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Mead Made Modern
A tiny number of Australian brewers have played with mead and braggots, but there's now a small yet growing number of people specialising in these ancient beverages. Marie Claire Jarratt spoke to some of them in her debut article for the site.
South Australia's Next Wave Pt I
Recent years have seen the South Australian brewing scene expand rapidly. And there's little sign of things slowing down soon, as Matt King discovered when he made contact with the next wave of brewers coming through.
Aussies Win Big In London
Australian microbreweries collected both Supreme Champion trophies at last night's International Beer Challenge in London. Melbourne's Hawkers took out the brewery title with SA's Prancing Pony winning best beer.
Big Little Bottleshops
As the Wine Republic team opens a third store and Slowbeer prepares to open a second in Fitzroy, Kerry McBride looks at the little bottleshops thinking big.
Behind Bars: Josh Edmeades
Is anyone better placed to tell you what's hot in the beer world than the beer gurus at the country's best venues? Today, we kick off Behind Bars, a series that asks bar staff around Australia what their customers are digging.
Beer Travel: Malaysia
Five years ago, two Melbourne brothers enticed their cousins to join them and open a craft beer bar in Kuala Lumpur. Taps has ended up spawning Malaysia's nascent craft beer scene, as Kerry McBride discovers.
Now Is The Sour
While some might have forecast the renaissance that beer has been enjoying globally, would many have predicted the rise of sours? Award-winning writer Michael Donaldson laps up the tsunami of sours breaking on Kiwi shores.
Aussie Exports: Jimmy Krekelberg
From homebrewing in Victoria to hammering at the doors of breweries in Scotland then ending up at one of the world's best in The Netherlands, life on the road's turned out pretty darn well for Jimmy Krekelberg.
The Story Of: Bridge Road Brewers Chevalier Saison
It's Australia's longest brewed saison, a style that's becoming increasingly popular, and continues to charm drinkers and judges alike. Will Ziebell brings us the story behind Bridge Road's Chevalier Saison.
Storming the Beaches
4 Pines is to further stamp its claim to be a Northern Beaches brewery with the opening of three new venues over the coming months. They include a restaurant, speciality barrel-aged beer venue and a bakery.
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Arts & Craft
The link between beer and art has never been stronger than it is today. Kerry McBride speaks to three breweries from Australia and overseas in order to explore how a label can be so much more than just a label.
Cabal Update – 12/08/16
We've got a whopper of an update for you from inside The Crafty Cabal, featuring winners, VIP passes, a special sign up incentive, more events and a pile of new deals and offers at venues and breweries.
Beer Travel: NZ Tiki Tour IV Wine Country
In the final part of his Tiki Tour around the breweries of New Zealand's central North Island, Nick Oscilowski takes in the wine regions of the east coast before ending up in the middle...
What Drinkers Want
The biggest ever survey of Australian craft beer drinkers has been carried out by Sydney bottleshop Beer Cartel. The results of what they plan to turn into an annual survey are out today.
Back In Black
A new brewery has risen on the site of Duckstein's former Margaret River location, with the man who built the original brewery returning at the helm. Ross Lewis spoke to Paul Gasmier about being back in Black.
Aussie Beer Blogs: New South Ales
It's time to showcase another Aussie beer blog. New South Ales is one of the best-looking we've seen, run by a writer / photographer couple who focus on the people and stories making the NSW beer scene what it is.
Brew & A: Green Beacon
It's a big year for Green Beacon. The Brisbane brewery came close to winning an AIBA Champion Brewery trophy, won at the Craft Beer Awards and has started work on a production brewery. Here's the man behind their beers.
CANimalia
It's not just standard tinnies that are on the rise in the local craft beer world. Slowly but surely, more venues and breweries are investing in CANimals, the repurposed food packing technology pioneered by Oskar Blues in the US.
Home State Glory In Perth
Most of the silverware stayed at home at last night's Perth Royal Beer Show. Indeed, much of it ended up headed to one place: the joint brewery shared by Feral and Nail, with other winners including Billabong, Gage Roads and Elmar's.
Cold As Ice – Brewing In Antarctica
In Antarctica, beer selection is understandably limited. But a group of Australian Antarctic researchers is helping to broaden the options via a growing homebrewing program at Australian research base Casey Station.
The Big Issue: Gotta Catch 'Em All II
In part I of Gotta Catch 'Em All, we looked at the rise of beer hunting, collecting and rating in the craft beer community. Today, we delve deeper in the company of a diverse panel from the beer world, including Untappd's co-founder.
The Big Issue: Gotta Catch 'Em All
For some, tasting every new, rare and highly rated beer has become an addiction, one that's aided by sites and apps like RateBeer and Untappd. Over two days, Kerry McBride explores whether this is a good thing for beer.
Beer Travel: NZ Tiki Tour III Greater Wellington
Wellington may have the big name reputation when it comes to craft beer, but it’s being rivalled by what’s brewing in its outer regions, as Nick O discovers on the third of his four-part saunter through the North Island.
The Crafty Dozen – July 2016
It's only a few weeks since our last roundup of new listings on the site but, as the Crafty team expands with the industry, we're adding them faster than ever. So here's 12 more breweries, bars and bottleshops for you.
Aussie Exports: Newfoundland Nardia
From brewing braggot in Beechworth to starting her own brewery in Newfoundland, it's clear that Nardia McGrath's enjoying life to the full. With Pig & Pepper Brewing set to open, we caught up with her for our Aussie Exports series.
Who Brews Australia's Highest Beers?
If there's one brewery above all others that won't be struggling to keep its beers chilled this winter it's Blizzard. "Australia's highest brewery" opened in the Victorian alps in March, brewing next to a Dinner Plain ski lift.
Canning & Expanding
It's all change at Barossa Valley Brewing as one of the longest-established of SA's microbreweries expands and repackages its beers in cans. It's also in the process of establishing its Tanunda base as a mid-size contract facility, as Matt King discovered.
Beer Travel: NZ Tiki Tour II West Coast, North Island
In the second leg of a leisurely trip through some of New Zealand's lesser known North Island breweries, Nick Oscilowski heads towards the west coast and discovers something old and something new...
Beer Travel: Darwin
While there's much talk of craft beer booming across Australia, what of the Top End? As Bert Spinks discovers, the microbrewing industry there has just doubled in size. OK, so that still means there's just two, but they're beery and boisterous.
Samoyeds Still Smiling
Myponga brewery Smiling Samoyed made it two for two at the Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards, with its Dark Ale backing up last year's Best Beer win. Other big winners last night included Pirate Life, Goodieson Brewery and Coopers.
Best Beers of 2016 – So Far
We're not big fans of lists here at Crafty Towers, but with so many new beers released every week we felt we'd make an exception to take stock midway through 2016. We asked contributors to nominate their best new brews and here are the top picks.
Beer Travel: North Carolina
For most Aussies visiting the US the West Coast takes priority. But, as part of his mission to explore global beer cultures, Molly Rose founder Nic Sandery chose to spend time in North Carolina. In his second article for us, here's what he discovered there.
Wild Things
With a reputation for walking on the wild side well established, Kiwi trailblazers Garage Project are set to get wilder still. Kerry McBride joined them for a tour of their new Wild Workshop where they'll be working with barrels, foeders and a coolship.
Down On The Beerfarm
Much is brewing three hours south of Perth in what is increasingly becoming the Margaret River beer region. Guy Southern headed there to spend time in the company of the merry men that call the beery bucolic bliss of The Beerfarm home.
Where Art Meets Science Meets Art
It's often said that brewing is where art meets science. Yet, thanks to the new brewing team in control at Indian Ocean, on Perth's northern fringe, it's becoming a case of art meets science meets art as they get creative with their decals.
The Past, Present & Future Is Bright
Today sees Bright Brewery mark ten years since they first opened the doors of their brewery site in the Victorian High Country. Much has changed – and is changing – so we fired some questions at co-founder, and still owner, Scott Brandon.
Beer Is Your Friend
Glen Humphries is the man behind the beer site Beer Is Your Friend. Last month, he won the AIBA Beer Media trophy, sponsored by The Crafty Pint. Here, we find out more about the man, why he can't stop writing and his thoughts on beer.
Brew & A: Hobart Brewing Company
The return of our not-often-enough-for-our-liking brewer Q&A series heads south to Hobart. There, amid a flurry of new brewery openings, you find Hobart Brewing Company, whose head brewer Scott Overdorf has seen more beer than most.
The Big Issue: Water Sustainability
Water makes up more than 90 percent of the beer you drink. It is also in increasingly scarce supply in Australia. For our latest Big Issue article, Graham Frizzell speaks to three people looking to reduce their breweries' water consumption here and in California.
From Wellington to Wellington
Having swapped New Zealand for Australia during the GFC, a Wellington couple has found themselves striking out in a new direction at the foot of Mount Wellington. We meet the Clarksons as they launch Hobart's newest brewery, Fox Friday.
Australian International Beer Awards Winners 2016
Stone & Wood backed up a medal at the recent World Beer Cup in the US by taking out the Champion Large Brewery title at the Australian International Beer Awards last night. Other big winners included Two Birds, Pirate Life, BrewCult and Gage Roads.
Surfing The South West's Breweries
Julian Lelah and his surfing buddies used to love nothing more than touring Margaret River's breweries after a morning catching waves. Now he's turned the tours they used to do for fun into a business, launching the region's only beer only tour company.
Aussie Exports: Oh Danada!
Aussie Exports is supposed to be a series of features on Australians doing fun things in craft beer overseas. Yet, this once, we're doing something a little different as we feature honorary Aussie Dan Johnston, now back in his native Canada at Collective Arts.
Starward Bound
Australian whisky makers are garnering serious attention across the world – and from local brewers keen to lay their hands on used barrels. We visited Melbourne's Starward, best known to beer lovers for its involvement in Boatrocker's Ramjet.
Ocho's Online Brewery
The flurry of new brewing companies opening in Tasmania continues apace. Yet it's fair to say that Ocho stands out. Not just because it opened with a barrel-aged saison, but because its means of getting beer to punters is rather unusual.
More Brew From The Boys
One of South Australia's longer established microbreweries is expanding as it prepares to mark eight years in business. Brewboys is opening a second site in Adelaide's west as it looks to cope with increasing demand for its beers.
Colonising the East
When asked to forecast five breweries to watch out for in 2016 for James Halliday's Wine Companion magazine, we included Colonial. The WA brewery has long had the potential to explode; its new Eastern outpost should see that happen.
Aussie Exports: From Wollongong to Toronto
From home brewing in Wollongong to barrel aged sours in Toronto, David Everitt is living out quite the dream. In the second of our Aussie Export articles, he tells us how it came to pass and offers insights into the Canadian beer scene.
Two Heads Are Better Than One
It took years for Ty Capaci to convert wife Amanda to the benefits of his home brew. But he did such a good job, they've now opened Double Head Brewing together, adding yet another microbrewery to the Tasmanian beer scene.
Starting a Brewery Part II
Thinking of starting your own brewery? Then part two of our series featuring advice from people already in the beer industry is for you. Following last week's top tips from brewers, here are the thoughts of six experts in other fields.
