It was last winter that word began to spread that one of Melbourne’s longest established microbreweries was on its last legs. To paraphrase Monty Python, it was beyond pining for the fjords and set to…
The 2013 NZ Brewers Guild Awards Dinner took place in Wellington last night and there were some names that will be very familiar to Aussie drinkers taking out trophies – as well as a few lesser known…
There’s a line in the Sh!t Beer Geeks Say! video in which one of the drinkers parodies the uber-exclusivity of some craft beers today. “This is a really limited release,” he says. “You can’t…
The advent of Untappd has made it easy for avid beer drinkers to document the journey on which their tastebuds takes them. But for one man, merely tapping “Check In” and giving beers a rating doesn’t…
Moo Brew’s Seasonal Stout and, in particular, its strictly limited release Vintage Barrel-Aged sibling are icons of the Australian craft beer scene. So, when the Tasmanian brewery announced that this…
It’s wasn’t that long ago that your best – and pretty much only – hope for a decent selection of craft beer in Hobart was the New Sydney. Today, the beer scene is booming, with the likes of Preachers*…
Just as craft beer in Australia has its origins in WA, so do beer weeks. While Melbourne’s Good Beer Week may be the most high profile of those in existence today, with others found in Queensland,…
Family breweries are hardly unique in Australia. Throughout the craft beer world, you will find tiny setups comprised of husband and wife, mum and dad, brother and sister, father and son. But, as far as…
The backend of The Crafty Pint has developed something of a Bermuda Triangle at the minute. Whenever we try to add a new beer to a brewery it disappears as soon as we hit “Publish” and the…
This month’s attendances at the Man Utd and Liverpool pre-season friendlies in Sydney and Melbourne have shown Aussies still have quite an appetite for certain British exports (despite the Ashes, Lions,…
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!
The Odyssey Tavern has been going great guns since bringing eight taps and multiple fridges full of craft beer to VIctoria’s Surf Coast last year. Yet it wasn’t living up to its name. From day one,…
Next year, Bootleg Brewery will celebrate two decades of craft brewing in Margaret River. It’s a quite remarkable achievement in a region known primarily for wine – and perhaps the odd shark or two.…
With our next piece for James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine sent off to the publishers today, it seems a good time to dust down another of our features for the mag. What’s more, our latest dip…
If you had the last keg of a limited release baltic porter, what would you do? Most of us would grab an empty glass and start pouring but Justin Fox, head brewer at Colonial Brewery, instead saw an opportunity…
In their increasingly challenging battle to meet the world’s insatiable desire, hop producers the world over are constantly looking to produce more hops. Not just more in terms of volume, but more in…
With the British & Irish Lions have beaten the Wallabies and Andy Murray the new King of Wimbledon, it seems only right to look north for inspiration for the latest featured blog. And where better to go…
Many fun things have come the way of The Crafty Pint since the site was launched: a night on an island in the middle of a croc-infested river; a trip to the States to talk about Aussie beer; beer trivia…
What with things having turned cooler for most of Australia, for the fifth Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel we decided it was time to turn towards the darker realms of the beer world. And, with the star…
After a brief post-Good Beer Week hiatus, the Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel returned this week and with it our regular series looking at beer styles is back. Crafty Towers' resident beer scholar (he’s…
Australia is blessed with many festivals dedicated to craft beer these days. But few, if any, do things as well as Beervana, the annual two-day festival in Wellington, as The Crafty Pint discovered when…
Anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to Boatrocker since the brewery’s first beer appeared will be well aware that its founder, Matt Houghton, is pretty fond of hops. The first beer, Alpha…
Tasmania is blessed with an abundance of amazing produce. Obviously, there’s the beer, but on previous trips we’ve sampled fantastic wines, cheeses, chocolates, salmon, ginseng, whisky, gin, mussels……
One of the defining features of the Australian craft beer world – and one of its finest attributes – is its all encompassing warm embrace. As highlighted by the seemingly unstoppable run of collaborations,…
The Stone & Wood story is one of the most remarkable in Australian craft beer. It’s less than five years since three mates decided to turn their back on the corporate beer world and literally live the…
At this year’s Good Beer Week, there was a dazzling array of events pairing beer and food in every way imaginable. Beer and fondue, IPAs and curry, beer and chocolate and so on and so on. Beer went…
Ever since The Crafty Pint launched in September 2010, we’ve been sending out weekly newsletters (almost) every Friday. Designed to wrap up the events of the past week, look ahead to what’s…
He’s only 26 but already Evan Hunter has made whisky at Lark Distillery (as pictured above) and brewed with Moo Brew and Seven Sheds. And now he’s set on opening his own brewpub – with your help.…
The Craft Beer Industry Association is on a roll. Last month’s Craft Brewers Conference – Australia’s first – was deemed a success by those who attended and saw the national association…
The craft beer scene in Queensland has been enjoying welcome growth in the past couple of years, with a steady rise in the number of quality beer bars and new breweries. Its home brewing scene is equally…
It’s more than 100 years since the last new brewery opened in Bendigo, according to Doug Brooke, and decades since the last one closed. But, thanks to him, the city only has to wait another couple of…
Given it’s been rather more than a month since we last ran a feature on one of the many colourful blogs that exist in the world of Aussie craft beer, the series' name is becoming a little less than accurate.…
At the risk of being castigated by the brewers, beer lovers and venue owners of our home state of Victoria, it’s been The Crafty Pint’s contention for some months now that there is currently no more…
Back in April, Elwood teacher Torben Vedelsby left the classroom to find voicemails and emails awaiting him from the Good Beer Week team. Did he still live in Melbourne? Did he remember filling in a survey…
Event: The Bishop & The Pope vs Red Hill Venue: Bishop of Ostia and Pope Joan, East Brunswick Date: May 22, 2013 Good Beer Week Stream: Foodie The Event: In 2012, the neighbouring East Brunswick venues…
Having blown up Melbourne’s Cherry Bar on the last night of Good Beer Week with a night of hard rock, blues and craft beer, the original instigator of the Rockstar Brews concept in Oz is teaming up with…
Event: Birra del Borgo Degustation Dinner Venue: The Wynn Room at Grossi Florentino Date: May 21, 2013 Good Beer Week Stream: Foodie Preamble: There is an unwritten law in the craft beer world which states:…
Darwin is set to host its first craft beer festival later this month. The Darwin Beer Festival takes over the city’s spectacular waterfront Convention Centre, with more than 80 craft beers and ciders…
The first Good Beer Week took us by surprise as it came out of nowhere. The second one took us by surprise as it went off so much more than the first one. This time around, the committee that runs the…
Back at the end of 2012, when compiling our 50 Beers of 2012 for James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine, we wrote: “The powers-that-be push stablemate Fat Yak but those in the know drink Matilda…
Event: Boilermaker at the Beaufort Venue: The Beaufort Date: May 21, 2013 Good Beer Week Stream: Beer Geek The Event: Many people’s knowledge of a boilermaker probably extends so far as a shot of whisky…
Somewhere in south west WA there is a brewery tank full of hefeweizen made with cacao husks. A few kilometers away is another brewery tank, but this one is full of porter made with coconut and vanilla…
Event: Cavalier Creation Degustation Venue: Slowbeer Date: May 21, 2013 Good Beer Week Stream: Foodie The Event Collaboration and craft beer are no strangers; whether it’s between two breweries…
The New South Wales craft beer scene has been bubbling away furiously in recent times and it’s finally spilling over into neighbouring Victoria for Good Beer Week 2013. It means that, this week, Melbourne…
There are a lot of very talented people in the craft beer world. And not just the brewers either. In our relatively short lifetime, The Crafty Pint has been lucky enough to work with a number of filmmakers,…
Event: The Big Apple & The Goat Venue: Mountain Goat Brewery Date: May 18, 2013 Good Beer Week Stream: Beer Geek The Event: Good Beer Week’s highlight Beer Geek event came in two parts. There…
The first event to sell out for this year’s Good Beer Week was gone in less than 12 hours. Others have been following with regularity ever since. So, as one of the festival’s media partners,…
The wait is almost over – the third Good Beer Week kicks off in less than 24 hours. The Crafty Pint will be there at 8.30am tomorrow morning for the start of the very first event, The Big Apple &…
It started as a bit of fun. Challenged with brewing an unusual beer for the Media Brew beer competition at Beervana, The Crafty Pint approached Murray’s to be its partner. They agreed and were soon afterwards…
New Zealand has a craft beer scene that sparked into life earlier than ours and, dare we say it, has a greater strength in depth than Australia (for now at least). We’ve been lucky enough to have…
The latest Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel was one with a touch of Good Beer Week about it. With the festival imminent – and amongst its attractions the expanded Pint of Origin state-by-state showcase…