News & Feature Stories
Crafty's Ten for 2010 Pt II
So the end of the year is here and with it the final five beers in The Crafty Pint’s look back at 2010 through ten beers that combine quality with being representative of the current state of affairs…
H100: Around the Bay
The year’s almost out, meaning there’s little opportunity for brewers to launch beers in time for the 2010 Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll. That said, at True South they’re giving…
Bright's Bright Idea: MiniKegs
We all like our beer to be as fresh as possible and, in most cases, prefer to taste it straight from the keg – as evidenced by the popularity of growlers*. And now the good folks at Bright Brewery are…
Great Aussie SpecTAPular
Details of next year’s Great Aussie SpecTAPular have been announced, including the full list of brewers taking part and some of the one-off beers they’re making for the event. Highlights include a…
Crafty's Ten for 2010
First thing’s first: this is not a top ten or “Best of…” list. There will be plenty of those flying around and, as a site that doesn’t rate or review beers, it would seem a little odd to…
Hottest 100: Around Oz
There’s only a few weeks left for brewers to unleash new beers onto the Aussie public in 2010 if they hope to make an appearance in The Local Taphouse’s third Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll. And,…
The Beer Ashes
While Australia’s cricketers head back to the drawing board and try to work out where it all went wrong, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for those seeking victory over the old enemy. Because…
Josie Bones Opens
The TV shows were fun, but for Chris Badenoch the real thing starts today. Alongside fellow Masterchef contestant Julia Jenkins, he will open the doors of Josie Bones – the beer-centric restaurant…
Getting Flighty
A new monthly event can be added to Victorian beer lovers' calendars with the launch of Atticus Finch’s Beer Flights. Each will feature nine craft beers alongside a tasting plate – plus folks…
The Women of Beer
As quality, flavoursome craft beer makes ever greater inroads into the old order of bland, fizzy lagers, the world of beer is becoming less and less a male preserve. Cast your eyes over the Australian…
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Craft Beer H100: The Bars
With Australia’s first beer restaurant, Josie Bones, ready to throw its doors open to the public on Wedneday, this week’s look back at the best beers of 2010 comes with a twist. Instead of brewers,…
Christmas Comes Early
When you’ve grown up in the Northern Hemisphere, hot Christmases take some getting used to. It seems strange to have spangly decorations hanging above high streets and wrapped around lampposts; stranger…
Hop Rocking The Boat
It’s almost two years since Alpha Queen from Boatrocker first appeared in Aussie bars and bottleshops and turned heads with its highly hopped aromas and full flavours. For a debut release by a new brewing…
Draughting A New Style
It did seem a little odd – at least it did if you were able to stop admiring what a good beer it was to focus instead on its name: Draught Ale. In a bottle. The brewers knew it was a little odd too,…
The REAL Ashes
It turns out the five match series that’s just kicked off at the Gabba is merely a warm up for the real thing; the battle before the war. It’s on Australia Day next year that the gloves come…
H100: Yarra Valley Brewers
The Yarra Valley is known globally for its wine and, in more recent years, has been developing a reputation for beer too. Once home to a single brewery – Buckley’s in Healesville – it now has four:…
Beer & Travel: Ashes Special
You can tell the Ashes are about to start. Not because of the rabid press coverage both here and in the UK or the arrival on TV of Warnie, which one Twitterer has suggested is one of the Four Horsemen…
Oscar's Turns Two
It turns out that if you build it, they will come. After all, if someone had told you a few years ago they planned to open a craft beer bar on the edge of the Yarra Ranges – in the home of Puffing Billy…
Mixing On The Mount
The genie’s out of the bottle: beer cocktails have reached the hills! Just weeks after Crafty revealed Beer DeLuxe had launched a range of beer cocktails, some using beer as an ingredient, others…
Howling At The Moon
First, a reminiscence. Back in June, while following the exploits of the Beer Ambassadors as they toured America’s craft breweries, Crafty had a thought: “Someone in Australia should set up a brewery…
Calling All Brewers
In 2010, most of the major awards went overseas, so now it’s time for Aussie brewers to try and bring the trophies back home. Entries for the 2011 Australian International Beer Awards open next month…
Craft Beer H100: Mt Goat
Votes are pouring in for this year’s Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll – and choosing just five does appear to be proving tricky. One friend of Crafty restricted himself to beers he’d tasted for…
Lambs Go Bar Gone
Rumours have swirled for some time that one of Melbourne’s iconic beer bars was under threat. The leaseholders of the Lambs Go Bar, in Fitzroy, were aware that the building’s owner was considering…
Beer & Food: Double Trouble Chicken
We’re delighted to bring you our first homespun recipe, courtesy of Crafty reader Jenn Davidson, wife of November’s Blogger of the Month James and a fairly recent convert to the world of craft beer.…
East Coast Cruisin' Pt II
If losing one’s grip on the concept of time is one hazard of an ambitiously scheduled road trip, so is the need to take in sights at warp speed. The drive up to Mount Tamborine from the Gold Coast is…
A Taste Of The Exotic
Drinkers in Melbourne will be able to get a taste of something a little different later this week when a pop-up version of the Shebeen Bar opens. Taking its name from the illicit bars that sprung up in…
Craft Beer H100: Bridge Rd
Voting is underway in the latest Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll as beer lovers across Australia pick the beers that have made the biggest impression on them in 2010. It’s the third time The Local…
Beer & Food: Offally Good Part II
With Josie Bones just weeks away from opening, what better time to whet your appetite for crazy meat dishes washed down with awesome beers? So, as promised earlier, here’s the second of the recipes from…
Fleshing Out The Bones
It’s a journey that’s taken in Masterchef, Iron Chef, the Beer Masons and scurrilous tabloid column inches, but one that’s finally nearing its end. The body of the bar is in place, the industrial…
Not So Little Creatures
Congratulations are in order as today marks the tenth anniversary of the launch of Little Creatures. On the morning of November 10, 2000, the doors of the Freo brewery were opened to the public for the…
Taphouse On Top Again
The Local Taphouse in St Kilda has been named Australia’s Best Beer Bar in the inaugural Beer & Brewer magazine Best Beer Venue Awards. It completes a double for the Local Taphouses after the…
Blog of the Month: Beer Bar Band
Beer, bars and bands. Is there a finer trio of activities on which to dedicate your spare time? Certainly not in the mind of James Davidson, aka jayelde, creator of the blog of the same name that’s dedicated…
The Best Of Aussie
They’ve taken drinkers to Canada, Germany and the States, assaulted their palates with hard-hitting hop bombs and warmed their cockles with roasted malts in winter. And now they’re heading…
Brew & A: Red Hill
As a brewery, Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula produces beers in which the ingredients sit in perfect harmony with each other. Therefore it’s good to know that the brewers making them appear to have…
Beer Tastings In The Age
As the mainstream media begins to devote more attention to what is happening in the world of craft beer in Australia, the opportunities for The Crafty Pint seem to be on the rise. This week, M magazine…
Nail Bites Dog
Proving it’s not just wacky Scots who can play the marketing game, WA’s Nail Brewing has laid claim to the title of world’s most expensive beer after selling a limited release bottle…
More Crafty Venues
According to the kind words that have been coming our way over the past two months, it seems you like what we’re doing here at The Crafty Pint. However, we’re aware that our bottleshops section…
Doodling For Dough
A while back, The Crafty Pint penned a piece for the Sunday Age about a new bar concept that would give people the chance to fund projects in the developing world by doing little more than having a drink.…
East Coast Cruisin' Pt I
There’s a scene in Steve Martin’s 1970s big screen debut, The Jerk, in which his character Navin R Johnson lies in bed next to his new love recounting their fledgling romance. “I know we’ve only…
Beer & Food: Black Forest
OK, so other than the cherries added to the glass this isn’t strictly beer and food, but where else to file Crafty’s first beer cocktail? A couple of weeks back we brought you the news that Beer DeLuxe…
Craft Beer Is Hot!
Not too long ago, the question “What are your favourite five Aussie craft beers?” would probably have illicited one of two responses: “What’s a craft beer, mate?” (with the explanation followed…
Home and Hosed
The second Australian National Homebrewing Conference took place in Melbourne over the weekend. Hundreds of delegates from across Australia and further afield gathered at the William Angliss Institute…
Beelzebub Reborn
Of all the barrel-aged beers to roll out of Victoria’s breweries last year, perhaps the most exciting was Holgate’s Beelzebub’s Jewels. Taking their 8 percent ABV Belgian Dubbel style Double…
Beer & Food: Offally Good Part I
The official launch of Chris Badenoch’s book, The Entire Beast, took place last night. It’s the former Masterchef / current Iron Chef / future Josie Bones owner’s guide to using pretty much every…
Pint of Pumpkin, Please
Either The Crafty Pint timed this East Coast trip remarkably fortuitously or there’s so much innovation going on in Australia’s craft breweries these days that there are unexpected treats waiting around…
Crafty In The Press
The other day, an Age article on some of the more unusual beers currently available in Victoria drew 45 comments when it was posted online – a pretty impressive tally and hopefully an indication…
Fed Sq Winners Are In
The results of the People’s Choice Awards from last week’s Fed Square Victorian Microbreweries Showcase are in. They’re a way for the beer drinking public to have their say on who’s…
From Keller To Seller
Fresh is best when it comes to beer. And never more so than when dealing with a kellerbier. It’s a German style of lager – literally translated as cellar beer – that’s served totally unfiltered,…
Fed Sq Showcase Roundup
As the doors opened at 4.30pm on Wednesday afternoon and people started flooding in to the Fed Square Atrium, the Holgate Brewhouse team pointed out that The Crafty Pint had a stand next to theirs. It…
Thunderstruck
It’s no secret that a new brewery under the Thunder Road banner has been under construction in Brunswick for some months now. However, the team there has been keeping things so close to their collective…
