The Crafty Pint Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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 is the MCG – a move that has opened more doors for them – and set about changing people’s perceptions as to what beers brewed without barley and a range of other malts typically used in brewing can be.

Ahead of their 2025 Free The Taps event, at which some of the country’s best beer venues are hosting TWØBAYS tap takeovers during Coeliac Awareness Week, we joined founder Richard Jeffares and head brewer Kristian Martin at the brewery’s Dromana home.

As well as hearing about Richard’s journey from coeliac diagnosis relatively late in life to brewery owner via tours of GF breweries in the US, we discuss the ethos driving the business, the challenges of brewing with atypical ingredients, and their lofty – yet entirely reasonable – goals for the future.

Before we get to Richard and Kristian, we discuss Labor’s latest election promise to the beer world, Slipstream’s success at this year’s Royal Queensland awards – plus our “Slays Beer” feature on the young brewer behind their green Pandan-Monium beer, the recent openings of Rocky Ridge Duncraig and the new Bracket Brewing, Bright’s move into the heart of Melbourne, the closing of entries for this year’s Australian International Beer Awards and more.

We also celebrate more good beer citizens with the second winner in our "Have You Done A Rallings?" campaign: Russell Steele, from Easy Times Brewing in Brisbane.

Start of segments: 

• 15:47 – Richard & Kristian Part 1
• 42.48 – Have You Done A Rallings?
• 46.14 – Richard & Kristian Part 2

Relevant links: 

• TWØBAYS' World Beer Cup Gold
• Free The Taps 
• Labor Boost Their Election Promise
• Slipstream's Awards Success 
• John Nguyen Slays Beer
• Bracket Brewing Are Back
• Rocky Ridge Duncraig Opens
• Bright Buy PAs In Carlton
• Have You Done A Rallings?
• The High Country Hop 2025

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

“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 techniques over the years.

These days, West Coast pilsners are at the very top of both Chris and Penny’s list of favoured beers; we wrote about them alongside Cali IPAs in late 2024, yet they released their first all the way back in 2018. That beer was inspired by one of many fact-finding missions (holidays?) to the States, and a fondness for studying what’s happening in other beer cultures is often behind their desire to keep pushing forwards.

We sat down with the couple at their brewery, one that’s much-changed from its earliest days. Then, they only ever envisaged having a tiny, winery-esque cellar door before they realised very eager drinkers wanted more, which has led to Banks – formerly Mr Banks – evolving and expanding ever since.

We discuss building a business alongside a young family, the beers that showed them who they were as a brewery, the beauty of collaborations, forging new outlets, constant renewal, and their brush with a Hollywood icon.

Before we get to that, however, we discuss the moment Albo seemed to offer hope for small producers in an election promise only to dash those hopes once the details were revealed. And Will talks about a good news story from the Central Coast, where Six String have this week opened their new venue ready to host live music once more.

We also reveal the first winner of the Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month: Cypher Brewing in Canberra.

Start of segments:

• 9:30 – Chris & Penny Part 1
• 32:24 – Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month
• 37:58 – Chris & Penny Part 2

Relevant links:

• Banks Brewing
• Labor's Promise Too Little, Too Late 
• Six String's Big Move
• Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month
• Cypher Brewing 
• Have You Done A Rallings? 
• OPM Design

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

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 Fortitude Valley. 

Talking of high profile, the voluntary administration and, ultimately, sale of Black Hops Brewing to a new ownership team was among the most talked-about of all the littered the past 12 months in Australia. But, even here, the changes that brought led to an unexpected opportunity for two of the guests on this episode: Phil Sharp and Daniel Venema of Hiker Brewing. 

They took ownership of Black Hops Brisbane and converted it to their second home, a move they hadn't expected to make for a couple of years yet. However, such a decision feels very in keeping with the brewery's fine start to life. 

The founders discuss the lean and mean, community-centric ethos that's brought them to this point, the opportunities for smaller, locals-focused breweries to step in as the new pokie-free pub, their fondness for Working Title's beers, and how they were the real winners of the GABS Hottest 100 of 2023. 

We kick off, however, with Brisbane-based Crafty Pint writer Mick Wüst for his take on the past 12 months: the trends he's witnessed, the beers he's enjoyed, and what he's been up to, which has included publishing a second book and completing a third (both on spirits, following his first on beer). 

From there, we head to the Sunshine Coast where Craig Williams sits down at the home of Josh Donohoe, founder of Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours. A renewed focus on beer tourism is something we wrote about in the national trends article that launched this series and it's cropped up in other episodes, but few are as well versed as Josh. Not only has he been running tours in the region since the days when they had just a handful of breweries, but he's played a central role in the Craft Beer Capital tourism marketing campaign, even travelling with the region's brewers to sing the Sunshine Coast's praises in New Zealand. 

Start of guest segments: 

• 2:40 – Mick Wüst 
• 14:16 – Josh Donohoe 
• 26:33 – Phil Sharp & Daniel Venema

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  
• Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours 
• Mick's Gin Drinker's Toolkit  
• Hiker Brewing

To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

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 craig@craftypint.com.

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 craig@craftypint.com.

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 craig@craftypint.com.

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 craig@craftypint.com.

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 craig@craftypint.com.

"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 craig@craftypint.com.