News & Feature Stories
Ten Years Of Crafty: Beer In The Media
For most people, the idea that beer writers even exist is a hard one to conceive. Yet there's an evolving media landscape dedicated in one way or another to the beer world. Here we look at how it's changed over the years.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Meet The Team II
In part two of the midway feature in our Ten Years Of Crafty series we again hand the mic to some of the people who've been part of the growth of the site over the past decade.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Meet The Team I
We've been blessed to have some wonderful people contribute to The Crafty Pint in various ways over the past decade. Here we kick off a two-parter featuring some of them and their highlights of the past decade.
Ten Years Of Crafty: The Big Ones
Lists. Bad news. Controversy. That's all people want, right? Thankfully, a perusal of the most read stories of the past decade on The Crafty Pint suggests you're a more discerning audience.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Infiltrating And Taking Over
The beer industry today is far bigger, far better in many ways, far more colourful and far more competitive. It's also changed plenty with independence now declared with the same gusto once applied to craft. Here's a look at how.
Postcards from the Edge No.50: Pivoting Properly
While they await the day they can open again, the team at The Cambrian in Bendigo have been keeping busy. Once they finished renos they embarked on a course to understand how to make their business better post-COVID.
Ten Years Of Crafty: In Pictures
If a picture says a thousand words, then many millions have been spoken over the past decade in beer. Here's a collection of beers from the past decade. We could have run many, many more...
Ten Years Of Crafty: The Wobbly Boot
Today we kick off a series of features looking back over the ten years since The Crafty Pint launched. And where better to start than the start. Or, more accurately, before the start...
Little Bang Top The GABS Can Design Awards
Little Bang claimed the inaugural GABS Can Design Awards title for their Face Inverter beer, designed by Matt O'Connor. Moon Dog and Fixation completed the podium with our designer Jessie Jungalwalla landing two in the top ten.
The Collaborators: Craft's Can Pioneers
Ahead of the announcement of the first GABS Can Design Awards, we chatted to the people who helped spark the craft beer's move into cans two decades ago, Canada's Cask.
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Father's Day 2020 Gift Guide
Father's Day is approaching fast and that means heaps of gift ideas for dad from Australia's beer world. We're compiling all those we hear about in one place for you.
Mid Strength, Max Satire
Jason Mangelsdorf is a Brisbane local who's regularly hosted art shows at legendary bar The Scratch and has also combined his love for MAD Magazines and XXXX to create MID Magazine. George Levi sat down with him to find out more.
A Crafty Pint AppDate
As breweries and venues began to reopen across Australia, we realised one of the best ways we could help beer lovers #keepinglocalalive was to make the free Crafty Pint app as comprehensive as possible. Now we'd love your help filling any gaps.
Ya Wee Blasta!
Blasta cleaned up at the 2020 Perth Royal Beer Awards, claiming four trophies including Champion Small Brewery and Champion Beer. It was a great night for home state brewers, with WA taking out almost every title.
Brewers Celebrate Keg Theft Result
Late last year, a spate of keg thefts was brought into the public eye by WA's brewers. With two men now sentenced, they're hoping it serves as a warning to people unaware of the serious and costly impact of such actions.
Modus Of The Merewether
Modus Operandi are set to build a second brewery. They've been granted approval for a site in Newcastle, where they're planning a sustainable venue close to where co-owner Grant Wearin's grandfather used to run the corner store.
Pirate Life Perth Takes Shape
Just under a year after the plans were unveiled, construction begins today on what will become Pirate Life's Perth brewery venue. The 1,000 capacity venue will house what will be Pirate Life's third brewery.
The Big Issue: The Future Of Beer Fests
How will beer festivals look in a post-COVID world? We chat to the organisers of those still going ahead in 2020 and others who've had to adapt about the future of major events in the local beer world.
Postcards from the Edge No.49: Wombating COVID
Three years ago, KAIJU! founders Nat and Callum Reeves chatted about collaborating with a New York brewery. When the pandemic shut the world down, instead of putting an end to such talk, it sparked Mortal Wombat.
Who Brews 27 South Beers?
Brisbane's busy beer scene is located along the 27th parallel; it's a fact one of the city's newest brewing companies is keen to shout about. We caught up with 27 South Brewing as part of our Who Brews? series.
The Big Issue: Coping with COVID-19 Part II
Many of us face mental health challenges at the best of times. With the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacting the beer and hospo industries, we look at the difficulties people are facing and the support they can seek.
Gage Roads To Build New Freo Home
Gage Roads have today announced plans for a brewery and venue at Fremantle's Victoria Quay. The family-friendly destination overlooks the stretch of ocean that inspired the brewery's name.
The Big Issue: Coping With COVID-19 Part I
Many of us face mental health challenges at the best of times. With the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacting the beer and hospo industries, we look at the difficulties people are facing and the support they can seek.
Postcards from the Edge No.48: A Hustling Hand
The speed at which beer businesses adapted and the rise of the growler were two of the standout features when the first lockdown hit. Now, a new family-run operation sparked by the unique challenges of that time has launched.
Crafty Cabal Update - August 2020
As the beer world returns to something approaching normality in most of Australia, we've been adding plenty of new deals, giveaways and events for members of our beer club, The Crafty Cabal.
Postcards from the Edge No.47: Interstate Mates
During the first lockdown, everyone in the beer industry was faced with similar challenges. Now, with some states rolling back restrictions while Victoria is suffering again, the brewing industry is rallying to help mates in need.
Wildflower: Time Is On Our Side
Sydney's Wildflower Brewing & Blending didn't wait for March 23 to close their venue. Instead they set about using the shutdown to recharge batteries and expanding their operation into a newly acquired warehouse.
Who Brews At The Bond Store Wallaroo?
A couple with a background in tourism have turned a rundown former bonded store into a brewery, distillery and restaurant in one. Matt King called into Bond Store Wallaroo to find out more.
Hop Nation Set Up In Mornington
Hop Nation have taken over the former site of Mornington Peninsula Brewery's main production brewery. It follows Mornington owner Tribe Breweries' decision to stop using the site earlier in the year.
Aussie Beerstagrammers: Sticking With Beer
Our Aussie Beerstagrammers series with a young account that's quickly become one of the country's most popular thanks to its creator's unique concept and humorous approach.
A New Competition For WA Brewers
This year's WA Good Food Guide Awards will feature beer for the first time. The competition will judge only WA beers with the judging panel led by The Crafty Pint's own Guy Southern.
Postcards from the Edge No.46: Lockdown Life
Streets are emptier, bottleshops and cellar doors are quieter, masks – and a greater sense of fear – are everywhere. Midway through the scheduled six weeks of Lockdown Mk II, we chat to two reps about life in Melbourne's beer world.
Who Brews Heaps Normal Beers?
Alcohol-free beers – and other beverages – are becoming an increasingly visible part of the local drinks industry. As Heaps Normal prepare to launch their non-alcoholic XPA, we got in touch to find out more.
The Collaborators: KegSwappa
“It seemed like such an obvious thing to do. Why is no one else doing it?” If you've ever used Swap'n'Go gas bottles, then you basically already know how KegSwappa works. Read on to see how this simple idea came about.
Postcards from the Edge No.45: Mr Frothy
Growlers played a huge role #keepinglocalalive during the first lockdown. Now much of Victoria is closed again, they're back, with one brewery even set to delivery them from the High Country to Melbourne homes.
From Belgium With Love: The International Beer Collectors
It started with a British take on an Abbey ale, took in the farms, breweries and bars of Belgium, and ended up with some of the finest Belgian beers entering Australia via Newcastle. Meet the International Beer Collector.
Postcards from the Edge No.44: The Million Dollar Tip Jar
As soon as Lockdown Mk II hit, the team behind Tip Jar, a fund launched to support the hospitality sector, ramped up their efforts again. We chatted to them about their fundraising beer and cocktail and hopes for the future.
The 2020 Australian Craft Beer Survey Launches
Beer Cartel's annual survey of attitudes, opinions, trends and spends in the Australian craft beer world has opened for 2020. It's your chance to contribute to a snapshot of the beer scene at this uniquely challenging time.
Craft Beer Heroes: Pete Meddings
He might not be a household name but if there's any craft beer-loving household in Australia that hasn't enjoyed the fruits of Pete Meddings' labour, we'd be surprised.
Postcards from the Edge No.43: Bingo – It's A Gas
Watching customers pull into and out of a servo in Wagga Wagga might sound like an odd way to spend a Tuesday night. But the Servo Bingo concept, launched by the Thirsty Crow during lockdown, is proving a hit.
The Collaborators: The Post Project
From the first GABS to breweries big and small – more than 50 of them – shooting brand stories, beer launches, collabs and even a beer song, Alister Robbie has helped bring the Aussie beer world to life over the past decade.
It's Still In Your Hands
With Melbourne and parts of Victoria back in lockdown and travel restrictions tightening elsewhere we're looking to update part of the Keeping Local Alive campaign site we'd hoped was no longer required.
Melbourne Goes Into Lockdown Again
Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews has announced Melbourne will face its second lockdown. The return to stage 3 conditions sees all pubs, bars and brewery venues closed for six weeks with potentially devastating consequences.
Postcards from the Edge No.43: Open & Shut Case
It's a scenario all venue owners have feared since Australia started to move towards reopening: a second lockdown. And it came to Ascot Vale on the day Jimmy's Tap & Barrel was set to open for the first time since March.
Craft: What Does It Mean & Does It Matter?
The debate is almost as old as craft beer itself: just what does "craft" mean? British beer writer Pete Brown spent lockdown writing a book examining the term and arguing that it remains absolutely essential.
Who Brews Golden Hills Beers?
Golden Hills make golden (and many other coloured) beer from a small brewpub in Diamond Creek and were ready to launch just as Australia closed down. We caught up with the team to find out Who Brews...? Golden Hills beers and ask what it was like opening during a nation-wide lockdown.
High Sobriety
As Dry July kicks off, we look at the rise of alcohol-free beers: how a new yeast strain is helping brewers create them affordably, the challenges involved in brewing them, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
Postcards from the Edge No.42: Good Beer Still Helps
The campaign to provide four-packs of indie beer to thousands of essential workers has entered a new stage with mixed A Good Beer Always Helps packs now hitting BWS and Dan Murphy's stores across the country.
Range To Set Up Home In Abbotsford
Melburnian fans of Range Brewing's much-hyped beers are in for a treat: they're opening a 16-tap venue in Abbotsford later in the year.
Postcards from the Edge No.41: Let There Be Gin
In the space of a few months, Lee McAlister-Smiley, founder of Brisbane's White Lies Brewing, has gone from having no idea how to make hand sanitiser to producing wasabi gin alongside his beers.
