News & Feature Stories
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…
Get more Crafty!
Sign up to our newsletters and get the latest craft beer news delivered free to your inbox. Choose from our Friday Roundup of the week, the quick-read, social feed-like Crafty Cuppa – or both!
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…
Surprise, Surprise!
The bi-annual Victorian Microbreweries Showcase is almost upon us, with another two days of sellout crowds expected in the Fed Square Atrium as more than 20 breweries and brewing companies get the chance…
Murray's Hit Melbourne
There’s been rejoicing in bottleshop aisles this weekend as the first major delivery of beer from Murray’s, one of NSW’s finest breweries, arrived in Melbourne. They’re going one…
Beer Cocktails
From the people that brought you Mountain Goat malt shakes come Beer Cocktails! Yep, that’s right. The folks at Beer DeLuxe are continuing along their path to educate drinkers about beer in the most…
Winner!
Come on down, James Davis, the winner of The Crafty Pint’s first competition. A pair of passes for next week’s Federation Square Microbreweries Showcase is winging its way to you now. To everyone…
Building A Temple To Beer
It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for*. And so it is that, after several months of radio silence and a conspicuous absence from taps and bottleshop fridges, the Temple Brewing team is preparing…
Brew & A: The Kooinda Crew
When they started out in 2008, the Kooinda team’s tale was the epitome of the craft beer dream: four families pulling together to find the time and money to build a tiny brewery in a suburban backyard.…
Tasting Times Ahead
Terrible pun aside, it does seem the opportunities for people to sample new beers are growing. A friend of The Crafty Pint sent in some photos of the inaugural Matilda Bay Beer ‘n’ Bites at Prahran…
Otway Gets X-Rated
They always seem to be chasing new experiences down at Otway Estate. Already home to one of the biggest ranges of beers under the Prickly Moses and Otway banners, barely a moment seems to pass without…
The Beer Frontier
No doubt many of you who tuned into the adventures of Oz and James on SBS’s Drink for Britain as they toured the UK supping beers aplenty on their search for the drink that defined Britain sat there…
Ale Lovers: Get Pumped!
Anyone who’s visited the UK and toured its pubs will no doubt have enjoyed a pint or two of real ale poured from a traditional beer engine – you know, the sort with the long wooden handle that…
Beer & Food: Salmon and Strawberry Appetiser
Anyone that’s picked up a bottle or three of Red Hill’s Temptation might want to give this a try – it’s the recipe for the dish that was matched with it at a beer dinner at St Kilda’s Circa restaurant…
Cider Season
If the culmination of the country’s two biggest winter sporting competitions over the weekend wasn’t confirmation enough that Spring has sprung, the arrival of a new cider in readiness for the summer…
COMPETITION: Win free passes to the Fed Square Microbreweries Showcase
If there’s a better way to sample a load of the best new brews coming out of Victoria, we’ve yet to discover it. So it’s little wonder the past couple of Microbreweries Showcases at Melbourne’s…
Blog of the Month: eat, drink, stagger
If there’s one thing The Crafty Pint likes to be, it’s fair to one and all. So, having had Beer Blokes as the first featured blog, it’s time to redress the balance. We’re not saying Prof Pilsner…
Beer & Food: Carbonnade of Beef from the Courthouse Hotel
Judging by the growing number of beer dinners indicates, the pairing of beer and food is becoming ever more popular, aided by the likes of high profile characters like Paul Mercurio and Chris Badenoch…
Oktoberfest Roundup
When The Crafty Pint lived in Munich many moons ago, it was unlucky / lucky enough never to attend the Oktoberfest (depending whose view you listen to). Those who have been suggest that the number of Aussies…
Your Local Bottleshop
Their two bars already turn over 200 different beers on tap every year and now the Local Taphouse empire is to expand into the realm of take home beers. The team behind the St Kilda bar has already been…
Beer & Bites
The local market is always a good place to sample tasty produce: a little cheese, the odd pickle or two – and now beer. Matilda Bay will be setting up shop in Melbourne’s Prahran Market and…
Mornington Opens Friday
Australia’s newest brewery will open its doors to the public for the first time this Friday. The Mornington Peninsula Brewery will be pouring an American Pale Ale, English Brown Ale and Belgian Witbier…
Grand Final - Great Beer
Want to know how multi-talented Aussie beer people are? Then check out the Grand Final Breakfast on Channel 7 this morning. At some point, a comedy duo called Elbowskin will perform a song about the game.…
Taphouse Retains Title
The Local Taphouse has been named Best Specialty Beer Venue for the second year running at the Australian Bar Awards. It picked up the award at Bartender Magazine’s glitzy award ceremony in the Grand…
Grand Final Beers
When Geelong and Hawthorn met in the 2008 Grand Final, the fridge and sinks where The Crafty Pint watched the match were filled with Cooper’s and Mountain Goat. Twelve months later and the vastly…
Brew & A: Bridge Road's Nardia McGrath
Whatever the current VB ads might have you believe, beer is anything but an exclusively male world. Look around the bars and breweries of Australia and you’ll find female brewers and bar owners, Beer…
How Beer Is Made 2
It’s been around for millennia and takes on all manner of guises, yet making good beer’s really all about understanding how to use four simple ingredients in harmony: water, grain, yeast and hops. In…
Koo's A Big Boy Now?
Theirs is one of the best stories among a multitude of good ones in the Australian craft beer revolution: a bunch of mates who liked good beer and spent every spare moment over several years pulling in…
Who Invited Brett?
Brett. A good Aussie name. One you could imagine belonging to a larrikin. The sort of larrikin who’s generally a pretty good sort but might gatecrash the odd party. And when he does, it’s 50/50…
Our Man In: America
A trio of Aussie beer lovers, who work in various roles in the Melbourne beer world, recently embarked on a 25 day tour of American breweries and beer bars. One of them, Tom Delmont, reflects on some of the lessons learnt amid the many fine beers.
Australia's Next Brewery
Chances are there were many grand plans concocted over numerous beers on the day the Hawks won the flag in 2008. Equally, the chances are that few were remembered the following morning, let alone actually…
Brew & A: Holgate's Ian Morgan
Ian Morgan is Paul Holgate’s right hand man at the Woodend brewery. The one-time US Marine is also an avid student of the history of beer, as you’ll see from his two-part feature “How Beer Is Made”…
A Peek At Purvis
The boxes are being emptied and the shelves laden with 100s of beers as the team from Purvis Cellars prepares to open the door on its new venture, Purvis Beer. The beer-only store in the heart of Richmond…
Hello. And Welcome!
Amazing things are happening in the world of Australian beer. Across the country, new breweries, beer bars and bottleshops dedicated to uniquely crafted beer are opening every month. The range and variety…
How Beer Is Made
Beer: in essence just water, grain and yeast – usually with a bunch of hops added – yet capable of being tailored into all manner of weird and wonderful concoctions. With a history stretching back…
More Beer for Melbourne
Frankly, Melburnian beer lovers are a lucky (spoilt?) little bunch. Certainly that was the view of plenty of out-of-towners at last week’s Beer Lover’s Guide To Australia launch. The most beer…
Blog of the Month: Beer Blokes
Anyone who’s a regular at beer events around Victoria will have come across Prof Pilsner: wise-cracking beer dinner host, restaurant manager, beer blogger and all round top bloke. He also gave The Crafty…
Newton's Third Beer Law
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So said Sir Isaac Newton, a man whose most famous moment of inspiration suggests he was more of a cider man, but whose Third Law could easily…
Beer Shakes!
The crazies at Denmark’s Mikkeller brewery are doing their best to redefine the concept of breakfast beer with their superb dark range and, courtesy of the boys at Beermen.tv, May’s Beer & Brewer Expo…
