getting blind with crafty

Getting Blind With Crafty: Influencer Beers

For our final blind tasting of 2023, we figured we'd do something a little different: with several new beers on the market associated with bands, brands or other famous figured, we decided to put them to the test.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Budget Busters

Looking for a crafty drop to fill your fridge that isn't going to break the bank in these straitened times? We lined up a bunch of budget-busting beers for a blind tasting with a difference.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Cold IPAs

Something a little different for our last blind tasting of 2021 as we tuck into an emerging style that's only been attempted by a small number of Aussie brewers. So, what did our panel make of the world of cold IPA?

Getting Blind With Crafty: Pale Lagers 2021

Much has changed in the half decade and more since we last put lagers to the blind taste test. For one, there's bloody loads of them, but who's brewing them really well? We compiled an expert panel to find out.

Help Us Get Blind: Lagers Round II

Blimey, there's a lot of lagers out there these days. We've locked in most of the spots for our pale lager blind tasting but we reckon we can squeeze in a few more. So, it's over to you to decide which ones...

Help Us Get Blind: Lagers

Lagers have been making a comeback in recent years and it turns out it's more than half a decade since we last put them to the test in a blind tasting. Want to help us compile a list as we do it all over again?

Getting Blind With Crafty: Hazy Pales

They're hazy. They're pale. They're all the rage. But who's doing them well? For our first blind tasting of 2021, we got our hands on a stack of Aussie examples, amassed some expert palates, and put them to the test.

Getting Blind With Crafty: How We Judge – 2021 Update

We've been conducting blind tastings at The Crafty Pint since late 2012, both in-house and as pubic events across the country. As we get underway in 2021, we've tweaked the way we source and judge the beers.

Help Us Get Blind: Hazy Pales

Having managed to squeeze in a post-lockdown(s) blind tasting just before 2020 drew to a close, we're kicking off the new year with a look at hazy pales. And we'd love your help compiling a long list of those available in Australia.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Non-Alcoholic Beer

For our first and only blind tasting of 2020, we went with a suitably 2020 lineup: non-alcoholic beers. They may well ruin the pun in the series title, but how do they stack up in front of our panel of industry experts?

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Help Us Get Blind: Pint of Origin Championship

At Good Beer Week 2019, we're combining two of our favourite things: Pint of Origin and blind tastings. We'll pit an IPA from each of the 16 regions against each other and you get to choose them.

Getting Blind With Crafty: XPAs

Is it just a marketing term? Are XPAs just pale ales or session IPAs by another name? Either way, there's plenty around so we took on more than 20 of them in another Crafty blind tasting.

Help Us Get Blind: XPAs

For our first blind tasting of 2019 we're going to look at XPAs. Sure, it's a category that remains open to some interpretation but plenty of people are brewing and drinking them so it seems only right.

Getting Blind With Crafty: NEIPAs

For the first time in many years of running blind tastings, we've had a brewery go back to back in top spot. In our final panel tasting of 2018, we looked at NEIPAs from breweries across Australia and here's how they fared.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Mid-Strengths

Following our article on the golden age of mid-strengths, we gathered a panel to assess more than 20 available around Australia for our latest blind tasting. So who came out on top...?

Help Us Get Blind: Mid-Strengths

Following our Golden Age Of Mids? feature, we're bringing our blind tastings out of hibernation to see who's doing such beers the best. We're getting a panel together in early November and want your help picking the lineup.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Session Sours

For our first blind tasting of 2018, we lined up a pretty eclectic selection of beers that form part of the beer world's current fondness for sour styles. And the year got off to a fine start with a winning beer from a brewpub few readers will yet have visited.

Help Us Get Blind: Session Sours

For our first Getting Blind With Crafty tasting of 2018, we're going to embrace the broad church of beers that might be tagged "session sours" – Berliner weisse, gose, kettle sours and so on. And now is your chance to help us decide which to feature.

Show Us Your Sour Side

For the first Getting Blind With Crafty of 2018, we've decided to focus on all things acid. Alongside NEIPAs, at the pointier end of the beer world, sours have started appearing in ever greater numbers so we figure we should give them a blind taste test.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Pale Ales Pt II

Two months on from our look at American pale ales, we completed our two part blind tasting with a look at New World style pales. Who came out on top according to our panel of experts?


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Getting Blind With Crafty: American Pale Ales

With so many pale ales on the market today, we split our latest tasting into two rounds. First to be put to the blind taste test was American style pales, with New World to follow before the year is out. Who did our panel put on top?

Help Us Get Blind: Pale Ale Double Header

For our next blind tasting, we're going to return to pale ales for the first time since 2013. With so many available, we're splitting the tasting into two sessions – New World and American pales – and want your help compiling the lineup.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Imperial Stouts Revisited

After a four year break, we returned to the most epic of beer styles, imperial stout, for our latest blind tasting. Old favourites and beers not around four years ago went into battle. Who would win?

Help Us Get Blind: Imperial Stouts

Having brought our blind tasting panels back last month – and taken them public – we're aiming to run them every two months now. Next up is imperial stouts and, once more, we're asking you to help us decide which beers to put to the test.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Hoppy Reds & Ambers

After an unplanned seven month break, we brought our blind tasting panel back. We focused on hoppy reds and ambers, with readers helping select the featured beers. Here's the results – and how readers can join us for a public version of the tasting.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Saison Revisited

It's a style that's much loved at Crafty Towers and a favourite of many brewers, as well as one that's broad and complex. So, 40 months on from last time, we assembled another blind tasting panel to assess a lineup of saisons.

Getting Blind with Crafty: IPA (Part II)

After two sessions, we've now put 40 Australian brewed IPAs to the test. In part II, we set about blind tasting beers weighing 6.5 percent and above. And here's the results; how did your favourites fare?

Getting Blind With Crafty: IPA (Part I)

It's been a while, but our blind tastings are back. And, having punished panelists with some less than thrilling lineups previously, here we tackle flavour of the month IPA. With so many now available, we're splitting the tasting over two panels.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Pale Lagers

For our final blind tasting of 2015, we looked at a style that's becoming increasingly popular with Australian craft brewers: pale lagers. We lined up 26 different beers (including a few "New World" versions) from brewers big and small. And this is how they fared.

Getting Blind With Crafty: Ownership Special

Part two of our examination of the issue of ownership in the craft beer world is a blind tasting special. In it, we pit beers from the big brewers, major retailers and multinationals against those from small independent Australian brewing companies.

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Getting Blind With Crafty: Stouts

For our latest Blind Tasting we gathered a panel of beer experts to taste more than 25 local and international stouts. Who came out on top?

Getting Blind with Crafty: English Ales

We head to the land where The Crafty Pint's founder spent most of his formative years for this blind tasting, which features a range of English style ales.

Getting Blind With Crafty: How We Judge

Approximately every couple of months, we host a blind tasting of beers – usually matching the season or a current hot topic. Here's how we carry out the judging and the thinking behind our methods.

Getting Blind With Crafty: XPA / Session IPA

For our first Blind Tasting of 2015, we assembled a panel of beer lovers, experts and brewers to assess XPAs and session IPAs, two hot-right-now "styles".

Getting Blind With Crafty: Porter

After a six-month hiatus instigated by a combination of incapacitation at Crafty Towers, a disgusting workload and then the inexorable passage of time, we finally got the Blind Tasting show back on the…

Getting Blind With Crafty: Christmas Ales

“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth…” Or in the case of a Christmas blind tasting, how about a classic coming out on top (to prove…

Getting Blind With Crafty: Ambers and Reds

There was much change afoot for our latest Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel at the weekend. For a start, it featured an entirely new set of panellists. Each and every one of those who taken part in a previous…

Getting Blind With Crafty: Imperial Stouts

So which beers came out on top in the biggest (in every way) Crafty Pint blind tasting to date? HOw did the Aussies fare against beers from the Old World. Read on to find out...

Getting Blind With Crafty: Brown Ales

What with things having turned cooler for most of Australia, for the fifth Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel we decided it was time to turn towards the darker realms of the beer world. And, with the star…

Getting Blind With Crafty: Pint of Origin Pale-Off

The latest Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel was one with a touch of Good Beer Week about it. With the festival imminent – and amongst its attractions the expanded Pint of Origin state-by-state showcase…

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Getting Blind with Crafty: Saisons

There was an interesting build up to the most recent Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panel. In our hunt to gather a solid collection of Australian and top international versions of the saison style, we found…

Getting Blind With Crafty: IPAs

After a couple of lager-centric panels to kick off what are now monthly Blind Tasting Panels, the third showdown saw a sharp shift in direction into the beer style that is probably closest to the hearts…