The Keeping Local Alive campaign has really taken hold throughout the Australian beer community over the past few weeks, giving people in the industry and its supporters something to rally around.
We've been amazed by the creative and enthusiastic ways in which it's been embraced, appearing on can labels and the Isolation Beer Festival in Tasmania, inspiring some fun Instagram challenges (I will get around to those I've been hit with soon – promise!) and some other fantastic endeavours in all parts of Australia's beer and hospo world.
The message at the heart of the campaign is simple: support your local beer businesses in any way you can so they are still around when the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. And, as we enter what will be a very strange Easter weekend, here's the local beer community to remind us why it matters.
Feel free to share with friends as we try to ensure the message grows deep roots. Already, we're seeing people change their buying habits in the face of this unprecedented challenge and discovering how everyone can benefit from connecting with their local brewery, bar, bakery or bottleshop. Let's make these habits last into the future.
Massive thanks to everyone who agreed to shoot footage for this film, including those who we couldn't squeeze in, to Lallemand Brewing for their support in getting it made, and Courtney Jones of Dingo Bones for putting it together.
Tough times lie ahead, but already I'm hearing more people thinking ahead to the new reality that awaits us once we make it through – and they plan to be part of it. Until then, the future of local beer – it's in your hands.
#keepinglocalalive
Thanks to BentSpoke, Big Shed, Blackman's, Bright Tank Brewing, Capital, Cherry Tree Hotel, Fixation, Grain Store, Hotel Lincoln, Little Bang, Modus Operandi, Moon Dog, Nowhereman, Otherside, Range Brewing, Rocky Ridge, The Scratch, Stone & Wood, Two Birds and Van Dieman for taking the time out to contribute to the video.
Here's hoping there's enough left in the pot to cut the outtakes reel... NB We will make versions of this video in different formats and lengths suited to more platforms available once they're ready next week.
You can check out the campaign resources here and on the #keepinglocalalive Facebook page.
About James
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.