For stop two in The Year In Beer series for 2025, we take a trip across Bass Strait.

Tasmania’s beer scene is one that mainlanders tend to have to watch from afar, with just a tiny handful of the dozens of breweries operating there sending beer off the island; indeed, many don’t sell anything too far beyond their own taprooms.

The state’s brewing industry did catch the eye of the beer world further afield in 2025, however. Fox Friday, which launched in Hobart before changing hands in 2019 and embarking on an ambitious national expansion, collapsed under a weight of questionable funding; Mountain Culture acquired their assets, although have since halted production in Hobart.

Another Hobart-based operation, Overland Brewers & Distillers went into liquidation, too, while 2025 also saw the pioneering Seven Sheds welcome their last customers, although founders Willie Simpson and Catherine Stark left on their own terms and in credit with the drinkers who’d passed through their bucolic Railton home over the previous 17 years. Meanwhile, as the year drew to a close, Tassie craft beer pioneers Moo Brew celebrated 20 years of beers.

In this episode, Matt Fielding from Science Made Beerable once again joins us to chat about the not-for-profit he founded with Kelsey Picard as well as what’s exciting him locally. We then hear from Hobart Brewing Co’s marketing manager, Nick Devereux, who talks about the brewery’s acquisition of The Hope & Anchor Hotel while hinting at other future plans given the state’s "will they-won’t they" stadium is set to be built over their Red Shed brewery venue.

Our last guest is Sam Reid, who alongside Will Horan runs Launceston-based Du Cane Brewing, which featured in a three-part guide to beer in the state's north earlier in the year. He tells us about the brewery’s busy events schedule, his decision to step back from Willie Smith’s Cider, and their forthcoming ramen bar.

Midway through the show, James and Will reveal the latest Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month too.

Start of segments:

• 2:48 – Matt Fielding
• 11:17 – Nick Devereux
• 20:45 – Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month
• 24:10 – Sam Reid

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