The Crafty Pint Podcast

• Capital Gains

  “You can be more sustainable and make more money at the same time.”Capital Brewing are well established alongside BentSpoke as part of the ACT beer scene’s big two. Despite retaining a tight sales focus on just the Canberra region and New South Wales, they’ve grown to a current capacity of two million litres per year while operating one of the largest hospitality venues – 1,000 people inside and out – of any brewery in Australia.They’ve gained public recognition by landing multiple beers in numerous GABS Hottest 100 polls – “Our goal was always to have the best album rather than the best smash hit.” – and produce a consistent, approachable core range on the one hand while indulging the brew team’s flights of fancy – imperial stout using apple juice instead of water, anyone? – via their pilot brewery and taproom.Central to their story, however, is their focus on operating as upstanding global citizens. Influenced by co-founder Laurence Kain and Tom Hertel’s joint love of the outdoors – surfing, long-distance running – they operate one of the leanest, greenest machines in beer and not just because they believe it’s the right thing to do; as they explain in our chat, operating more sustainably can be good for your bottom line too.We joined Laurence and the head brewer they enticed from San Diego, Wade Hurley, to discuss all that and more, including Captain Podium, supporting local music, and strong signs that the market is taking a turn for the better.We kick off the show with James joining Will from Purnululu to discuss the latest in MicroStar / Kegstar’s proposed acquisition of Konvoy, the Brisbane German Club’s joy ahead of their 2025 Oktoberfest, our step Behind Bars with Canberra beer bar To All My Friends, Bowden Brewing’s expansion in Adelaide, plus our upcoming Froth Town Crafty Crawl and event with Evil Mega Corp in Freo in September. We also announce a very worthy winner in our Have You Done A Rallings? celebration of the country’s good beer citizens.Start of segments: 17:50 – Capital Brewing Part 1 46:26 – Have You Done A Rallings? 49:18 – Capital Brewing Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

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• How To Revive A Historic Country Hotel

  “I like to say we’re the only pub in the world that’s a pub, police station and morgue in the same room.”One of the key figures in Sydney’s craft beer boom was Brad Flowers. He didn’t brew beer or run a venue, but through his distribution business he put beers from dozens of Australia’s indie brewers onto taps and into fridges, while also running some seriously ambitious events.Brad, it’s fair to say, also enjoyed the fruits of his labour as much as anyone in and around the industry, with tales of his escapades – often in cahoots with his beer “family” – becoming the stuff of legend.So, had you asked those who knew him to predict where he’d be in 2025, we doubt anyone would have said: “Running a historic pub in the middle of nowhere.” Yet, thanks to the most wonderful turn of events during the early months of the COVID pandemic, that’s what transpired.James joined Brad and wife Nicole at the Overland Corner Hotel in SA’s Riverland region to hear how they ended up swapping city life for bucolic pleasures. It’s a swap they’ve managed with aplomb, turning a rundown, haunted old hotel into an award-winning destination popular with everyone from grey nomads camping on the adjacent Murray to ravers attracted by the huge events they put on in the quarry from which the stone that built the pub was hewn.They offer great insight into building a regional hospo success story with craft beer at its heart while hinting at even greater plans for the future.Prior to the main interview, James joins Will from Windjana Gorge for a look back at the week on Crafty, covering Kylie Lethbridge’s decision to step down as CEO of the Independent Brewers Association, the rebirth of the oldest brewery building on the mainland, the launch of an Aussie mezcal brand, the arrival on The Crafty Pint of Devilbend Farm Beer, and Will’s co-hosting of an upcoming event featuring Bendigo Brewing and Seven Sheds.Start of segments: 17:06 – Grainstock 2025 Teaser 2 21:22 – Brad & Nicole Part 1 51:54 – Beer30 on Purchasing 60:00 – Brad & Nicole Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

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• Voyager's Vision

  “We don’t produce bulk commodity malt; we’re here to create malts that craft brewers and distillers can leverage off.”Here at The Crafty Pint we’ve made little secret of our admiration for the work of Stu Whytcross and Brad Woolner, the founders of Voyager Craft Malt. If we were betting sorts, we’d wager their impact – not just on beer and distilling, but farming and their home region in the Riverina – will be as great as any business to have operated within the wider beer world this century.Ahead of their inaugural Grainstock – a three-day event celebrating grain’s role in brewing, distilling and baking for both industry and consumers – we joined them at the Whitton Malt House. It’s the mighty impressive venue, accommodation, golf range, fishing lake and more created by Southern Cotton that sits alongside Voyager’s equally impressive production facility.As well as discussing their vision for Grainstock, they tell us how they’ve been competitive mates since primary school, how they first considered opening a brewery before heading down the malting route, how early support from Batch Brewing Co and Wildflower founder Topher Boehm helped them get going, how they’re working with forward-thinking farmers to promote practices that are better for the land while reigniting interest in ancient and forgotten grains, and much more besides, including their world champion malt and desire to help more local malting operations flourish.From the Riverina to the Northern Kimberley, where James joined Will from a giant termite mound to cast an eye over part three of our guide to beer in Tasmania’s north, Briony Liebich’s guide to tasting beer like a pro, the latest addition to our venue directory – the Bright Brewery-owned PA’s in Carlton, the launch of the sixth GABS Can Design Awards, and the latest giveaways and events for members of our Crafty Cabal beer club.If you enjoy the show, please like and subscribe, rate and review, and maybe even tell your mates!Start of segments: 13:15 – Voyager Part 1 44:57 – Breaking Down Beer Styles with Mogwai Labs 51:15 – Voyager Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

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• Community, Culture, Creativity – Inside The Cypher World

  "We've got big plans and big ideas, and want to have some fun with it along the way.”Canberra’s beer scene has been dominated – in a nice way – by two breweries for the best part of a decade now, but since Cypher Brewing released their first beers in April 2023 the Gungahlin crew have been angling to join BentSpoke and Capital and turn the Big Two into a Big Three.We joined co-owner Jeff Wilson-Shipley and head brewer Matt Thiele at their brewpub as part of our podcast road trip odyssey in June. The former is one of a group of soccer-playing mates from diverse backgrounds behind the brewery, the latter a brewer who joined Capital a month after they launched and moved across town for the chance to take more creative control of a brewhouse.We talked about their ethos and brand, the building of what they refer to as “The Cypher World” – one that seems to involve plans to open a brewpub on Mars, their efforts to celebrate and engage their multicultural local community, balancing hardcore fans’ (and their own) desire for big beers with more approachable offerings for the wider market, and their work advocating for indie brewers with the pollies down the road.It’s a pretty snappy intro this week, covering the week’s news – the founders of pioneering Red Duck Brewery putting the business on the market as they approach 20 years; the launch of an indie maltsters association in WA; tickets going on sale for the industry components of Grainstock – as well as Mick Wüst’s lovely tale featuring the founders of Brisbane Pub Chess.We also reveal the latest winner in our Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month campaign; keep the nominations for that coming, as well as for our Have You Done A Rallings? celebration of good beer citizens.Start of segments: 7:54 – Grainstock 2025 Preview 11:37 – Cypher Brewing Part 1 32:25 – Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month 37:41 – Cypher Brewing Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

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• One Drop. A Million Ideas

  “From very early on, we all agreed that we would play to our strengths.”More than a thousand brewing companies have come and, in many cases, gone since the craft beer era began in Australia, but there’s never been one quite like One Drop.The Botany-based operation make cracking “normal” beers yet have become a byword for the wild and WTF, the experimental and eccentric. They weren’t the first brewery to make smoothie sours, for example, but they’ve taken such beers – and myriad other styles – to new places others wouldn’t have conceived, let alone dared, creating beers that defy the odds and just work. James joined them at their brewery earlier in the year for a chat about their storming of the GABS Hottest 100 with We Jammin’, the serendipitous way brewer Nick Calder-Scholes was discovered by founders Meg Barbic and Clay Grant, their approach to brewing, “contained chaos”, being “collectively creative”, and moving craft beer away from “pale, male and stale”.If you’re wondering why this episode is running so late after the recording, it’s due to technical issues. It was the first recording with a new setup and somehow James was capturing video at such high quality it filled his laptop’s entire hard drive before the chat was over, leaving us with a corrupted file. So lovely was the backdrop for the guests, he was determined to rescue it, but despite many attempts it wasn’t to be. That said, the chat is colourful enough to paint vivid pictures with words.There’s one of our longer intros this week, as Will and James reflect on the imminent closures of Wayward’s taproom and White Bay Brewery following various mergers and acquisitions. We also discuss the news that Coles and Endeavour Group will be making it clearer which beer brands they own – and issue a shout out to anyone who has been de-ranged by the big two retailers (hit up [email protected] if that's you).Other stories from the past week include Guy Southern’s wonderful interview with new Feral head brewer Charlotte Freeston and the second part of Benedict Kennedy-Cox’s tour of Tasmania’s north, while the show also features the latest winner in our Have You Done A Rallings? campaign highlighting the country’s good beer citizens.Start of segments: 20:18 – One Drop Part 1 42:25 – Have You Done A Rallings? 47:31 – One Drop Part 2To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].

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