News & Feature Stories
Reduced To Beers
A Perth restaurant is taking the beer cocktail concept to another level. At Baby Mammoth, they're creating beer vermouths with local and imported craft beers to use within cocktails, a Pia Poynton discovers.
Calling All Beer Media
Submissions are open for the 2016 Australian International Beer Awards, which includes a new trophy for New World Pale Ales. It's also a third chance for people covering the beer world to be crowned AIBA Media champ.
The Story Of: Watermelon Warhead
We're kicking off a new series looking at the story behind some of the coolest, most iconic and downright funky beers to come out of Australia. With 100 kegs ready for a major release, first up is Feral's Watermelon Warhead.
The Collaborators: Getting A Handle On The Beer World
It's not just brewers and those that sell their beer that are thriving as the craft beer industry grows; others are sharing in the success. One WA firm has a fast-growing division that has small brewers to thank for its existence.
New Events Wrap – 12.02.16
Want to know what's coming up in the beer world? Every week, we'll be rounding up all the latest beer events added to the Crafty Pint Events Diary. If you'd like to see yours appear there and here, drop us a line at events@craftypint.com.
A Farmer's Tail
Beard and Brau started out in an Adelaide warehouse. But its owners, Chris and Tanya, always dreamed of a more rural life. Today, they have it, running an award-winning environmentally-focused farmhouse brewery in South East Queensland.
Stop, Collaborate & Mill In
As recently as five years ago, a brewing collaboration was a genuine novelty in Australia. These days, as this look at what's brewing in SA right now, it's far more commonplace, even if the outcomes turn out to be genuine novelties themselves.
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Cicerone certified staff, expertly curated beer lists and fine food and wine in the very heart of Perth. The WA capital has been slow on the craft beer uptake but, as Petition Beer Corner shows, now it's catching up it's doing it in real style.
Mads For Aussie Beer
As Noma Australia's long sold out run kicks off in Sydney, it's not just the ingredients on the plate that have a strong Australian focus. The drinks list features several Australian beers, including some created especially for the restaurant.
Drinking History
After researching the Australian Sparkling Pale Ale style for America's Brewing Network, Peter Symons began to delve further into historical Australian beer. The result is Bronzed Brews, a book blending history with 42 home brew recipes for historical beers.
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Who Brews Norman, Brian & Randy Daniels?
From a Surry Hills vegetarian restaurant of the same name sprung Yulli's Brews. Stepping in tandem into the brewing world are Yulli's founder Karl Cooney and homebrewing staff member James Harvey. With their first of their beers now in cans, we find out more.
Arrogant Bootlegging Bastards
Margaret River brewery Bootleg has scored quite the coup and been invited to become one of a handful of breweries invited to brew Stone's legendary Arrogant Bastard. And all because of a bit of cheek and a spot of mountain biking through WA.
The Collaborators: A Glimmer Of Hops
With hops in ever greater demand and supply shortages increasingly common, a South Australian is hoping to bring hop farming back to the Adelaide Hills. Matt King caught up with Stuart Binnion as he prepares for his first harvest.
Beer Travel: Hunting Down The Hottest 100
At the denouement of the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2014 poll, Dan "Crafty Kev" McEvilly set himself the challenge of trying them all. A year on, he tells us about his mission and how the beer world rallied to help his cause.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2015: Analysis
Once again, the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers results have led to much debate. There were some clear winners and some surprises too. Here's what we thought the 2015 results suggested about the local beer scene.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2015: The New Kids
Among the winners in yesterday's Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2015 countdown were three breweries new to the list in 2015. Pirate Life and Hawkers Beer both launched in 2015, while Big Shed came in with three entries. We spoke to them all.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2015: The Results
The votes are counted, the results are in, and we have a new (returning) number one: Stone & Wood Pacific Ale. Feral moves to number two while the big story is Pirate Life, with the new brewery taking two of the top four spots in its first year.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2015: Infographic
The results of the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2015 are out. So, as in 2014, we've done some number crunching so we can present some of the keys stats and trends to you in handy Infographic form.
Craft Shopping
Building upon their runaway success at in Croydon, the Public Brewery team has opened a second venue in a most unlikely spot: a shopping centre. The Cellar Door showcases local beer, wine and produce at Eastlands and could make mall shopping actually enjoyable.
Beer Travel: Adelaide's Craftiest Beer Gardens Part II
Last week, we kicked off a tour of some of Adelaide's craftiest beer gardens on a mission to find out what makes a beer garden great. Here's part two, as Matt King checks out another half dozen combining craft beer with al fresco action.
Beer Travel: Adelaide's Craftiest Beer Gardens
Summer's here, which means it's beer garden time. Matt King has been visiting many of the best and craftiest that Adelaide and surrounds has to offer, asking owners and patrons what makes a beer garden great.
Mining A Rich Seam
Visitors to WA's Great Southern region will probably have visited Boston Brewery and sampled its wares. Now, with a new brewery in place and bottling line on the way, you may not have to travel quite so far to check them out, as Pia Poynton discovered.
Beer Nuts: The Fletcher Brothers
There a few beer lovers anywhere in Australia who have tried as many beers as Jez and Sam Fletcher; certainly none who have documented their sampling in such fastidious detail. So we invited the brothers to be our first Beer Nuts double act.
The Geeks Inherit
More good news for SA's beer lovers as the brewing duo going by the name Little Bang have opened their own brewery and venue. It means bigger batches of their beers and yet another place where you can enjoy beer as fresh as fresh gets.
The Smoky, Hoppy, Spotty Dog
At the end of 2015, another new brewing company launched its first release into Tasmania's increasingly busy beer scene. Spotty Dog Brewers were already known to locals for their smoked BBQ treats; now they've got beer to go with it too.
The Big Issue: Quality
Is there anything more important when it comes to beer than quality, both when it leaves the brewery and the experience enjoyed by each drinker who buys a beer? For our first Big Issue feature of 2016, six experts share their views.
Best New Beers of 2015: Queensland
We reach the end of our state-by-state (and territory) look back at 2015's best new beers in Queensland. Darren "250 Beers" Magin sat down with fellow beer gurus to pluck ten of the finest new drops to grace the Sunshine State last year.
Best New Beers of 2015: New South Wales
Time for our penultimate look back on the year in beer. This time our attention turns to New South Wales, where a panel led by Nick O cast their minds back over 12 months and came up with the new releases that impressed them the most.
Best New Beers of 2015: ACT
ACT welcomed a new brewing company into the fold in 2015 as champion home brewer Kevin Hingston took his beers to market as Pact. It gave our ACT panel four local breweries to pick from for their best new releases in the territory this year.
Best New Beers of 2015: Victoria
For the fourth of our Best New Beers of 2015 roundups, we look at the state with the largest number of breweries and brewing companies. Which ten beers did our panel reckon were the best of the year? And do you agree?
Merry Christmas!
We received an early Christmas gift at Crafty Towers when, earlier this month, we passed the 1,000,000 page views mark for the year for the first time. So we're giving a couple of Crafty Cabal memberships away to celebrate. Merry Christmas!
Best New Beers of 2015: Western Australia
We're (almost) at the halfway mark in our look back at the new beers released across Australia in 2015. This time we move to WA, where two of our regular contributors joined a pair of local beer experts to select their pick of the year.
Who Brews As Bad Shepherd?
It's not that long ago that Dereck Hales took up home brewing. Soon afterwards, he was winning competitions for his beers. And now he's quit the corporate world to open the Bad Shepherd brewpub with wife Diti Haniotis in Cheltenham.
Best New Beers of 2015: South Australia
The beer scene is booming in South Australia. Recent years have seen an explosion of new brewing companies and there's now a growing number of venues supporting them. Matt King gathered a panel to pick the best new beers to come out of the state this year.
Who Brews Watts River Beers?
When Lion announced its decision to move White Rabbit to Geelong, many bemoaned its loss from Healesville. But now two former White Rabbit brewers and their partners have set about bringing a new brewery to the town.
Eastbound And Down
The southeastern suburbs of Melbourne are now home to a remarkable number of breweries. Kerry McBride spoke to some of the brewers now – or very soon to be – calling the area home about what makes it so appealing.
Best New Beers of 2015: Tasmania
We kick off our end of year best of roundups in Tasmania. A panel of beer gurus gathered at Saint John Craft Beer to chew the fat and come up with their top 10 from all the new releases in the state in 2015.
The Theatre Of Indulgence
New Collingwood venue The Craft & Co is looking to bring craft beer, spirits, meat and more together under one roof. The plan is also to give new brewing companies a foothold in the industry. Kerry McBride checked it out.
Vote For The Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers
It's time to vote for your favourite beers of 2015 as the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll returns. The poll launched by The Local Taphouse eight years ago has become a national event, with results announced once again on Australia Day.
Down The Rabbit Hole
Last year, Lion announced it was closing the White Rabbit brewery in Healesville and moving Little Creatures' little sibling to Geelong. The move – and considerable expansion and diversification – is now complete, as Kerry McBride discovered.
Canny Moovers
Tasmania's highest profile microbrewery has been celebrating its tenth birthday with a "Month of Moo" celebrations across the state. It enters its 11th year with plans to launch its beers in cans and sights set overseas, as Ruth Dawkins discovered.
Fixated On IPA
Australia is set to get its first IPA brewing company. Fixation is a new venture between the Stone & Wood Group and IPA-loving former Mountain Goat rep, Melbourne beer legend Tom Delmont, that will release nothing but India Pale Ales.
Enter The Cabal
Fancy helping us in our mission to elevate Australian craft beer to even greater heights and getting free beer and other awesome benefits at the same time? Then you can! By joining our new reader bonus scheme, The Crafty Cabal.
The Big Issue: Branding
As the beer landscape in Australia becomes ever more crowded and competition intensifies, it's not enough simply to brew good beer. How a brewery presents itself and its beers is perhaps more crucial then ever before, so we're addressing branding as our second "Big Issue" topic.
40 Acres Brewing
His working life as a Navy electrician has taken him to China, Vietnam, Malaysia and China again. But, following a holiday on the Murray, Trevor Mitchell has planted his family on land in Central Victoria and turned 25 years of home brewing nous into 40 Acres Brewing.
Five Star Deluxe Treatment
The long-mooted expansion of the Beer DeLuxe brand across Australia is gathering pace. In the coming weeks, new venues will open in Wagga Wagga and Darling Harbour with more planned, as Nick O discovers.
Beer Travel: Bushwalking with Beer
Having returned from the outer reaches of Northern Europe to his home state of Tasmania, wandering storyteller Bert Spinks has been out bushwalking. Here, he ponders the whys and wherefores of doing it with beer.
Who Brews Hair Of The Dog XPA?
They met as part of the Merri Mashers, one of the youngest yet most proactive home brew clubs in Victoria, then decided that if they were making good beer, while not test it out on the public. And thus was born Old Wives Ales.
Bowling for Brews
Many bowling clubs have embraced easy-going evenings of Barefoot Bowling to help them survive. Others are turning to craft beer. Kerry McBride joined brewers, beer lovers and bowlers at Melbourne's Flem-Ken Bowlo to find out why.
From Cellar to Shed
After almost a decade manning one of the most archaic brewing setups in Australia, Lord Nelson brewer Damon Nott has abandoned cellars and ladders for life in Adelaide's Big Shed. Matt King caught up with him as he started in his new role.
