News & Feature Stories
Drinking In Style: Christmas Beers
On the eve of our final Blind Tasting of 2013, resident Beer Scholar Chris Brady has taken another delve into the past so he can deliver another sermon of style. This time we’re looking at Christmas beers because, well, because it’s Christmas.
Full Of Heart
It’s turning into a colourful end to a rollercoaster year for one of the country’s more idiosyncratic breweries. Black Heart Brewery is found in a two-storey shed next to a swimming pool at the back…
Shrinking To Expand
It’s a sure sign that the beer world is changing when what could previously be described as an immovable object starts shape-shifting. Hamstrung to an extent by the size of their brew length and fermenters,…
A Little Bit Bigger
The doors to Little Creatures‘ new venture in Geelong are open. The $60 million brewery and hospitality venue was opened by the Victorian Premier Dr Dennis Napthine in front of an audience of invited…
Ask Brewer Jayne: Choosing What To Brew
It’s time to welcome back our occasional series featuring the “Agony Aunt of Aussie craft” Jayne Lewis. To the handful of people that haven’t come across Jayne or her wares (just…
From Siberia With Love
The seeds for the most unique new addition to Melbourne’s craft beer scene were first sown 11 years ago on the Gold Coast. Eighteen-year-old Anton Sagan, not long arrived in Australia from Siberia, was…
Brewing Like Berserk
Ekim founder Mike Jorgensen is reeling off the beers he brews: After Battle Pale Ale; Viking IPA; Berserker Amber IPA; Hell Black IPA. “It’s fair to say you’re a brewer who likes hops then.” “I…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Golden & Summer Ales
With summer upon us, it seemed only right to have a look at the quaffable end of the ale world for our latest Blind Tasting. That said, the choice of style (in a fairly loose sense) wasn’t met with unanimous…
Drinking In Style: Golden Ales
With summer approaching, we decided to look at the lighter end of the beer spectrum for our next Blind Tasting. As such, we opted for a rather loose collection of beers that fall under the Golden / Summer…
Rise Of The Beer Fest
The beer festival scene is booming in Australia. In a few short years, we’ve gone from next to no dedicated beer festivals to an absolute smorgasbord, with more being added every year. From November…
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Beer Travel: Beer Lovers Week & The Tasmanian International Beerfest 2013
There was quite the choice for beer lovers this November when it came to beer events. There were concurrent beer weeks in Canberra, WA and Hobart plus the Beer Day Out, Beers By The Bay, Fremantle Beerfest…
Anyone For Cricket?
Earlier this year Asahi Premium Beverages, formerly known as Independent Distillers, bought the Cricketers Arms Lager brand and it became the basis for an attempt to enter the growing craft beer market.…
Festive Excess
Perhaps it’s only right that, as we approach the time of year when people tend to overindulge, we find ourselves amid a glut of festive occasions. Or festivals to be precise. We’ve got three…
Competition: Win A Taste Of The Tropics
The Australian beer industry is a colourful place. There are brewers inspired by the traditional beers of Germany, Belgium and the UK. There are others taking their lead from the States. There are those…
GABS Wants Brew!
It might be six months away, but already the biggest week for craft beer in the Australian calendar is taking shape. Good Beer Week submissions are closed and being shaped into a nine-day bonanza and now…
Blowing Minds
“This is blowing my mind,” says a guy at one table. “Mate, this is mind-blowing,” says another at a table across the room. Two beers into the first public Crafty Pint Blind Tasting event and…
Beer Travel: The Fremantle BeerFest
The curtain has just come down on this year’s WA Beer Week, having risen with the inaugural Fremantle BeerFest on the opening weekend. Pia Poynton, AKA girlplusbeer and also recent recipient of the…
Brew & A: Ironhouse Brewery
The first ever Hobart Beer Lovers Week is up and running and in just over 24 hours the Tasmanian International Beerfest returns to the city’s waterfront. So we figured it was as good a time as any to…
Deadline Day
Tomorrow is deadline day for anyone wanting to take part in either Newcastle Craft Beer Week or Good Beer Week in 2014. For those planning to run events in Newcastle, it’s your last chance to submit…
Back In Black
With its second birthday fast approaching (and a Bolivian band lined up to mark the occasion…), what was one of Australia’s tiniest breweries has started cranking beers out of a shiny new Italian…
Treading Gingerly
A Sydney brewery has been taken by surprise by international “upset” inadvertently caused by one of its labels. The label for 4 Pines offshoot Brookvale Union’s Ginger Beer, which was only released…
Something Big's Brewing
It started more than a decade ago with the ultimate man’s cave. But, finally, after years of hard work, the brewing dream shared by Jason Harris and Craig Basford is set to become a reality. "We began…
Brew & A: Indian Ocean Brewery
We’d originally planned to run this Brew & A with the head brewer at Indian Ocean Brewing this week as a precursor to WA Beer Week starting. Then we got the results of this year’s Perth Royal Beer…
Winners Out West
This year’s Perth Royal Beer Show has thrown up some eye-catching winners alongside the usual familiar faces. There will have been a heavily-laden plane heading back to Sydney too after New South Wales…
Feral's Fresh Facelift
It’s all change at one of Australia’s champion breweries as Feral undergoes a facelift. After the start of their occasional Brewpub series of limited bottled releases comes a new permanent beer, Sly…
Willy Fest Takes Shape
A couple of months ago, we caught up with Scott Meager, owner of the Steam Packet Inn in Williamstown. He’d just been given the green light to go ahead with a new beer festival in the Melbourne suburb…
Competition: BEERtographers Wanted!
The organisers of the Great Australian Beer Festival have teamed up with Little Creatures for a competition that will seeing the winner take home $1500 and earn a permanent place at the soon-to-open Little…
James Halliday Article: Grain and Grape
This week sees us send our end of year review to James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine (yes, it’s barely even November, but these things require long lead times). With it is our second pick of 50…
Deadlines Approacheth
Deadlines for two of the biggest beer events in the world are fast approaching. Anyone wanting to enter their beers into the world’s biggest beer competition, the World Beer Cup in the US has just…
Beer Travel: London and the Great British Beer Festival
A few weeks ago, we ran a story on the “Gentleman’s Agreement” between Stone & Wood and London’s Camden Town Brewery. The two were to begin bringing each other’s beers into their respective markets,…
Rocking On
The first time we caught up with the guys behind Rocks Brewing at their spiritual home, Harts Pub, they talked excitedly about plans for their own brewery. While they hoped to open one in The Rocks, they…
Beer Travel: The 9th Australian Hotel Beer Festival
It’s been a big few days for craft beer in Sydney. On Saturday, the third Sydney Craft Beer Week kicked off while, preceding it by a day (or six years depending on how you look at it) was the 9th…
All Killer. No Filler
There was a time not too long ago when the term “contract brewer” was deemed an insult by many in the Australian beer world. And, in fairness, there was a time when many of those choosing to take that…
Two Brewers Abroad: The Great American Beer Festival
A few months ago, two WA brewers who are enjoying the adventure of a lifetime through the American craft beer industry featured in our Blog of the Month series. Steve Brockman (formerly of The Monk) and…
The Craft Press
With some of the most exciting new breweries in Australia calling New South Wales home and the small bar scene giving impetus to Sydney’s nascent craft beer scene, it would seem the sleeping giant…
Welcome To Brewsvegas
We love a bit of wordplay at The Crafty Pint, almost as much as we love awesome beer events. So imagine our delight when we received a phone call from the guys behind Brisbane’s marvellous The Scratch…
Brew & A: Young Henrys
Sydney Craft Beer Week is just days away, with its biggest, most varied and most exciting lineup of events yet. Among the local breweries taking part – and contributing some of the most varied and oddball…
From Woodend to Manila
Slowly but surely, Australian craft beer is beginning to make inroads overseas. In recent weeks, we’ve reported on Stone & Wood’s venture into the UK and the success enjoyed by the Australian Brewery…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Ambers and Reds
There was much change afoot for our latest Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel at the weekend. For a start, it featured an entirely new set of panellists. Each and every one of those who taken part in a previous…
Cans in Cairns
To those of us not born in Australia, the similarity between the pronunciation of the words “cans” and “Cairns” is far from obvious. So when we received a call a few weeks back from Cam Hines,…
Drinking In Style: Amber and Red Ales
In order to keep pace with the Crafty Pint Tasting Panel, this month's instalment of Drinking In Style takes a look at two styles named for their respective hues: amber and red. If only there were a green ale to complete a brewer's traffic light…
Beer Food
One of the standout concepts from last year’s Sydney Craft Beer Week was Beer Mimics Food. The festival organisers invited a selection of chefs and writers to create beers inspired by their favourite…
Brew & A: Boatrocker Brewery
The Melbourne Festival kicks off today (Oct 11), heralding two weeks of arts events all over the city. Many of the best shows and gigs are taking place at the 1200 capacity Festival Hub that has been erected…
The Final Six!
After four weeks and hundreds of entries from all over the world, the competition for the World’s Best Beer Trip has been whittled down to a final six. Now it’s up to you, the public, to decide…
Crafty Tales 2: Boneyard
Earlier this year, we launched Crafty Tales, a series of short films looking at different aspects of the craft beer world. Created in conjunction with New McPherson, a Fitzroy-based video production agency,…
Competition: Raid Crafty's Beer Fridge
As first world problems go, the one we’re currently experiencing at Crafty Towers is likely to elicit precisely zero sympathy: we’ve run out of beer fridge space. Yep, despite the fact that…
All Together Now
It’s a Tuesday and I’m in the brewhouse at Eagle Bay Brewery looking down at a drain. "This is the Rolls Royce of brewery drainage," says Cowaramup Brewing’s’s Jeremy Good as Justin Fox, brewer…
The Latest Listings
It’s not that long since we posted our last roundup of new brewery and venue listings on The Crafty Pint. But it’s been long enough for us to add a few more. And, with another dozen or so lying…
Tassie Beer Lovers Unite!
Australia’s burgeoning love with beer weeks shows no sign of abating as today we can announce that, in just a few weeks' time, Hobart will host its first Beer Lovers Week. It will feature a series…
It's Time To Talk Hops
Of all the brewers to have played around with the new wave of Aussie hops, none has delved quite as deep as Ben Kraus at Bridge Road. With one of the country’s main hop farms, Rostrevor, just down the…
