The Crafty Pint Podcast

"Balance is key for me in beer. I really love when a brewer can execute the balance between malt, hops and yeast." Dave Macgill is a brewer whose name will be well known to many in all parts of the Australian beer industry. For many years, he was head brewer at Tasmania’s Moo Brew, just one of three people to hold the reins at the pioneering brewery across its 20-year history. These days, you’ll f...

In an industry with no shortage of hop lovers, Tom Shellhammer’s interest in the wondrous plant goes further than most.  The Professor of Fermentation Science at Oregon State University is an internationally-recognised expert in hop chemistry who frequently travels the globe to provide his insights into all things hops. Indeed, as this podcast goes live, Tom is spending a multi-month sabbatic...

On March 21, 2025, The Crafty Pint team MC'd and recorded The High Country Hop Technical Symposium in Beechworth. Over the coming months, we'll share some of the presentations and panels from the day outside of our usual podcast schedule. First up: the team from the Independent Brewers Association, whose keynote presentation contains plenty of eye-opening data on the state of the industry and a ca...

“Any job where it’s reasonable for you to have a beer in your hand when you’re doing it is a pretty good deal.” Those words could be spoken at any brewery opening; in this case, however, they come courtesy of Crafty podcast guest Matt Stewart. Matt is a Melbourne-based comedian, podcast host, and history-travel-beer guide known as The Beer Pioneer. The last of those is a television show that first...

In early March, The Crafty Pint headed to Hobart for the 38th Chartered Institute of Brewers and Distillers Asia Pacific Convention. The event brings together brewers, distillers and suppliers from all over the globe for several days of technical presentations and networking with the aim of improving standards and education for technical brewers and distillers. To provide a behind-the-scenes slice...

Beer tourism was back on the cards in 2024 in a big way – locally, at least, as we noted in our Year in Beer 2024 wrap. A number of new ale trails popped up, with those in WA's South West, Newcastle and the enhanced Inner West Ale Trail joining well-established ventures in places such as the NSW South Coast and Collingwood. Already in 2025, they’ve been joined by the Brookie Trail, which formalise...

TWØBAYS weren’t the first gluten-free brewers in Australia, but they’ve certainly done their bit when it comes to putting Australian gluten-free beer on the map, not least when their Session Ale was named best GF beer on the planet at last year’s World Beer Cup in the States. Before achieving that prestigious high, they’d already become the first indie brewer to breach the macro-booze citadel that...

“Citra is like salt – you kinda need it… but also we have a lot contracted so we need to get through it!” Banks Brewing hold a place in many Aussie beer drinkers’ hearts, not least as one of the country’s finest brewers of all things hop-forward and hazy. Yet the Seaford brewery launched by Chris and Penny Farmer back in 2016 has – usually without fanfare – pioneered many other styles and techniqu...

"I think we got tagged early on as a hype brewery. We're not afraid to say that we were." In the words of Willie Nelson, we’re on the road again for this episode – or at least we were – as our chat with James McCall and Carla Naismith of Shapeshifter Brewing is the last of the shows we recorded in Adelaide at the tail end of 2024. James founded the brewery with Kevin Mulcahy after the pair met on...

Terms like “legend”, “iconic” and “trailblazer” get bandied around a lot, probably rather more than they should. Yet we doubt there would be anyone in the Australian beer industry who would quibble if we applied any – or all – of them to Jade Flavell and The Wheaty, the Thebarton pub she’s been running for more than two decades. We sat down with Jade to reflect on her time in hospitality, and her...

“This country has been crippled in the way politicians handle affairs … Well, someone needs to step up at some point and have the courage to recognise that we are now at a breaking point.” Anyone paying attention to craft beer in Australia over the past decade will be aware of two things. One, that Hawkers have consistently put out some of the best beers of any brewery in the country over that per...

It's time to hit the road again after hosting the GABS Hottest 100 Countdown livestream as Will and James call into Noodledoof in Victoria's west. Founders Sam Rudolph and Alex Carr launched the brewpub and distillery with their partners in late 2019 – just before you-know-what hit – in Koroit, a small town a short drive inland from the western end of the Great Ocean Road. In the years since, they...

For the best expert analysis served with a dash of opinion and plenty of banter, be sure to tune in to The Crafty Pint’s GABS Hottest 100 Video Podcast on countdown day!  Kicking off from 2.45pm AEDT on January 25, the Crafty team will guide you through the pointy end of the countdown, with deep dive trends and insights, interviews with brewers and beer lovers, wild chat, hot takes, listener...

We return to normal programming – temporarily at least ahead of our GABS Hottest 100 Countdown livestream – for Episode 028 of The Crafty Pint Podcast, featuring one of the interviews we recorded on the road in South Australia in late 2024. That said, it's arguably a little harsh to refer to Loophole Brewing as normal. Sure, it's a brewery that makes beer, but there's more to distinguish Loophole...

The Crafty Pint Podcast is back for 2025 after a most enjoyable break; we hope all our listeners and viewers had a great festive period too. Our first show of the year is a little different to most. We still reflect on the stories we’ve covered since the start of 2025, including the news that KAIJU! have become the latest brewing company to enter voluntary administration almost a year to the day a...

The final episode of The Crafty Pint's Year In Beer 2024 series is a double-header with a triple dose of guests. After completing the full set of states, it's the turn of ACT and the Northern Territory. There have been notable anniversaries, not least in the capital with both BentSpoke Brewing and Page Bottler marking ten years in 2024, plus expansions, acquisitions, new openings, and the roller-c...

We head to Queensland for the penultimate podcast of our Year In Beer 2024 series.  As with much of the local beer industry, it's been a challenging time for many in the state. A number of craft beer venues have closed or changed hands, the most high profile of which was Brewski, whose owners Ant and Matt joined us for an earlier show before rocking up with their new My Beer Dealer in Fortitu...

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 Wi...

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 Ja...

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 plent...

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 n...

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 askin...

“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 i...

"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." Give...

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...