewing and still capture a certain romance. Stepping into that fray is Wild Yeast Zoo, a Newcastle-based venture that hopes to uncover new yeast strains of yeast and bring the public along for the journey.

Jarrah Boy Brings Native Ingredients To The Fore

A new Sunshine Coast-based brewing company showcasing native ingredients is set to launch later this month. Jarrah Boy is the latest venture from Dale Vocale, an Indigenous chef, entrepreneur and proud Monero Ngarigo man.

The Collaborators: Deep Liquid's AI Recipe Designs

We live in an age of unlimited limiteds in which new releases are never-ending. Into this landscape steps Deep Liquid, an artificial intelligence program that aims to use customer feedback to help brewers design and brew better beer.

Atomic Whip Their Way To The Top

In a sea of wacky beers, making waves isn't easy. But Atomic have managed to do it, with their flame-kissed Lemon Whip Sour taking out the People's Choice from all the festival beers at GABS 2022.

The Wild Ones: Two Metre Tall

The Wild Ones is a series showcasing Australian brewers creating spontaneously fermented ales. Here we caught up with the couple behind the truly unique farmhouse operation that is Tasmania's Two Metre Tall.

Watch The High County Hop Technical Symposium

Once the party was done and dusted on the Saturday of The High Country Hop, industry figures gathered for the Bintani Technical Symposium at Beechworth Town Hall. Now you can catch up on the presentations.

One Drop Look To Clean Up

One Drop are a brewery that frequently experiment with beer ingredients and styles but it's their latest process that has the Sydney outfit most excited. They've been trialling a process they call Clean Fusion, which they say not only gets the most out of their hops but solves a number of technical issues too.

24 Hour Barley People

They've brewed barleywines and plenty of double digit ABV beers before, but never anything like this. In what's likely to be an Aussie first, Rocky Ridge have created a 24-hour boil beer to see how far they can push a local farmer's pale malt.

Wild Life Get Wilder

Shepparton-based Wild Life Brewing recently took their pilot kit away from home to spend a day in the elements. We caught up with co-founder Jack Thomson to find out about the adventure and plans for their own brewery.

The Wild Ones: Van Dieman

​​The Wild Ones is a series showcasing Australian brewers creating spontaneously fermented ales. Following our launch piece last week, here we head to a farm in Tasmania to catch up with Van Dieman founder Will Tatchell.


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Innovation

The Crafty Pint's Innovation section is supported by Onpack

Wildflower – Back From The Brink

A rogue element appeared in Wildflower's house culture recently, plunging the brewery team into despair. But, thanks to the kindness of friends in the food and drinks community, they're back from the brink.

Sailors Grave To Create Multimillion Dollar Dunetown

Sailors Grave are set to realise the long-held dream for a farmhouse style brewery, securing a $2.35m grant that will go towards the creation of Dunetown on the East Gippsland coast.

Putting The Micro In Microbrewing

Use of the term has dropped away somewhat in recent years, but there's really one way one to describe Edward Kerr's research into barley protein at the University of Queensland: microbrewing.

BrewBox: Making Homebrewing Simpler

A pair of 4 Pines brewers have launched a new business designed to ease people into the world of craft brewing at home. We chatted to Henry and Dylan about their hopes for BrewBox.

Little Bang To Release 12,000 Hazy IPAs

Need more hazy IPA in your life? Then you're in luck as Adelaide's Little Bang are releasing 12,000 of them this December. We chatted to the lunatic behind the venture.

All Aboard The Beer Quality Motorhome

In recent months, Lallemand Brewing's technical manager Dan McCulloch has been taking a motorhome around Australia visiting breweries. Will Ziebell jumped on board to find out what he was doing and, more importantly, ask why.

Space Yeast, Rare Fruit & Roving Coolships

Dozens of international breweries send their beers to Australia, but there's only one we know of using yeast harvested at 70,000 feet and a roving coolship. Will Ziebell chatted to the man behind Lanikai's Hawaiian beers to find out more.

Insect The Unexpected

Craft breweries are no strangers to innovation. But BentSpoke Brewing have arguably set a new standard by making a beer with local yeast, a hangover relief drink, crickets and fly larvae.

Nail's Pale Ale Trail

WA icon Nail are to put the beer upon which the brand was built on hiatus as they launch a series of trial releases that will allow the public to vote on a new addition to the core range.

Mine's A Sunshine State

Thanks to the launch of small hop farms, a local operation producing yeast for brewers and the production of malt with Queensland provenance, Archer in Brisbane have created QPA, which they believe is the first modern, all-Queensland beer.

Krush HPA bonus
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Sowing The Seeds Of Hemp Beer

Young Henrys become the latest brewery to launch a hemp beer following law changes in Australia last year. We spoke to brewers using hemp as well as the researchers helping them get the flavours and aromas into their beers.

Free To Brew What We Want

Greater awareness around coeliac disease and gluten intolerance is leading to more GF products hitting the market, including beers. As a new gluten free brewery in Victoria nears opening, we find out more from brewers and researchers.

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.

Gone To Pot

The search for new techniques, flavours and experiences in the beer world continues apace. At The Craft & Co in Collingwood, brewer Heath McVeigh has been brewing with the sort of clay amphora used for beer and wine in the Roman Empire.

Cavitation Salvation

Could techniques similar to those used by the remarkable mantis shrimp help revolutionise brewing? According to a group of Italian scientists, a process called cavitation could save time, water, energy and waste. Dan Sandy takes a look.

Wildflower Blooming

Dozens of breweries will open their doors across Australia in 2017. They will come in all shapes and sizes, but we doubt any will be quite like Wildflower. Nick O spent time with the blendery's driving force, Topher Boehm.

The Breeder

Washington State based Select Botanicals Group has developed some of the hops most beloved of craft brewers. We met head breeder Jason Perrault when he was in Melbourne to talk torture, promiscuity and limitless possibilities.

Stepping Up

Newstead Brewing is deep into stage two of its development, building a large brewery close to XXXX and launching a project to study Brisbane's indigenous yeasts. In a broad-ranging interview, Judd Owen speaks to founder Mark Howes and new head brewer Dr Kerry Claydon.

Cool Times In Tassie

Last year, we wrote about Van Dieman's plans for a 100 percent estate grown ale. Now the Tasmanian brewery has taken another step into the unknown and brewed its first beers in a custom designed coolship.

Sole Foeder

Never one to rest on his laurels, Ben Kraus has launched a new line of beers from his Beechworth brewery. Mayday Hills will see the Bridge Road Brewers team focus on creating beers in a large oak foeder.

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HPA Liquid Hops Oct 2024
The Micro Malting Man

Adelaide Hills brewer Al Turnbull of Lobethal Bierhaus is nearing the end of a decade long dream. He's designed and built his own in-house malting that will him to create his own malt for brewing, becoming the first SA craft brewer to do so.

Bottling The Farm

Two Metre Tall isn't the only Tasmanian brewery on a mission to create estate ales creating solely in homegrown ingredients. Van Dieman hopes to capture its farm in a beer soon too.