News & Feature Stories
Best New Beers of 2015: Victoria
For the fourth of our Best New Beers of 2015 roundups, we look at the state with the largest number of breweries and brewing companies. Which ten beers did our panel reckon were the best of the year? And do you agree?
Merry Christmas!
We received an early Christmas gift at Crafty Towers when, earlier this month, we passed the 1,000,000 page views mark for the year for the first time. So we're giving a couple of Crafty Cabal memberships away to celebrate. Merry Christmas!
Best New Beers of 2015: Western Australia
We're (almost) at the halfway mark in our look back at the new beers released across Australia in 2015. This time we move to WA, where two of our regular contributors joined a pair of local beer experts to select their pick of the year.
Who Brews As Bad Shepherd?
It's not that long ago that Dereck Hales took up home brewing. Soon afterwards, he was winning competitions for his beers. And now he's quit the corporate world to open the Bad Shepherd brewpub with wife Diti Haniotis in Cheltenham.
Best New Beers of 2015: South Australia
The beer scene is booming in South Australia. Recent years have seen an explosion of new brewing companies and there's now a growing number of venues supporting them. Matt King gathered a panel to pick the best new beers to come out of the state this year.
Who Brews Watts River Beers?
When Lion announced its decision to move White Rabbit to Geelong, many bemoaned its loss from Healesville. But now two former White Rabbit brewers and their partners have set about bringing a new brewery to the town.
Eastbound And Down
The southeastern suburbs of Melbourne are now home to a remarkable number of breweries. Kerry McBride spoke to some of the brewers now – or very soon to be – calling the area home about what makes it so appealing.
Best New Beers of 2015: Tasmania
We kick off our end of year best of roundups in Tasmania. A panel of beer gurus gathered at Saint John Craft Beer to chew the fat and come up with their top 10 from all the new releases in the state in 2015.
The Theatre Of Indulgence
New Collingwood venue The Craft & Co is looking to bring craft beer, spirits, meat and more together under one roof. The plan is also to give new brewing companies a foothold in the industry. Kerry McBride checked it out.
Vote For The Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers
It's time to vote for your favourite beers of 2015 as the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll returns. The poll launched by The Local Taphouse eight years ago has become a national event, with results announced once again on Australia Day.
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Down The Rabbit Hole
Last year, Lion announced it was closing the White Rabbit brewery in Healesville and moving Little Creatures' little sibling to Geelong. The move – and considerable expansion and diversification – is now complete, as Kerry McBride discovered.
Canny Moovers
Tasmania's highest profile microbrewery has been celebrating its tenth birthday with a "Month of Moo" celebrations across the state. It enters its 11th year with plans to launch its beers in cans and sights set overseas, as Ruth Dawkins discovered.
Fixated On IPA
Australia is set to get its first IPA brewing company. Fixation is a new venture between the Stone & Wood Group and IPA-loving former Mountain Goat rep, Melbourne beer legend Tom Delmont, that will release nothing but India Pale Ales.
Enter The Cabal
Fancy helping us in our mission to elevate Australian craft beer to even greater heights and getting free beer and other awesome benefits at the same time? Then you can! By joining our new reader bonus scheme, The Crafty Cabal.
The Big Issue: Branding
As the beer landscape in Australia becomes ever more crowded and competition intensifies, it's not enough simply to brew good beer. How a brewery presents itself and its beers is perhaps more crucial then ever before, so we're addressing branding as our second "Big Issue" topic.
40 Acres Brewing
His working life as a Navy electrician has taken him to China, Vietnam, Malaysia and China again. But, following a holiday on the Murray, Trevor Mitchell has planted his family on land in Central Victoria and turned 25 years of home brewing nous into 40 Acres Brewing.
Five Star Deluxe Treatment
The long-mooted expansion of the Beer DeLuxe brand across Australia is gathering pace. In the coming weeks, new venues will open in Wagga Wagga and Darling Harbour with more planned, as Nick O discovers.
Beer Travel: Bushwalking with Beer
Having returned from the outer reaches of Northern Europe to his home state of Tasmania, wandering storyteller Bert Spinks has been out bushwalking. Here, he ponders the whys and wherefores of doing it with beer.
Who Brews Hair Of The Dog XPA?
They met as part of the Merri Mashers, one of the youngest yet most proactive home brew clubs in Victoria, then decided that if they were making good beer, while not test it out on the public. And thus was born Old Wives Ales.
Bowling for Brews
Many bowling clubs have embraced easy-going evenings of Barefoot Bowling to help them survive. Others are turning to craft beer. Kerry McBride joined brewers, beer lovers and bowlers at Melbourne's Flem-Ken Bowlo to find out why.
From Cellar to Shed
After almost a decade manning one of the most archaic brewing setups in Australia, Lord Nelson brewer Damon Nott has abandoned cellars and ladders for life in Adelaide's Big Shed. Matt King caught up with him as he started in his new role.
A Dozen More
We've added a dozen more new listings to our brewery, venue and bottleshop directories since our last roundup. So, as has become our habit, here they are collected in one place in case you missed them first time around.
A Pallet For Your Palates
In a rare turnaround in traditions, Australia is exporting something crafted and beer-related to America. It's not beer, however, but new thinking drinker's beer mag Pallet, a joint venture between two Aussie journos and Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head.
Toowoomba Becomes Brewoomba
The Spotted Cow in Toowoomba was one of the first Queensland venues to embrace better beer more than a decade ago. Now it's one of three venues joining forces to create the city's first craft beer festival, Brewoomba.
High Five
Wollongong is set to welcome its second brewery. Glen Humphries joined Phil O'Shea at the home of Five Barrel Brewing as he prepared to brew his first beers. Look out for the brewery's launch in the coming weeks.
Getting Blind With Crafty: Pale Lagers
For our final blind tasting of 2015, we looked at a style that's becoming increasingly popular with Australian craft brewers: pale lagers. We lined up 26 different beers (including a few "New World" versions) from brewers big and small. And this is how they fared.
Chicks Drink Pink Beer
Recent successes for Two Birds Brewing here and overseas, plus a trophy for the Pink Boots Society's latest collaboration, shows the strength of women in beer. Beer drinking woman Kerry McBride finds out how life is for the ladies making waves in the craft beer world.
Drinking In Style: Pale Lagers
Love lager or keen to know a little more about the world's most popular style? Before we publish the results of our pale lager blind tasting, here's Resident Beer Scholar Chris Brady with another colourful journey into beer's multifarious past.
The Call of Hops
It was such a big deal, at first they thought it was a wind up. But it was true. The makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops III – one of the biggest gaming releases in history – really did want Gold Coast's Black Hops to create a beer for them.
Amalgamation For The Nation
Australia's longest running beer week kicks off tomorrow night. One of the defining features of this year's WA Beer Week is the proliferation of colourful collabs. Guy Southern gets the lowdown.
Who Brews The Other Castlemaine Beers?
A new brewing company that takes its name from its home town of Castlemaine has started up in Victoria. It brings a decidedly old school approach to its beers, so we decided to find out why.
BentSpoke Beer For All
Just 18 months after opening the doors of its Canberra brewpub, BentSpoke Brewing today took possession of a second site that will allow them to increase production and package their beers.
Frothing At The Mag
Beer-loving historical book editor Emily Day wanted a beer mag to read while drinking in her favourite Melbourne pubs. So she went and created one. The first edition of Froth is out now.
Touch Wood
Boatrocker's Barrel Room is set for a soft launch tomorrow. Sitting across the road from the brewery, it will eventually house 300 barrels, as well as the 15-tap bar, making it one of the most ambitious ventures in the Australian beer world.
Back In The Dock
Since leaving the brewing company he put on the map, former Riverside man Dave Padden has relaunched as Akasha. After months brewing with friends at Rocks, he's about to release the first beers from his new Five Dock home.
Last Rites' First Rites
The microbrewery scene in Tasmania is in the midst of rapid growth. The latest to open its doors is Last Rites in Hobart. Premier Will Hodgman was there for the brewery's official opening. And so was Ruth Hawkins.
Sweet And Sour
A sour beer has been named Australia's best craft beer of 2015, while there was more champion glory for Two Birds and Modus Operandi, as well as Freo's Monk at last night's Craft Beer Awards in Sydney.
On A Mission
What with all the column inches and conversations we've dedicated to issues such as transparency, integrity, ownership and so on in recent weeks, we thought it was time The Crafty Pint came clean.
Capital Gains
Canberra has long been home to some of the finest beers in Australia, albeit on a small scale. As the capital's annual beer week and Beer Day Out approach, local home brewer Drew Sculthorpe finds the scene growing apace.
Beer Travel: Copenhagen
As he heads homewards from the northern reaches of Europe, wandering Tasmanian Bert Spinks finds time to dip his toes into the "stylish", "serious" and "eccentric" beer scene in Copenhagen.
Staving Away
After years of challenges and hurdles that would have forced others to give it up, Steve Drissell is finally set to open his Glebe brewpub Staves. Nick O traces his tale from illness-inducing home brews to 12-tap venue.
Craft Beer Risen
We will not be running Craft Beer Rising, our national day in celebration of Australian craft beer in 2016. Not that it isn't worth celebrating, we just won't be able to do it justice. And there are more ways than ever to celebrate this summer too.
The Big Story of a Small Beer
Guy Southern chatted to Colonial Brewing's manager-cum-raconteur Richard Moroney to get the story behind their uniquely packaged Small Ale. He walked away with an insight into the essence of beer and why it pays to remember that it is, after all, just beer.
Getting Blind With Crafty: Ownership Special
Part two of our examination of the issue of ownership in the craft beer world is a blind tasting special. In it, we pit beers from the big brewers, major retailers and multinationals against those from small independent Australian brewing companies.
The Big Issue: Ownership
Takeovers and buy-ins, supermarket craft and vague labelling. Both here and internationally, the issue of ownership and its impact on the beer world is constantly in the news. Over two days, we look at what it means for craft beer and those who drink it in Australia.
The Big Issue: Ownership Infographic
Today, we launch a two-part series looking at the issue of ownership in the Australian beer world. As well as seeking the views of various people in the industry, we have compiled a fun graphic showing who's behind some small Australian brands.
Breaking Out The Beers
Earlier this year, we revealed that four of Australia's to surfers were planning to open a brewery on the Gold Coast. As Balter's opening moves closer, we catch up with their trophy-winning brewer to see what he has planned.
A Decade Of Duck
Red Duck this week marks a decade of brewing. It's been a decade in which boundaries have been pushed and history plundered for inspiration, with spirits next on the agenda.
Beer Travel: Iceland
Join us on a colourful journey through Iceland's craft beer world as Tasmanian storyteller Bert Spinks is guided along the way by an etymologist polymath, local brewers and his own love of dark beers...
Music To Your Beers
Hear the band, drink the beer! The Crafty Pint explores the not-so-unlikely world of collaborations between musician and brewer. And discovers a surprising number of beer nuts that fall into both camps.
