In a few weeks, The Crafty Pint will celebrate fourteen years of covering the Australian beer scene. Over that time, we've been part of a momentous change in the country's drinking habits, as craft beer has moved from an casually-dismissed fad to part of the mainstream.
We've published thousands of articles, reviewed around 10,000 beers, hosted scores of events, helped launch Good Beer Week, run national campaigns such as Keeping Local Alive and Beer For Bushfire Relief, built Pint of Origin, created a beer club and plenty more besides. And now it's time for the next stage in our evolution: The Crafty Pint Podcast.
It's something we've talked about doing for years – we even had the logo ready to roll 18 months ago – and we've had plenty of people asking for one too. So, over the past few months, we finally put the pedal to the metal and made it happen.
You can view the trailer below, with the first episode – featuring Chris and Gab from Sailors Grave – going live next Thursday (July 25). We'll be publishing a new episode every week on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube – yes, we've decided to film the shows too, where possible.
Hosted by The Crafty Pint editorial team and our contributors across Australia, the show will feature discussion of industry news and trends, as well as an ever-changing lineup of guests sharing perspectives from all corners of the craft beer world.
We're really excited about adding another string to our bow and exploring the possibilities this new direction offers. And we hope you'll join us for the ride!
We're keen to work with partners looking to reach new audiences and achieve their objectives in fun and creative ways. So, if you'd like to be part of the action, get in touch.
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.
