Transcript
Speaker: I think those are the things that a lot of us are craving for is that feeling of how do we dial in how do we connect, how do we make something real, how do we make something genuine? um And that's 100% what we were trying to do and I really hope that's you know what kind of came across.
Speaker: Keen to try new beers but just not sure where to start? We get it. There are a load of options to choose from. Thankfully, we've done the heavy lifting for you. At the Beer Championships, we're all about finding the best beer on the market so you know what to try next. Our Beer Championships judges, this is all they see when they're judging a beer. So they're not influenced by big brands or marketing budgets. They're just assessing what's in the glass and telling you the best of what is out there.
Speaker: A Beer Championship stamp means quality is assured. And that should be the first thing look for at the bar or bottle shop.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Crafty Pine Podcast. I'm Will. I'm James and it's been a special edition tonight. We're here on stage at the inaugural beer championships in Brunswick Town Hall. um Literally on stage, Will. Not long been, wouldn't even say it's been cleared. We still have signage around us. um And what you know, about but an hour ago, the final winners were announced. Yes. And who was reading them out but Jane Lewis and her fellow co-founders of the beer championships. And she joins us here tonight.
Speaker: Jane, welcome. Thank you. So lovely to be here and so excited to be a part of this. And so excited that it's done, if I'd imagine. Relieved, but you know, yes, excited a hundred percent. Yeah. So you, I guess, I think we brought together, Justin Fox came to you, idea had been mulling away in his mind for a while. Yes. How it was to be done better.
Speaker: was telling me next door that working with you and Cass has made everything better. You were in your own lane and it's been, and me would have failed. So he's like, well, that's pretty good. Wouldn't have happened. So, you know, I appreciate that self-awareness. That's good.
Speaker: we've we've We've all worked out the bits that we are good at and the bits that we can kind of have control over. And then, yep, 100% there. It's definitely that greater than their powers combined situation. um So, yeah, it's been pretty good. And which bits are you going ah it Obviously everything, but I specifically... A whole lot of stuff I wasn't even aware of. So um a lot of my particular role is the people part of it. So a lot of the comms piece for um our partners and then also our judges and just making sure that everybody has...
Speaker: what it is that they need to do the bits that they want to do. So kind of, yeah. The lion's head and the wing leader. little bit. Well, you know, I think ah we probably could all, you know, happily take that role. But um yeah, ensuring that people have the bits that they require to do their jobs in the best way that they need them to do is pretty much where I kind of come in.
Speaker: And how do you feel now that in terms of the champions as well? So we've got, there was a number of breweries that appeared a number of times, which is cool to see. I thought there there were people in the crowd that sort of started being like, oh, Bishno Brewing in Tassie. ah Blackman's were another big one. And Slipstream as well. Yeah, Slipstream.
Speaker: I guess the team behind the original Morning Plincy Brewery, back in the original Morning Plincy Brewery. I was just saying to someone earlier, like AG, the head brewer there, who was Matt's original head brewer at Mornington.
Speaker: I remember going down to the brewery before they even, I think released there, poured their first beer and doing a story, and I've used the phone many times over the year, and AG stood in front of a tank in his first batch of pale ale from Mornington, and now their entire barrel pale ale has won a trophy, so it's pretty awesome, like 16 years sixteen years on So good. um And, yeah, for me it's so, don't know, heartening to see small breweries, big breweries, you know, in between breweries, medium breweries, like, you know, just doing such good beers. And the thing that I've always been excited by is consistency. So breweries getting a number of beers into, you know,
Speaker: into these sort of situations and seeing them kind of come through from because we get this beautiful position as we're going through judging where we go okay great we first we see the first round of you know breweries get kicked up and we say oh we're like oh that's cool and that's cool and then we get to see them kicked up again and kicked up again and then and then we're like oh my god okay so these breweries have got x number of beers in these finalists like that's and and they're you know wonderful you know people who are doing great things making great beer and there's That's what we're here for. We're here to tell the stories and we're here to help that mean something outside of, you know, getting an award. it's It's meant to tell a story and to mean something. And that's 100% of why we're here.
Speaker: It's kind of cool for Tasmania as well, you think? Like when we used to cover the Hottest One Hundred when that was going, just this the pure tyranny of like the population down there and maybe the Bass Strait and so many breweries, yeah that they'd never get um a beer into the top hundred. yeah But here we've had Nubru as a finalist, Cushno with two or three beers as finalists and a trophy. Three.
Speaker: Three for Bish. Like I didn't even know that they existed and here they are. They've got five-peck set up. They're about, they're going to expand later in the year. I've been chatting to Liam next door. So they are expanding and they were already planning to do that anyway. but here's a five-peck set up in a shed where they show you his wine and food. And these beers were fantastic fantastic fantastic. Like honestly, so good. And that's the stuff that makes me happy. And in, you know, look, this is probably one of the places where I'll call it out, like Jack Viney.
Speaker: at Moo is the guy who makes all of that stuff happen. And he's just like, get all of your beers to me. I'm going to get everything across. Um, and he is the one who is kind of supporting people to get all of that stuff. And I collected a trophy tonight as well. i'm i shambles I mean, a humble man. He also coordinates all the beers for the Planet Origin Tasmania as well. Like there's, yeah, there's sort of unsung heroes that just, know. And there is nothing that man won't do. Like you ask him for favor and he'll 100% do it. And that's where I'm like, those are the people who make all of this stuff worthwhile and who really need that call out. Yeah, I wish you feeling and how it went. I really enjoyed how put it the article. all
Speaker: There's a bit of sort of a homespun, grassroots, laid back feel to it. You know, even when there was a bit of an icy tech problem, everyone was like, you know. Having a laugh about it. You did your lovely reveals where you opened these wooden wine boxes to say how the winners were. Justin threw the IPA across the floor for that winner. you know, I thought I loved it the end when it went.
Speaker: he announced a dead heat and someone goes, dance off. And you're just like, you maybe you it wouldn't have felt that odd if you'd brought people up for a dance off. i would have loved that now. i wish I actually wish I had thought of it, to be honest. um No, and I agreed. And that's probably what we're really aiming for is...
Speaker: community grassroots um connection. That's what this means to us. ah For me, I think of it in line with AFLW games where you feel much more kind of connected to what's going on. You feel much- You can get a craft beer. You can get a craft beer. Exactly. um And that's, I think, maybe one of the things that- whether or not we knew it, that's the kind of thing I believe I was trying to to capture in all of this. and And that's it. For me, it was...
Speaker: We're all a part of this. This is all a fun thing that we're going through. It should feel fun. It should feel celebratory, but we should all feel a part of it. Like it's not a, yeah, we're just here. And to have a hundred people in the room is so beautiful. Like it's a beautiful number. It's enough to feel like you've got something feel raucous at times. Yeah, exactly. Which is great. Raucous is good. You know, we want raucous. So yeah. It felt to me like I feel, you know, in some ways the industry over the last few years has almost been recapturing, trying to, know, recapture some, know,
Speaker: the atmosphere in the vibe of the early days and breweries getting back to what does it actually mean? Because growth is so tough, what does mean be a Lucas brewery, to get back to community? And yes, we still had like Cv Co, good drink centre, and the mountain breweries, but they're also a part of it here. Great Northern had beers in which we also love as well. And I think their whole grassroots movement, I think things like grain stock, which I think is just such a beautiful community based thing. and I won't send you any photos while you're not seeing it. I'm so sad. I think those are the things that a lot of us are craving for is that feeling of how do we...
Speaker: dial in, how do we connect, how do we make something real, how do we make something genuine? um And that's 100% what we were trying to do and I really hope that's, you know, what kind of came across.
Speaker: And tell us about the dead heat as well. know. So, two champions, small breweries, I mean, unheard of maybe? I don't know. and Does it often happen? like Small pots of people in small brewery thing is it just for their... No. do know I can't remember the percentages off the top of my head, but I feel like they were actually relatively even in terms of the percentage wise. um But, you know, we had people in that small brewery category who had three beers in the finalists. So it was effectively about how many, how far you had progressed in the competition and and the beers that you entered, how far they kind of went through and to have I think we had three breweries with three beers in the finals and that kind of comes through in its own kind of way. um So, yeah, and in the in the end we couldn't actually split them. So we had to – we're being flash mobbed. Yeah, fair idea. In the end, we just had to, you know, make it a split because there was no way else to go about it. It was great. It seemed to be very well received as well. and Any big lessons from you, one? I'm assuming you've learned those lessons already with all tonight. Too many lessons. um
Speaker: But honestly, you know, my overarching thing is... I'm so proud of what we were able to accomplish. um For year one, it went so well. um There's so much we can learn about timing. I think probably a lot of people listening will be like, hey, Jane, how long did you have between entries open to entries closed? And I'd be like, yes, all of that. Yeah, exactly. It wasn't very long. I get it. um So, you know, I think timing was definitely one of the things that we learned. um And we were...
Speaker: There was a time when I was like, I'm not sure if this is actually happening. were given these dates. I've heard nothing for a while. And honestly, I think we said to you guys, until the day it went live, we weren't even sure it was going happen. Yeah, we were checking the website going, this doesn't look quite ready to us. It's such a fascinating thing as well, though. You give people too long and they don't enter. And as we've sort of learned a lot running Pant of Origin and things like that, it's like, oh, no, no, we'll be involved next year. We'll be involved... we'll do it, we'll do it, we'll do it. But people don't do it. Like you've got to kind of set good boundaries as well. Yeah, but also brewers, we love them, but we know that they will live everything. So, you know, you know that you're going to get 90% of your entries on the last day regardless of how long you're opening. It's a terrifying way run anything. Oh, my God, it's absolutely horrifying. Yeah, exactly. So, look, I'd like to say it was more curated than it was, but it was, you know, just the way it was. It's only what people see on the outside. They don't have to see what's going behind the scenes. Exactly, they But no, I definitely think next year, um, my focus is on giving all of the pieces a little bit more time to breathe. Um, and that's a big one, but there's, you know, there's a million, God, you do, you do a competition and you learn a million things. So, um, I guess for people who haven't sort of read in the article or the podcast before, like, what is this, what's next and what's the brand ambitions of the goal for the beer championships going forward? The grand ambition for me for the comp is always about winning an award or being part of a, being part of the finalists, being part of the champions for us should result in
Speaker: commercial outcomes. So, you know, that's the part we're trying to drive is, you know, year one, we get to the stage where people start to recognize the logo and then we start to build the idea of okay, this equals quality. And these are the kinds of beers that you're looking at. but sex Proof of concept. Exactly. And so for us, it should be, it should move them a needle. Winning a thing should have a change in your business. Um, and so, um,
Speaker: we're not there yet. um But that's definitely our focus is, and also the great, the feedback, but that's the bit that, you know, i want to go back to as well. Like Juz's feedback model is totally different to anything that's been on the market before. There were quite a few cheers when yeah that that was mentioned from the judges, like having been there on the first, the start of judging, like a lot of people were very excited about it. The throne at first and,
Speaker: took some adjustment but um some people sort of really appreciated it yeah people have judged a lot before we were like oh this is yeah is a pretty cool way to do things and what the overall overwhelming feedback we got from the entrance was wow that was fantastic and we actually really understand a lot more about our product and it's actually really useful and all that kind of stuff so again there's a bunch of stuff we need to refine but It was about taking that feedback and changing up the way it's given and um making that what we believe to be more meaningful. um so
Speaker: So, yeah, they're probably the two things is the commercial impact and changing up the way people receive feedback. But, yeah, for the judges, it blows their minds. You know, for the first half of the day, everyone's like, Oh my God, what have you done? Because they're so used to doing it in, you know, the way that we've all been taught. And so, but I also think it's good for everybody to change the way they do things. Right. So yeah. That's been great. Now, congratulations. We'll let you get back and enjoy yourself with Claire. For the attendees that are here, um, we're going to grab one of the winners over here. We're going to grab Ren from Batman. You gotta get Ren. Yeah.
Speaker: We sponsored his award, or their award, I should say. course. You know, all 10 of them, well, nine plus one. was Champion Medium Brewery, and they brought a large brewery amount of people here onto the stage to grab the trophy. Yes, they brought 10 of them. The beautiful moment I thought, well, let's get a bit captured tonight, was the front.
Speaker: when they got their first trophy one of them was in the toilet but when he came in realized missed out he could come off on stage on his own and got his own personal chair which i thought was like that wouldn't happen at the ables no it was beautiful and i really like that and that's um and because also wren has two sides because wren was one of our judges and also is you know their beers came through so well in that competition and um to win a champion for the Porter and then obviously to go on to win a champion medium brewery as well. I'm like, well done. Hats off to them. Hats off to you guys. So thanks for joining us and enjoy wrestling. Appreciate you guys. You've done so much for us as well. We really, we don't even have words to appreciate how much it is. So fantastic.
Speaker: Thanks mate.
Speaker: Join us this Saturday, 17th of October for Hops in the Hills at the Vicar in Durrell. Featuring more than 15 craft breweries and loads of weird and wonderful brews to explore, live bands and country tunes, delicious street food and gourmet eats.
Speaker: It's a day for the whole family to enjoy, free to attend and welcome to all. Good times, great company and locally crafted food and drink. Don't miss it. Saturday, 17th of October from 12pm at the Vicar, your place in the hills.
Speaker: Find out more at thevicar.com.au.
Speaker: Hey Legends, Stomping Ground Brewing Co. is turning 10 and turning it on with a massive laneway-style street party on Saturday 14th of November. And you're invited.
Speaker: From their Collingwood home, they're taking over Islington Street with an awesome music line-up presented by Triple R. Live music, DJs, street mural painting, food trucks, oysters, free tattoos, circus, drag queens, street-side tinny bars, gin cocktails and more.
Speaker: Stompo Street Fest is going to be an epic day out. celebrating 10 years of great beer, good people and the incredible community they're part of. Tickets are just $39 or free for under 12s and selling fast. Don't miss Stompo Street Fest on Saturday 14th of November.
Speaker: Check it all out at stompingground.beer.
Speaker: Welcome back to the Crafty Pine podcast. Apologies if James sounds a little bit worse for wear at the start of this episode. Worse for wear, I'm driving. We had a problem with his mic, but we've fixed it now. apologies. And here we are fresh with Ren from Blackman's.
Speaker: Ren, welcome to the Crafty Pump podcast. Good evening. Well, welcome back. We should say we've had you on before, but here you are, champion medium brewery yeah at the beer championships. Pretty exciting. Yeah. yeah Really good. had the whole team here and everyone was goddamn pumped. Yeah, on fire.
Speaker: It's pretty good. Yeah, everyone's had a good night. It's great. Yeah, do you always try try and take a good number to the awards? You had 10 people here tonight. Yeah, yeah, we always try to bring the team along. I feel like it's just a good way to celebrate what everyone sort of strives to do at work, even though like a beer-centric competition, this one. yeah um I think it's kind of cool to bring everyone along and have a good night out and celebrate what we all do. And if you win a couple of trophies along the way, then, you know, so be it. Yeah, yeah, that makes it more fun for sure. Yeah, yeah nice. Well, um I guess so I spoke to you a couple of weeks ago about your recent road trip to America. Yeah. um And you made some collab beers that coming out pretty soon. But also you talked about how you brought some um learnings back from the collabs you've done, a bit of a changing your dry hopping techniques. Yeah. And how that fed into one of the beers that um was a finalist tonight. Yes. Have you tweaked any, sorry, the Arthur that won tonight as well? Nah, Arthur's the same old Arthur that we always make. yeah i Never change a dark beer, right? Yeah. It always does well. Like it's won champion at Abers and it's won a few golds over the years. So just a sort of full safe beer that tastes really good. In terms of the awards, what was the appeal of entering? Like, you know, this is a new competition, like fresh, like what... Yeah, it sounded like a great concept. um
Speaker: Yeah, like traditionally the awards have all been the same for a long time. So it's cool to see something new and i'm kind of judging a beer on actually just being a great beer to drink. I think that's a great concept.
Speaker: um So yeah, I was on board with that and wanted to get involved for sure. And you were judging as well. What did you make of the the new judging format? it Was it all like, you know, water for ducks back or did it take a bit a bit of getting used to it? Yeah, like it was a bit of to and fro to start with. um At the end of the day though, I kind of was just about drinking a beer, tasting it.
Speaker: Does it taste like a really good pint that you drink at the pub? yeah And if so, it moves through to the next round, which I think is yeah really good. Yeah, good stuff. um And obviously this is technically our weekly news show, even though it's been recorded on stage at the beer beer championships. And I guess there's been what one story that we, I guess, reported or touched upon this We'll probably have some more on the website next week. And it relates to a story from a couple of weeks ago about Moondog. So Moondog and Stomping Ground are looking to move into your home territory that down in Geelong. Yeah, yeah, they're coming for us. Coming for you. I mean, so obviously, you know, you've got your main brewery in Geelong. You're based down in Torquay. You know, is Geelong big enough for the three of you? Yeah, no, definitely, I think. I think it'll be good um having some big players from Melbourne come down. It's going to kind of spread the word of good beer to more people. Yeah. They've got a lot of marketing pool and a lot of power and they make good beers. Yeah. So it'd be good. We're actually releasing a beer with Stomping Ground tomorrow.
Speaker: Oh no, Friday, like two days away. um Juicy Bang & Hop Stomper. So we make an annual collab every year, a bit of a riff on Juicy Banger. Yeah, and that'll be good. um And yeah, we're pretty good mates with those guys. And how how is the Geelong scene? You've obviously been selling beer into there for a long time. I know like yeah Pivot City stuff's gone well. you got the beer that's skilled. GMHBA Stadium now, GMHBA Stadium. Like, you know, is craft beer getting a bit of a hold there? i know it's been a challenge in the past, but are you it's getting better? Yeah, it's continually growing.
Speaker: It's a hard town with beer against kind of mainstream beer because the old traditional publicans, they've always kind of had their way of doing things and they kind of still haven't really changed much. Well, if enough breweries take over pubs, though, then, you know. Totally, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, that's sort of what's probably going to happen, I think. But, yeah, there's more kind of a bit of a change happening at the moment, like Torquay pub changing things, and there's a few other pubs that are doing new things. Yeah, yeah. I know, yeah, well, it'd be good to, you have some brethren around there. You know, I'm assuming that your hold on your taps and your fridge space will be – strong enough yeah they're not able to pry anyone's fingers off blackman's yeah yeah no that's the plan that's how build it um other bit of news on the site late last week was that uh black ops has been bought once again by a tribe breweries this time uh i think it's good to see that maybe there's some uh stability there because it's been a brewery that's been into va multiple times um tribe also went into a while ago but it seems like they've sort of really pulled themselves out of that and uh They've gone through the B Corp process as well over that time and sort of normalized to a degree. um James, did it surprise you to see something like this happening? Well, I think, you know, the back ops went into VA for a second time a few weeks ago. There's probably little bit going, will they come back out again? It's almost, um not unprecedented, but it's kind of unusual, i think, to see happen twice. It would be interesting to see like you know it's you know what do you do with with with brands like that, how are they going to make it succeed, are they going to plug it into the tribe system, um you know you know what what do you do to regain trust you know when you've been through VA a couple of times and some people have probably been burned along the way. But it did have a very strong you know reputation, a very strong reach in in in their home territory, so we'll see. I mean, um but it just shows there's still challenges out there in the market. I mean, I guess for you guys, you seem to be sailing serenely. I mean, how many years you been around now? 12 years. 12 years. It seems to be pretty serene. You know, you've sort of explored the multi-venue thing lot people doing that. We've definitely gone through sort of a ride the whole way through. There's been ups and downs. yeah um But yeah, having the venues has been great.
Speaker: um And then, yeah, sort of at the moment, things are going well, which is great. but Making great beers. I mean, have there been any things you think that you've done well that have helped you navigate the 12 years? But, you know there's you know, there's plenty of other breweries out there that have, you know, there's always been 10th Anniversaries recently that have made made it to a level of maturity. But, you know, what what do you think you've done well that maybe other businesses out there could listen to and go, um you know, this has worked for them, maybe it could work for us? Um, oh yeah, making good beers is a good start. That's pretty important.
Speaker: Um, I think supporting your community, and like well where you, where you are, where you live, just getting involved in as much things as you can. Yeah. Um, cause then you are part of all those people and then they want to then support you. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, and yeah, we're working with a good team, um, supporting that team and, uh, yeah. And just, don't know, having venues to sell the beer in and, Yeah, taking most of your team to awards nights and making them feel of it. have a good time while you're doing it. That's important, I think. Yeah, good stuff. I never see bigger smiles than on the faces of Blackman's team members. And a couple of other things we want to discuss as well. Sydney Beer Week kicks off this weekend. um So if you're around Sydney, there's you know few dozen events taking place there. Some of them taking place at the Union Hotel in Newtown, one of our favorite hangouts when we up to Sydney. um We had something on the site this week. We'll put it in the show notes. They've had a pretty fancy renovation. and The pub has been in the same family's hands since 1982. that's looking pretty flash. We'll include that in the ah in the show notes. And I guess yeah the other thing is, in let's have a look. In less than nine hours, we will be on a bus to Grainstock as well. Yeah, can't wait. We'll have an episode fresh out on Tuesday about who we've spoken to and what we've done at Grainstock. Yeah, so it should be a fun couple of days up there. So we'll see you then. Cheers.
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.
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, bars, 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 via the details in the show notes.
Speaker: 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 craftycabal.com for more. And until next time, drink good beer.
