News & Feature Stories
Australian Beer Festivals 2016/17
There are few times of the year when a beer lover can't find a festival or beer week in some part of the country. To make it easy, we've gathered together the major events and beer weeks in one handy guide.
Events Wrap 16.09.16
Oooooom-pah! It's Oktoberfest, in case you didn't know, and there are plenty of places around the country at which you can celebrate it. And if that's not your scene, theres even more in store for you...
Be Part of Pint of Origin
Pint of Origin is a longstanding highlight of Good Beer Week and is starting to appear at other beer weeks too. Ahead of GBW 2017 registrations opening, we're inviting Melbourne venues to apply to become a PoO venue next year.
South Australia's Next Wave Pt II
Last Wednesday, we showcased three of the new brewing companies set to launch in SA in the coming months. Here, Matt King gets the lowdown on four more that hope to have their first beers out soon.
Aussie Exports: Brendan Without Borders
We head across The Ditch for our latest Aussie Exports feature. This time we chat to a familiar face from the Melbourne beer scene now working for Beer Without Borders in Auckland, Brendan Amos.
On Vocation
Despite the rapid growth of the beer industry, the number of courses designed to train and educate brewers has remained few. Now, a new one is to launch in NSW under the stewardship of Neal Cameron.
Cabal Update – 09.09.16
There's plenty of new stuff – both front and back of house – for us to tell you about in the latest fortnightly update from The Crafty Cabal, the beer lovers bonus scheme for our supporters.
Mead Made Modern
A tiny number of Australian brewers have played with mead and braggots, but there's now a small yet growing number of people specialising in these ancient beverages. Marie Claire Jarratt spoke to some of them in her debut article for the site.
South Australia's Next Wave Pt I
Recent years have seen the South Australian brewing scene expand rapidly. And there's little sign of things slowing down soon, as Matt King discovered when he made contact with the next wave of brewers coming through.
Aussies Win Big In London
Australian microbreweries collected both Supreme Champion trophies at last night's International Beer Challenge in London. Melbourne's Hawkers took out the brewery title with SA's Prancing Pony winning best beer.
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A Grave You Can Dig
Sailors Grave is a brewery breathing fresh life into the historic former butter factory in Orbost. Its core range includes a gose featuring locally harvested seaweed and its beers will start hitting Melbourne this month.
Events Wrap 02.09.16
Hello Spring, hello festival season! In today's roundup of the new events added to the calendar in the past fortnight, it's clear that beer festival season is upon us.
Big Little Bottleshops
As the Wine Republic team opens a third store and Slowbeer prepares to open a second in Fitzroy, Kerry McBride looks at the little bottleshops thinking big.
Behind Bars: Josh Edmeades
Is anyone better placed to tell you what's hot in the beer world than the beer gurus at the country's best venues? Today, we kick off Behind Bars, a series that asks bar staff around Australia what their customers are digging.
Gage Roads' Return To Independence
With many observers of the local beer world awaiting news of the next significant brewery buy out since Asahi took control of Mountain Goat, WA's Gage Roads is going the other way and buying back shares from Woolworths.
Cabal Update – 26.08.16
Plenty of new offers for Crafty Pint supporters this week, including some coming up this weekend. Updates on forthcoming events and a reminder that deadlines are approaching in some giveaways too.
Beer Travel: Malaysia
Five years ago, two Melbourne brothers enticed their cousins to join them and open a craft beer bar in Kuala Lumpur. Taps has ended up spawning Malaysia's nascent craft beer scene, as Kerry McBride discovers.
Pairings From Portland
Meet Paul Kasten, a chef who helped pioneer beer and food pairing in Portland and now calls Melbourne home. The head chef that helped launch new brewpub Stomping Ground is coming on board as a beer food expert at The Crafty Pint.
Now Is The Sour
While some might have forecast the renaissance that beer has been enjoying globally, would many have predicted the rise of sours? Award-winning writer Michael Donaldson laps up the tsunami of sours breaking on Kiwi shores.
Aussie Exports: Jimmy Krekelberg
From homebrewing in Victoria to hammering at the doors of breweries in Scotland then ending up at one of the world's best in The Netherlands, life on the road's turned out pretty darn well for Jimmy Krekelberg.
Events Wrap 19.08.16
Do you like your beer on the move, aged in barrels, stuck in a can, sunk by the stein, dressed in drag or shuffled along a bingo board? Well then, you're in luck as there's an event for you in the coming days and weeks.
The Story Of: Bridge Road Brewers Chevalier Saison
It's Australia's longest brewed saison, a style that's becoming increasingly popular, and continues to charm drinkers and judges alike. Will Ziebell brings us the story behind Bridge Road's Chevalier Saison.
Brewed With Balls
There's little left for brewers to put into beer. Locally, we've seen squid ink, belly button fluff and whale vomit used, while elsewhere there's been much more besides, as showcased in the new Brewed With Balls book.
Storming the Beaches
4 Pines is to further stamp its claim to be a Northern Beaches brewery with the opening of three new venues over the coming months. They include a restaurant, speciality barrel-aged beer venue and a bakery.
Arts & Craft
The link between beer and art has never been stronger than it is today. Kerry McBride speaks to three breweries from Australia and overseas in order to explore how a label can be so much more than just a label.
Who Brews Valhalla Beers?
For our latest Who Brews...? feature, we head to the Surf Coast where crowd-funding helped Valhalla get off the ground. Their second release is coming soon, while are plans for a taproom on the coast too.
Cabal Update – 12/08/16
We've got a whopper of an update for you from inside The Crafty Cabal, featuring winners, VIP passes, a special sign up incentive, more events and a pile of new deals and offers at venues and breweries.
Beer Travel: NZ Tiki Tour IV Wine Country
In the final part of his Tiki Tour around the breweries of New Zealand's central North Island, Nick Oscilowski takes in the wine regions of the east coast before ending up in the middle...
What Drinkers Want
The biggest ever survey of Australian craft beer drinkers has been carried out by Sydney bottleshop Beer Cartel. The results of what they plan to turn into an annual survey are out today.
Back In Black
A new brewery has risen on the site of Duckstein's former Margaret River location, with the man who built the original brewery returning at the helm. Ross Lewis spoke to Paul Gasmier about being back in Black.
Aussie Beer Blogs: New South Ales
It's time to showcase another Aussie beer blog. New South Ales is one of the best-looking we've seen, run by a writer / photographer couple who focus on the people and stories making the NSW beer scene what it is.
Brew & A: Green Beacon
It's a big year for Green Beacon. The Brisbane brewery came close to winning an AIBA Champion Brewery trophy, won at the Craft Beer Awards and has started work on a production brewery. Here's the man behind their beers.
Serendipity on the Sunshine Coast
We meet the man heading up Brouhaha on the Sunshine Coast, a man who sent off a job application from Hong Kong airport in hope and ended up overseeing the expansion of London's Beavertown Brewery.
Beer Nuts: ‘Manda Lê
Beer Nuts is our occasional series that showcases the most colourful characters in Australia's craft beer community. And few are more colourful than ‘Manda Lê, a chameleon-haired longstanding fixture in the Melbourne scene.
CANimalia
It's not just standard tinnies that are on the rise in the local craft beer world. Slowly but surely, more venues and breweries are investing in CANimals, the repurposed food packing technology pioneered by Oskar Blues in the US.
Events Wrap – 05.08.16
From IPA Day to birthdays, moving festivals to Oktoberfest celebrations, degustations paired with beer through to dark beer and sea shanties, August really does have it all – including the launch of the very first Crafty Cabale.
A Day In The Life Of A: Senior Brewer
What's life like as a commercial brewer? We spent a day with Adrian McNulty, the well-travelled brewer now in the Señor role at Moon Dog, to find out what goes into heading up brewing operations at one of Australia's quirkiest breweries.
Serving And Enjoying Beer
So, you've picked up a beer from your local brewery or bottleshop, now how can you ensure it's kept in the best possible condition? And what is the best way to serve it?
Getting Blind with Crafty: IPA (Part II)
After two sessions, we've now put 40 Australian brewed IPAs to the test. In part II, we set about blind tasting beers weighing 6.5 percent and above. And here's the results; how did your favourites fare?
How Beer Is Made
Learn the basics of brewing beer, from the ingredient that go into to the processes brewers go through before a beer leaves the brewery and makes its way to your glass.
Drinking In Style: IPA
In advance of publishing the results from part II of our IPA blind tasting, our Resident Beer Scholar returns with a look at the style. Busting myths and telling the IPA's tale from the 18th century through to today's frenzied hop obsession.
Beer In Australia: An Introduction
This is a slightly shortened version of one of the chapters in The Great Australian Beer Guide, written by The Crafty Pint's founder James Smith and published by Hardie Grant in 2016.
The Great Australian Beer Guide Is Out
The Crafty Pint's founder has written his second beer book. The Great Australian Beer Guide is out across the country from today. It's a colourful snapshot of the local beer scene told through 150 beers and breweries.
Home State Glory In Perth
Most of the silverware stayed at home at last night's Perth Royal Beer Show. Indeed, much of it ended up headed to one place: the joint brewery shared by Feral and Nail, with other winners including Billabong, Gage Roads and Elmar's.
Cold As Ice – Brewing In Antarctica
In Antarctica, beer selection is understandably limited. But a group of Australian Antarctic researchers is helping to broaden the options via a growing homebrewing program at Australian research base Casey Station.
Cabal Update – 29/07/2016
We've got another party, another competition and our first "get in quick" exclusive event for you in the latest update from The Crafty Cabal, the beer lover bonus scheme for supporters of The Crafty Pint.
The Big Issue: Gotta Catch 'Em All II
In part I of Gotta Catch 'Em All, we looked at the rise of beer hunting, collecting and rating in the craft beer community. Today, we delve deeper in the company of a diverse panel from the beer world, including Untappd's co-founder.
The Big Issue: Gotta Catch 'Em All
For some, tasting every new, rare and highly rated beer has become an addiction, one that's aided by sites and apps like RateBeer and Untappd. Over two days, Kerry McBride explores whether this is a good thing for beer.
Beer Travel: NZ Tiki Tour III Greater Wellington
Wellington may have the big name reputation when it comes to craft beer, but it’s being rivalled by what’s brewing in its outer regions, as Nick O discovers on the third of his four-part saunter through the North Island.
The Crafty Dozen – July 2016
It's only a few weeks since our last roundup of new listings on the site but, as the Crafty team expands with the industry, we're adding them faster than ever. So here's 12 more breweries, bars and bottleshops for you.
