News & Feature Stories
Holgate Takes Flight
Back in the 1990s, as a teenager immersed in the UK’s indie scene, The Crafty Pint was a fan of the short-lived, pun heavy London band Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine. Front man Jim Bob had an uncanny…
Good Beer Week Deadline
Anyone taking part in this year’s Good Beer Week in May has until midnight tomorrow (January 18) to finalise their event details. A number of events were registered prior to Christmas with some aspects…
The Hottests' Hottest
Time is running out for this year’s Hottest 100 Aussie craft beers, being run again by The Local Taphouse, The Crafty Pint and Brews News. The deadline for votes is January 15. As in past years, The…
James Halliday Article: The Year In Beer 2012
Upon launching in 2011, James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine asked The Crafty Pint to pen an article on the story of Australian craft beer. Since then, they’ve continued to support the local craft…
Cheers to Geelong
For a long time, it always seemed something of an anomaly that Geelong, just a few kilometres down the road from the craft beer hotbed that is Melbourne, was such a craft beer desert. A few micros had…
Crafty's Year In Beer
We’ve been around the houses, gathering the reflections of brewers, beer sellers and writers from around Australia, for our Year in Bear 2012 review. So that means there’s just one place left to look:…
The Year In Beer 2012: Tasmania
As anyone who’s spent time in the bars and pubs of Hobart, in the company of the state’s band of brewers of attended any of the many festivals with craft beer either at their heart or with a prominent…
Merry Christmas!!!
“So this is Christmas / And what have you done?” asked John Lennon back in the day. A more pertinent question to the Australian craft beer world as we all settle down to gorge ourselves, catch…
The Year In Beer 2012: NSW
Is the sleeping giant finally waking? It might seem a churlish thing to say when New South Wales has been home to the Lord Nelson’s brewery for a quarter century (pictured above) and counts the likes…
Lost, But On Purpose
"I’d been homebrewing for close to 14 years. I decided I really needed to do something with it." So spake Peter Philip, founder and head brewer of Wayward Brewing Company, the latest Sydney-based beer…
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The Year In Beer 2012: WA
Western Australia: it’s to craft beer in Australia what Iraq is to human civilisation. Home to dozens of craft breweries, including some of the country’s very best, as well as some spectacular bottleshops…
Starting A Brewery: The Boatrocker Story Pt III
Over the past few months, we’ve been bringing you the story behind the development of the forthcoming Boatrocker Brewery. Many of you will know Boatrocker’s beers, such as Alpha Queen and Hoppbier,…
Taking The Pils
In 1988, Australia was busy celebrating its bicentennial, the Ronald Reagan era in the States was coming to a close, Allan Border was captain of the cricket team, the year’s big Aussie films included…
The Year In Beer 2012: Queensland
It’s not too long ago that, during one of our regular discussions with the founder of Australian Brews News, we were admonished for the use of the phrase “craft beer revolution”. Being a generally…
The Year In Beer 2012: Victoria
Where else to start our end of year round up for 2012 than in the place where The Crafty Pint started just over two years ago – not to mention the place that has taken the craft beer baton and run with…
The Year In Beer 2012
With Christmas approaching, the pages of newspapers and magazines the world over are crammed with end of the year reviews. Well end of year reviews and Best Of lists: the Best Albums, Best Films, Best…
Hottest 100 of 2012
It’s that time of year again: the time when the beer lovers of Australia get to select the best craft beers of 2012. For the fifth year running, the poll launched by The Local Taphouse in 2008 is…
Hyper IPA
Right then, readers: sit down and strap yourselves in for a spot of beery education… International Bitterness Units – or IBUs as they are more commonly abbreviated – are something that really…
Win Christmas Cheer!
While the redoubtable Sir Cliff may have serenaded the world with the words that Christmas time is all about mistletoe and wine, we know it’s really about beer. Beery Christmas cheer. So with time…
Growing Pines
As December continues to move swiftly onward, the fragrance of pine increasingly wafts across the land as Christmas trees are erected in anticipation of the bounty of gifts to be lavished at their collective…
Enter Galactic
The year 2012 was a notable one for space matters: Venus transited, NASA put a remote control car on Mars, there was the total eclipse, Neil Armstrong – the original moonwalker – departed for another…
The Perfect Pourer
There are quite a few breweries in the South West with trophy cabinets that have recently become a lot more crowded. Collectively, South West breweries took a total of 29 medals at this year’s Perth…
James Halliday Article: Brighter Shade Of Pale
Towards the end of the month, the next edition of James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine will feature an article by The Crafty Pint looking back at what has been an incredible year for craft beer in…
Brew With A View
“In just four steps, I’m standing next to the ocean,” he says. “In fact, I’m walking out there now. I’ve got a marina in front of me and the ocean is just to the west. I live right above the…
It's On, For Young & Old
Next Wednesday, Sydney's incomparable suburb of Newtown celebrates its sesquicentenary. And, in honour of the 150 years that have passed since being proclaimed a municipality, one of its youngest residents…
The Beer Singers Return!
The comedy duo behind “Beer Song” are back with a fresh ode to the wonders of craft beer. Dave and Ern from ElbowSkin have just released a video for “Craft Beer”, a song which they…
D-Day for GBW 2013!
There are just 12 hours to go until submissions close for anyone wanting to be part of Good Beer Week 2013. And that’s only if you’re reading this at the exact second this story went live on…
Canny Operators
Cans have given The Crafty Pint much joy over the years. From Navin R Johnson’s brush with death to Vim Fuego, the drummer in spoof metal band Bad News, and his desire for “more vim in my cans”,…
Here Beer Here
Anything that allows us to (sorta) paraphrase Withnail and I in the title of a news story has to be a good thing. And when that good thing involves the launch of a trans-global brewing partnership, better…
Australia's Best Beer Gardens
With summer approaching, it seems only right to spending one’s every waking moment wishing you were sat in a beer garden with a frothy in hand. As we wrote in a recent piece for Tourism Victoria: “There…
The Crafty Planner: November 26 to December 2
And breathe… The crazy run of beer weeks and festivals drew to a close at the weekend with the final days of Newcastle Craft Beer Week and the Tasmanian International Beer Fest. Now it’s time…
Brew With The Best!
Back in May, on the Monday night of Good Beer Week 2012, The Crafty Pint welcomed Steve Grossman from Sierra Nevada to the launch of the People’s Pint at Temple Brewery & Brasserie. He was there to make…
Boneyard Brews
He’s loved beer, sold beer, cooked with beer, taken beer onto national television and opened a restaurant with more of a focus on beer than any in Australia. So, really, it had to come to this: Boneyard…
Get Ready For Good Beer Week 2013
Submissions for the third Good Beer Week close on November 30 and through The Crafty Pint’s involvement on the organising committee we’re aware of loads of fantastic ideas for the festival.…
West Coast Cruisin'
Across Australia and New Zealand, you’ll find countless brewers who will happily admit that their beer epiphany occurred on an overseas trip. Sampling beers that had never passed their lips back home…
The Crafty Planner: November 19 to 25
It’s all eyes on Newcastle this week as the city’s second Craft Beer Week takes over the town. Like Good Beer Week’s first adventure in 2011, Newcastle’s first festival last week…
Beers By The Bay
Other than a few teasing spots of rain early on, the weather gods behaved for the first Beers By The Bay festival on the Mornington Peninsula at the weekend. Around 20 breweries and cider producers lined…
Pirates On The Bay
Sometimes it’s good to put the cart before the horse, as the brewers behind the collaboration beer made in honour of this weekend’s inaugural Beers By The Bay festival did. Whereas it’s…
Good Beer Week Needs U!
There’s less than three weeks to go until event registrations close for Good Beer Week 2013. And to mark the all important 18 days to go mark, the team behind the festival has prepared a couple of…
Perth Royal Beer Show Winners 2012
For the first time, WA Beer Week this year kicked off with the state’s beer industry’s night of nights. Friday night’s Gala Dinner saw trophies awarded for the best beers from both commercial…
Zaphod Beer-blebrox
Anyone who’s frequented Chapel St Cellars in Windsor will be well aware of its eclectic nature. Many of the world’s finest beers sit alongside rare sakes, unusual soft drinks, curious spirits and a…
The Crafty Planner: November 12 to 18
It’s something of a WA takeover in the Crafty Pint Events Diary this week, not least because the biggest WA Beer Week to date is up and running. It kicked off with the Gala Dinner for the Perth Royal…
Light A Big Fire
The brewing team at The Monk in Fremantle has a lot going for it. First up, Steve Brockman and Paul Wyman run the team at Illawarra Brewing Company very close for the title of Australia’s tallest brewing…
Finely Crafted Print
“Fremantle.” This was once my standard response when asked where one could find a decent beer bar in Perth. Mount Lawley’s excellent Five Bar has since improved matters, but it’s not exactly…
Go West! (Part 3)
The Margaret River region is blessed with more microbreweries than any other region of Austalia. And, over the past month, girl+beer Pia Poynton has been checking in on them all to find out what they’ve…
Win A Trip To Norway*
Back when Australia was in the midst of its Scandinavian Invasion earlier in the year, one that left us with, among other things, the Gypsy & The Goat, Gnaume, Geeks and Freaks and Our Dark Secret,…
WA's Biggest Beer Week
Western Australia. The state all the way over on the left, the biggest state in the country. Known for a particularly large mining boom, stunning beaches and epic landscapes. And, over the last decade…
Beer Travel: Pacific Beer Expo
Ninety per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur around the Pacific rim, and it is home to many of the world’s active volcanos. It is also the origin of Kava, tiki cocktails and big, fat party…
No Fuss Home Brew
Home brewing has come a long way from the foul-tasting concoctions of sugar and baker's yeast that your granddad used to make. The modern home brewer has access to many of the same ingredients that commercial…
Set In Stone
When news broke earlier this year that the directors of Little World Beverages, the company that owned Little Creatures, had recommended an offer from Lion to take full control of the business, there were…
