The Crafty Pint Podcast

With some in The Crafty Pint Podcast team spending much of winter travelling, we’re tapping into a few past episodes for July. For round two of Another Round, we head back to the Riverina to revisit our chat with Brad Woolner and Stu Whytcross from Voyager Craft Malt . The best mates and business partners have helped pioneer small-scale malting in Australia, including through the launch of Grainst...

In this exclusive series - The New Hop Order, presented by HPA - The Crafty Pint Podcast explores what’s happening on the cutting edge of hop innovation from breeding and processing to brewing. In this episode, we’re talking with BarthHaas Customer Solutions Expert Christina Schönberger and Jopen’s Head Brewer Daniel Schappert about using Prysma™ to craft hop flavour that lasts a shelf lifetime.

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...

“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 o...

“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 rea...

“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...

“Be kind to people and treat your beer well.” It’s been an emotional few days for Nemesia Dale-Cully – or Meesh as she’s known to most. For almost half a decade, she’s been running the venue at Wildflower in Marrickville, where they bade farewell to their last customers on May 31. We took the opportunity to chat to Meesh ahead of the closing weekend, not just to reflect on her time at Wildflower b...

"People use it to learn English, and I think that's spectacular." Em Sauter is an American drinks communicator, international beer judge, podcast host and writer who specialises in visual education. To Australian beer fans and those working in beer, she's best known as as the person behind Pints and Panels , an award-winning website focused on "Visual Drinks Education" which launched in 2010. Em r...

“It's so great to see that people care, that there is still interest in the movement.” Fresh off the back of the Australian International Beer Awards and both the federal and Victorian state budgets, we invited the CEO and chair of the Independent Brewers Association (IBA) to join us on the show. There was plenty to reflect on and project from in the respective budgets, as well as the ongoing conv...

“This was our goal, and we achieved it today, which was phenomenal.” A bit of a change for this week’s episode, not just because it’s going up a day later than usual. We recorded it straight after the Australian International Beer Awards 2026 had wrapped up – in the canteen next to the main hall. James had just finished co-hosting the awards with Kirrily Waldhorn, while Will was armed with his thi...

In this exclusive series - The New Hop Order, presented by HPA - The Crafty Pint Podcast explores what’s happening on the cutting edge of hop innovation from breeding and processing to brewing. In this episode, we’re talking with Haas’ Sensory Manager Jeff Dailey and HPA’s Australia & New Zealand Sales Manager Michael Capaldo about Sensory Plus™ – a proactive quality assurance process they app...

“I really get a buzz out of looking at flavours and the way things interact with each other.” If you’re a consumer of beer, rather than someone working in the industry, there’s a fair chance you won’t have heard of this week’s trailblazing guest. After all, Tina Panoutsos doesn’t own a brewery, brew beer, pour beer, sell beer, or run a festival. However, over more than 35 years in beer, she’s beco...

"We never stopped experimenting. That's in our DNA.” Stone Brewing are one of the biggest names in American craft beer: a bold, brash brand with a fondness for IPA that helped drive the rise of the industry in the US and played a key role in the growth of the San Diego scene. So we jumped at the chance to sit down with Jeremy Moynier when he was in Beechworth recently to deliver the keynote speech...

“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 th...

“You’ve got to be open to opportunities.” Earlier this year, Cheeky Monkey announced they were opening a venue in the heart of Perth’s CBD . It will give the Margaret River-based brewery four homes in WA – and they’re not done yet, according to their director of operations, Brendan Day. He’s our guest on this week’s podcast, beaming in from their main production facility in Vasse for a chat about...

“What excites me is all the small players who are setting up in a brewpub and running their own race.” Just like the industry it covers, the beer media world has taken a fair few hits in recent years. Publications – online and in print – have folded across the planet, yet there remains a core of true believers keeping the flame, and the stories, alive. In New Zealand, nobody’s flame burns brighter...

“I’m a big believer that times waits for no one.” If you’ve come to know Dangerous Ales through their beers, it’s most likely via their banging, Knappstein Reserve-esque Crispy Boi lager or one of the many hazy IPAs that have impressed the country’s beer judges too. But while the beers are indeed impressive, they’re only part of the picture for this family-run brewery on the NSW South Coast. At it...

“The Kiwi hop industry has really focused on what flavours people are chasing in their beers.” Demand for New Zealand’s hops has been soaring in recent years , with old varieties revitalised, new ones hitting a sweet spot in the current market, and innovative products coming thick and fast. While in the Nelson region for the 2026 harvest, The Crafty Pint team visited a number of farms and processi...

“We want to be inclusive, and be a place where people can feel comfortable and proud to be themselves.” We had Stomping Ground penciled in for a chat later in the year when the Melbourne-based brewery turns ten. But when they announced they were launching a crowdfunding campaign – one with an ambitious maximum target of $4 million – we decided to bring the episode forward. It gave us a chance to d...

“When people are happy and passionate then the experiences that you have are just going to be better.” The story of Molly Rose Brewing and the man behind it, Nic Sandery, has been one of constant evolution, all in the pursuit of delicious flavours and delightful experiences. Launched initially as a subscription service while enough pennies were put away to open phase one of the brewery’s home in C...

“The brewpub model has proven itself to be the right model over the last few years.” Few people have been through as eventful a few years as Dave Padden. The founder of Akasha Brewing spearheaded a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022 which enabled the acquisition of two new venues, only for one of them to later close overnight, followed by a period in voluntary administration, and a subsequen...

In this exclusive series - The New Hop Order, presented by HPA - The Crafty Pint Podcast explores what’s happening on the cutting edge of hop innovation from breeding and processing to brewing.  In this episode, we’re celebrating the launch of Luna®, a new flavour hop from HPA’s powerhouse breeding program, tracking its fascinating 20-plus year journey to commercialisation with HPA’s Head of...

“We built a business that was really there to be connected directly to the community, and I think we succeeded in that.” There are plenty of family-owned and run businesses in the local beer world, but few in which so many family members are as directly involved as Five Barrel Brewing in Wollongong. As if to prove the point, on the day we visited to record this podcast, Jane (mum) and Mike (dad) w...

“How rock n’ roll to take our largest space and fill it with 20,000 litres of barrel-aged beer.” There’s little in Australian beer like Felons Brewing . First appearing as part of the Howard Smith Wharves (now Artemus Group) development on the Brisbane River as it flows under the iconic Story Bridge, the brewery’s home has steadily gobbled up more of the riverbank to the point its multiple venues...

“I really love this industry and I love the people.” Steve Jeffares requires no introduction for pretty much anyone working in the Australian beer world – or, for that matter, for many of the country’s beer drinkers. Since relaunching his pub in St Kilda as The Local Taphouse back in 2008, inspired by legendary US venues like Toronado, he’s been part of the small team responsible for creating the...