Radio Brews News

This week we learn about the biggest beer in the land as Matt catches up with Hugh Jellie, Marketing Manager at the Great Northern Brewing Co. In under 10 years, Great Northern went from launch to becoming the highest-selling beer in the country and in many ways it has also changed the face of beer marketing by coming to reflect some major social shifts that have taken place in Australia. Check out the Pure Blonde commercial from around 15 years ago and compare it with the Great Northern Fathers Day commercial from 2019 we reference in this conversation. Beer marketing is always fascinating, especially when it comes to the biggest beer brands. With Stone & Wood's entry into the clear-bottled contemporary market in August it felt like a good opportunity to find out what makes Great Northern tick and why it resonates so well with the modern beer drinker. We also get to touch on another hot topic - alcohol-free beer - with Great Northern’s entry into the market as well. Our partners Radio Brews News is proud

This week the team discuss Queensland's rules on takeaway alcohol, Lion's paid parental leave and the latest concerning trend, beer in pouches! Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Restaurant and Catering Association ‘bewildered’ by Qld Bill Wild Life Brewing to expand after $200k raise One Year On… Sauce Brewing Co. Cairns Lion offers full parental leave to workers IBA adopts new Code of Conduct Barrel-aged porter recalled Could Fruity Alcohol Pouches be the Next Big Thing in the Alcohol Industry? Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail. Head to www.nzaletrail.com or @nzale

Today we speak with Ryan Nilsson-Linne, head brewer at Port Macquarie’s Wicked Elf Beer. Wicked Elf, once known as Little Brewing, is a brand that traces its origins back to the days when beer from small breweries was boutique. Despite having a national presence through the early 2010s and a reputation for great beer, the business went into receivership in 2016, being purchased by its current owner in 2017. In May 2021 Ryan joined the business and has started to raise its profile. With Wicked Elf being one of those ‘I wonder what happened to’ brands and Ryan having worked at Margaret River’s Bootleg Brewery, which is another brewery in that category, we were interested in learning more about Ryan, his career and the future of Wicked Elf. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brew

This week the team discuss Queensland takeaway reforms, the ethics of zero alcohol and the ACCC requests submissions on the Stone and Wood takeover. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Queensland takeaway reforms sideline beer ACCC asks for submissions on Stone & Wood takeover Spinifex raises $2m in biggest beer CSF raise BrewDog Australia confident as losses narrow CUB zero alcohol brands reach milestones The ethics of zero alcohol Recall for Cola Sour Brewers Guild of NZ appoints new exec director Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail. Head to www.nzaletrail.com or @n

In this conversation we meet Clinton Schultz and Lozen McDiarmid-Schultz from Sobah and hear about their background and how they came to be in the non-alcohol sophisticated beverage industry. We discuss what’s driving alcohol free beer, whose drinking it and why, and whether it has a long-term future. We look at the alcohol free movement, the anti alcohol movement and Australia’s drinking culture and also business and crowd sourced funding. It’s a powerful chat about some topics that are very relevant and really important to the brewing industry...including - surprisingly - building a business to sell and who to if you do. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner - and our premium podcasting partner

If you listened to this weeks Brews News Week "Don't Mention The War" you would have heard us considering a special Below The Fold on Stone and Wood. Here's an explanation of where we're at.

This week the team have decided to provide a Stone and Wood free zone for Brews News Week. We're discussing the possibility of doing a whole "below the fold" episode on the topic tomorrow. News for this week includes a new venue for Matso's, Broo's land sale delays and VB's vaccination campaign. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Queensland venue for Good Drinks brand Matso’s Gage Roads picks up Cricket NSW sponsorship Endeavour partners with IBA for Paktech initiative Influencer and PR pledge by ABA VB launches ‘hard-earned thirst’ vaccination ad Broo’s land sale delayed while Mildura Brewery now selling New and improved Brewing Cert III released How well does your state support its brewers? Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers cr

In the wake of the big news last week, this week we go back to drink from the well where the beer renaissance began as we speak with Matilda Bay and Little Creatures co-founder Phil Sexton. There are no hot takes just the considered thoughts on the industry from someone who has not only seen it all before, he’s done it all before. It’s a great chat where we discuss Phil’s view on craft, independence, the inherent demand for businesses to grow and the inevitability that they will sell. And his undisguised admiration for what the Stone & Founders achieved. We hear how he nearly brought Starbucks to Australia, but decided to create Little Creatures instead, and as ever there are many rabbit holes we fall down as we do. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundation

In this episode, the team receive breaking news about the sale of Stone and Wood to Lion. You'll hear their live, unfiltered reactions to the news. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Lion acquires Stone & Wood parent Fermentum Green Coast lager labelling The Gatherer moves to Two Birds $30m redevelopment for Little Creatures Fremantle Lion invests $6m in de-alcoholising plant Philter Brewing One Year On Repackaging rules changed for cocktails but not beer Support available for people concerned about drinking Mildura Brewery & Pub up for sale Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealan

This is an archive conversation. As Covid is playing havoc with our scheduling, we found this very old, but still relevant interview with BrewDog’s James Watt from September 2011. We have been joking - or maybe half joking - about the post craft world we increasingly inhabit. As craft beer growth slows, the market becomes increasingly crowded and commercial realities of running a business seem to be ever more stark, some of the battle cries of the early craft beer movement are giving way to what we can perhaps charitably call more pragmatic business decisions. Overnight the self-proclaimed punks of the beer world BrewDog announced a partnership with Asahi in Japan to give their beers greater each in that market. I recalled James’ strident denunciations of Beavertown just 3 years ago when that brewery sold a minority stake to Heineken. Back then, James retweeted his earlier blog post post titled “Nailing our colours to the mother effing mast." When you read those comments in light of last night’s announceme

This week the team discuss the latest news including Feral closing the original Swan Valley brewpub and we hear from a listener on tap contracts. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Feral to close original Swan Valley brewpub Private label boosts Endeavour Group Mighty Craft bullish despite losses Revenues fall at Broo despite production investment New brewery for former Grumpy’s site Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail. Head to www.nzaletrail.com or @nzaletrail on social media to find the best beer experiences in New Zealand. We thank Rallings Labels and Stickers for s

This week we jump into the way, way back machine and visit a time before craft beer was even a thing. Back to when you could write a book that took beer much more seriously than most books about beer, but still categorise it in terms of 'session', 'premium' or 'weirdo' beer. I speak with Ben Canaider, who together with fellow wine writer Greg Duncan Powell, wrote a book called Slabs Stubbies and Six-Packs A Tasting Guide. If you've re-discovered beer in the last decade, or turned 18 in that time, you have been spoiled in a way by the abundance of information coming at you from every quarter. This book was published before blogs were even a thing, let alone social media. Printed daily newspapers were on their death bed, not that they covered beer really anyway. Ben talks about why he saw beer as a topic worthy of writing about in an intelligent, but approachable, way and also what he thinks of what beer has become. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to ann

This week the team discuss nostalgic lolly themed beers, how the Aussie beer market has bolstered growth for Orora and we hear from Nick Boots on the new launch. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! “Juice” IPA and Pastille Sour Ale face ABAC Beer market bolsters Orora growth Sobah and Spinifex launch crowdfunding campaigns Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail. Head to www.nzaletrail.com or @nzaletrail on social media to find the best beer experiences in New Zealand. We thank Rallings Labels and Stickers for sponsoring this podcast. Brewers, if you are still applying self-ad

This week we go back and visit Matt King and Glenn Wignall, who with their friend, Trent Evans, have been quietly building The Grifter brewery in Sydney’s inner west. We visited the guys back in January 2018 and we’d invite you to go back and listen to that chat first if you haven’t already to learn the background to the brewery, which we don’t cover too much in this episode. One of the things that struck me during that earlier conversation was just how quietly The Grifter team got on with what they did and not making much of a noise about it. In the intervening years they have continued not making waves on social media or troubling our email inbox with endless media releases or attention seeking novelties. So it was that when I wandered into the brewery back in March this year to have a beer and chanced to bump into Matt and Glenn and had a brief catch up, I was gobsmacked that they said they were expanding again and had passed through the million litre production mark. That’s one of those production figu

Welcome to the first ever special edition of Below the Fold. Below the Fold is the part of our weekly beer news podcast where we step beyond the headlines and discuss some of the stories or beer events of the week in a little more depth and with a little more opinion than just the news story. Listeners will know that we have been discussing the PR-driven aspects of the zero alcohol drinks category. Last week Matt went on a bit of a tear about a media release received from San Drinks that stated that doctors are encouraging people not to drink when they are having their COVID vaccinations, and included a link to an article that purported to back up the claim. One of our listeners mentioned the discussion to San Drinks founder Irene Falcone, saying that she had been mentioned, and we got a call from Irene wanting to discuss the matter. It’s a great chat and we do discuss that media release, but outside of that, it was a fantastic chat about the ins and out of a retail shop that only sells alcohol free beer,

This week the team discuss rice lagers, 15 years of Burleigh Brewing and the quarterly reports from Coles Liquor. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Rice lagers go craft 15 years of Burleigh Brewing Coles Liquor quarterlies First beers set to be brewed at Mountain Culture Pink Boots and Gage Roads team up for scholarships Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail. Head to www.nzaletrail.com or @nzaletrail on social media to find the best beer experiences in New Zealand. We thank Rallings Labels and Stickers for sponsoring this podcast. Brewers, if you are still applying self-

This week we catch up with Dave Phillips, as he was announced as Chief Operating Officer at Shipyard Brewing in Portland, Maine. It was an interesting announcement, given to the Australian industry, Dave is best known for his tourism roles here. We have spoken with Dave before, both in his role as founder of Dave’s Brewery Tours which became Dave’s Travel and Events, and also as the eventual owner of Sydney Beer Week. It turns out that Dave has invested in similar tourism and travel businesses across the US, in addition to his role at Shipyard, and we have a great chat about business models in the beer industry as the market matures and what he has learned about business watching the industry change. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly ex

This week the team discuss Little Creatures 21st birthday release and share their thoughts on whether zero alcohol beer is becoming a "gateway drink". Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Little Creatures launches Pacific Ale Zero alcohol dispute over “gateway drink” claims 4 Pines becomes beer partner of Cricket Australia Colonial signs deal with Cricket Victoria Broo’s property sale blocked TikTok and cannabis imagery in ABAC spotlight Co-existence agreement ends Coles trademark feud Mountain Culture named among best beers of 2021 Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail.

This week a long-awaited chat with Peter Philip from Wayward Brewing. Peter is no stranger to readers of Brews News, or listeners to this podcast through his role as Chair of the Independent Brewers Association. As an industry focused publication, that has possibly overshadowed his role as founder of Wayward Brewing Company, one of the earlier breweries to Sydney’s Inner West. Today we rectify that to speak to Peter about building a brewery from nomad to powerhouse in nine years. It's a wide ranging chat about many things beer related, and delivers what may be the quote of the year, with Peter saying there's an independent beer for everyone, but not necessarily a craft beer. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium

This week the team discuss the dark arts of marketing, the IBA's code of conduct and Broo's first quarterly profit. If you'd like to record a "boom" from wherever you are in the world please send through to producer@brewsnews.com.au. Please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcasting app. It costs nothing and helps other beer lovers discover the podcast! Venue strategy focus at Good Drinks No-alcohol marketing test for Heineken 0.0 Social media age-gating in the spotlight after new report Kaddy launches cold chain programme Broo makes first quarterly profit since listing Feedback sought on IBA draft Code of Conduct Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner and proud sponsors of Brews News. Mailbag brought to you by the New Zealand Ale Trail. Hea