Articles by James Smith
50 Days Of Shutdown
It will be a long time before we know the full impact of COVID-19. But on day 50 of the momentous decision to shutdown the country's venues, we asked people throughout the industry for their thoughts.
Postcards from the Edge No 25: Help Yourself
The impact of COVID-19 has left many beer businesses striving to adapt. As part of the #keepinglocalalive campaign, brand designer Jessie Jungalwalla is pulling together a panel of experts to help guide people through.
Postcards from the Edge No.23: IsoMateship
Staying connected with friends and family during these challenging times is crucial. And, as we approach May 8 – Mate Day to many – there are beer businesses doing what they can to facilitate this and support people's wellbeing.
Postcards from the Edge No.18: From Menulog To Menudog
If you live around Carlton North you may have seen an unusual form of home delivery service in recent weeks. The Great Northern team have been sending beer and food out via their security dog and barman on skateboard...
Postcards from the Edge No.16: Isolation Degustation
Many beer venues aren't just sending beer and food home through the shutdown, but looking to have fun with it, from "Isolation Degustations" in South Brisbane to classic pub Daily Deals in Port Melbourne.
Postcards from the Edge No.15: Pandemic Punch
Many brewers have been left with returned or no longer needed kegs of beer thanks to the pandemic. At Dainton, they decided to blend a bunch of their orphan kegs to create two new beers, Pandemic Punch and Rye-solation.
A Keeping Local Alive Easter Message
The message at the heart of the #keepinglocalalive campaign is simple. As we enter what will be a very strange Easter weekend, here's the Australian beer community to remind us why is matters.
Postcards from the Edge No.14: The Chain Gang
While none of us know what the beer and hospo scene will look like once measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic are over, two Melbourne breweries are eager to support the businesses that have supported them.
Postcards from the Edge No.12: The Beer Essentials
Fancy saying thanks to the essential workers helping us get through the COVID-19 pandemic? A new campaign, A Good Beer Always Helps, offers you the chance to do just that while supporting craft brewers too.
Postcards from the Edge No.11: Finding Funky Solutions
It's not venue and brewery owners and staff that have been hit hard in the beer world by the recent shutdown – there's the industry-within-an-industry of entertainers, musicians and trivia hosts looking for ways to adapt.
Get more Crafty!
Sign up to our newsletters and get the latest craft beer news delivered free to your inbox. Choose from our Friday Roundup of the week, the quick-read, social feed-like Crafty Cuppa – or both!
Postcards from the Edge No.10: Can Together
The craft beer industry has always been one fired by the spirit of collaboration, something which has come to the fore during the COVID-19 crisis. We spoke to two brewers helping get their peers beers into punters' hands.
Postcards from the Edge No.6: The Rocky Reality
For all that businesses are scrambling to survive in these drastically altered times, the reality is that no one knows if they'll make it out the other side. We spoke to Hamish Coates of Rocky Ridge about heartbreak and uncertainty.
Brew & A: Caolan Vaughan
They might be best known for their Pacific Ale but the Counter Culture series has been exciting beer geeks since launching last year. Overseeing brewing of all Stone & Wood beers is Caolan Vaughan, so we invited him for a Brew & A.
Postcards from the Edge No.3: Quarantinnied
It's amazing how fast things can happen when the pressure's on. The team at Carwyn Cellars has created a special Canvent featuring 24 Victorian brewers in just a couple of days so people can enjoy beers together apart.
Postcards From The Edge No.1: Cherry Cheer
As the beer and hospitality industries adapt to the new reality, there are some inspiring examples around. We joined The Cherry Tree crew as they launched their home deliveries by bringing cheer to the streets of Richmond.
Keeping Local Alive
The restrictions on social gatherings and movement imposed in the fight against COVID-19 will have serious impacts on the beer, hospitality and events industries, among others. We look at how we can try to help them survive.
Sparkke To Fire Up In Melbourne
The female-led Sparkke Change will be bringing their unique brand of social activism through alcoholic drinks to Melbourne later in 2020. As they prepare to launch two new beers, we chatted about their grand vision.
Latest News From The Crafty Cabal - March 2020
We know it's only three weeks since the last of these but we've been busy, not least in launching the long-mooted new look Crafty Cabal homepage. We've also added a stack of events and giveaways so high time for an update.
The Galaxy's The Limit
Demand for Aussie hops shows no sign of slowing, with Hop Products Australia this week opening a new processing facility in the Victorian High Country yet already looking at further expansion well into the future.
The Matchmaker Of Deliciousness
It's rare to come across a chef eager to praise beer's qualities over wine, let alone one operating at the level of Rob Kabboord, now back in Melbourne at the pop-up Lekker! after four years helming Quay in Sydney.
Brew & A: Sow & Piglets
It's named after an iconic tourist spot, is found in a hostel, and the Sow & Piglets team are already working on a new brewery venture in regional Victoria. We sat down with the German brewer behind their traditionally-minded beers.
Hawkers To Build A Brewery Bar
As they prepare to turn five, Hawkers are setting out to build a bar at their Reservoir home. The intention is to use the proposed 170-capacity venue to showcase more experimental releases.
Australia's First Airport Brewery Takes Off
The Stomping Ground brewpub at Melbourne Airport – Australia's first airport brewery – is up and running, with the first beer to go through the brewery their version of the Resilience Beer for bushfire relief.
Unfinished Mead Business
Having moved from beer writing to brewing, Willie Simpson is planning another change of tack as he turns 70: a return to mead. And kayaking. And sourdough baking. And astronomy. And...
Through The Looking Glass III
After a hiatus in 2018 (for reasons I can't recall) we're back with our New Year's Day look ahead at what the future might hold for the local beer world: what to look out for and where we might be headed.
Crafty's Advent Calendar
If you'd like to check out our look back at the 2010s in Advent Calendar form, here's all 25 entries gathered in one interactive PDF. Open it in Acrobat to see who's behind each door and click each one to be taken to that day's entry.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Phil Sexton
He kicked the contemporary craft beer scene in WA in the early 80s and recently announced his return to Matilda Bay on a mission to reclaim its lost iconic status. We close out of end-of-decade series with Phil Sexton.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Wheaty Jade
From within the four walls of a corner pub in Thebarton, Jade Flavell, her colleagues and staff have not just blazed a trail for beer and beer venues in Australia but inspired and influenced thousands too.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Will Feral
He was a crap sales rep but turned out to be a bloody good brewer and these days leads the weay for Feral following the WA brewery's sale to CCA. He's also a goose's best friend; on day 23 of our Advent Calendar it's Will Irving.
Best New Victorian Beers Of 2019
Whether you're hot for hazies or have a passion for the puckering, there was much to enjoy from Victorian brewers in 2019. Such beers dominate our list, joined by a couple of lagers and a rich stout.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Steve & Guy
They met across a St Kilda bar in the early years of the century and have gone on to help shape the local beer industry through venues, festivals, a brewing company and more. Behind door 22 are Steve Jeffares and Guy Greenstone.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Kris Miles
From a bottleshop in Brisbane to hop-infused spirits in Melbourne then MONA and finally a pub and brewery, Kris Miles has taken on many roles in the local beer world. Here he is on day 21 of our end-of-decade Advent Calendar series.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Sam Füss
If you've been involved in the local beer industry over the past decade or two, you'll have a story or three to tell involving Sam Füss. The multiple trophy-winning brewer from Philter joins us for day 19 of out Advent Calendar.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: OJ
Owen Johnston was head brewer at Moo Brew when it launched and now works for HPA, helping get Aussie hops into the hands of brewers across the world. Here he is as we reach day 18 in our Advent Calendar.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Scotty Hargrave
Along with his Balter co-founders, Scotty Hargrave has been part of the biggest story at the end of a big year. Here's what the head brewer has to say about the past decade and his thoughts on the industry now and to come.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Kate & Shev
They're the dictionary definition of work hard, play hard and continue to make an indelible mark on the Melbourne and wider Australian beer community. Behind door 16, it's the irrepressible Kate and Shev.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Mick Cameron
After careers that took in bars, brewing and distribution here and overseas, Mick Cameron, son Jack and his best mate Red Proudfoot launched Pirate Life, a brewery that had instant impact before selling to AB InBev.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Pia Poynton
She's worked in bars, repped for breweries, helps run the Pink Boots Society in WA, ran one of the country's most prolific beer blogs. But Pia Poynton is also one of those people who just makes the beer world better.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Corey Crooks
He was raised in a family of publicans and has taken what's in his blood to help turn his hometown of Newcastle into a craft beer city. We chatted to Corey Crooks of the 100 percent independent Aussie beer venue The Grain Store.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Peta Fielding
Long before the Gold Coast became nationally recognised as a home of good beer, there was a couple trying to sell their beers to locals. Thirteen years on, here's Burleigh co-founder Peta Fielding reflecting on the change.
Meet The New GABS. Same As The Old GABS
As voting opens for the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Beers of 2019, we introduce the man who took over both festival and poll earlier this year, Mike Bray, and find out where he plans to take the two in the coming years.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: David Cryer
It's time for a trip across The Ditch on day ten of our Advent Calendar, not for a New Zealand-themed entry in the series but to catch up with a man whose work will have made it into many of the beers you've enjoyed.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Paul and Tash Holgate
Paul and Tash Holgate recently celebrated twenty years as an independent, family-run brewery. It makes them one of the longest-established brewers in Australia so we asked them to be part of our end-of-decade series.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Stephen Nelsen
Stephen Nelsen has been integral to the rise of the craft brewing industry in his home state of SA and his influence crosses state lines too. We spoke to the former Brewboy for day eight of our end-of-decade Adventy Calendar.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Willie Simpson
Back when there was about one-hundredth as much to write about in the local beer world, Willie Simpson was documenting the country's beers and brewers. Today, he's a brewer and hop grower in North West Tasmania.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Gillian Letham
Time to head to Brewsvegas for day six in our end-of-decade series. We could have picked any number of legends from the city's beer scene but decided Gill formerly from The Mill could speak for them all.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Richard and Tracy
Back before "craft beer" was a thing, there was one man doing cool shit in Canberra. He still is, along with his partner and ever-growing team, and here he is as part of our Advent Calendar end-of-decade series.
CUB Buy Balter
The rumours swirling around the beer industry have turned out to be based in reality as CUB today confirmed they've added Balter to a stable already containing the likes of Pirate Life and 4 Pines.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Joel Beresford
We head west on day four of Crafty's Advent Calendar and into the arms of Joel Beresford, a man who via Cellarbrations Carlisle and The DTC has put wonderful beers and a passion to learn into the mouths and minds of thousands.
Crafty's Advent Calendar: Dave Bonighton
Would the beer scene in Melbourne look like it does today without Mountain Goat? Highly unlikely. In day three of our end-of-decade Advent Calendar series we feature one half of the duo that helped build a beer city.
