The Crafty Pint Podcast

“If you don’t want to fail, then don’t do anything.”

We've swapped the somewhat risky task of recording our weekly news show from the stage at an awards night for the safe surrounds of our regular podcast studio this week – albeit still playing with the format a little.

In the first half of this week's show, Will and James look back on their experiences at Grainstock in the Riverina, as well as what may come from the event. They also discuss the articles to have hit the site since their return – articles full of insight, tips and lessons learned from the folks at two breweries at very different stages of their journeys: Stomping Ground and Black Match.

They also shout out some of the "friends of the show", as Will puts it, who received recognition at this year's Beer & Brewer Awards, taking place as part of the ongoing Sydney Beer Week.

After the break is a delightful bonus recorded at Grainstock. One of the guest speakers was Matthew Evans, better known as the Gourmet Farmer, who joined James and Luke McCarthy – editor of our sibling publication The Full Measure – for a chat about the ways in which both the brewing and distilling industries can better tell their stories, the story of their product's connection to land, and frog-friendly barley.
Start of segments:
0:18 – Stompo Street Fest
1:12 – Weekly News
12:04 – The Beer Championships Winners
12:35 – Beer30 Insights
13:21 – Matthew Evans
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

We’re back at Grainstock for another special edition of The Crafty Pint Podcast, featuring a lineup of guests offering a cross-section of the topics covered at the Voyager Craft Malt-curated industry gathering.
First up in the Lallemand-sponsored podcast studio at the Whitton Malt House is event founder Stu Whytcross, providing an update on all things Voyager, including their altered trajectory, international interest, maturing projects, and their excitement for a new malted rice product.
There’s more international flavour next, as Katelyn Grajewski, AKA That Malt Girl from the USA, drops in to share some insights from the world of US craft beer and malting, including how the industry there is trying to remind consumers of why the pint matters.
Back on home soil, we have Mark Brain and Matt Stitt from Broulee Brewhouse on the NSW South Coast. The brewpub in the coastal village has been punching above its weight since a few locals decided to give the area a community hub, focusing on the importance of creating an experience for everyone that visits.
Before we wrap up, Lallemand technical director Richard Chamberlin enters the host seat straight from his presentation for an update from the studio sponsors.
We’ll have more from Grainstock too, including a chat with Gourmet Farmer Matthew Evans on the next weekly news show and an in-depth interview with Jervis Bay Brewing co-founder Oisín Sweeney in the coming weeks.
Start of segments: 0:00 – Intro
3:43 – Thanks to Lallemand
4:01 – Stu Whytcross, Voyager Craft Malt
16:32 – Katelyn Grajewski, That Malt Girl
35:12 – Beer30 Insights
35:57 – Mark Brain & Matt Stitt, Broulee Brewhouse
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

"It should feel fun, it should feel celebratory, we should all feel a part of it."
Welcome to a special edition of our Weekly News show, recorded onstage at The Beer Championships after the final trophies were handed out. We were joined by competition co-founder Jayne Lewis and Renn Blackman, part of a ten-strong contingent from the Torquay-based brewery who collected two trophies on the night.
You can read all about the winners and the night itself in the article we published from Brunswick Town Hall as soon as the event was wrapped up.
Jayne reflects on the successes – and lessons learned – that she and fellow Beer Championship organisers Justin Fox and Cass Cochrane have taken from year one, as well as sharing their hopes and ambitions for 2027 and beyond.
As well as chatting about their latest awards triumph, we ask Renn what's helped Blackman's navigate the past 12 years so successfully, particularly following Black Hops' return from a second spell of VA under new owners last week. With both Moon Dog and now Stomping Ground moving into Blackman's home region – the Melbourne operations are opening venues in Geelong – we find out what that might mean for his brewery and the city's beer scene, while also looking ahead to Sydney Beer Week, where once again the recently-refurbed Union Hotel in Newtown will be a key venue.
Given the location and setup for this week's show – not only were people enjoying the post-awards drinks but we were "flash-mobbed" at one point – the sound is a little less perfect than we'd like. But we do like to test ourselves...
Start of segments:
1:03 – Jayne Lewis
Hops In The Hills Festival
16:32 – Stompo Street Fest
17:21 – Renn Blackman
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

"When I first moved to Australia, I felt Australian beer was so far behind... I think we're at least on par with the US right now."
When we switched The Crafty Pint Podcast to a dedicated weekly news show (plus fortnightly extended interviews), we promised we might invite on the occasional guest. Doing that has taken precisely one week – and what a special guest we have for you.
Mazen Hajjar will be known to many in the beer industry as the face and voice of Hawkers Beer. Following the Melbourne brewery's merger with White Bay early last year to form the Social Drinks Group, Mazen moved to Dubai for love, and to be closer to his family, and stepped back from day-to-day operations.
In March, however, he returned to the role of CEO, since when he's been overseeing the business from Dubai. On one of his regular trips to Melbourne, we enticed him to join James Smith and Will Ziebell in The Crafty Pint studio to chat about life in Dubai, Hawkers, White Bay, independence, and his – and many others' – perennial bugbears: excise tax and tap contracts.
The trio also talk about beer travel, inspired by Briony Liebich's Crafty Crawl around McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu and Jono Outred's update of Wild Hop Brewing's page on The Crafty Pint.
Victoria is also amidst a rush of milestone birthdays, with Tallboy & Moose and Watts River celebrating ten years on the same weekend and Stomping Ground throwing a major street party (for which you could win tickets) to mark their decade next month.
We'll be back with another special edition of the weekly show next week. We're recording it as soon as the winners have been announced at The Beer Championships awards night, for which ticket sales close this Friday.
For now, if you've any feedback on the new format, or anything else you'd like to share with us, get in touch!
Start of segments:
0:26 – Ryefield Hops 2027 Harvest Pre-Sale
1:22 – Mazen, Social Drinks Group, Fighting For Independence & Helles
17:14 – Stompo Street Fest
18:04 – Beer Travel, Milestone Birthdays & Rezza
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

“The freedom in beer pairing is much, much bigger than with wine.”

Rob and Bronwyn Kabboord have been responsible for some of the most enjoyable – and often spectacular – beer and food pairings I’ve experienced. And I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of others out there who can say the same.

During their time running Merricote in Westgarth, they combined Rob’s incredible dishes and a legendary cheese trolley with Bron’s award-winning wine list and an adventurous, expansive approach to beer rarely found in restaurants, whether here or overseas.

With Rob opening Rühe, a 24-seat bistro in Kyneton, with sommelier Daniel Saligari in August, and Bron now eight years into her time alongside Annie Smithers at Trentham's iconic du Fermier, we invited them into the studio for a warm and wide-ranging chat.

The conversation spans the breadth of drinks and food pairing, beer’s position in the hospitality and fine dining worlds, their careers and beer epiphanies, pioneering beer dinners, beetroot hotdogs in the gardens of New York’s legendary Stone Barns, vintage Orvals at the world’s best beer restaurant in Belgium, chocolate cigars and Cantillon.

For anyone keen learn more about pairing drinks and food, there’s also plenty to be gleaned when we surprise them with a couple of beers and let their creative juices flow.

If you missed the previous episode, we’ve tweaked the format of our podcasts. From now on, Thursdays will be Weekly News shows, still featuring the occasional guest, and every other Tuesday we’ll publish long-form interviews, panel discussions and other more timeless shows.