Our final podcast episode before Christmas touches down in New South Wales for a look back at the Year In Beer there in the company of a trio of guests. 

First up we have Nemesia Dale-Cully – better known as Meesh to most. She's enjoyed a number of roles in the local beer world, first in Adelaide before moving from running Shapeshifter's venue to take over the hospitality side of things at Wildflower, and is also involved in Pink Boots Society Australia.

Joining her for a chat with Will and James is another of our Sydney-based writers. We brought Benny onto the show as guest host a few weeks ago, and now it's a chance to meet Jason Treuen. As well as writing for The Crafty Pint, he's part of the team that brought the Inner West Ale Trail to life and a keen homebrewer.  

From there, we head north to chat to Nick McDonald, co-founder of Bucketty's Brewing, one of the many breweries that call the Northern Beaches home and as bluntly honest a guest as we've had on the show to date. 

Across the two conversations, we cover everything from the challenges of running small breweries in 2024 and renewed interest in beer tourism to the importance of community and the theatre of pouring beer. We also discuss trends, the standout breweries, beers and events of the past 12 months, and Jason's banana hefeweizen IPA...

At the start of the show, given it's in our standard Thursday slot, we also go over the news of the previous week, with a focus on the IBA's announcement that there will be no BrewCon or Indies awards in 2025 as well as WA's one-man Evil Mega Corp.

Start of guest segments:

• 10:42 – Jason Treuen & Nemesia Dale-Cully
• 39:42 – Nick McDonald  

The Crafty Pint’s 2024 Year In Beer series is proudly presented by Mogwai Labs, leaders in liquid yeast solutions. For the perfect pitch every time, visit mogwailabs.com.au.

Relevant links:

• The Crafty Pint’s Year In Beer 2024
• Wildflower & Mountain Culture launch Village
• Inner West Ale Trail Launches 
• Bucketty's Brewing 
• No BrewCon or Indies in 2025 
• Evil Mega Corp's No-Scale Ambition 

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

The second half of our Year In Beer 2024 series sees us head across the Bass Strait to see what's been happening in Tasmania.

Unlike much of the country, the beer industry in the southern state has survived the year relatively unscathed. And just like much of the country, it's also seen the renewed interest in lager styles we've been writing about for a while now continue to grow.

Joining hosts James and Will first is Matt Fielding, one half of the Science Made Beerable team; we had hoped to chat to the not-for-profit's co-founder Kelsey Picard too, but Kelsey was back home in New Zealand leaving Matt to hold the fort, which he did with aplomb. 

With Matt based in Hobart, we took a trip north to catch up with our second guest, Scott Seymour. We first crossed paths with Scott in Bendigo when he was one of the early driving forces behind Bendigo Beer's efforts to encourage the regional city to embrace craft beer.

He's since moved to Tassie after falling in love with the island on a family holiday, going on to open a trio of beer businesses in the north of the state: Penguin Beer Co, Island State Brewing, and The Pier.

As well as filling us in on how 2024 has been for them and their hopes and plans for 2025, they reflect on the beer scene across the state, suggesting some top beer spots for visitors to the state, highlighting a couple of newcomers to the scene, heaping praise upon Spotty Dog Brewers and their enviable location, doffing a cap to 20 years of Two Metre Tall, and the importance of supporting local.

Start of guest segments:

• 1:34 – Matt Fielding
• 13:05 – Scott Seymour  

The Crafty Pint’s 2024 Year In Beer series is proudly presented by Mogwai Labs, leaders in liquid yeast solutions. For the perfect pitch every time, visit mogwailabs.com.au. 

Relevant links:

• The Crafty Pint’s Year In Beer 2024 
• Who Owns Your Beer?
• Science Made Beerable
• Penguin Beer Co 

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

The third of our Year In Beer 2024 podcasts finds us on home turf as we turn our attention to Victoria. 

It’s undoubtedly been a tough year for many there, something that became very apparent when we started totting up the voluntary administrations, sales and closures from the past 12 months. Hospo trade has been down and suffered accordingly too, yet there’s also been much to enjoy and plenty to celebrate, from great beers, new breweries and venues, to successful events and more.

Joining Will and James to cast an eye over the year are Cherry Murphy and Jimmy Krekelberg. Cherry spent ten years with Blackhearts & Sparrows, many of those as the indie retail chain’s beer buyer, curating their range, hosting diverse events, and putting together a number of fascinating collaborations.

Jimmy is the founder and head brewer of Good Land Brewing in Traralgon, a brewery he founded after plying his trade at a number of breweries overseas. While his lager is their biggest seller, he’s garnered a reputation as a brewer of some seriously out there and creative beers too, from voluptuous smoothie sours to hefty imperial stouts.

As part of their chat about the year in beer in Victoria, Will and James also discuss this week’s opening of Sailors Grave’s Dunetown home in Gippsland, three years after they unveiled their plans.

Start of guest segments:

• 23:32 – Cherry Murphy
• 33:41 – Jimmy Krekelberg 

The Crafty Pint’s 2024 Year In Beer series is proudly presented by Mogwai Labs, leaders in liquid yeast solutions. For the perfect pitch every time, visit mogwailabs.com.au.

Relevant links: 

• The Crafty Pint’s Year In Beer 2024 
• Sailors Grave Dunetown 
• Good Land Brewing 

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

For the third instalment – and second podcast episode – of our Year In Beer 2024 series, we head west to catch up with two of the people behind one of the state's brightest new breweries and the brothers who run a business that's been watching the state's craft beer scene grow for two decades.

The first of those are Terri and Trav Moore, part of the team behind Phat Brew Club, which has risen in next to no time from homebrew competition winners to pro brewers without a home to operators of one of Perth's largest and liveliest brewpubs. They've enjoyed yet another banging year in 2024 and are set to open a second venue in 2025.

The brothers are Jose and Nelio Pestana, founders of one of WA's finest indie retailers of top-notch booze, Copper & Oak. They opened their first store more than 20 years ago, saw the way the market was heading early, now operate a second store and have a third on the way.

As well as selling one of the widest selections of beer in WA, they're arch-collaborators who've released a series of consistently excellent beers with some of the state's finest. Full disclosure: Crafty Pint contributor Guy Southern is part of the Copper & Oak team these days and picked up one of the outfits' three major awards in the past two years.

Prior to catching up with our guests, Will and James pick the brains of both Guy and our writer in the South West, Jono Outred. 

Across the three segments, we discover what's been going down in WA over the past 12 months – the noteworthy trends, the hottest breweries, the most delicious beers, and more – as well as looking ahead to 2025.

NB There was an internet connection issue that kicked in towards the end of the chat with Terri and Trav that affected their video; the audio is fine throughout, however.

Start of each segment:

• 1:36 – Jono and Guy
• 17:03 – Terri & Trav
• 32:03 – Jose, Nelio & Guy  

The Crafty Pint's 2024 Year In Beer series is proudly presented by Mogwai Labs, leaders in liquid yeast solutions. For the perfect pitch every time, visit mogwailabs.com.au. 

Relevant links: 

• The Crafty Pint's Year In Beer 2024: The National Picture
• Phat Brew Club
• Copper & Oak

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

As 2024 comes to a close, The Crafty Pint Podcast is hitting the road, taking a trip across Australia as we try to make sense of how this dramatic year has impacted people in different parts of the industry. 

Our annual Year In Beer article explored the national trends and tumultuous nature of making and selling beer in 2024, but how do things look at the state level?

To find out, we’re asking people from across the industry how they’ve navigated the past 12 months: their standout moments, plus the beers, breweries, venues and events they loved most. We also ask them to look ahead to 2025: who and what to look out for, as well as their hopes and wildest dreams for the future.

First up, James and Will drove from Melbourne to Adelaide for conversation with long-term Crafty Pint writer Matt King, who’s been covering the South Australian scene for us for a decade. He recently decided to call it a day when it comes to beer writing to focus on his job and family so the chat doubled up as a trip down Memory Lane through that decade spent covering beer in SA. 

(Before anyone asks: sorry, we won’t be burning fuel to make it to every capital city for this series!)

Following Matt, we’re joined by Briony Liebich and Steve Brockman. Briony runs Flavour Logic where she specialises in teaching sensory skills to brewers and anyone else in and around the industry, while Steve is an experienced brewer who switched from Brightstar Brewing to work for AMSAT Character Malts in 2024. 

The chat with the first of our guests starts at 9:00. 

Prior to that, James and Will chat about our Year In Beer: The National Picture article.

 The Crafty Pint's 2024 Year In Beer series is proudly presented by Mogwai Labs, leaders in liquid yeast solutions. For the perfect pitch every time, visit mogwailabs.com.au.

Relevant links:

Year In Beer: The National Picture

Former Staff Return Tumut River Brewing To Its Roots

FOUND.Subiaco Opens

Uraidla win at the Indies 

Suburban Scoop SA's Best Beer Trophy

Flavour Logic’s website 

AMSAT Character Malts’ website

“I think the thing that’s really important for consumers and the industry writ large to know is how many forces are currently at play that are going to make being a small brewer more challenging.

“We call this the death by a thousand cuts.”

If 2023 was a rough year for the indie beer world, 2024 has been worse – brutal doesn’t seem too harsh a term to describe the conditions faced by many in the industry. And those challenges have also been faced by the Independent Brewers Association (IBA), the body representing Australia’s indie brewers.

In the face of a major drop in income, they’ve been forced to tighten their belt in terms of what they’ve been able to offer. And, as with many businesses in beer and hospo, have reduced the size of their team. At the same time, faced with such challenges, they’ve kept fighting the fight on as many fronts as they can – “we’re small but scrappy” is how they put it.

So, before we switch to a series of state by state by territory podcast episodes reflecting on the year in beer, we invited IBA CEO Kylie Lethbridge and head of industry development Sabrina Kunz to join us on the show.

As you can imagine with the indie beer world fighting battles on so many fronts, it’s a seriously wide-ranging conversation. We start by looking back on a year in which VAs, closures and business restructuring have dominated many of the headlines but during which there have been new arrivals, expansions and growth too.

We discuss the major uptick in honest, respectful coverage of the beer world by mainstream media, the challenges and opportunities when it comes to state and federal governments, building long-term relationships and partnerships around the country, the biggest issues on the table for 2025, and how to build consumer awareness and support for the industry.

The chat with Kylie and Sabrina kicks off at 7:40. 

Prior to that there's just the briefest of intros as we had to record this week's early prior to hitting the road for SA before dawn on Wednesday for a sold-out event at The Wheaty and a bunch of podcast recordings you'll get to enjoy over the coming weeks and months. 

We discussed the return of one of craft beer's key figures, Phil Sexton, to brewing alongside son Harry with the launch of Keeper Brewing at the former home of Temple, as well as our upcoming event with Molly Rose.  

Thanks to show sponsors FOBOH and The High Country Hop. 

Relevant links: 

That's A Keeper: Sexton Family Turn Temple Into A Shrine To Pils

The Molly Rose Story – Distilled: 

Independent Brewers Association website: https://independentbrewers.org.au/ 

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

"I'm still passionate about what I do, I still love what I do, and I still think I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. I get to make beer for a living and, especially taking the step coming here to Bali, I get to mentor people that might not have necessarily ever had an opportunity like this before, so I feel really lucky that I have the power to be able to do that and pay it forward."

Given her fondness for travel, adventure and life on the ocean, perhaps it was destiny that Sam Füss would end up brewing in Bali. Certainly, more than two years after moving to the island's northwest – the "real Bali" as she puts it – she's embracing every opportunity that has come her way.

Sam was enticed to move there with her partner Dani by the founders of Beaches Brewing Co back in 2022, and in recent weeks oversaw the release of their first two beers, Pale and Cerveza. The switch of scenery gave her the chance to help build another brewery after being involved in the early stages of a number in Australia, including Little Creatures in Freo and Philter in Marrickville.

She joined us from her beautiful home – ocean views on one side, volcano on the other, a pool a few metres behind her, the call to prayer carried on the wind outside – to take us inside the experience of getting Beaches off the ground, training up locals with no prior experience, educating people who've never encountered craft beer before, and working in a beer culture that, in its own way, is like the Australian scene when she moved from the bar at Little Creatures to the brewery around a quarter-century ago.

We also trace her career from those early days through building a race track inside Matilda Bay's former brewery in Dandenong to True South, Young Henrys, and the trophy-laden days at Philter prior to the big move. Sam reflects on lessons learned and wisdom gained, on the characters who mentored her, and on the rewards she now finds in mentoring others.

And, as anyone who knows Sam would expect, we have a good laugh along the way, with the main interview kicking off at 11:47. 

Prior to that, we discuss the week's news, including the sale of Westside Ale Works to new owners who plan to keep things as Casey Wagner had them, the impending launch of Vegan a la Beer, a guide to pairing beer with plant-based food, Seasonal and Whitelakes' success in the WA Beer of the Year awards, Burleigh Brewing's 18th birthday re-brews, the epic lineup for High Country Hop 2025, our upcoming event at Molly Rose, and GABS nominations.

Relevant links from this week's show:

Westside's sale:https://craftypint.com/news/3636/westside-ale-works-sells-but-the-future-still-looks-hoppy

Vegan a la Beer: The Appetiser: https://craftypint.com/news/3631/vegan-a-la-beer-the-appetiser

WA Beer of the Year 2025: https://craftypint.com/news/3629/seasonal-win-wa-beer-of-the-year-with-black-oat-cream-ipa-mudi

Burleigh Brewing's 18th birthday beers: https://craftypint.com/beer/11067/burleigh-brewing-18th-birthday-re-brews

The High Country Hop 2025: https://craftypint.com/event/13525/the-high-country-hop-2025

Crafty Cabal giveaways: https://craftycabal.com/giveaways-and-merch

The Molly Rose Story – Distilled: https://craftypint.com/event/13532/the-molly-rose-story--distilled

Nominate your beers for the GABS H100 of 2024: https://craftypint.com/news/3630/gabs-hottest-100-craft-beer-nominations-now-open

Sam Sets Sail For Bali: https://craftypint.com/news/2922/sam-sets-sails-for-bali

Beaches Brewery Bali: https://beachesbrewingco.com/

Thanks to Beer30, sponsors of this week's show.

To support the show, contact [email protected].

It’s fair to say Episode 017 of The Crafty Pint Podcast is a special one. After all, you can count the number of people who’ve achieved what this week’s guests have achieved on one hand.

It was all the way back in 1999 that Paul and Tash Holgate sold the first Holgate beers, long before “craft beer” was a term – it was “boutique beers” and “microbreweries” in those days – and a full decade before the industry’s growth really started to go into overdrive. Little Creatures hadn’t yet launched, and Mountain Goat were barely two years into their adventure down the road in Melbourne.

Now, 25 years on, they occupy rarified territory: marking their quarter-century milestone while still independent, still running the business hands-on, still making plans for the years ahead, and all while producing some of the finest beers of their history to date.

We joined Paul and Tash in the bar of the pub in Woodend that has acted as their home since they moved the brewery out of the family home in their first few years of operation.

There, they reflected on the early years, when they were raising a very young family at a time when even getting their hands on things as straightforward and essential as ingredients and packaging was a tall order, and when most venues they approached dismissed their beer as homebrew.

We hear their take on the rise of the craft beer industry, how they’ve navigated the changes as it evolved into something well beyond their expectations, the hurdles they’ve faced and successes they’ve enjoyed over the past quarter-century, and how they’ve gone about celebrating their 25 Years of Beers.

You couldn’t wish to spend time in the company of a more down-to-earth and genuine couple, or to meet two people still so clearly loving what they do, even in the face of the challenges that have arisen in recent years.

The chat with Paul and Tash begins at 09:30

Prior to that, Will and I discuss two fun stories we published this week: one on a mini-revival for beer in bottles – notably longnecks; the other looking at the reasons behind the rise of hops from New Zealand both here and globally in the past couple of years.

We also touch on the news that Australia’s first non-alc brewing company, the Indigenous-led Sobah Beverages, is looking to sell its brewery and taproom on the Gold Coast, and the impending opening of two regional breweries in Victoria: the all-new Bendigo Brewing and a new, larger site in Castlemaine for Shedshaker.

Relevant links:  

Back On The Bottle: https://craftypint.com/news/3617/back-on-the-bottle  

Choice Az! The Rise Of Kiwi Hops: https://craftypint.com/news/3623/choice-az-the-rise-of-kiwi-hops  

Sobah Beverages Downsizing: https://craftypint.com/news/3619/sobah-beverages-put-brewery-on-market-and-plan-to-downsize  

Bendigo Brewing Opening: https://craftypint.com/event/13512/bendigo-brewings-grand-opening-weekend  

James on The Do Landers Podcast: https://thedolanders.com/  

Holgate Brewhouse: https://craftypint.com/brewery/156/holgate-brewhouse  

Holgate ESB: https://craftypint.com/beer/10917/holgate-brewhouse-esb  

Holgate x Noodledoof Dank AF: https://craftypint.com/beer/10855/holgate-x-noodledoof-dank-af-west-coast-ipa  

Paul & Tash: https://craftypint.com/news/2255/craftys-advent-calendar-paul-and-tash-holgate  

Bintani: https://www.bintani.com.au/

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

What does it mean to be a sustainable business or to brew in a sustainable manner? Can beer really do good, or are such claims just there to make marketing departments feel better about themselves? And, if so, how can they have a positive impact on the world around them, from their local community to the drinkers who buy their beers?

Such questions – and helping people find the right answers to them – have occupied James Perrin throughout his career in beer. It's one that started with Lion in New Zealand, brought him to Stone & Wood in the midst of their rapid growth, and continues to this day in many ways.

He's still involved in a Northern Rivers brewery too, albeit a rather smaller one. He left Stone & Wood after the sale to Lion / Kirin, and these days is part of the team running Spangled Drongo, a brewery which makes a donation from every beer sold to help protect the natural habitat around them.

He also works with businesses looking to be better global citizens in and outside beer, both in Australia and overseas, and has helped some – most recently Jervis Bay Brewing Co – gain B Corp status.

James is a wealth of knowledge on all things sustainability and has developed a model of six ways in which businesses can look to have a positive impact. He joined us on the show to explain his approach, discuss various programs and certifications in this space, and to highlight examples from the beer world that have impressed him.

He talks passionately about the importance of authenticity in making connections with consumers, and is a firm believer that indie beer businesses occupy a role within communities through which they can make changes for the better and inspire others to follow suit.

The chat with James starts at 16:17

Prior to that we welcomed another guest, who joined James for the preamble. With Will making his way back to Australia from Bali, Benedict Kennedy-Cox stepped up to the oche.

Benny has been writing for The Crafty Pint for a few years now, often combining beer with another passion of his: travel. He was in Melbourne so dropped into the studio to discuss the week's news, share some of his favourite experiences on the road, including getting abused by a waiter in Köln, and offer insight into the sustainably-minded businesses he's written about for us.

There also a heads-up for our forthcoming lager-centric event at The Wheaty.

Relevant links:

Going Green: Sustainable Brewing: https://craftypint.com/news/1767/going-green-sustainable-brewing

Spangled Drongo Brewing: https://craftypint.com/brewery/865/spangled-drongo-brewery 

Jervis Bay Secure B Corp Status: https://craftypint.com/news/3588/better-every-day-jervis-bay-become-a-b-corp 

James Perrin's website: https://www.jamesperrin.com.au/ 

Ryefield Hops' Certifiably Sustainable Growth: https://craftypint.com/news/3376/ryefield-hops-certifiably-sustainable-growth 

Frogs Hollow's Off-Grid Brewery: https://craftypint.com/news/3590/going-green-frogs-hollows-off-grid-brewery 

Mitta Mitta Brewing: https://craftypint.com/brewery/398/mitta-mitta-brewing-co 

Ten Lessons From Ten Years: Wolf of the Willows: https://craftypint.com/news/3614/ten-lessons-from-ten-years-wolf-of-the-willows 

Planned vs Rogue: https://www.youtube.com/@PlannedvsRogue 

Upcoming lager event at The Wheaty: https://craftypint.com/event/13508/exploring-the-ever-larger-world-of-lager

Sun Tap Decals: https://www.suntapdecals.com.au/  

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

In Episode 015 of The Crafty Pint Podcast we head overseas for the first time. Our destination is a tiny brewery most people won't have heard of, where we're joined by a guest with whom many will be very familiar.  

The tiny brewery is Shortjaw Brewing, located in Westport: a town on the sparsely populated west coast of New Zealand's South Island. The guest is the man who, along with his partner Emma, decided to take over the site of a 30-year-old, twice-liquidated brewery during the early period of the COVID pandemic and bring it back to life.  

Luke Robertson is far better known in beer circles – at least outside Westport and surrounds – from his time in Australia. This is mainly due to Ale of a Time, the blog that spawned a podcast of the same name, both of them home to sharp, witty and occasionally caustic observations of, and commentary on, the wide world of beer.  

That was just one of many roles in the Australian beer world for Luke, who helped deliver major events such as Good Beer Week and BrewCon for the Independent Brewers Association, while writing – mostly on beer – for high profile publications not just in his adopted home but overseas, notably for Good Beer Hunting.  

Thirty months on from pouring the first Shortjaw beer for guests, he joined us to reflect on his change of direction – or putting his money where his mouth is, as he puts it: how he's approached building a customer base for a regional brewery in one of the most remote parts of the planet, his fondness for creating beers that represent the place in which they're brewed, and some of the highs and lows that come with launching a brewery in the toughest climate for beer in decades.  

The chat with Luke starts at 11:05.  

Prior to that, we interrupt Will's holiday in Bali to go behind the scenes of his deep dive article into the experiences of working at beer's sinking ships. Over a period of months, he spoke to former employees at a number of businesses across Australia that have been through administration, ceased operating, or changed hands over the past couple of years, and the picture they paint is far from pretty.  

We also discuss the reaction to the article since its publication on Monday, with comments received from outside Australia and beyond the beer world too.  

You'll find links relevant to the episode below:  

Shortjaw Brewing: https://shortjaw.co.nz/  

Ale of a Time: https://aleofatime.com/  

From Beer Blogger To Brewery Owner: https://craftypint.com/news/2799/from-beer-blogger-to-brewery-owner  

Working Inside Beer's Sinking Ships: https://craftypint.com/news/3605/working-inside-beers-sinking-ships  

Brew & A ft Charlie Claridge: https://craftypint.com/news/3609/brew-and-a-charlie-claridge-esker-beer-co  

Sun Tap Decals: https://www.suntapdecals.com.au/  

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].