News & Feature Stories
A Dozen More
We've added a dozen more new listings to our brewery, venue and bottleshop directories since our last roundup. So, as has become our habit, here they are collected in one place in case you missed them first time around.
A Pallet For Your Palates
In a rare turnaround in traditions, Australia is exporting something crafted and beer-related to America. It's not beer, however, but new thinking drinker's beer mag Pallet, a joint venture between two Aussie journos and Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head.
Toowoomba Becomes Brewoomba
The Spotted Cow in Toowoomba was one of the first Queensland venues to embrace better beer more than a decade ago. Now it's one of three venues joining forces to create the city's first craft beer festival, Brewoomba.
High Five
Wollongong is set to welcome its second brewery. Glen Humphries joined Phil O'Shea at the home of Five Barrel Brewing as he prepared to brew his first beers. Look out for the brewery's launch in the coming weeks.
Getting Blind With Crafty: Pale Lagers
For our final blind tasting of 2015, we looked at a style that's becoming increasingly popular with Australian craft brewers: pale lagers. We lined up 26 different beers (including a few "New World" versions) from brewers big and small. And this is how they fared.
Chicks Drink Pink Beer
Recent successes for Two Birds Brewing here and overseas, plus a trophy for the Pink Boots Society's latest collaboration, shows the strength of women in beer. Beer drinking woman Kerry McBride finds out how life is for the ladies making waves in the craft beer world.
Drinking In Style: Pale Lagers
Love lager or keen to know a little more about the world's most popular style? Before we publish the results of our pale lager blind tasting, here's Resident Beer Scholar Chris Brady with another colourful journey into beer's multifarious past.
The Call of Hops
It was such a big deal, at first they thought it was a wind up. But it was true. The makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops III – one of the biggest gaming releases in history – really did want Gold Coast's Black Hops to create a beer for them.
Amalgamation For The Nation
Australia's longest running beer week kicks off tomorrow night. One of the defining features of this year's WA Beer Week is the proliferation of colourful collabs. Guy Southern gets the lowdown.
Who Brews The Other Castlemaine Beers?
A new brewing company that takes its name from its home town of Castlemaine has started up in Victoria. It brings a decidedly old school approach to its beers, so we decided to find out why.
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BentSpoke Beer For All
Just 18 months after opening the doors of its Canberra brewpub, BentSpoke Brewing today took possession of a second site that will allow them to increase production and package their beers.
Frothing At The Mag
Beer-loving historical book editor Emily Day wanted a beer mag to read while drinking in her favourite Melbourne pubs. So she went and created one. The first edition of Froth is out now.
Touch Wood
Boatrocker's Barrel Room is set for a soft launch tomorrow. Sitting across the road from the brewery, it will eventually house 300 barrels, as well as the 15-tap bar, making it one of the most ambitious ventures in the Australian beer world.
Back In The Dock
Since leaving the brewing company he put on the map, former Riverside man Dave Padden has relaunched as Akasha. After months brewing with friends at Rocks, he's about to release the first beers from his new Five Dock home.
Last Rites' First Rites
The microbrewery scene in Tasmania is in the midst of rapid growth. The latest to open its doors is Last Rites in Hobart. Premier Will Hodgman was there for the brewery's official opening. And so was Ruth Hawkins.
Sweet And Sour
A sour beer has been named Australia's best craft beer of 2015, while there was more champion glory for Two Birds and Modus Operandi, as well as Freo's Monk at last night's Craft Beer Awards in Sydney.
On A Mission
What with all the column inches and conversations we've dedicated to issues such as transparency, integrity, ownership and so on in recent weeks, we thought it was time The Crafty Pint came clean.
Capital Gains
Canberra has long been home to some of the finest beers in Australia, albeit on a small scale. As the capital's annual beer week and Beer Day Out approach, local home brewer Drew Sculthorpe finds the scene growing apace.
Beer Travel: Copenhagen
As he heads homewards from the northern reaches of Europe, wandering Tasmanian Bert Spinks finds time to dip his toes into the "stylish", "serious" and "eccentric" beer scene in Copenhagen.
Staving Away
After years of challenges and hurdles that would have forced others to give it up, Steve Drissell is finally set to open his Glebe brewpub Staves. Nick O traces his tale from illness-inducing home brews to 12-tap venue.
Craft Beer Risen
We will not be running Craft Beer Rising, our national day in celebration of Australian craft beer in 2016. Not that it isn't worth celebrating, we just won't be able to do it justice. And there are more ways than ever to celebrate this summer too.
The Big Story of a Small Beer
Guy Southern chatted to Colonial Brewing's manager-cum-raconteur Richard Moroney to get the story behind their uniquely packaged Small Ale. He walked away with an insight into the essence of beer and why it pays to remember that it is, after all, just beer.
Getting Blind With Crafty: Ownership Special
Part two of our examination of the issue of ownership in the craft beer world is a blind tasting special. In it, we pit beers from the big brewers, major retailers and multinationals against those from small independent Australian brewing companies.
The Big Issue: Ownership
Takeovers and buy-ins, supermarket craft and vague labelling. Both here and internationally, the issue of ownership and its impact on the beer world is constantly in the news. Over two days, we look at what it means for craft beer and those who drink it in Australia.
The Big Issue: Ownership Infographic
Today, we launch a two-part series looking at the issue of ownership in the Australian beer world. As well as seeking the views of various people in the industry, we have compiled a fun graphic showing who's behind some small Australian brands.
Breaking Out The Beers
Earlier this year, we revealed that four of Australia's to surfers were planning to open a brewery on the Gold Coast. As Balter's opening moves closer, we catch up with their trophy-winning brewer to see what he has planned.
A Decade Of Duck
Red Duck this week marks a decade of brewing. It's been a decade in which boundaries have been pushed and history plundered for inspiration, with spirits next on the agenda.
Beer Travel: Iceland
Join us on a colourful journey through Iceland's craft beer world as Tasmanian storyteller Bert Spinks is guided along the way by an etymologist polymath, local brewers and his own love of dark beers...
Music To Your Beers
Hear the band, drink the beer! The Crafty Pint explores the not-so-unlikely world of collaborations between musician and brewer. And discovers a surprising number of beer nuts that fall into both camps.
The Collaborators: Barellan Along As One
Hops tend to grab most of the glory in today's beer world, yet barley is beer's backbone. And barley is the star of one rural community's beer, a brew celebrating local Barellan farmers.
Same Same But Different
Mountain Goat's new GM tells us that nothing will be changing at the brewery since Asahi's takeover, other than the brewery having access to Asahi's greater reach. Meanwhile, what does the news mean for beer in Australia?
Beer Food: Butchers With Butchers
As the South Australian craft beer industry continues to grow, it's reaching beyond the breweries, brewpubs and beer bars to forge partnerships throughout Adelaide's food and beverage scene.
Mountain Goat Bought By Asahi
Melbourne's longest established microbrewery, Mountain Goat, has been bought by Asahi. The Japanese company has taken a 100 percent ownership stake in the Richmond based company as of today.
Beer Travel: New England
There aren't many areas of Australia without a microbrewery or two serving the locals. New England is no exception, as Matthew Taylor discovered when he toured the region. Already there are three, with a fourth on the way.
Setting The Gold Coast Free
The Gold Coast is set to welcome its first ever craft beer focused festival when Free The Hops lands at bars over ten days next month. James Graham spoke to some of those involved to find out more.
Glory For Sydney In Sydney
The Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Awards saw the Sydney Brewery take out trophies in both beer and cider, with the majority of the record number of golds awarded also going to NSW breweries.
Flaming Gala
A visit to the Good Beer Week Gala Showcase in March led one beer lover to launch his own beer business. We joined Ben's Brew Tours on one of its first tours.
Who Brews Stompbox?
Fledgling brewery kick|snare created quite the buzz around Launceston when its IPA Stomp Box hit taps. The first of the musically inspired to come from its own brewing kit are launched this weekend.
An Old Dog's New Tricks
A Tasmanian brewer hit hard by the collapse of an equipment supplier is finally about to brew its first beers. We caught up with The Winston's Kris Miles.
Brew & A: Will from Feral Brewing
WA's Feral Brewing has been a genuine trailblazer for the Australian beer industry. Key to their success in recent years has been brewer Will Irving, owner Brendan Varis' trusted lieutenant in the breweries.
Who Brews Venom?
After a lifetime growing up in pubs and working for breweries, Joel Drysdale has brought friends and family into his new brewing venture, Venom, which launched recently with the Kiwi-hopped Golden Ale.
Australia's Winning Edge
Australian brewers continued their success at the UK's prestigious International Beer Challenge as Edge Brewing Project followed in the footsteps of Redoak and Hawthorn Brewing Company.
Five Years Of Endeavour
They are one of the longest-running contract brewing companies in Australia and put a unique spin on their beers. As they celebrated turning five, Nick Oscilowski chatted with two-thirds of the Endeavour team about their unusual path to success.
To Serve Brewmanity
An unlikely alliance between Melbourne's beer and footy worlds has been formed with a mission to raise awareness and funds to fight motor neurone disease through beer. Andrew Tijs joined the Brewmanity team on brew day.
James Halliday Feature: Rise of the Brewpub
Amid all the new brewing companies launching across Australia, the brewpub format is proving increasingly popular. Crafty Pint founder James Smith spoke to the men behind two of the newest.
Finely Crafted Comedy
When the Melbourne Fringe starts next week, craft beer will be on the lineup as home brewing, beer hawking standup Blake Willoughby takes his "Brewed Thoughts" on stage.
Beers Out Back
It took Ben Carwyn longer than he hoped to add a bar to his Thornbury store. But, as its first birthday approaches, the Backroom Bar at Carwyn Cellars has already become something of a north Melbourne institution.
Crafty Like A Fox
For the most part, Australia's restaurants are paying little more than lip service to good beer. Footscray's Fox in the Corn, however, is a shining example of how well it can be done.
Beer Food With Beersine: Steak with Beernaise Sauce
The beer food guru behind Beersine is back with another of his favourite beer food recipes. This time Mitch offers up his versatile twist on Béarnaise sauce as well as what to pair with it.
Beer Travel: The Scottish Isles
The outer reaches of Scotland are among the most beautiful places on the planet. Wandering writer Bert Spinks visited a number of its isles, checking out the breweries as he went.
