The Crafty Pint Podcast

The Crafty Pint

The Crafty Pint is the home of craft beer in Australia. The online magazine and resource has been crafting beer's best stories since 2010 and, in July 2024, launched The Crafty Pint Podcast. Hosted by the editorial team behind Australia's leading craft beer media publication, the show features curated discussion of industry news, as well as an ever-changing lineup of guests sharing perspectives from all corners of the craft beer world. Subscribe now and delve into the fascinating stories shaping beer.

  1. 3d ago

    Another Round: Life's A Beach – Building A Brewery In Bali

    “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.” In the last Another Round episode of The Crafty Pint Podcast, in which we’re rerunning some of our favourite shows from the past two years while various team members are overseas, we figured why not head overseas here too. What’s more, given it’s winter in Australia and plenty of people are seeking out sunnier climes, why not make our destination Bali? To be precise, we're off to the home of Sam Füss – the award-winning brewer who swapped Australia for the Indonesia island province in 2022. Her main reason for making the change was to set up Beaches Brewing Bali; we joined her in late 2024 with the brewery up and running. Sam takes us inside the experience of getting Beaches off the ground, training locals with no prior experience, and educating people who've never encountered craft beer before, while reflecting on one of the most colourful careers of any brewer in the modern era. With our podcast producer departing Melbourne to visit family in the States on Tuesday, we recorded our review of the week in beer earlier than usual, which means there’s no discussion of the sad news that Sobremesa have decided to call it a day, nor of Black Hops entering voluntary administration for a second time, 28 months after first going through the process. What James and Will do cover is the success of the inaugural Australian NZIPA Challenge last weekend, judging at the first Beer Championships, Reckless Brewing’s ambitious plans for IPA Day, a new offering for brewers from Mogwai Labs, ticket sales opening for Blobfish 2026, our updated listing for Bendigo’s Cambrian Hotel, and this week’s celebration of dark beers on the Inner West Ale Trail. We're back running fresh interviews from next week, and hope you've enjoyed these trips down Memory Lane. Start of segments: 0:00 – The Week On Crafty 13:26 – Brewery Boosters ft Bintani 17:17 – Sam Füss Part 1 40:49 – Maximising Taproom Revenue ft GoTab 46:55 – Sam Füss Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

    Another Round: Life's A Beach – Building A Brewery In Bali
  2. Jul 15

    Another Round: The Art Of Being Evil

    “I can kind of do whatever I want and two or three weeks later send the beer out and see what happens.” In the third of our Another Round episodes, in which we dip into the 100-plus past shows of The Crafty Pint Podcast throughout July while various team members are overseas, we return to our chat with Rhys Lopez, founder of one-man-band Evil Mega Corp. He takes us into the thinking behind his unique operation, one that allows him to explore any avenue that piques his interest, and move more nimbly than pretty much any brewing operation on the planet. We also delve into the pre-EMC – and pre-beer – career of one of the most loquacious and thought-provoking characters in the industry. This week’s intro sees James rejoin Will as he prepares to fly back from the UK, with the former recapping his brushes with the beer and whisky worlds in England and Scotland. It’s been something of a back-loaded week in terms of articles on Crafty, with news of Six String’s return from administration landing as we were chatting, and articles on Malt Donkey’s “Fine Ales” and Shapeshifter’s exciting plans for Adelaide Central Market potentially not landing on the site until after this episode enters the ether. We also look ahead to this weekend’s NZIPA Challenge at Rocky Ridge and upcoming events we’re involved with at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville and CoConspirators in Brunswick. Start of segments: 0:00 – The Week On Crafty 18:17 – Special Deal from Price Screen & Digital (use code PINT) 19:18 – Rhys Lopez Part 1 43:59 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines 45:06 – Rhys Lopez Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

    Another Round: The Art Of Being Evil
  3. Jul 1

    Another Round: Everything Indie, All The Time

    Something a little different from The Crafty Pint Podcast this week – and for the rest of July too.As flagged in recent episodes, we’re taking a short break from running new full-length interviews. All three key players in the production of the show are on back-to-back overseas trips and a major new project is coming to fruition soon.The beer news keeps coming, however, so we’re still recording fresh reviews of the week in beer. And, given we’ve got so many great chats to dip into from the past couple of years, we’re taking the opportunity to go another round with some of our favourites.First up is Jade Flavell from The Wheaty in Adelaide. Few will need any introduction to Jade, given the pioneering role she has played in defining high-end, craft beer-focused hospitality at the Thebarton pub, then more latterly turning it into an award-winning, ever-innovative brewpub.Jade is as passionate about supporting independent arts and live music as she is about indie beer – and whisky for that matter – and has plenty of insight to offer on those topics and many more.Before we revisit the chat recorded at The Wheaty, James joins Will from Oban on the West Coast of Scotland, where he’s combining visits to small breweries and historic distilleries with a family adventure.They look back over seven days in which Will has spoken to two people working sober in beer and hospitality, and we preview the opening of an ambitious new brewery in WA as well as the latest evolution of Prancing Pony in the Adelaide Hill.Beer travel of two kinds – a new Crafty Crawl in South Sydney and a champion brewer’s exploits in South Korea – also hit the site, while hop fiends can also look forward to the inaugural Aussie version of the NZIPA Challenge coming to Melbourne later this month.Start of segments: 0:00 – The Week On Crafty 13:57 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines 15:06 – Jade Part 1 41:34 – The NZIPA Challenge 42:18 – Jade Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

    Another Round: Everything Indie, All The Time
  4. Jun 24

    From Zero To Hero: The Rise Of Non-Alc Beer

    “I don't see any ceiling for non-alc beer.” It’s fair to say there were plenty of skeptics when non-alcoholic beer first started to appear in earnest in the local beer scene. Yet, in the half-decade-plus since we ran a blind tasting featuring early entrants to the market, the sector has grown and grown. While some brands have come and gone, there’s a growing number of established brands and many other breweries for whom their non-alc range forms a significant part of their sales. What’s more, Bridge Road Brewers and, more recently, Heaps Normal have started putting non-alc beer on tap. To assess where the market sits, where it could be heading, and why it’s come so far already, we pulled together a panel from different facets of the beer world. Molly Rose founder Nic Sandery is the brewer behind both Molly Rose and Hiatus non-alcs, Sam Bethune is a former brewer who’s now a technical sales specialist at Bintani, and former Fixation main man Tom Delmont brings a sales and brand perspective from his role at Hop Nation, who produce a broad range of alcohol-free beers. We look at advances in technology, processes and ingredients, the dos and don’ts of non-alc brewing, take lessons from overseas, and attempt a spot of crystal ball-gazing. This week’s opening is a global affair with James recently landed in London amid a European heatwave that looks a lot like Australia in January – albeit without aircon... We discuss two venue openings in the Yarra Valley and the Sunshine Coast, the relaunch of the Tasmanian Beer Trail, and our plans for a hiatus of sorts of our own. Throughout July, we’ll still be reviewing the week in beer on the show, but instead of featuring new longform interviews we’ll be running some of our favourites from the past two years. With James in the UK and our producer heading to the US soon – plus a major new project coming to a head – we didn’t want to risk breaking ourselves any more than we already do! Start of segments: 0:00 – The Week On Crafty 16:21 – Price Screen & Digital 17:26 – Non-Alc Panel Part 1 39:08 – Industry Insights With American Canning Machines 40:15 – Non-Alc Panel Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

    From Zero To Hero: The Rise Of Non-Alc Beer
  5. Jun 17

    A Brave New World For Beer Awards

    “Year one for us is proof of concept.” In January, we unveiled plans for a new form of beer awards being conceived by industry titans Justin Fox and Jayne Lewis. Five months on and submissions are now open for The Beer Championships, so we invited them to join us on the show to find out more. We delve into the genesis for this new approach to assessing and celebrating greatness in beer, their reasons for heading down this path after years spent judging across the world, and their desire to achieve significant commercial benefits for finalists and champions. We also tease from them the Oscars-inspired name for the trophies they’ll be handing out in October. It would be remiss of us to have two such respected individuals, with rare breadth of knowledge across many facets of the beer community, on the show and not ask more of them. So, in the second half of the main chat, we invite Justin and Jayne to tell us what they’re seeing and hearing about the beer world’s health and prospects, and to share their personal feelings on where the industry sits as we approach the midpoint of 2026. Talking of that, we’ll be taking a short break from running new extended interviews from the end of June. We’ll still publish weekly news updates; however, throughout July, these will be paired with some of our favourite shows from the past two years. Fresh long-form interviews will return at the end of July. We’re working on a major new project that’s launching in the second half of 2026, and Will, James and Matt will all be overseas for stretches between now and September, hence the short change in transmissions. In terms of this week’s news, we cover a VA on the Central Coast, the opening of a European-style beer hall in Hobart, the final leg of our 86 tram Crafty Crawl, and the launch of our competition to find the dream Aussie Beer XI now the World Cup is underway. Start of segments: 0:00 – The Week On Crafty 12:30 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines 13:40 – Justin & Jayne Part 1 38:47 – Enter The Beer Championships 39:39 – Justin & Jayne Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

    A Brave New World For Beer Awards
  6. Jun 11

    Serving With Style(s) ft Tito Orellana

    “The human component sometimes goes beyond the beer component of working in this industry.” Tito Orellana arrived in Australia from Chile with his interest in beer already piqued. Upon arriving in Melbourne in the midst of craft beer’s explosion – with signs blaring: “GOOD BEER WEEK” plastered on walls across the city – his interest soon became a full-blown passion. In the decade-plus since those early days, he’s moved from basic hospo roles through some of the country’s best beer bars and breweries to become an Advanced Cicerone and judge at major beer competitions on both sides of the equator. Today, Tito is the beer ambassador at Carwyn Cellars – an incredibly rare role in hospitality and retail that speaks volumes of both employer and employee – and one of the most respected beer educators and event hosts in the country. He’s also launching a new project, Edubeer, designed to make life easier for any Aussies wanting to understand how beer styles are supposed to look, taste and smell. He’s a wonderfully charismatic guest who touches upon his travels and love for music as well as his specialist subject, and offers some lovely insights into his first experience judging at the World Beer Cup in Colorado earlier this year. Before we get to this week's main chat, we cast an eye over the week's news: a new collab in WA designed to keep the beer gas tax conversation going; the crafty rebirth of an historic Melbourne corner boozer; entering the Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Awards; and our latest guide to enjoying beer at its best. Start of segments: 0:00 – The Week On Crafty 13:52 – Tito Part 1 40:51 – Industry Insights from American Canning Machines 41:57 – Tito Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

    Serving With Style(s) ft Tito Orellana

About

The Crafty Pint is the home of craft beer in Australia. The online magazine and resource has been crafting beer's best stories since 2010 and, in July 2024, launched The Crafty Pint Podcast. Hosted by the editorial team behind Australia's leading craft beer media publication, the show features curated discussion of industry news, as well as an ever-changing lineup of guests sharing perspectives from all corners of the craft beer world. Subscribe now and delve into the fascinating stories shaping beer.

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