wa
Gage Roads' New Road
It's been a momentous few months for Gage Roads, with the WA brewery winning Champion Australian Beer and then announcing a split from Woolies. Pia Poynton caught up with one of the men plotting the new course.
Who Brews Wandering Beers?
Fancy a bit on the side? Sam Clayman, Matt O’Neill and Scott Reid did, so they started the Wanderer Brew Co on top of their day jobs to see where the road would take them.
High Hopes
A few lesser known names appeared among the trophy winners at this year's Craft Beer Awards. No one was more surprised at Hope Estate's Champion Brewery win than its brewer, Matt, who spoke to Will Ziebell about his beers and plans for cans.
Topping Up At The Billabong
Billabong Brewery's 23rd year in business is turning out to be a pretty good one. Its Wheat Beer collected more trophies, a new bar is up and running and the owners took on the law and they won.
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.
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.
Gage Roads' Return To Independence
With many observers of the local beer world awaiting news of the next significant brewery buy out since Asahi took control of Mountain Goat, WA's Gage Roads is going the other way and buying back shares from Woolworths.
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.
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...
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Beer Travel: NZ Tiki Tour I Coromandel
There are plenty of great Kiwi breweries that are well known in Australia. But there's much else to discover too. In the first of four features on some of the lesser known lights of the North Island, Nick Oscilowski heads to the Coromandel Peninsula.
Crafty Crawls: Perth
WA may have kickstarted the contemporary craft beer industry more than three decades ago, yet the venues of Perth have been slow to get on board. That's been changing in recent years, as this Crafty Crawl – our first from WA – indicates.
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.
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.
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.
The Innate Eight
Last year, four homebrewing mates and their partners turned their hobby into a commercial reality when they launched Innate Brewing. Now, with a professional brewer on board, they're looking to make waves in WA's craft beer scene.
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.
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.
Surfing A Rogue Wave
The beer choices along Victoria's Surf Coast are unrecognisable from a few years ago, with many of the beers appearing on tap and in fridges coming from breweries that call the region home. Among them is Aireys' Inlet's Rogue Wave.
Being Pure
The most famous – and contested – beer law in the world turns 500 at the weekend. To mark the occasion, Ross Lewis spoke to one WA brewer who is a passionate believer in Reinheitsgebot and one Melburnian who certainly isn't.
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.
The Collaborators: Kracking New Hops
Three years ago, Britt and Colin Butler knew next to nothing about hops. Now, as new owners of Hopswest in Albany, they're expanding their hop farm and providing new ingredients to local brewers, including the hybrid Kracanup.
The Rivers Run At Last
After an "amazing, exciting, frustrating, depressing, uplifting, expensive and sometimes ridiculous" journey, a WA couple finally opened Three Rivers Brewing Company an hour south of Perth. Guy Southern paid the family-run brewery a visit.
The Collaborators: Where There's Hope, There's Hops
An American couple who have been growing hops for their home brew for years have launched a hop farm in Margaret River. Karridale Hop Farm has enjoyed a successful first harvest and is looking to bring an old variety back to life.
March's Crafty Dozen
It looks like we've added another dozen new brewery, bar and bottleshop listings since last time we did a roundup. So, if you missed them, here's the latest additions to the Crafty directory from QLD, NSW, VIC, SA and WA. More very soon!
Who Brews Beaten Track Beers?
You can find breweries off the beaten track in Australia these days, but few, if any, in as remote a location as Beaten Track itself. For our latest Who Brews? we find out the story behind the Boulder brewery six hours drive inland from Perth.
New Events Wrap – 19.02.16
From casks to Champagne ale to birthdays and farewells, this week's roundup of new events provides a colourful snapshot of how diverse the local beer scene has become. And how you can enjoy being part of it.
Calling All Beer Media
Submissions are open for the 2016 Australian International Beer Awards, which includes a new trophy for New World Pale Ales. It's also a third chance for people covering the beer world to be crowned AIBA Media champ.
The Story Of: Watermelon Warhead
We're kicking off a new series looking at the story behind some of the coolest, most iconic and downright funky beers to come out of Australia. With 100 kegs ready for a major release, first up is Feral's Watermelon Warhead.
The Collaborators: Getting A Handle On The Beer World
It's not just brewers and those that sell their beer that are thriving as the craft beer industry grows; others are sharing in the success. One WA firm has a fast-growing division that has small brewers to thank for its existence.
Sign Up Here
Cicerone certified staff, expertly curated beer lists and fine food and wine in the very heart of Perth. The WA capital has been slow on the craft beer uptake but, as Petition Beer Corner shows, now it's catching up it's doing it in real style.
Arrogant Bootlegging Bastards
Margaret River brewery Bootleg has scored quite the coup and been invited to become one of a handful of breweries invited to brew Stone's legendary Arrogant Bastard. And all because of a bit of cheek and a spot of mountain biking through WA.
Beer Travel: Adelaide's Craftiest Beer Gardens
Summer's here, which means it's beer garden time. Matt King has been visiting many of the best and craftiest that Adelaide and surrounds has to offer, asking owners and patrons what makes a beer garden great.
Mining A Rich Seam
Visitors to WA's Great Southern region will probably have visited Boston Brewery and sampled its wares. Now, with a new brewery in place and bottling line on the way, you may not have to travel quite so far to check them out, as Pia Poynton discovered.
Who Brews Watts River Beers?
When Lion announced its decision to move White Rabbit to Geelong, many bemoaned its loss from Healesville. But now two former White Rabbit brewers and their partners have set about bringing a new brewery to the town.
Five Star Deluxe Treatment
The long-mooted expansion of the Beer DeLuxe brand across Australia is gathering pace. In the coming weeks, new venues will open in Wagga Wagga and Darling Harbour with more planned, as Nick O discovers.
Beer Travel: Bushwalking with Beer
Having returned from the outer reaches of Northern Europe to his home state of Tasmania, wandering storyteller Bert Spinks has been out bushwalking. Here, he ponders the whys and wherefores of doing it with beer.
Amalgamation For The Nation
Australia's longest running beer week kicks off tomorrow night. One of the defining features of this year's WA Beer Week is the proliferation of colourful collabs. Guy Southern gets the lowdown.
Sweet And Sour
A sour beer has been named Australia's best craft beer of 2015, while there was more champion glory for Two Birds and Modus Operandi, as well as Freo's Monk at last night's Craft Beer Awards in Sydney.
The Big Story of a Small Beer
Guy Southern chatted to Colonial Brewing's manager-cum-raconteur Richard Moroney to get the story behind their uniquely packaged Small Ale. He walked away with an insight into the essence of beer and why it pays to remember that it is, after all, just beer.
Glory For Sydney In Sydney
The Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Awards saw the Sydney Brewery take out trophies in both beer and cider, with the majority of the record number of golds awarded also going to NSW breweries.
Brew & A: Will from Feral Brewing
WA's Feral Brewing has been a genuine trailblazer for the Australian beer industry. Key to their success in recent years has been brewer Will Irving, owner Brendan Varis' trusted lieutenant in the breweries.
