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Year In Beer: ACT & NT
The final episode of The Crafty Pint's Year In Beer 2024 series is a double-header with a triple dose of guests. After completing the full set of states, it's the turn of ACT and the Northern Territory.
There have been notable anniversaries, not least in the capital with both BentSpoke Brewing and Page Bottler marking ten years in 2024, plus expansions, acquisitions, new openings, and the roller-coaster tale of Tumut River Brewing Co – one that's ended on a high with former staff now the new owners.
Joining us to cast an eye over the past 12 months are Mat Farrington, Tim Rasheed and Kyle Pearson.
Mat is the founder of CanBEERra, which he launched nine years ago to capture the goings-on in the beer world across the wider Canberra region. As well as offering insight into some of the newer operations, he's been mighty impressed with Cypher Brewing and their weekly tinnie releases of the past 12 months, plus the manner in which both To All My Friends and Herbert's at Evatt have shown how to operate as top-notch craft beer venues.
Tim opened Page Bottler a decade ago and now crams more great beer per square metre into his store than you'll likely find anywhere in Australia. He brings two decades in booze retail to the table as he offers his thoughts on where the local / indie beer world sits and how breweries backing their own identity rather than overreaching is the way to go.
And Kyle is the driving force behind Alice Springs Brewing Co and, as of a few weeks ago, the new owner of Beer Garden Brewing in Port Lincoln. He reflects on 2024, in which the brewery enjoyed the triumphant launch of their Territorian sub-brand and put down deeper roots locally, as well as discussing the reasons behind buying a second brewery 16 hours' drive from Alice. He also casts an eye over 12 months in which all of the NT's brewers have enjoyed successes, including One Mile's huge Territory Bar-BQ Festival in October, despite a drop in tourism.
You can find the entire series here, with all episodes appearing on the site and across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms before the year is out. If you enjoy the show, we'd love it if you took the time to like and subscribe, rate and review.
Start of guest segments:
- 3:50 – Mat Farrington
- 17:30 – Tim Rasheed
- 28:18 – Kyle Pearson
The Crafty Pint's 2024 Year In Beer series is proudly presented by Mogwai Labs, leaders in liquid yeast solutions. For the perfect pitch every time, visit mogwailabs.com.au.
To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
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.
