Brewing
Brewed For Brendale
When we ran our Best New Queensland Beers Of 2018 feature, there was an honourable mention for a tiny brewery in Brisbane's northern suburbs. We soaked up the welcoming locals vibe at Brendale Brewing Co to find out more.
Beer Garden Brews
After a career in the mines, the Butterworths moved to Port Lincoln with their kids for a seachange. They took over a mothballed bakery and now the grain deliveries are flowing again to fill the mash tun at Beer Garden Brewing.
Solid Philosophy
As the number of breweries dotted along the South Coast of New South Wales starts to swell, the splendid little seaside town of Gerringong is the latest to get one of its own following the opening of Stoic Brewing.
Sowing The Seeds Of Hemp Beer
Young Henrys become the latest brewery to launch a hemp beer following law changes in Australia last year. We spoke to brewers using hemp as well as the researchers helping them get the flavours and aromas into their beers.
Free To Brew What We Want
Greater awareness around coeliac disease and gluten intolerance is leading to more GF products hitting the market, including beers. As a new gluten free brewery in Victoria nears opening, we find out more from brewers and researchers.
Brew & A: The Gold Coast Pioneers
Long before the Gold Coast became a hotbed of world class beer, a couple with young kids jacked in their jobs and built a brewery there. Eleven years on, we got back to the beginning and beyond with Peta and Brennan of Burleigh Brewing.
The Gypsy Lifestyle
As Barrow Boys winds down and West City Brewing makes a comeback under new ownership, we speak to three other brewers about the challenges facing gypsy/cuckoo/contract brewers in today's evolving beer world.
Brew & A: Andrew Robson of The Lord
He first learned about beer at his dad's legendary homebrew store and, after filling in where needed, rose to become head brewer at The Lord. On the back of his recent trophy win, we invited Andrew Robson to be part of our Brew & A series.
Brew A Batch – An Ethical Guide To Homebrewing
Brew A Batch is one of two quality beer books released in Australia in the lead up to Father's Day. It's a beginner's guide to homebrewing by Batch co-founder Chris Sidwa that delves into the brewer's ethos too. Judd Owen joined him to find out more.
Crafty Crawls: Brisbane's West End
Brisbane's West End (and the adjoining parts of the city) is awash with great beer venues these days. Heck, there are even breweries that call the 'burb home. So we made the area a focus of a Crafty Crawl – and have since updated it with even more goodness.
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Who Brews Coastal Beers?
After more than two decades spent in globe-trotting corporate careers, you'd think most people would head to the coast for a quiet life. Not so Helen and David Black. As their Forster based brewery approaches it's first birthday, we find out why.
Australian International Beer Awards Winners 2018
It was an eclectic collection of winners at the 2018 Australian International Beer Awards, with WA's Beerland taking out Champion Australian Beer and other major trophies for Mountain Goat, Green Beacon, Black Hops, Fixation, Brownstone, Philter and even one of our own.
Royal Blood's Capital Connection
High flying UK rockers Royal Blood are heading to Australia for Groovin The Moo. And they've created their own beer too. Thanks to a friendship with one of Capital Brewing's owners, they've created Royal Brew, a blood orange IPA.
Beer Travel: Christchurch
For a city with an extensive brewing history, Christchurch breweries are not as prominent in beer drinkers’ thoughts as those from Wellington and Auckland. But Our Man in New Zealand, Jono Galuszka, found a beer culture comfortable in its own skin.
From Rhineland To Richmond
He was winning awards for his beers before he was legally allowed to buy one before setting off to learn to brew in Germany – and trying to shake things up with his own brewing company. Now back in Australia, at the helm of Melbourne's Burnley Brewing, we catch up with Michael Stanzel.
Podcast People: Beer Sucks
Beer Sucks is a podcast run by three characters from the WA beer community: Tim Hoskins from Black Brewing, Adam Lesk from Cellarbrations Carlisle and Brendan Day from Cheeky Monkey. We find out more about the inspiration behind their off-the-wall show.
Aussie Exports: Trystam Hayden
He grew up skateboarding around the bar of Sydney's oldest continuously licensed pub, the Lord Nelson. Now, having moved to the other side of the planet, Trystam Hayden is keeping the family brewing tradition alive at the Britannia Brewing Co in Vancouver.
The Gang Of Sour
A Brunswick warehouse that initially housed Himmel Hünd's brewery has been turned into an incubator of sorts for small brewing companies playing with barrels. Will Ziebell finds out more.
What's In A Name?
While many brewers are happy to stick to the [Brewery Name] [Beer Style] format when naming their beers, there are plenty who take great pleasure coming up with beer titles. We find out why from three of the most avid fans of beery wordplay.
Best New ACT Beers Of 2017
With new openings, new venues and growth aplenty, it's been a big year in beer for the nation's capital. Here, we sift through around 40 new releases from ACT's brewing companies and try to agree upon the best.
Best New Tasmanian Beers Of 2017
For our roundup of the Best New Tasmanian Beers Of 2017, our inimitable wandering contributor Bert Spinks seeks the thoughts of beer folks across the state and ponders whether, in 2018, he should deliver the outcome in sonnet form.
Best New Queensland Beers Of 2017
We head to the Sunshine State to find out what our panelists thought were the best new beers released by Queensland brewers in 2017. There were so many, the ten became 11 – and even then there's some honourably mentions too.
Best New SA Beers Of 2017
We kicked off our annual Best New Beers lists in WA and now move across the Nullarbor to SA where a panel convened to cast their eyes over another big year for beer in the state. Who made their top ten?
Bottling The Farm
Van Dieman have released the first of their "estate ales" – beers brewed with ingredients grown and sourced entirely on Will Tatchell's family farm south of Launceston. Bert Spinks joined him for a tasting and tour of the farm he's finally bottled.
Who Brews Whalebone Beers?
Hoping to add local beer to the long list of reasons for visiting Exmouth is Whalebone Brewing Company, which takes its name - and some of its building materials - from the area it calls home.
Drinking Even More History
Early in 2016, Peter Symons published Bronzed Brews, a collection of 42 recipes for long lost Australian beers that homebrewers could bring back to life. He enjoyed it so much, he's already produced a second book.
I'd Buy That For A Dollar
Wu-Tang Clan, Papua New Guinean bank notes, Norwegian farmhouse brewing, truffle cheese, German techno DJs and pseudo-Lambic ales... It's fair to say Ballarat based Dollar Bill Brewing isn't your common or garden brewing company. We caught up with the couple behind it.
Who Brews On The Western Ridge?
From a single keg first release to expletive-bearing tinnies and nine other beers along the way, it's been a busy first 11 months for the fiercely local and independent Western Ridge Brewing Collective from the Barossa Valley.
Strait Forward
In the grand scheme of things, Tasmania isn't that far from the mainland. Yet the Bass Strait has proven a challenging hurdle for most of the state's small brewers. Change could be at hand, however, as Will Ziebell discovers.
Garage Project On Top At NZ Beer Awards
Garage Project was named New Zealand's Champion Brewery at the weekend's NZ Brewers Guild Beer Awards. Other winners included names both familiar and unfamiliar to Aussie beer drinkers, while the Beer Writer of the Year went to a woman for the first time.
Rocks Taken Off The Market
The owners of Rocks Brewing have taken the brewery off the market. Earlier this year, they announced the brewery and venue in Alexandria were for sale, although they planned to continue making beers under the Rocks banner.
Goat At 20 – Part II
Time to bring the story up to date. In part II of our look back at two decades of Mountain Goat, we tell the last 11 of the 20 stories of people, moments and beers that helped build the Melbourne legend.
Whitfords Brings Craft Beer To Westfield
The team behind Perth's Northbridge Brewing Co has opened its second venue. Whitfords Brewing Co is find in the unlikely location of a suburban Westfield shopping mall and looks set to pull the crowds.
Getting Blind With Crafty: Imperial Stouts Revisited
After a four year break, we returned to the most epic of beer styles, imperial stout, for our latest blind tasting. Old favourites and beers not around four years ago went into battle. Who would win?
West City Brewing For Sale
West City Brewing is the latest brewing company to be put on the market. The gypsy operation based in Melbourne's west is best known for its Footscray Ale.
Canvas. Comic Strip. Can.
Following on from our look at branding in the beer industry, Ross Lewis chats to a couple of designers working on Australian breweries' cans as well as a brewery owner whose tinnies are among the most spectacular you'll see.
How The West Was Won
The west of Melbourne is undergoing a period of massive growth, and craft beer is expanding right alongside it. The Crafty Pint visited new venues Mr West and Bar Josephine, as well as Two Birds, to find out what the west will do next.
Gone To Pot
The search for new techniques, flavours and experiences in the beer world continues apace. At The Craft & Co in Collingwood, brewer Heath McVeigh has been brewing with the sort of clay amphora used for beer and wine in the Roman Empire.
Craft Beer Heroes: John Preston
John Preston is one of the country's most unassuming craft beer heroes. In various ways, he's been helping drive the country's homebrew scene forward while supporting many ventures in the commercial brewing world too.
Rocks Puts Its Brewery Up For Sale
One of Sydney's largest breweries is going on the market. One of the partners in Rocks Brewing has decided to exit the business meaning the brewery and venue in Alexandria – but not the brewing company – is set to be sold.
Beer Travel: Istanbul
Storyteller Spinks is off on another meander through the Northern Hemisphere. In his latest update, he calls in on two of the craft brewers of Istanbul and discovers the issues facing Aussie brewers pale in comparison.
Aussie Exports: From Melbourne To Tallinn
During Good Beer Week in 2016, if you called in to the Canadian Pint of Origin venue, you may well have been served by Rob Dooley. A year later, he's working for a brewery in Estonia after following his girlfriend when she headed home.
Cheers To Change
From the deep bush of Papua New Guinea via one of Mexico's most dangerous cities to creating Eden in the Southern Highlands, Marie Claire Jarratt discovers one couple's journey to brewery owners has taken the road less travelled.
Brew & A: Wilson Hede of Two Birds
He may not be a "bird", but Two Birds head brewer Wilson Hede has certainly played an important part in helping the Spotswood brewery stretch its wings. Here, he shares his brewing tips and insights as part of our Brew & A series.
Looking For New England – The Haze Craze
New England style IPAs are appearing with ever greater frequencies on these shores. Frontiersman Guy Southern dove deep into their swirling, muddy pool in the company of four local proponents to find out more.
Holgate's Bloody Big Endeavour
Before Paul Holgate sat down to chat about the sizeable expansion his brewery is undertaking, he said something to Kerry McBride that was immediately apparent on entering the new space. “It’s bloody big, isn’t it?” He wasn’t lying.
Cavitation Salvation
Could techniques similar to those used by the remarkable mantis shrimp help revolutionise brewing? According to a group of Italian scientists, a process called cavitation could save time, water, energy and waste. Dan Sandy takes a look.
Wildflower Blooming
Dozens of breweries will open their doors across Australia in 2017. They will come in all shapes and sizes, but we doubt any will be quite like Wildflower. Nick O spent time with the blendery's driving force, Topher Boehm.
Aussie Exports: Gerad Giles
Aussie Exports is a series in which we check in on Australians doing cool things in beer overseas. Here, we head to British Columbia where former Esperance inhabitant Gerad Giles is working for BNA Brewing.
The Breeder
Washington State based Select Botanicals Group has developed some of the hops most beloved of craft brewers. We met head breeder Jason Perrault when he was in Melbourne to talk torture, promiscuity and limitless possibilities.
