"All these things, from branding to product, come back to your identity."

After a few weeks spent exploring the annals of The Crafty Pint Podcast, we return to our regular programming this week, as Clint Weaver joins us the studio.

Clint has spent close to a decade running Pocketbeagles, a graphic design business that focuses on making craft beer (and other beverages) look better. If you've looked at or enjoyed beers from the likes of CoConspirators, Brewmanity, Bright Brewery or One Drop, you'll be familiar with his work.

Ever up for a laugh, Clint hosted a "Fun-eral" for Pocketbeagles at CoConspirators last weekend to mark the redesign and evolution of his business. Ahead of the gathering, Will Ziebell caught up with the designer to chat about the decision, as well as Clint's love of craft beer and his early work on Froth Magazine.

Beyond his own history with the booze world, we examine how graphic design has changed over the last decade in beer, recent trends, and Clint's advice for brewers when it comes to branding and thinking about who they are.

Ahead of the chat, Will and James talk through the past week or so in the beer world, including the sad news that Sobremesa are calling it a day and Black Hops' second voluntary administration in two years. We also cover Blackflag's expansion into Bundaberg, the Australian International Spirits Awards, TWØBAYS' trophy success in New Zealand, and Dunsborough's new – kinda – brewery.

Start of segments:

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 18:30 – A Deal From Price Screen & Digital
• 19:31 – Clint Weaver Part 1
• 44:47 – Free Samples From Packpal
• 45:53 – Clint Weaver Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast 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.”

In the last Another Round episode of The Crafty Pint Podcast, in which we’re rerunning some of our favourite shows from the past two years while various team members are overseas, we figured why not head overseas here too.

What’s more, given it’s winter in Australia and plenty of people are seeking out sunnier climes, why not make our destination Bali? To be precise, we're off to the home of Sam Füss – the award-winning brewer who swapped Australia for the Indonesia island province in 2022.

Her main reason for making the change was to set up Beaches Brewing Bali; we joined her in late 2024 with the brewery up and running. Sam takes us inside the experience of getting Beaches off the ground, training locals with no prior experience, and educating people who've never encountered craft beer before, while reflecting on one of the most colourful careers of any brewer in the modern era.

With our podcast producer departing Melbourne to visit family in the States on Tuesday, we recorded our review of the week in beer earlier than usual, which means there’s no discussion of the sad news that Sobremesa have decided to call it a day, nor of Black Hops entering voluntary administration for a second time, 28 months after first going through the process.

What James and Will do cover is the success of the inaugural Australian NZIPA Challenge last weekend, judging at the first Beer Championships, Reckless Brewing’s ambitious plans for IPA Day, a new offering for brewers from Mogwai Labs, ticket sales opening for Blobfish 2026, our updated listing for Bendigo’s Cambrian Hotel, and this week’s celebration of dark beers on the Inner West Ale Trail.

We're back running fresh interviews from next week, and hope you've enjoyed these trips down Memory Lane.

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 13:26 – Brewery Boosters ft Bintani
• 17:17 – Sam Füss Part 1
• 40:49 – Maximising Taproom Revenue ft GoTab
• 46:55 – Sam Füss Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

“I can kind of do whatever I want and two or three weeks later send the beer out and see what happens.”

In the third of our Another Round episodes, in which we dip into the 100-plus past shows of The Crafty Pint Podcast throughout July while various team members are overseas, we return to our chat with Rhys Lopez, founder of one-man-band Evil Mega Corp.

He takes us into the thinking behind his unique operation, one that allows him to explore any avenue that piques his interest, and move more nimbly than pretty much any brewing operation on the planet. We also delve into the pre-EMC – and pre-beer – career of one of the most loquacious and thought-provoking characters in the industry.

This week’s intro sees James rejoin Will as he prepares to fly back from the UK, with the former recapping his brushes with the beer and whisky worlds in England and Scotland.

It’s been something of a back-loaded week in terms of articles on Crafty, with news of Six String’s return from administration landing as we were chatting, and articles on Malt Donkey’s “Fine Ales” and Shapeshifter’s exciting plans for Adelaide Central Market potentially not landing on the site until after this episode enters the ether.

We also look ahead to this weekend’s NZIPA Challenge at Rocky Ridge and upcoming events we’re involved with at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville and CoConspirators in Brunswick.

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 18:17 – Special Deal from Price Screen & Digital (use code PINT)
• 19:18 – Rhys Lopez Part 1
• 43:59 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines
• 45:06 – Rhys Lopez Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

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 Grainstock, Stu’s passion project.

The industry event returns in October, so we felt it was a fitting time to highlight where the idea came from as well as Voyager’s wider story, which we recorded at the Whitton Malt House last year.

Before that conversation, Craig and Will caught up to chat about the week’s news. They discussed Jono Outred’s story on CBCo’s paddock to plate to pint approach in Margaret River, Will’s piece on the delightful Otter’s Promise, and Mick Wüst’s latest book, Whisky & Cocktails.

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 12:25 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines
• 13:31 – Voyager Part 1
• 45:14 – A Special Deal From Price Screen & Digital
• 46:13 – Voyager Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

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 fresh reviews of the week in beer. And, given we’ve got so many great chats to dip into from the past couple of years, we’re taking the opportunity to go another round with some of our favourites.

First up is Jade Flavell from The Wheaty in Adelaide. Few will need any introduction to Jade, given the pioneering role she has played in defining high-end, craft beer-focused hospitality at the Thebarton pub, then more latterly turning it into an award-winning, ever-innovative brewpub.

Jade is as passionate about supporting independent arts and live music as she is about indie beer – and whisky for that matter – and has plenty of insight to offer on those topics and many more.

Before we revisit the chat recorded at The Wheaty, James joins Will from Oban on the West Coast of Scotland, where he’s combining visits to small breweries and historic distilleries with a family adventure.

They look back over seven days in which Will has spoken to two people working sober in beer and hospitality, and we preview the opening of an ambitious new brewery in WA as well as the latest evolution of Prancing Pony in the Adelaide Hill.

Beer travel of two kinds – a new Crafty Crawl in South Sydney and a champion brewer’s exploits in South Korea – also hit the site, while hop fiends can also look forward to the inaugural Aussie version of the NZIPA Challenge coming to Melbourne later this month.

Start of segments:

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 13:57 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines
• 15:06 – Jade Part 1
• 41:34 – The NZIPA Challenge
• 42:18 – Jade Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

“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 other breweries for whom their non-alc range forms a significant part of their sales. What’s more, Bridge Road Brewers and, more recently, Heaps Normal have started putting non-alc beer on tap.

To assess where the market sits, where it could be heading, and why it’s come so far already, we pulled together a panel from different facets of the beer world.

Molly Rose founder Nic Sandery is the brewer behind both Molly Rose and Hiatus non-alcs, Sam Bethune is a former brewer who’s now a technical sales specialist at Bintani, and former Fixation main man Tom Delmont brings a sales and brand perspective from his role at Hop Nation, who produce a broad range of alcohol-free beers.

We look at advances in technology, processes and ingredients, the dos and don’ts of non-alc brewing, take lessons from overseas, and attempt a spot of crystal ball-gazing.

This week’s opening is a global affair with James recently landed in London amid a European heatwave that looks a lot like Australia in January – albeit without aircon... We discuss two venue openings in the Yarra Valley and the Sunshine Coast, the relaunch of the Tasmanian Beer Trail, and our plans for a hiatus of sorts of our own.

Throughout July, we’ll still be reviewing the week in beer on the show, but instead of featuring new longform interviews we’ll be running some of our favourites from the past two years. With James in the UK and our producer heading to the US soon – plus a major new project coming to a head – we didn’t want to risk breaking ourselves any more than we already do!

Start of segments:

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 16:21 – Price Screen & Digital
• 17:26 – Non-Alc Panel Part 1
• 39:08 – Industry Insights With American Canning Machines
• 40:15 – Non-Alc Panel Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

“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 reasons for heading down this path after years spent judging across the world, and their desire to achieve significant commercial benefits for finalists and champions. We also tease from them the Oscars-inspired name for the trophies they’ll be handing out in October.

It would be remiss of us to have two such respected individuals, with rare breadth of knowledge across many facets of the beer community, on the show and not ask more of them.

So, in the second half of the main chat, we invite Justin and Jayne to tell us what they’re seeing and hearing about the beer world’s health and prospects, and to share their personal feelings on where the industry sits as we approach the midpoint of 2026.

Talking of that, we’ll be taking a short break from running new extended interviews from the end of June. We’ll still publish weekly news updates; however, throughout July, these will be paired with some of our favourite shows from the past two years. Fresh long-form interviews will return at the end of July.

We’re working on a major new project that’s launching in the second half of 2026, and Will, James and Matt will all be overseas for stretches between now and September, hence the short change in transmissions.

In terms of this week’s news, we cover a VA on the Central Coast, the opening of a European-style beer hall in Hobart, the final leg of our 86 tram Crafty Crawl, and the launch of our competition to find the dream Aussie Beer XI now the World Cup is underway.

Start of segments:

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 12:30 – Industry Insights with American Canning Machines
• 13:40 – Justin & Jayne Part 1
• 38:47 – Enter The Beer Championships
• 39:39 – Justin & Jayne Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.