We know it's only been three weeks since the last of these but we've been busy, not least in launching the long-mooted new look Crafty Cabal homepage. It makes it easier to see what's available as well as what's coming up and makes the whole experience much smoother now we've completed the integration into The Crafty Pint app too.
We've also added a stack of events and giveaways so thought it was high time to spread the word.
Before we get stuck into what's new, however, our ballot to win tickets for GABS 2020 is closing this week so make sure you enter now by heading to your member's area online or logging into The Crafty Pint app. If you're thinking about joining the Cabal, there's a handful of tickets to give away to new signups here.
There's still a few extra tasting tokens (worth $20pp) up for grabs for Cabilistas heading along to the Carwyn Collaborational. For those lucky Cabalistas who won tickets to the beer festival, you'll receive them the week of the event.
We'll also announce the next monthly beer ballot over the coming days. Looking beyond that, here's what's new for Cabalistas.
Big In Brewsvegas
Brewsvegas, Brisbane's city-wide festival celebrating good beer, is back in March and we've lined up a few special events for Cabalistas. Both are taking place within our little corner of the week-long festival, the Pint of Origin, where nine venues across Brisbane are dedicating their taps to pouring beers from across Australia and the world.
First up there's Meet Mr Boatrocker on March 14 at Bosc, the home of Victoria during Brewsvegas. Boatroacker's co-founder Matt Houghton is in town for a few events and he's agreed to host an intimate tasting for members of The Crafty Cabal. He'll be at the bar from 3pm sharing tasters, telling stories and answering questions in the company of our very own Mick Wust. It's a free event, just register via your member's area.
On the following day - March 15 - the the Step Brewers Podcast crew (pictured above) are hosting a bunch of their Tassie brewing mates (and others) for a special live podcast at Tippler's Tap, Fortitude Valley. As bonus extra for Crafty Cabal members, they're hosting a pre-event Meet The Brewers tasting session with our man Mick Wust. The cost for beers and food is a mere $10pp and Crafty Cabalistas can book their spots via their member's area online or via The Crafty Pint app.
Crafty In Canberra
The Canberra Craft Beer & Cider Festival is back for its thirteenth year this year, an impressive milestone for any beer festival. The fest features a whole host of Aussie breweries of all shapes and sizes, live music, gourmet food, guest speakers, interactive beer and food sessions, a charity raffle, jumping castles, face painting – the works.
Up to 250 beers and ciders are pouring, including those from local heroes BentSpoke and Capital and others from further afield.
We've got double passes to give away to Crafty Cabal members too, just make sure you enter via the ballot in your member's area and we'll pick winners on March 12.
Take Me To The Otherside
The WA beer scene has really come alive over the past few years, with some excellent new breweries in the regions and brewpubs around the capital, not to mention heaps of great beers. One of the breweries impressing palates – both in WA and interstate – is Otherside.
They've been producing beers in a broad range of styles – often with a sense of humour shot through them – from sours and stouts to hazies and Helles. And they're generous supporters of the arts too.
If you'd like to get the inside story and taste some of their finest, they're hosting a special event for Cabalistas at their Fremantle venue, Freo.Social. Cabalistas can join the dream team of head brewer Rhys Lopez, group venue manager Matt Marinich and GM Steve Finney for a guided tasting and Q&A, with tickets costing just $10pp (which includes beer and finger food).
Spaces are limited so get in quick.
From Tooborac To Carlton
FROM the Collective is a new hub located within a warehouse in Carlton designed to showcase produce from across regional Victoria, launched by the team behind Tooborac Hotel & Brewery late last year.
We're going to be using it for regular Victorian brewery showcases for Crafty Cabal members and who better to kick things off than the team from Tooborac themselves. Guests will enjoy a tasting of several beers in the Tooborac range, including their new autumn seasonal, as well as snacks from the FROM the Collective lineup. Details here.
Tickets cost just $10pp, including beers and food, and can be booked via The Crafty Cabal member's area or The Crafty Pint app.
An Evening With One Drop
One Drop are barely a year old but have been off to a flier since opening in Botany. They've picked up medals galore, brewed a beer with Kellogg's and won over fans with everything from lagers and IPAs to fruit sours.
If you'd like to get to know them even better, they're inviting Crafty Cabal members to join them for a barrel tasting, sneak peek, meet the brewer and more on the evening of May 28.
We'll be putting tickets on sale soon but, for now, if this sounds like your kind of thing, you can register your interest in your member's area and we'll be in touch via email as soon as that time comes.
They're promising barrel and pre-release samples, food, a talk through the brand and its environmentally-aware ethos with the owners, an intimate tasting of current beers with the head brewer and a walk through the brewery.
Ballarat Beer Hop
Ballarat Beer Hop sees six venues host twelve breweries and invite attendees to check them all out across seven hours.
You can read about it here or try to get your hands on a free ticket by entering the ballot via your member's area.
We'll pick winners at random on March 26 and notify them via email.
And finally...
We've also added new offer at Melbourne's Penny Young. They've been helping improve the craft beer offering of Moonee Ponds since 2015 and Cabalistas who head in can enjoy a free schooner at the multifaceted venue.
Chances are you've downloaded the updated Crafty Pint app by now and logged in as a Cabalista so you can redeem as many of the 150 offers as possible nice and easily there. If not, head here to pop it on your phone.
If you're still wondering what The Crafty Cabal is, it's perhaps best described as similar to the subscription services run by community radio stations. You can access everything we do at The Crafty Pint free of charge but if you want to support us in our good beer mission you can by signing up.
In return for your hard-earned, you get deals and freebies at venues across Australia, invites to exclusive events, entry into heaps of awesome competitions with prizes worth tens of thousands every year and more.
View our competition rules here.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
