Red Hill Brewery Kolsch Beer
A few years ago, we did a Getting Blind With Crafty tasting of golden ales (remember when they were the rage?). One of the beers on the lineup was Red Hill's Golden Ale. It was their biggest seller and one that had been around longer than most, after all. At the same time, it wasn't a golden ale as understood…
Wolf Of The Willows XPA (Cans) Beer
Melbourne's Wolf of the Willows was one of the first Australian breweries to release an XPA. Indeed, they launched with the XPA, explaining that for them the style meant: "extra pale in colour with extra hop aroma and flavour". It went on to take top spot in an XPA/session IPA Getting Blind With Crafty…
Tallboy & Moose & Carwyn Cellars Dark Side Of The Moose Beer
For the most part since they first opened the doors of their Preston brewpub, Tallboy & Moose have focused on making tight and generally lower ABV beers. That's certainly not the case here. Dark Side Of The Moose is the first imperial stout they have brewed since their We Make Beer days and the biggest…
Mismatch Brewing Draught Beer
If the early 2020s was defined by seemingly unlimited limited releases, then 2023 has shaped up as the year of sessionable fridge fillers – or "budget busters" as we called them in [our blind tasting](https://craftypint.com/news/3196/getting-blind-with-crafty-budget-busters). This low 4 percent ABV…
Moffat Beach Fridge Filler Beer
With the cost of living – or, as you might like to put it, the cost of staying alive – alarmingly high these days, it’s fair to say that many of us are cutting back on spending. It’s not even just Rolexes and washer-drier combos getting culled from weekly shopping lists, either: it’s beer,…
Reckless Brewing BX Lime Beer
Gosh, we just won’t shut up about [Mexican-inspired lagers](https://craftypint.com/news/3244/cerveza-is-the-next-big-thing-in-beer-beer) recently, [will we](https://craftypint.com/news/3276/getting-blind-with-crafty-mexican-lagers)? Here, Reckless takes seriously that citrusy zing that goes so well…
One Drop Yujo, Ethereal Wave, Skankin' Mallard & Bougie Beer
It's a good old-fashioned One Drop quadruple feature this week, and it feels like I've gotta come up with a different way of saying this is a ridiculous mix of different beers every time but, genuinely, these four beers are going completely hog wild. Let's not stand on ceremony folks, it's time to get…
Sauce Brewing Chill Factor 2023 Beer
During the initial cold IPA boom, I had to put my hand up and admit I was confused. It’s an IPA but it’s also a lager somehow? Am I meant to drink it cold or drink it when it’s cold? Is it even a style? For those that missed The Crafty Pint's [article](https://craftypint.com/news/2710/brewers-take-a-cold-dip)…
Mismatch Brewing Hazy Pale Ale Beer
It's getting close to two years now since we figured hazy pales were set to have their time in the sun – dedicating a [feature](https://craftypint.com/news/2592/a-hazy-shade-of-pale) and blind tasting to the emerging style – and, as summer 2022/23 approaches, they're appearing in ever more brewers'…
Frenchies' Fifth Birthday Beers Beer
And it’s a hearty "Bon anniversaire!" to Frenchies Bistro and Brewery as they celebrate their fifth rotation around the sun. To mark the occasion, they’ve released a birthday four-pack of oaked IPAs. Yes, that’s correct, four different IPAs, all oaked up the wazoo. Clearly, you wouldn’t want…
Getting Blind With Crafty: XPAs News
When we held our last blind tasting – a look at New England style IPAs – it was noticeable just how much discussion took place before, during and after the beers were presented. It went on longer and delved deeper than in any of the previous Getting Blind With Crafty tastings we've held…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Hoppy Reds & Ambers News
After a longer than planned hiatus, we finally reconvened a blind tasting panel at the weekend for the return of the popular Getting Blind With Crafty series. For the uninitiated, this is where we pick a beer style, gather a panel of knowledgable beer sorts and ask them to assess beers in a competition…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Imperial Stouts Revisited News
Of all the blind tastings we've done at The Crafty Pint over the years, there was arguably none more eagerly anticipated – by both tasters and readers – than our look at imperial stouts in 2013. Four years later, we returned to the biggest, blackest and boldest of beer styles for another round…
Getting Blind With Crafty: American Pale Ales News
The rapid expansion of the craft beer industry has been a wonderful thing in oh so many ways. But it doesn't half make running our blind tastings something of a mission – especially when looking at pale ales. As outlined when we opened the voting round for the latest Getting Blind With Crafty sessions,…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Mid-Strengths News
A few weeks ago, we published The Golden Age Of Mids? and asked whether we're entering a golden era for mid-strength beers in Australia. There are more available than ever before and brewers are managing to find ways to pack them full of character too. As a follow up, we decided to dust down our Getting…
Getting Blind with Crafty: IPA (Part II) News
Such is the popularity of IPA in Australia right now that even spread over two sessions, focusing solely on New World style "straight" IPAs and with a few examples we were unable to source, part II of our Blind Tasting still saw 22 beers presented to the panel. Taken together with part…
Getting Blind With Crafty: How We Judge – 2021 Update News
We've been conducting blind tastings at The Crafty Pint since late 2012, both in-house and as public events across the country. They're always a lot of fun, frequently enlightening, and provide a great workout for the senses. As we get them underway for 2021, we've tweaked the way we source and judge…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Hazy Pales News
A new year brings a new start for The Crafty Pint's blind tastings. While the format remained mainly the same for our look at the increasingly popular hazy pale style – which you can read about here – there were a couple of changes. We switched the manner in which we source beers to better reflect…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Imperial Stouts News
The most anticipated Blind Tasting yet in the short history of Crafty Pint Blind Tastings did not disappoint. Over several hours on Saturday, some of the biggest, blackest, boldest and booziest beers ever brewed in Australia were served up in flights of three to an eager tasting panel, producing the…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Session Sours News
Let's be honest. Even at a time when the very concept of beer styles is being challenged more than ever before – when battles can be fought around the parameters of session IPA or XPA, for example – you'd have one heck of a fight on your hands convincing someone "session sours" was a…
Getting Blind with Crafty: English Ales News
Given The Crafty Pint was founded by someone born in Burton-upon-Trent, home of the English pale ale and source of the brewing term “Burtonisation", there's an undeniable soft spot for ales from that part of the world at Crafty Towers. They may be as trendy as the proverbial sandal-and-socks combo,…
Getting Blind With Crafty: IPAs News
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 of more craft beer lovers than any other: IPAs. As our resident beer lover panel member (who may well…
Getting Blind with Crafty: Saisons News
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 ourselves collecting one bottle left in a paper bag – hidden outside the front of a house – and…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Pint of Origin Pale-Off News
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 – we decided to pit Aussie against Aussie (with a mere hint of overseas flavour to remain consistent…
Getting Blind With Crafty: XPA / Session IPA News
Let's face it: 2014 was a bit of a wash out for Crafty Pint Blind Tasting Panels. The popular, once-regular feature from 2013 suffered last year, with only one panel being convened on porters. So we've made a commitment to ensure we run them every six weeks or so throughout 2015, starting with a look…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Porter News
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 road at the weekend. Literally on the road too, taking it to Temple where one of the regular panelists…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Brown Ales News
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 of the Sh!t Beer Geeks Say! video having debuted on the panel last time around, it seemed only right…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Ambers and Reds News
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 panel had their own excuse for not coming along, although we suspect that they may just be waiting…
Getting Blind With Crafty: Christmas Ales News
“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 why classics are classics) and for there to be a jaw-dropping surprise at the top of the results table…
Getting Blind With Crafty: NEIPAs News
Well, that was an interesting one. For our final blind tasting panel of 2018, we looked at one of the beer styles that has burst into unlikely prominence in the past couple of years: New England style IPAs or NEIPAs. It's a type of beer that's been much debated and in many different ways. It seems…