When owners Karen and Dave Golding made the decision to close the cellar door at Red Hill earlier this year, there was a genuine outpouring of sadness within the local beer community. Yet, while it was…
When we kicked off our mini-series looking at beer names – what makes a good one, how do brewers come up with them, does it matter, and so on – we mentioned Feral’s Hop Hog as one that worked so…
Among the new listings added to the site at the start of this month was one of the more idiosyncratic breweries in the land. Bacchus Brewing combines a huge home brew emporium with a multiple brewhouse…
Victoria’s summer of beer is taking shape, with less than two months to go until Beers By The Bay lands at Mornington Racecourse to herald three outdoor beer festivals in little more than ten weeks.…
It’s little over 18 months since the Victorian Women of Beer took to the stage at the Thornbury Theatre during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. Since then, some of those on stage have helped…
It was a quiet week in terms of craft beer events last week – at least according to the Craft Pint Events Diary – so we let the Planner take a week off to recharge the batteries. It looks like…
In the second of The Crafty Pint’s previews of the forthcoming Sydney Craft Beer Week, we look at some of the interstate and overseas brews and brewers making the journey to Sydney… Regardless…
We all enjoy surprises. Like finding a twenty dollar note in a pair of jeans at the bottom of the wardrobe or a bottle of imperial stout you thought long quaffed at the back of the beer fridge. Coming…
For a long while, craft beer has been considered a sleeping giant in Sydney. But perhaps, finally, the giant has awoken from its slumber. There are increasing signs that it is rising and stretching its…
Queen Bee, Ragnarok, The Ox, Ugly Duckling, Smells Like A Pony, Bear, Hop Bach, Canute the Gruit… When it comes to beer names, Red Duck tends to be as off the wall as it with the beers it brews.…
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Beer lovers have never been so spoiled for choice when it comes to festivals – especially if they live in Victoria. Following the success of this year’s inaugural Ballarat Beer Festival, the…
With Sydney Craft Beer Week 2012 looming, The Crafty Pint will spend the next few weeks taking a peek at some of the events happening across the city. First up, we look at what’s going down in Newtown…. If…
Beer names. Do they matter? If so, why? And how do brewers come up with theirs? As we explained here, The Crafty Pint’s involvement in naming a couple of beers got us thinking about it. And rather than…
Does the name of a beer matter? Are you likely to wander into a bottleshop or bar and be swayed into trying a beer because it has a name that catches your eye? Or do you want to know what style is coming…
Ever wondered what it’s like to undertake the journey from home brewer to commercial brewer? As he stands on the verge of commissioning his own brewery, Matt Houghton, co-founder of the Boatrocker Brewing…
There’s no shortage of breweries in Australia these days. Or indeed brewing companies. Or people in the process of setting up a brewery. Or, at the very least, those talking excitedly about a future…
OK, so we’re posting this a little later than usual this week, but according to the Events Diary, this week’s craft beer action starts in earnest across the land tonight. And there’s…
Hey everyone – The Crafty Pint is two! Well, in all honesty, we turned two at the weekend, but Crafty Towers has been infiltrated by all manner of unpleasantries over the past ten days, with everything…
From the beaches of Western Australia to the streets of Launceston. From a British inn in Melbourne to a brewery that makes more than 100 beers in a year. From men with lustrous beards to a former ice…
You may have come across Ale of a Time before. It’s been running for nigh on two years now, after all. If you haven’t, there’s a good chance you’ve come across its creator’s writing before anyhow.…
Bright Brewery has always enjoyed one of the most pleasant locations of all breweries in Australia. To one side, the Ovens River flows – perfect for a cooling dip in the hot summer months – while in…
Last time The Crafty Pint caught up with Warwick and Kylie Little, they left us hanging. “There’s something on the horizon. We just can’t tell you yet.” “It’s big news…
We knew there was something amiss when we noticed such a drop off in event listings from last week’s blockbuster to this week’s seeming drought. Nothing a friendly reminder to bar, brewers,…
When The Crafty Pint first attended a meeting of the Victorian Association of Microbreweries to explain our vision for the site a few years ago, the last line of the proposal we handed to the brewers in…
Just before Christmas last year, we brought you news of a brand new brewing company in Australia that was preparing to release its first beer into the world. Since then, the La Sirène Saison has gone…
“I can’t work out if it’s brilliant or dumb,” said Cam, when he first told The Crafty Pint about the pinnacle of Mountain Goat’s 15th birthday celebration plans. The answer, of course, was that…
What do you do when you know two champions of the brewing world are coming to your country at the same time? At the very least you invite them to collaborate on a beer together, even though one of them…
A few weeks' back, The Crafty Pint joined Dave Carswell, founder of the Melbourne By Foot tour company, on his latest venture. The Beer Lovers Guide To Melbourne is a nighttime walking tour of the CBD…
Better late than never… especially in this case with an especially busy week of craft beer events taking place across the country, starting tonight. There’s dinners, bocce, IPA fests, educational…
In 2011, the folks behind Beermen.tv decided to do something extra to help boost the profile of craft beer in Sydney. They got a few venues involved, borrowed a few spare hands and launched the first Sydney…
There was an emotional finale to the New Zealand Beer Awards last night as Christchurch brewery Harrington’s took out the title of Champion Brewery. Like many others, the stalwarts of the Kiwi beer…
Good Beer Week 2013 will play host to the inaugural CBIA Brewers’ Conference. The two-day event in the middle of the third festival has been announced this afternoon and will be run by the Craft Beer…
The Crafty Pint was invited to brew a beer for the Beervana Media Brew competition. Somehow we ended up creating a smoked imperial Belgian mussel and oyster stout. And somehow it came first with a perfect score...
After a few jam-packed weeks, it’s looking a little quieter in the Aussie craft beer world this week. That could be because there’s the small matter of Beervana kicking off in New Zealand and…
At some point or another, we've all been taken in by a smooth operator. The kind with the friendly face, infatuating gaze and a knowing smile. They'll invite you in, win your trust, then take the nose…
“This is the only time you’ll ever see a brewer in a white coat,” says Crown’s head brewer Tully Hadley as he dons one for the 2012 Crown Ambassador blending session. “When the cameras are present.” He…
Long before Bane, Catwoman or the Joker, Batman faced an opponent of equal cunning. He didn’t have a cape, mask or penchant for crazy makeup, but John Pascoe Fawkner did have a ship called the Enterprize…
Given we have a website dedicated to craft beer to keep us busy and in regular attendance at breweries, bars and beer festivals all over Australia and, occasionally, further afield, it’s not often that…
Another week, another cavalcade of craft beer events across the country. A week, in fact, that comes heavily loaded with events aimed at the ladies and ends with a couple of west coast beer degustations.…
Murray's brews out of nearby Port Stephens. Warners at the Bay has long had one of the largest beer selections in Australia. The Albion Hotel has fast become one of the best beer pubs in the country. And…
Last year, the James Halliday Wine Companion launched a bi-monthly magazine. The Crafty Pint was asked to contribute a feature on craft beer in Australia for the launch edition. The mission: tell the tale…
It’s fair to say that the Ballarat Beer Festival took a lot of people by surprise last summer. Some of the brewers ran out of beer. Hundreds – possibly even a couple of thousand people –…
Of all the works in Michael Palin’s oeuvre, the TV drama East of Ipswich is probably among the least well known. Based on memories of his holidays in miserable British east coast holiday towns, enlivened…
Over the nigh-on two years that The Crafty Pint has been up and running, we’ve taken the time out on a couple of occasions to wrap up all the Crafty-penned articles that have appeared elsewhere online.…
Back in the 1980s, Saturday mornings in the Pint household were never properly underway until the opening bars of the MASK theme tune kicked in. It was, quite clearly, a poor man’s rip off of Transformers…
Fancy parmas, a month of Goats, the opportunity for some trans-Tasman love (and a spot of Monty Python quoting), beer movies, events for the ladies and more – the week ahead in craft beer in Australia…
Driving from Perth to Margaret River takes less than three hours, which can make it easy to find yourself over-indulging in long winery lunches, strolling on postcard picture beaches or rambling on to…
A wonderful thing about history is the way it allows us to look back and pinpoint exactly when things changed. One moment things are following a particular path, then something happens to set things in…
Thirteen years after brew number one, Holgate this month hit 900. To mark the occasion, they invited a few people along for the day, including members of Bendigo Beer and staff from the Royston, The Terminus…
Roll up, roll up: the eighth Tasmanian Beerfest is open for business. Having welcomed more than 12,000 punters through its doors in 2011, the organisers have plans to make the festival at Hobart’s…