“I do still wake up at night and think of beer recipes and beer names and what I could do with certain hops.”

Time for the last of the interviews recorded while we were in New Zealand for hop harvest in March. And, while Kelly Ryan works for Freestyle Hops, the reason we were keen to chat with him wasn’t so much to pick his brains about his current role as to enjoy time in the company of one of the beer world’s most gracious and charismatic figures.

Prior to swapping the mash tun for the hop bine, Kelly enjoyed a fine career in brewing. It started out at DB Breweries – one of New Zealand’s largest – before he spent a few years in the UK, most notably at Thornbridge in the brewery’s earlier years, where he worked alongside BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie as the unique, game-changing operation transitioned from a tiny space in an outbuilding of a 14th century mansion to their current production facility.

Back in New Zealand, he burnished his reputation as a brewer at the likes of Epic, Good George, Fork & Brewer and Boneface, while his finely-tuned palate saw him invited to judge across the globe.

As thoughtful and engaging as anyone you’ll meet in beer, our conversation travels far and wide to the extent that we could probably have recorded a six-part series with him and still not come close to exhausting his breadth of knowledge or anthology of anecdotes. He’s simply a delightful human so we’re sure you’ll enjoy the chat.

There's a bit of a difference to this week's intro, as it features snippets of a chat between Will and two of the collaborators on a beer debuting at this year's Pint of Origin: Jack from Mr West and Chris from Banks Brewing, who've created a new IPA with the UK's Cloudwater. It formed the basis of article one in a new series, The Pints of Origin, highlighting some of the key beers appearing at May's festival.

Other new stories to hit the site this week include features on the Gold Coast's newest brewery, Padre, a Canadian brewer who recently joined Ocean Reach on Phillip Island, and a piece on serving beer which will hit the site before the weekend.

Start of segments:

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty Part 1
• 2:57 – Banks & Mr West on their Cloudwater Pint of Origin collab
• 6:16 – The Week On Crafty Part 2
• 16:04 – Kelly Ryan Part 1
• 44:06 – Entering the Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards
• 45:35 – Kelly Ryan Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].