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A Book About Beer Geeks. For Beer Geeks. By A Beer Geek
SA beer writer Matt King has just released his first book. The Chronicles of Nelson Smart: Beer Connoisseur/Geek is a novel based loosely on Matt's experiences in the Aussie craft beer world over the past decade and is out now.
Who Brews The Hard Road Way?
Hard Road Brewing might have been a new name when they opened just before COVID-19 forced their brewpub doors to close. But the Bayswater team is far from new to beer, bringing together two existing Victorian operations.
Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers Of 2020: The Stories
From the beer in top spot via two Queenslanders bursting into the top ten with new entries and a hazy from the Margaret River region, we chat to some of the people at breweries making waves in the 2020 poll.
Crafty Crawls: The Venues Of South West WA
The South West of WA has long been a hotspot for local breweries. These days, you won't struggle to find quality bars and bottleshops supporting the brewers of the region and further afield.
2020: The Year In Beer – ACT
It wasn't just fires and COVID-19 that hit the ACT in 2020; they had a destructive hailstorm to deal with too. Yet, while there were losses, there were great beers, comebacks and new openings too.
Crafty Crawls: Ballarat
Ballarat is a city with a fine heritage when it comes to beer and brewing. It's one that continues today, where pioneering experimentalists rub shoulders with blenders, brewpubs and classic boozers.
Who Brews In Karratha?
It's one of the most remote breweries in Australia, but after surviving year one in good shape, the team at North West Brewing in Karratha are expanding and looking forward to sending beer outside the Pilbara.
Ryefield Hops: Securing A Future
At the start of last year, the small-scale Ryefield Hops' entire harvest was destroyed by drought and the subsequent bushfires. We caught up with co-founder Jade McManus to talk about the year that was and their plans for the future.
2020: The Year In Beer – NT
The Northern Territory may have lost much of its tourism trade in 2020, but support from the local community and a willingness to adapt ensured brewers were able to end the year on the up.
2020: The Year In Beer – Victoria
It might have been a year to forget in many ways, yet there was still plenty to admire and celebrate in Victoria's beer scene in 2020. Join us as we try to make sense of the madness.
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2020: The Year In Beer – SA
Despite the bushfires and the pandemic, SA's craft beer industry continued to grow in 2020. With the support of dozens of industry experts, here's Matt King with his look at the year in beer in South Australia.
2020: The Year In Beer – WA
Supporting local while broadening horizons, new openings, cracking beers, and #bigdumbdelicioussoughtaftercheckedinthings, here's Guy Southern with a look back at the year in beer in WA in 2020.
2020: The Year In Beer - Queensland
Take a break from complaining about 2020 to celebrate with the annoyingly optimistic Mick Wust as he looks over a year of beer in Queensland.
2020: The Year In Beer – NSW
Great beers, standout moments and horrific, unnecessary analogies... Judd Owen casts an eye over the year in beer in New South Wales.
2020: The Year In Beer – Tasmania
Following our look at the standout trends in the Australian beer scene, we head to Tasmania to kick off our state by state by territory roundup of the year in beer that was 2020.
2020: The Year In Beer
Well, who saw that coming? We kick off our end of 2020 coverage with a look back at some of the biggest trends and standout moments of the past twelve months.
Hepburn Springs A Surprise
Hepburn Springs Brewing Co's trophy triumph at the 2020 Indies was one of the highlights of the night. We got in touch with the tiny family-run operation to find out more about their inspiring win.
Who Brews Bandolier Beers?
At the end of 2019, Bandolier Brewing opened the doors and gave the people of Warragul a brewery of their own. This year might not have turned out how they expected but those locals helped them survive two waves of COVID.
SA Stalwarts Shine At Royal Adelaide Awards
Some of the breweries that helped lay the foundations for SA's beer scene today took centre stage at the 2020 Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards. Lobethal Bierhaus, Vale and Coopers were among the big winners.
Manuka Oval's Crafty Takeover
In an historic decision, BentSpoke, Capital and Lion have each been given two bars each at the ACT's Manuka Oval for the upcoming 2020 cricket season.
Postcards from the Edge No.60: Distilled Good Times
Left with kegged beer that no longer had a home when the pandemic hit, both Sparkke Change and Stone & Wood decided to turn it into something else.
Bad Shepherd: Five Years In Five Beers
It's five years since Bad Shepherd opened their Cheltenham brewpub, a half decade of huge change in beer. We invited co-founder Dereck Hales to take a trip down Memory Lane via five of their beers.
Range Win Big At 2020's Indies
Range had an impressive night at the Indies 2020, taking out four trophies including Champion Australian Independent Beer. Perennial award winners Dainton and Moffat Beach also added to their considerable collection of silverware.
How Do You Build A Brewery?
What do you do if you want to start a brewery, but can't find the information you need? If you're Chris Hayton, you interview brewers and other industry professionals, make a podcast, and share it with the world.
Postcards From The Edge No.59: The Indies Reinvented
Most major beer events have been cancelled in Australia this year. But, having had to cull most of theirs, the IBA was determined the Indies awards would survive. We found out how they reworked it for our COVID times.
Cheeky Monkey Win Inaugural WA Beer Of The Year
Cheeky Monkey's Hazy IPA claimed top spot in the inaugural WA Good Food Guide Beer Of The Year awards. The 18-months-in-the-making beer headed a top three featuring their fellow South West brewers Eagle Bay and Beerfarm.
Black Hops & Love For Local Dominate Beer Cartel's 2020 Survey
Support for local beer rose sharply in 2020 as drinkers rallied behind their locals during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Beer Cartel's annual survey. It also says Black Hops replace Balter as the country's favourite brewery.
Brew & A: Five Barrel Brewing
From bushfires to COVID, closures, cans, quarantine and a Kiwi, it's been a full-on year at Wollongong's Five Barrel. As they launch their new look lineup, we chat to founder Phil and his new head brewer, imported via hotel quarantine from NZ.
Back On The Craft Beers Pt II
Many of Melbourne's historic pubs have been closed this year longer than they were during even the world wars. Among them is the Rainbow Hotel in Fitzroy. As they prepare to reopen after 180 days closed, we ask how it's been.
Back On The Craft Beers Pt I
As Melbourne's venues prepare to reopen, we return to the pub with which we kicked off our Postcards from the Edge series on March 23. We joined Cherry Tree staff and a local to see how they've survived two lockdowns.
Postcards From The Edge No.57: Back In The Van
Beer tourism was hit hard during the COVID-19 shutdowns, but now venues are open and borders are closed, local customers are keeping Hop On Brewery Tours busy. We chatted to them about beer tourism in a pandemic.
Postcards from the Edge No.58: #ShoutAVicADrink
With Melbourne's venues finally set to open as restrictions ease significantly across Victoria, the team at an Armadale bar and bottleshop have launched a campaign enabling people to shout people exiting lockdown a drink.
Dark Emu – Telling Stories With Beer
Sailors Grave are among the country's most avid and adventurous collaborators and harvesters of all things local to East Gippsland. But the Orbost brewery's latest collab really gets to the heart of the brewery.
Postcards From The Edge No.56: Duking It Out
While many beer venues have struggled during the pandemic, the Thorpe Hospitality Group managed to increase their revenue, tripled their staff, and have now acquired a new pub, The Duke of Enmore.
Postcards from the Edge No.55: Check Yourself
Venues across the country have implemented COVID-Safe plans to let punters inside and now the Night Time Industries Association is calling on customers to do their part too.
Crafty Crawls: The Barossa
It's known globally for its wine, but over the years the offering from local breweries has grown. With a few venues supporting local beer and even a craft maltster in the region, the Barossa has plenty to offer beer tourist now too.
Dollar Bill's Dream Edges Closer
The family behind Dollar Bill Brewing is hopeful they'll be able to open their unique cellar door experience in spring 2020 after reaching the advertising stage for their "Invermay Beer Farm" in Ballarat.
Postcards from the Edge No.54: So Long, Farewell...
Among the thousands of Aussies stranded overseas are Ben and Maria Kraus and their kids. A planned year long stay has been extended by flight cancellations, so Ben is now helping commission a new brewery in Innsbruck.
Postcards from the Edge No.53: Monkey Brews
The couple who brought craft beer to Dubbo put the COVID-19 lockdown to good use: taking the skills learned over ten years of homebrewing to follow through on a long-held plan to brew their own beers for their regulars.
Postcards from the Edge No.52: Live & Loud
The live music industry has been hit just has hard as beer – if not harder – by COVID-19. As it starts to return in new COVIDSafe fashion, long-time good times supporters Young Henrys are back supporting gigs in Sydney.
Ten Years Of Crafty: The Time Barrel
We've spent most of this series looking back over the past decade. Now it's time to look at the here and now. We're going to create a time capsule – well, barrel – that represents beer now ready to be opened in 2030.
Ten Years Of Crafty: In Ten(ish) Beers
It took The Crafty Pint's founder eight years to put his name on an article, but now we've forced him to open up about some of the beers and stories that have guided his time in the beer world.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Changing Tastes
Styles have come and gone, limited releases are a growing focus, and there's never been more choice for drinkers. Here, we look at just how far and fast tastes have changed since we launched The Crafty Pint.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Beer In The Media
For most people, the idea that beer writers even exist is a hard one to conceive. Yet there's an evolving media landscape dedicated in one way or another to the beer world. Here we look at how it's changed over the years.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Meet The Team II
In part two of the midway feature in our Ten Years Of Crafty series we again hand the mic to some of the people who've been part of the growth of the site over the past decade.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Meet The Team I
We've been blessed to have some wonderful people contribute to The Crafty Pint in various ways over the past decade. Here we kick off a two-parter featuring some of them and their highlights of the past decade.
Ten Years Of Crafty: The Big Ones
Lists. Bad news. Controversy. That's all people want, right? Thankfully, a perusal of the most read stories of the past decade on The Crafty Pint suggests you're a more discerning audience.
Ten Years Of Crafty: Infiltrating And Taking Over
The beer industry today is far bigger, far better in many ways, far more colourful and far more competitive. It's also changed plenty with independence now declared with the same gusto once applied to craft. Here's a look at how.
Postcards from the Edge No.50: Pivoting Properly
While they await the day they can open again, the team at The Cambrian in Bendigo have been keeping busy. Once they finished renos they embarked on a course to understand how to make their business better post-COVID.
Ten Years Of Crafty: In Pictures
If a picture says a thousand words, then many millions have been spoken over the past decade in beer. Here's a collection of beers from the past decade. We could have run many, many more...
