Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Australian International Beer Awards 2026 – Results, Reaction & Froth
3 Plays2 seconds ago
“This was our goal, and we achieved it today, which was phenomenal.”
A bit of a change for this week’s episode, not just because it’s going up a day later than usual. We recorded it straight after the Australian International Beer Awards 2026 had wrapped up – in the canteen next to the main hall.
James had just finished co-hosting the awards with Kirrily Waldhorn, while Will was armed with his third Best Media trophy as they cast an eye over the winners – which you can read about here.
We also sat down with Tyler Little and John Marcus from Froth Craft Brewery in WA, who had entered the AIBAs for the first time in their tenth year with the goal to win Best New Exhibitor – which they did!
As well as reflecting on their triumph, we get some insight into what it was like living in Exmouth – home of Froth’s original venue – as Cyclone Narelle came through, plus the camaraderie they enjoy in the WA beer scene.
Prior to that, our discussion of the week’s news takes in the global travels of quality guru Bradford Tetlow, 100 years of roasting at Joe White Maltings, two more of our Pints of Origin preview articles, and a feature on Froth Craft Brewery’s collab with WA hop and malt industries celebrating the state’s flavours.
Start of segments:
- 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
- 8:59 – Double Vision Brewing & SURE on their Fresh Drop #PoO26 collab
- 16:12 – The AIBAs 2026 Results
- 26:29 – Froth Craft Brewery
- 35:59 – Australia's Biggest Beer Fan competition
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and ABES Overview
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Crafty Pint Podcast. I'm Will. I'm James and I think we're deep into at least the the first part of the craziest time of the year for for beer in Melbourne. Don't know if we'll be seeing a great deal of great deal of each other outside of events once we bid farewell at the end of today.
00:00:22
Speaker
Yes, so a bit of a special episode. We're doing the intro now to talk about the news of the week, but then we're going cut to us again in the future where we're going to be discussing some of the results from the ABES, which, James, you will, by the time people hearing this, have just hosted.
Co-hosting the ABES: James' Experience
00:00:38
Speaker
Should we see how many different tenses we can use over the course of this chat? Yeah, I was invited, don't know, just to... couple of weeks back if I was be interested in co-hosting the Abas this year so hopefully I won't have made a complete fool of myself or you know dragged the the awards into the gutter after 30 odd years of growing success and I did the indies a couple of times years ago when it was online only but this is the first time I've been sort of you know set out into the wild with several hundred people from the beer industry. So yeah, so hopefully I'll be sitting down, you know, 10, 15 minutes in this podcast, relaxed and happy rather than sort of, you know, banging my head on the table going, God damn it, I'll never be invited to any of these things again. Yeah, so yeah, so we'll be back later in the show, live from, you recorded at the, not live from, I suppose, recorded at the Melbourne show grounds. It is very confusing, isn't it? Trying to do this. Let's move on, I'm jumping through time. So, I mean, constantly
Post-Awards Reflections and Ceremony Insights
00:01:39
Speaker
in my head. Yeah, as soon as the awards are finished, we'll be sitting down in one of the rooms next to where the awards takes place at the Melbourne Showgrounds to sort of reflect on those.
00:01:48
Speaker
And yes, see who's who's picked up all the one of the many trophies this year. However, obviously, we still have to look back over the week's news. um Although, I guess, a couple of the bits of news, i felt but almost all the main bits of news this week are looking back further in time as well. So...
Bradford Tetlow's Brewing Journey
00:02:05
Speaker
Do to tell us about your chat with Bradford? Yeah, Bradford Tetlow. He's got a strong connection to the awards. He was involved in the very early days when Ballarat Uni was running it. He was sort of handling all the logistics and stewarding and that kind of thing. We actually spoke to Bradford for a story we did on the 30 years the ARBA a couple of years ago, three years ago, and he was living in the yeah UK at the time working for Carlsberg and now he's back in Australia having taken a job at Dad and Dave's Brewing in Brookvale. Bradford studied brewing but then quickly found a passion and and position within quality within breweries. He went to Lyon, Little Creatures and yeah he's really big on quality assurance. Similar role to at last week's guest Tina has and also Briony Liebig from Flavor Logic. So yeah I caught up with Bradford about his work and how he's traveled the world with this sensory mindset and also he's got some great tips in there what breweries can do to sort of make sure they're doing sensory the right way. Yeah, we've we've done that twice in a row. We had Tina talking about that in the podcast last week and now Bradford. I have to say, um when you flick the article through and said, oh, you know, I'm struggling a bit for a title. I did want to go with a play on ah Hey Jude, Take a Bad Beer and Make It Better. But then I wasn't quite sure what that said about all the ah the breweries that he's working on over the years. But I was like, I couldn't get out of my head. Take a bad beer and make it better. But maybe that can be just, you know, his the song that we serenade him with um whenever we see him.
00:03:32
Speaker
um And I guess you know and that's that's a mere 20 years. The other story you've been working on for on and off for quite some time. Not quite
Joe White Maltings' Centennial of Specialty Malts
00:03:39
Speaker
100 years. um But yeah, a big, big, big anniversary for one of the country's major ingredient suppliers. Yeah, Joe White Maltings are celebrating 100 years of roasting malt. But they're older than that. They were... Founded in the 1850s, but they installed their first roaster to make specialty malts in Collingwood 100 years ago. That now takes place in Ballarat. Dan Balin, who works for Joe Art, he reached out last year actually and said, hey, next year we're celebrating this, we'd love, um you know If you're at all interested, there's people we know would love to talk for a story. I think we've got some great, yeah very passionate people who work there. Spent a ah day at the the plant in Ballarat. and it's It's the largest special like dedicated specialty malting plant in the Southern Hemisphere. it's One of only two em import malts in Thai network and they're one of the largest malting companies in the world. Yeah, and I've never done anything like that before. It was really interesting to be in this control room with someone who's been watching over roasting malt, you know, for 30 years and him just, you like pull it out of the roaster and talk about the color and how it's meant to taste and and how much of it, despite them being a large company and very process driven and there being automation, it's still very much like about touch and feel and it's got to look right and be right and they sort of you know, get to all these positions, then gets lab tested, but they sort of know how it's meant to present. Lloyd, you have this great line about crystal malt, which, you know, isn't the world's most popular malt in craft beer at the moment, how it shines when you look at it and and you know it's right. And these kinds of things, the way, um, yeah Yeah, I think a lot of people talk about hop growing or something like that. I felt there was really similarity big similarities in this process and sort of factory setting that you often hear about on the farm or when you talk to a barley grower or a hop grower or someone like that.
00:05:26
Speaker
And I think from a news publication point of view, if they haven't got good stories to tell after 100 years, then something's going wrong. So yeah, there's some great yeah great interviews, of different perspectives in there as well. Not just from within inside Joe White, but outside as well. um So yeah, so that will be and get that put in the show notes. That's on the website by the time you listen to this or watch this. um And there's another article that I guess is very much smaller.
Frost Craft Brewery's Innovations and Collaborations
00:05:54
Speaker
It's very much an ingredients sort of ingredients and quality sort of focused week on Crafty. It's one that Jono Outred, who works the IBA as well, put together. um So the guys at Frost Craft Brewery, who they started out in Exmouth, they now have their main place down in Bunbury and and another venue in Perth, Northern Beaches. They always seem to sort of get themselves involved in some really good causes. We did a piece on their head brewer a few months ago. He's a vet and and had done this, be able to help raise money for this WA based organisation looking to work to support vets from the special forces. But anyway, their latest project, they've hooked up with Malakup Malt, who've been, I guess, they're probably the closest in sort of ethos and ambition to Voyager Craft Malt, but in WA.
00:06:37
Speaker
They've been producing a lot of malt for the WA brewing and distilling industry for a while and also working like Stu and Brad have done at Voyager to start try and bring some sort of older and grains back to life. So they've they've made a single hop um single malt beer.
00:06:54
Speaker
should be smash single mash single hop beer featuring beetle like but a hops which you know have their own sort of heritage in WA but aren't necessarily new but also they've this family has replanted dampier which is a WA two row barley that I think was around in the 60s hasn't been used in some time um and it's part of their project to try and sort of I think find more unique WA flavours and also to see what can be gained from using and older heritage forms of grain um which you know I think we we love that kind of thing and you know provenance and you know different styles of farming and and bringing sort of you know what what's old is new back so um yeah it was a great great little um read as well.
Pint of Origin Festival: Unique Collaborations and Offerings
00:07:31
Speaker
And that brings us back to our own beer festival slice of paradise. Pint of Origin is back we've been catching up with venues James you were talking to a few of them about the beers that are exciting them this year. Not just the beers yeah so our Pints of Origin series which has been sort of I guess delving deep into sort of one beer from each of the the five crawls, still one to go. um but We've run two more since the since the last episode went out. The latest one is on, well actually went a bit different, I guess to highlight the diversity of the festival. And I spoke to Julian White at Whiskey and Elmance about his favourite of the nine exclusive Japanese boilermakers they put together for the week. How that came about, you know the the beer he's using which is a Whip beer from Kyoto which features a particularly um you know japanese but special Japanese ingredient paired with one of the first um Japanese premium whiskeys prepared for export that's still around after 40 odd years. and um I tried some at the recent event. We did very delicious, so i had a chat to him and also got some highlight beers from the rest of the venues on the Central Crawl. um And the one that we ran last week was focused on the Inner North Crawl, where I had a chat to John Cope Williams, who's from Shore Brewing, but also Modern Liquid, which has been bringing Kiwi beer over for nearly 20 years to Australia now. um He's done a collab with Double Vision Brewing out of Wellington. So we spoke to John and also Evan from the Wellington Brewery about this fresh hop beer they've made, which involved them flying ho fresh hops up from Nelson to the brewery within it within a few hours.
00:08:57
Speaker
So we'll hear a little bit from them now. This is the first one that we actually did. So thought was quite cool. I approached John. Well, John came over. He came over to see some family. He swung by the bar and was like, should we collab Fresh Hops? Yeah, we were talking about the Fresh Hops and i was like, oh, I'm so jealous. Like, it's just, I'm sure we love Kiwi Hops. So to be able to have access to Kiwi Fresh Hops is just like, oh, you know, it's something we could...
00:09:23
Speaker
really never do until this collab idea came up and yeah, Ev suggested it and sort of jumped on it. Made it work. um Fresh Hop for us is like, it's big because it's a tight turnaround in terms of when the hops come. So you literally The brew team are put to work. It literally puts the brewery for its paces. So um I think this year we went from previous year we did 8,000 litres. This year we did 25,000 litres of fresh hop beers. So five different beers, which was nuts. And yeah they take off really well. So they've got a really good name for them in New Zealand. Everyone can't wait for fresh hop, which is cool because for us,
00:10:02
Speaker
you're never going to get that bear again. You can't replicate that bear because the harvest is always different each year. So to be able, and this was our first pilsner that we ever did ah four for Fresh Hop. So it was quite cool to do something a little bit different. Yeah, super happy at how it came out. It's just amazing.
00:10:20
Speaker
what you expect from a fresh hop is not like a west coast that it's you can't go back for another one it's actually got all the proper fruit flat profiles enough bitterness that it's quenchable you can keep going back for more than just one and i guess because you're on a different island to where the hops are grown how how fast i'm assuming it ends at hops you got them from Yeah, for this beer, yeah, we got from NZ Hops. How do they get them to you quickly to make sure they are still super fresh? I assume it has to be flown over. Oh, yeah, we charter a plane, get it for a shop.
00:10:55
Speaker
You're literally on call all day from when they're harvesting because you don't want to put the boil on too early because else you're just going to lose your... you know your work ratio and then yeah so comes in chaos drive down to the airport pick it up put it in the ute drive it back throw it all into the kettle so it's pretty cool it's like literally within two hours three hours of being picked it's literally in the kettle wow that's pretty amazing yeah it it stinks the place out it's just the whole place smells awesome
00:11:30
Speaker
Happened to be back in Wellington for the canning, which was fortuitous. That was perfect timing. So so yeah, rocked up as the as the cold cans were sort of spinning along the line there. And yeah, it was great. Got to got to taste at it taste the finished product. Personally, it's probably my favorite so far of the three shops that we've done or I personally tasted. So I mean, that's me being a bit biased, but I generally like it.
00:11:56
Speaker
And in terms of Pint of Origin, we've also got an update with Rose Island. They're hosting China. Unfortunately, keg beers aren't going to make it. They could have made it in time but they're because they were being air shipped, but they're actually being caught up in customs. yeah um yes it's something that's been going back and forth for a number of weeks i'm not sure 100 the exact issue but yeah the the air freighted kegs uh so lochie at um rose island worked with in porter chris to line up a mixed palette of and craft beers from three different chinese breweries from different parts of the country they got as far as customs they've been there a while um chris has been updating i think i think he's tried about 400 different methods to get the beer out of the country.
00:12:37
Speaker
And he did say that this is normally the easiest step. He said the easiest step has suddenly become the hardest, yeah which is a problem. but um But essentially so, yeah, Lockheed's going to have a collab beer that Banks made with Ye Brewing out of China on tap. Plus we've arranged for a bunch of the Chinese beers entered for this year's Australian International Beer Awards. Some of which, by the time you listen to this, we may have found out to gold medalists or trophy winners. um Only package for them, they'll make their way to Rose Island for the week as well. So in terms of pints on tap, there's only going to be the one, i guess, China-related beer. But I'm sure Lockie will make anyone who goes to visit him at Rose Island's time worthwhile. um Aside from that, the festival will have kicked off at many of the venues that open for midday by the time you're listening to this or watching this and that's if you you know get involved as the moment it goes live. um And yeah, so 22 venues around the city, heaps of good beer, heaps of fun events. um You'll be on a tour tomorrow with Drinking History tours. I'll be on one with Beer Belts Victoria. on Sunday. um
00:13:39
Speaker
yeah You might have seen you might have seen seen us on the TV already by the time you watch this. Should have been on with Carl this morning. Yeah. um And you know, look at and should and should be taking over sunrise weather on Monday morning as well. So um yeah, hopefully we'll see a bunch of you out around the traps. Should be a lot of fun. There's been a real buzz around Melbourne about it and the venues as ever have gone to extraordinary lengths so make sure if you haven't already jump online at pineoforigin.com slash passport and sign up for your free digital passport it's the best way to enjoy the festival not just because it's fun and you can see where you've been and collect stamps as you go but if you make it to six venues 12 venues or 18 venues you'll get a bonus drink at each of those once you buy a beer there
00:14:16
Speaker
It also enters you into this year's prize draw. Just by registering for a passport, you go into a draw to win $1,000 home kegerator set up with two taps from Kegaland. Plus, you could also win beers from Stomping Ground, Bridge Road Brewers, Double Vision and Shore, Stomping.
00:14:34
Speaker
Boat Rocker and Ferrell and if you head to Proud Mary Coffee during the week and get a stamp at their cafe in Collingwood then you go into a draw to win a voucher from Proud Mary as well. So you know you can go out and have a good time, make some new friends, visit some new venues, drink some good beers and you could potentially win a bunch of cool stuff at the end so why not get amongst it. Enjoy the week and enjoy the episode as well. We're going to cut to us at the awards right now. If you do enjoy it, make sure you subscribe, like, leave some comments.
00:15:04
Speaker
Just say that you're happy one of your favourite breweries won a trophy maybe, if they have. We're about to find out. Cheers. Cheers.
00:15:13
Speaker
Backed by a century of roasting excellence, Joe White Maltings is the name you can rely on in malt. Every Joe White malt begins in an Australian field, grown by local farmers they've partnered with for generations.
00:15:26
Speaker
It's that strong connection to the land that ensures malt traceability, consistent quality, and a genuine farm-to-glass story. Joe White's commitment to quality comes through in every malt, with rigorous standards, backed by technical expertise and a relentless focus on performance, ensuring only the best malts make it to your brew house.
00:15:45
Speaker
Whether you're looking for the perfect base malt for your pilsner specialty malts to take your limited release beers to the next level, Joe White Maltings has the solution for you. Joe White Maltings, supporting creativity and inspiring flavour for a hundred years.
00:16:01
Speaker
Consider Joe White Maltings, proudly distributed by Bintani for your next malt order. Visit bintani.com.au or talk to your Bintani rep today.
00:16:13
Speaker
And here we are, you've just heard us through the intro, we're at the awards. James, you just hosted, it how was it? It's good. Yeah, I enjoyed it. So I think it's one those things.
00:16:24
Speaker
I don't know whether the podcast helps that you get used to sort of talking to people. But bizarrely, there was no like nerves. I think also hosting with Kiralee, like she's a pro. um And it's also you have a very you know tight script to work to. So i know it was good, to like very very enjoyable. I did get told off a couple of times for going missing and considering I'm actually driving home tonight, wasn't even drinking, that was unfortunate.
ABES Hosting Reflections and Media Award Achievements
00:16:45
Speaker
But I think it after the in the main long break, I was off by our table challenge people and when they came to me, was just like, where have you been? Give us that beer. get on stage, but then the one time I did stick around the stage to make sure I was ready to go back on, they lost John Selton, so and he ended up sort of taking a bit of the bit of the blame for me. But it's good fun, it's nice to be up there, um gives you obviously a different perspective on things, um and yeah, just, you know, it's always nice to try new things, I reckon. But um I wasn't the only member of Crafty Pint getting on the stage tonight. In fact, at one stage, there was the oak cream dream of all three Crafty Pint people in the crowd on the stage at the same time, and what why was that? Well, I fortunately won best media again, which was, yeah, lovely.
00:17:26
Speaker
that's three times now, the first the first triple winner, triple threat. Yeah, third time's a charm. Yeah, look, it's incredible. um Very privileged to have... to do that, like a real honor. And, um, yeah, I'm i'm stoked. Uh, one of the stories that was, that was actually about Scotty Hargrave from Bolta when I sort of, so that what you enter three of your pieces and I was going through them. I was like, God, I loved that conversation with Scotty. He's a beautiful talker and it was just such a lovely way to end his time at bolter and it was a really beautiful full conversation as well so i'm stoked that was it come back scotty yeah come back for another chat sometime congratulations against will well deserved um yeah and just great to see get matt up on stage as well a bit of acknowledgement for him um And I guess moving on from him this sort of, you know, crafty circle jerk, moving on
Celebrating Champion Beer: GOAT's Unique Style
00:18:18
Speaker
to the rest of the winners. And we've got a glass here of a GOAT's winning beer, Brack to the Brewer, I think it was called, but Brack to the Future, was it it presented as tonight. um It's the first time I think I've seen any winners at the Ava's all wearing goat hooves. thought you were going to say meow, because Kenny meowed on stage. Kenny meowed, he was, yeah, not only was it the first time I've seen winners all wearing goat's hooves, but the first time a winner has meowed on stage. But if you don't know Kenny from Mountain Goat, that's kind of par for the course. um But it's pretty cool. so the the
00:18:48
Speaker
So one of the trophies that was presented to him was from Andrew Sutherland, um who we we had on the podcast or about a month or so ago after after we interviewed him as part the NZ Hop Harvest. And he grew the hops that went into the beer that won the champion beer tonight. So it was really nice to get those two guys together. And when the beer won the earlier trophy as well, before being named champion Australian beer, I was talking to Emma who's one of the brewers there and she was like, we're just so stoked because it's Kenny's beer. Like he loves that beer so much and designing it and everything like that. And yeah, he it was blown away by it. The whole team were, anyone who's ever been to the Abers will know the GOAT crew always come out in force with some very unusual outfits and they like to party hard too. So it was great to see them get up on stage. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And you know, and it was I guess was a bit of a big night for some of Big Beer, obviously Goat One, Pirate Life, didn't win any individual beer trophies, and but they went home with Champion Large Brewery. um So, but I, you know, while there was that sort major success for the big trophies for some of the, for Big Beer, it was also some smaller breweries picked us some trophies around Australia as well.
Emerging Success of Small Breweries
00:19:52
Speaker
Half Pace in um Sydney, I'm sure, you know, they brew and distill. Unless they've gotten a very big, they are a very small brewery. five hectares, I mean. Yeah, that's part of distillery. That was awesome. When I spoke to Dan, he was involved with setting that up. Loves fruit beers as well and i'm making those kind of beers. And that's where they got it is but both in those carriers. They got the the trophy and gold. um And they had one very, very vociferous fan out there, which was great. Um, also wards brewery from central Queensland. We actually, uh, spoke to Michael, a few months ago, I think Mick Vuce did uh, two, two part feature on central Queensland breweries. And i think wards is one of the ones really, you know, they're definitely going hard. Like that they're really trying to make, I think the area proud of it, uh, independent beer and local beer and that kind of thing. So it's good to see them show that in the awards as well. Yeah, and arguably even smaller and and newer.
00:20:42
Speaker
And I thought your connection to them was a little less tenuous than it is, but you know, we're going to claim them as yours will, Shaq Bay Brewing from Inverloch. Yeah, well, we're spending a lot of time covering sort of areas where I used to hang out as a teenager. Uh, yeah, I grew up nearby. I've sort of gotten to know the guys a little bit. They, they cycle with some friends of mine from high school. I know they're almost ready to lock in a place. So, so this might be- Inverlock-in. Yeah, Inverlock-in. This is probably the only time they'll win that trophy, but a really good time to win it as well. And also shout out, I think to Ocean Reach. Two witches where they brew the beer. Simon was here. He was blown away by the fact they won the trophy. He's won a trophy before at the Apes and I think he looked happier that these guys actually picked it up. So that was a really nice thing to see. Yeah. And I will hopefully get in touch with them soon for a bit of a story. So when did they actually start brewing their first beers? Last cup. Two to three years. Yeah. Okay.
00:21:35
Speaker
There we go. um And aside from that, I guess there was also, there probably weren't as many familiar faces like, Reckless got a couple of shouts out, but no trophy this year. You know, Filter got a couple of shouts out, but no trophy this year. But there were some who just seemed to be making a habit of it. We mentioned King Road Broome before. They go up three, four times. um And I love it, you know, when when you see the the founders getting up there, you know, you know old mate who's the Man City fan, they're there with the whitest of white hair, and they just always seem totally made up every time they get up on stage. Um, so they won, yeah, won three or four again, and they won champion beer at, um, Perth recently as well. Um, altitude in New Zealand but up three or four times tonight. They won champion small brewery, international brewery last year as well. Um, another disappeared for a while, but they just seem to keep kicking goals as well. And some more returning breweries as well. King river as well too, from Victoria. I think a few people were getting King river and King road confused a few times in the night. Like me before we started recording. Yeah, which is easy to do, but they're on different sides of the country. So it was great. So they're made on Doppelbock. That's the second time that's won a trophy. He spoke to Nathan straight up. They won it. He was really keen for me to, I got a couple of lines for our article from Steven, who's brewer and you know, they spend... I'm glad you said for our article. They spend a lot of time... ah
00:22:52
Speaker
perfecting traditional styles and and that, you know, I wonder how many times they've talked about Kolsch or something like that and Doppelbock and yeah, it's great to see them recognised for that. And they got a huge reaction as well. It was massive cheer for them, which was good to see. And I guess it's staying Victoria as well. Some other repeat winners, Hawkers picked up three trophies again tonight. Two of them for pretty big beers, which they seem to really specialise in and Stomping Ground with the champion independent Australian beer for their hanging Rauk. We got to have not just three crafty team members on stage at one point, we had two James Smiths on stage at one point. So that was that was quite exciting. But yeah, I mean, it did felt like a bit of a different mix of of winners this year. um you know it's I guess the industry is always changing shape and evolving and it did feel like Hawkesbury Brewing Co. I don't know a huge amount about them. you know They obviously making some great beers because they that one you know they were nominated for a number of beers, won a trophy there as well. They produce a wide range of alcoholic products, you know, some high ABV, RTDs and stuff like that. So probably should find a bit more about this, you know, this multifaceted company. But certainly, you know, there was there was a lot more so different um faces there. And i thought it was
International Entries and Regional Brewing Success
00:24:02
Speaker
interesting. I know China is the fastest growing international country in terms of sending awards in. Rex has been and brought over more than 200 beers from China this year. But there was, like I think, three trophies for Chinese breweries. was some on our table as well that were, you'd sort of look at them and be like, I don't, I had a green tea Hefeweiss and was like, this isn't going to be good. It was delicious. Like like the the way the green tea and the tannin cuts through the kind of, I guess like flabby notes of a hefe. Yeah, it was like, it's such a fantastic beer. I see why they're winning awards. yeah Well, but the article going up at the weekend, the next of our Pints of Origin and preview feature of the Central Crawl, Julian Whiskey and Elwin picked Kyoto beer from Japan.
00:24:45
Speaker
They're whipped beer made with a particularly unique um Japanese type of wood that was used for making toothpicks or something back in the day. And he says he loves the fact that there are people out there go going, not just looking at...
00:24:57
Speaker
Western craft beers or you know you know IPA or whatever, going what can we do that is uniquely of of our place? And yeah, it was interesting, you know is the wheat beer categories that you know going well there and you know the Goza or whatever. So clearly it's a different sort of palette. But yeah, and some success for Japan as well. So and I'm sure we're going to see more of that over over the coming years as well. so Well, speaking of success, I feel like there's been a bit of a pivot away in recent years. You know, like there was a year when Queensland just really like burst onto the scene in the abears. I feel like maybe Western Australia in the last couple of years and definitely this year has had a really strong showing. And right now we're going to cut to some guests from Western Australia. So enjoy that chat. And that's it from us.
00:25:37
Speaker
See you Point Origin. Cheers. Cheers.
00:25:41
Speaker
Heading to Pint of Origin Festival this May? Then don't miss your opportunity to win your very own home bar kegerator from Keg Land. Just register for a free Pint of Origin passport and you're in the running to take home this premium Keg Land keg fridge and beer tap system.
00:25:56
Speaker
Designed perfectly to fit in a standard under bench space, this is the ultimate addition to your outdoor setting, lounge bar or man cave. Valued at over $1,000, the stylish fridge can accommodate four 19-litre Kegland kegs, all the way up to a 50-litre commercial keg. Even better, Kegland stocks fresh kegs from local legends like Hop Nation, Kaiju, Co-Conspirators, and more, so you can keep the Pine of Origin vibes flowing all year round.
00:26:21
Speaker
Don't delay and get in the draw today. Register for your Pine of Origin passport at pineoforigin.com.
00:26:29
Speaker
Well, here we are, straight after the Australian International Beer Awards 2026 have finished.
Frost Craft Brewery's Journey and Industry Resilience
00:26:34
Speaker
um And we are joined by two guys from a brewery. First time you've ever entered Avers and done pretty well. As we can see by the trophy on the table, for those who are watching on YouTube, Tyler, John, do you want to tell us where which brewery are you from? Frostcraft Brewery. And then we have three venues. Originally, it was like Xbox, where we originally started our brewery from. But where the actual brewery is in Bumpery WA.
00:26:59
Speaker
Yeah. And you live up in Exmouth still, is that right? I do, but- So it's Exmouth, isn't it? I got told off when I spoke to Pete there, why is Exmouth not Exmouth? Is that right? Yeah. Told us Exmouth now. i' I'm down in Burberry, driving the brewery. Yeah. Yeah. And even though it's the first time you've entered, Foroth has been around almost 10 years. Is that right? Nine years. This year. Yeah. 10 next year. So yeah, exactly. Yep. And why'd you enter for the first time?
00:27:22
Speaker
Well, we entered the same 12 beers into the Purse World Beer Show, and we entered the same beers to this one. We just wanted to start consistency of feedback to see. was kind of one of those ones where we went, like, hey, because we haven't done it.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah. let's Let's have a crack. And i' I'm not going to lie, we we we sat there and had a conversation going, there is a Best New Entrance Award. Like, I think our beers are... at a point now where we're probably able to try and... This was goal. We literally, we talked about it. We're like, if we enter 12 beers, we got enough good beers, this was our goal, and we achieved it today, which was phenomenal. Honestly, it was good. Got some great beers coming out the door. Honestly, was just like, yeah. And you guys, obviously, so you were the brewer when the Frost started out. Yeah. When brewing up in Exmouth, obviously the brewery is all down in Bunbury now. So what do you do, just hang out in Exmouth and swim with whale sharks or something?
00:28:20
Speaker
ah That's good question. A lot of people ask me, like, what is your job? That's managing people, to be honest. It is honestly managing brewery operations. If he has...
00:28:34
Speaker
Shit going in the brewery. When I call him out going, fuck these people, fuck this shit. he says say hey He's dealing with that. As opposed to me doing it. Are the trade waste, like, flow meters not working? Like, that's my job. yeah But also just like, if... Like, it doesn't... like if a dishwasher is not working in in xmouth like i have to deal with it like it's just it's ownership yeah like at the end days like when you own a brewery or own businesses it's like you just have to be the people that are supporting your staff and i'm quite happy to be that and then talking about xmap before we get to um when john john joined the business have you found the penny farthing
00:29:16
Speaker
There's pretty, what do you mean? Like the penny falling from that, the cyclone. Didn't forget yeah like didn' it get blown off the roof in the cyclone? No, that was, ah that was, no, I took it down. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought maybe it had been blown into, you know, into golf or something. No, no, It was funny because just didn't tell my staff. Yeah. And what was it like? Were you, were you, were you staying up there when the rail came through? The cyclone was intense.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was like a category high four, five, like, no, like it was. and you been out there a number of years nothing like that would have come through, I guess. I immigrated from Canada 2012 and for us started in 2017, this was my third cyclone. This was by far like the craziest cyclone. And just to give people an idea, what how do you get through, other than taking penny farthings off the roof of your brewery, what are the other steps you have to take to make it through?
00:30:06
Speaker
full on like putting panels of wood and two by four, you guys don't understand two by four. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. Talking metric. Yeah, like, it's just like, like.
00:30:19
Speaker
Just hunker down. Yeah. Oh man. 50 by 100. Yeah. yeah And like, what where are we at now? Like, when was the cyclone? Today, i like I had my venue managers to be like, oh we're getting the the air cons replaced today because the the air cons got all messed up in the cyclone.
00:30:35
Speaker
So it's like, what, like a month? Yeah. two it's two Nearly two months? Yeah. like But this that's the whole town's like that. like The whole town got rolled. Smashed. Yeah. Yeah. like Honestly. like our The r RAC is not even opening for another couple of months. Wow. Yeah, like like it was intense, man. Yeah. And back to you, so John, your more recent recruits to um Froth, couple of years? Yeah, it's been a few couple years now. Yeah. And and we did regular reason craft equipment.
00:31:06
Speaker
When I read about you, we spoke to you a few months back. Yes. Project you were doing. So former vets who sort of, were you brewing when you were serving or is that something that's kind of post? Towards the back end of Yes, I was home brewing.
00:31:20
Speaker
ah just Yeah, like it it literally started my wife. um She, you know, her, sorry, her dad was home brewing the old kitten kilo, you know, the Coopers cans. um Never actually brewed my life. And, you know, she went, well, put down a beer.
00:31:41
Speaker
um but what What the hell do you do with this? so I have no idea. um yeah if if i was to drink it now would probably spit it out it was absolutely disgusting but at the time yeah you made yourself was in a bottle it was cheap as hell this is a great beer how long ago was that i know that was that was like 20 2018 something that's not that long ago now you've got now you've got a trophy for know the biggest beer awards in the country so um been brewing commercially now for don't know maybe You want to speak up for yourself in the sense of like, it's like four or five years now. Um, cause you're meticulous. You like, ah yeah oh you know, I mean, background, I will go down the rabbit hole and everything. Exactly. Like, exactly. yeah If you can, if there's some information to be found, oh I will try to trace it. Yeah.
00:32:27
Speaker
Do I find the right shit? Probably not, but I'll get it a run. and how's it feel to one man it was the most amazing feeling to actually say like so when we had the um the captain come up on the uh what was that the the second or third the international or european lager in a top five and get a gold out you know at that point i went you know i'm gonna have happy like right there i'm i'm happy and then gimme mo came up quietly i'm sitting on maybe we've got a shot this maybe we don't
00:33:01
Speaker
yeah phenomenal absolutely phenomenal yeah just well well well worth the flights and the accommodations come over for a few days yeah i like to give credit to what he does like he's a meticulous like he is like he dots his eyes he crushes his teeth not quite as meticulous in the brewery tyler Well, because you're, no, I probably wasn't. No, I'm a business doner Like all of a sudden, like, you know, there's a a gas leak in the fucking, sorry, and they in the keg room or like someone didn't show up for their shift or whatever. Like as a business owner, like man no
00:33:34
Speaker
And so is John your first like full-time head brewery you've had where you you've been able to step away and and leave something in there? He's the first head brewer that was purely focused on like making the beer the best it could be. Yeah.
00:33:47
Speaker
i what about double there's a whole bunch of wa trophy winners obviously sea king road they must have three or four trophy cabinets now how do you feel about like the you know the brewery scene in wwe and and and now sort of the winning the the brewery scene in wa is absolutely phenomenal yeah like the beers that we get access to from from the bruiser over there yeah like it's absolutely fantastic yeah and to be able to you know even you know show our heads and compete in that same level yeah Brilliant,
Exploring Melbourne's Beer Scene and Future Plans
00:34:15
Speaker
mate.
00:34:15
Speaker
We have amazing views in WA. I don't care what anyone says. we have We are leading the way. I'm also to the point that they like are happy to share their knowledge. Oh, yeah.
00:34:26
Speaker
It's not like a secretive thing. Steve was messaging me throughout the night I'd be like, so good to see you guys winning awards. Steve wearing from... Yeah, yeah. He's the guru. Yeah, yeah. He's the guru, man. Following it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The industry is phenomenal. Oh, man. Absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, nice. It's great to see you. And great see, you know, new names up there as well. And so what's the plan for the... You've few more days in Melbourne before you head back over. What's the plan?
00:34:55
Speaker
Survive tonight. I reckon you've survived a few rougher things over the years. Yeah. I got the footy on Saturday. Yeah. And just doing the moment. Hopefully, bit Pine of Origin, hopefully. Yes. Oh, yeah. We got to go to the Royston. Definitely. Yeah, we got to go to the Royston. Yeah. So we're going to go check that place out. Tomorrow, definitely. Share our face. And a few places we definitely want to get to try and see. I want to get to the stomping ground.
00:35:21
Speaker
Those guys make some phenomenal beers over there. I can stick my head in there and try to. Try to see some of it. you've been above ri the Yeah, the dark lager there was that was up from Ovalon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great beers over here too, but yeah just try to get as much of it in as we can and make the most of this trip. yeah well And then, you get back to work and Hopefully not die.
00:35:48
Speaker
Perfect place, isn't it? Yeah. Awesome. Thanks, guys. i Enjoy the rest your time in Melbourne and hope to see you over at one of your three venues very soon. Thank you. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of night. Thanks, guys. Thanks.
00:36:02
Speaker
Hi everyone, it's Matt from the Pine of Origin Festival where the world of beer comes to Melbourne. Kia ora, I'm Ryan, I'm the Festival Director of Beervana, the world's weirdest, wildest and greatest beer festival, according to Dylan and myself.
00:36:15
Speaker
and We're here on a mission to find Australia's biggest beer fan and we reckon that Pine of Origin is the best place to start. One lucky winner will be crowned Australia's biggest beer fan and win an epic Beervana prize including return flights to Wellington, four nights accommodation, festival passes, brewery experiences, spending money, merch and more for you and a plus one.
00:36:36
Speaker
Plus, everyone who enters will get access to two for one bring and make tickets for Beervana when they go on sale in June. To nominate yourself or a friend as Australia's biggest beer fan, head to beervana.co.nz. Make sure you get down to the Catfish here in Fitzroy from the 15th for Pint of Origin where you can try a whole bunch of incredible New Zealand beer.
00:36:56
Speaker
That's a bit of a taster before you come to New Zealand for beer vana.
00:37:00
Speaker
Cheers. Beer. Bringing the world closer together.
00:37:14
Speaker
The Crafty Pint podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman. You can get all your beer-related news and reviews on the Crafty Pint website, craftypint.com, and can stay up-to-date on future podcast episodes via our socials.
00:37:28
Speaker
We wouldn't be able to produce the podcast or the website, events, or festivals we run without the support of the beer industry. whether that's suppliers breweries or bottle shops if you'd like to support the show or partner with the crafty pine in other ways please reach out to craig by the details in the show notes and if you're a beer lover who'd like to support what we do you can join our exclusive club for beer lovers the crafty cabal visit crafty cabal.com for more and until next time drink good beer