Radio Brews News

This week the Prime Minister celebrates our 50th Episode by skolling a beer to a chanting rugby crowd. Our guest this week is Derek O’Donnell, the general manger of the Australian Beer Company, the partnership between Coca Cola Amatil and Casella. In a wide ranging interview we look at whether Coke can make craft beer - or whether it's Coke's business at all - and what the Yenda range says about where beer is headed. Radio Brews News is hosted by Matt Kirkegaard and Pete Mitcham and is produced by Lachie Mackintosh. ___________________________________________________________________ Radio Brews News is proudly supported by and also by

With the Great Australian Beer Spectacular nearly upon us, we catch up with Steve Jefferies, the mastermind behind what’s now been called one of the top beer festivals in the world. We talk about changes to this years festival, if the tap rotation craze has had it’s day, and plug our own GABS 2015 event 'Brewin Transfer'. Also joining the program Tim Collin the co-owner and Jeff Wright the head brewer at Vale Brewing Company. We have a wide ranging chat about the business' origins and history - and their future plans under the Collin brothers. Vale has always been something of an enigma of the Australian beer scene and we go in depth about the business, takeover rumours and the beers themselves. Radio Brews News is hosted by Matt Kirkegaard and Pete Mitcham and is produced by Lachie Mackintosh.   Radio Brews News is proudly supported by and also by

This week Matt flies solo from his holiday location to post an interview with Brad Rogers from Stone & Wood. Brad talks about the new brewhouse for the Murwillumbah brewery, how they are managing the Galaxy hops shortage, the next incarnation of their annual stone beer and he also takes us through the six beers in their Beer of the World release. Radio Brews News is hosted by Matt Kirkegaard and Pete Mitcham and is produced by Lachie Mackintosh. Radio Brews News is proudly supported by and also by

In this very non-Easter but extremely good Radio Brews News we catch up with Mark Woolcott from beerbud.com.au who explains his company's latest beer crowd funding venture - and what’s really in it for the consumer. BeerBud's crowd funding page: beerbud.com.au/crowdfunding We then speak with writer Pete Brown who gives you the lay of the land for craft beer in the UK, explains why his attitude to the  J D Wetherspoon’s chain is softening, if not becoming his favourite craft beer bar. Pete also gives us a taste of his new book all about the ingredients that go in to the beer you’re drinking. You can pre-purchase the book through his own crowd funding campaign at  unbound.co.uk/books/what-are-you-drinking. Pete is one of the great contemporary beer writers and communicators. You can follow him on Twitter. Radio Brews News is hosted by Matt Kirkegaard and Pete Mitcham and is produced by Lachie Mackintosh.     ______________________________ Radio Brews News is proudly supported by and also by

This week you’ll find out why Stella Artois wants you to buy a lady from the developing world a drink.            Altruism or cynicism from Stella Artois? You’ll meet Brendan Varis who sits on the board of the Craft Beer Industry Association. He’ll talk you through the changes to this year’s conference.  And last, but certainly not least, Cam Pearce from Coopers joins the show. If you’ve ever wanted to know the philosophy behind Coopers and how a family business maintains its hold in an expanding market, this episode is for you. Radio Brews News is proudly supported by and also by  

This week we welcome a new microphone for Pete, a new producer for the show and, most importantly, our guest influential Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont. Stephen has been writing about beer since the early 1990s and has written, co-written or contributed to a dozen books, including The Pocket Beer Guide (Pocket Beer Book 2014 in the U.K.) and  The World Atlas of Beer, both co-written with Tim Webb. A true beer insider, Stephen retains an outsider's eye and a quick wit as is demonstrated by the following post on his site last year... EVERY Beer is Now an IPA That’s it! Give up, people, because beer style no longer matters. In the wake of white IPAs, black IPAs, Belgian IPAs and session IPAs, we might as well accept it: All beers are now IPAs! When you think about it, it works wonderfully. No more fussing with ales vs. lagers; now we just have warm-fermented and cold-fermented IPAs. Thirsty for a pilsner? Have this cold-fermented session IPA instead. Trappist ale? Nope, that’s a non-secular, high ma

This week we catch up with Tim Lord from Hop Products Australia about the 2015 hop harvest and what t means for the Australian beer industry. As often happens when beer is a conversation, some of the best discussion happened at the end of the interview. As we were saying goodbyes, Tim amplified some of the things we had discussed during the interview including how the Australian hop industry may not have survived but for the current craft beer resurgence. Tim has kindly let us keep this informal chat in the show. It's a great listen. We then speak to Richard Adamson from Young Henry's about the brewery's expansion into Western Australia and  the recent announcement of a new brewery in Adelaide to find out how about the brewery's strategy and how it is managing this growth, including taking on third-party investors to assist with expansion. Links: Craft beer on the nose? Matt's observations Pete's observations In defence of craft beer (goodfood.com.au, James Wilkinson)

This week Matt & Pete quickly dissect the washup from the Hottest 100 countdown and then chat about the recent media interest in tp contracts. You can hear an older episode about tap contracts here You can read about tap contracts here We then play an interview Matt recorded with Anton Szpitalak from Brewpack last year. It's an interesting chat about the beer business and Anton's take on the craft beer cycle and contract brewing. Follow Australian Brews News and Radio Brews News on Facebook. You can follow Australian Brews News on Twitter as well as Matt & Pete personally, and Matt is on Instagram.

The podcast of our first ever live broadcast, of the 2014 Hottest 100 Countdown. Broadcast from Queensland's Fortitude Brewing, Matt is joined by brewer Ian Watson with crosses to Pete Mitcham at the Local Taphouse St Kilda and guests Steve Jeffares from The Local Taphouse, publican Corey Crooks from Newcastle's Grainstore, brewer Dave Padden, Steve Finney from Feral and a surprise call from Feral brewer, Brendan Varis, calling in from LA. It's rough, it's ready, but it captures the excitement of the Hottest 100 Countdown...

This week we play part two of Matt's interview with CUB about the revitalisation attempts for the Crown brand and Tim Ovadia is joined by CUB's Chief Brewer Jaideep Chandrasekharan about the 2014 Crown Ambassador Reserve, the brewing process and Matt & Jaideep have the first public sampling of the vintage. Later they are joined by Crown's Marketing Manager, Scott Tindall. In the intro Matt & Pete muse about KFC's application to sell beer, which leads into a chat our attitudes to drinking and what shapes them. During our intro we discuss the following: KFC plan to sell beer, cider criticised Kids Absorb Your Drinking TVC by DrinkWise. http://youtu.be/yiXvAo6o0HY Follow Australian Brews News and Radio Brews News on Facebook. You can follow Australian Brews News on Twitter as well as Matt & Pete personally, and Matt is on Instagram. And don't forget Radio Brews News will be broadcasting live for the last two hours of the Hottest 100 Craft Beer Countdown this Monday, 26 January. Listen to it here live,

In this episode of Radio Brews News, Matt & Pete discuss the recent controversies about craft beer getting big, hipsters and its growing pains. We also play an interview Matt recorded last year with Tim Ovadia, General Manager Insight & Marketing Capability with CUB. It concludes the stories that we have done in recent years about the true history of Crown Lager, and we discuss the way forward for the beer and the brand including the last year's release of Crown Golden Ale.  This is part one of the interview, next week we chat with head brewer JaideepChandrasekharan about Crown Ambassador's 2014 release. Links: We refer to the following article / sites in this episode. Andy Crouch's article: Wasted. How the craft-beer movement abandoned Jim Koch (and his beloved Sam Adams)   Why these craft beer pioneers hate snobs Pete Brown's article: What's the difference between craft beer snobs and Kopparberg drinkers?   Tim Cooper - Keeping it in the Family.

Matt & Pete finally catch up to discuss the year that was, and also play an interview recorded earlier in the year with the Editor of All About Beer magazine, John Holl. We discuss with John the idea of what would beer look like if it was only invented today...

Over the past 6 months Brews News has received at least one request to promote a crowd funding scheme covering everything from a "precision tool for your perfectly crafted beers" aka a bottle opener to "a draft system that serves any beer, fresh from the tap, anywhere you want it". We also recently received a release about the "world’s first smartphone-controlled home-brewing machine". Today we received an announcement from Yeastie Boys advising that next year they will be crowd funding expansion into Europe. I have mixed feelings about the whole crowd funding thing. On one hand, it is an excellent way for new, small and non-traditional businesses to leverage the consumer demand and passion for what they are doing. On the other hand, there is an element of hype and hubris creeping in to the craft beer world that, when combined with a new, loosely regulated funding model, has the potential for disaster. With Yeastie Boys' Stu McKinlay being a great observer of the craft industry and always willing to have a fr

In this episode we catch up with Mr Crafty Pint, James Smith, to discuss his new book 150 Great Australian Beers, as well as Mr Young Henry, Richard Adamson, to talk about his plans for gin. Being Radio Brews News, and beer being a conversation, we talk about these things and many, many more, including Good Beer Week, tap contracts and Crafty's mum. Got some thoughts on this episode? You can post them in the comments section down below, on our Facebook page, or email us. If you like the show rate us on iTunes and help others find us. Finally, if you are reading this in our daily email digest, you can hear the episode here. Radio Brews News is proudly presented by: If you’ve never been to Beervana — you might be wondering what one is. If you have been — you’re probably queuing up outside the August 2014 event already. Australia’s number one craft contract brewer. Brewpack specializes in offering growing craft breweries a home for their packaged and keg beer. Thinking about craft contract brewing, th

Welcome to Radio Brews News. This is a slightly shorter podcast with one interview, this time with Jack Mesley, Marketing Manager with XXXX. While for many breweries changing their label may not have huge repercussions, when you have a beer that makes some claims to be Australia’s biggest beer…at least in terms of volume sales, the move can be fraught. XXXX last week announced it was rebranding and, being fascinated by beer marketing, I wanted to find out about what’s involved and the considerations for a brand as big as XXXX. As you’ll see, with beer being a conversation interviews don’t run to a script and so we ended up talking very widely about the XXXX brand, including whether the beer in the bottle is the same today as it was when Wilhelm Leitner created it 90 years ago. It should be stressed that while there was discussion about how the beer has evolved over the last few decades, XXXX is adamant that only the labels have changed under the current refresh. You can find and download a PDF of the tran

Despite the title, we're getting kind of regular here at Radio Brews News. Once again Matt is not joined by usual co-host Pete Mitcham. Pete’s on a family holiday in Europe. We will try and touch base with him at some stage to find out about his trip and get an update on what he's been drinking over there. You can follow Pete's travels on Twitter. We do however have Kevin Hingston, Communications and Media spokesperson with the 2014 Australian National Homebrewing Conference Committee to find out about what’s happening with this year’s ANHC. Find out more about the Australian National Homebrew Competition on their website. We highly recommend the conference for all homebrewers. Brew Moon Brewing Company's Keith Villa (source MillerCoors) Following on from that we will be playing an interview Matt recorded late last year with Keith Villa, head brewer with Blue Moon Brewing Company, the craft brewing arms of US brewing giant MillerCoors. Blue Moon Belgian White has recently been introduced to Australian thr

In Episode Two of the current season, Matt flies solo and catches up with Dave Bonighton, chair of the Craft Beer Industry Association, about the new definition for craft beer, and the soon-to-be-released consumer website. Matt also catches up with Paul van de Walle from ABInBev to discuss the challenges of making beer consistent around the world and looks at what is involved in an Australian brewery getting a licence to brew ABInBev's brands in Australia and the issue of brewed under licence versus imported beer.   Transcripts are now available for our main interviews, and transcripts of the interview with Dave Bonighton can be found here. A transcript for the interview with Paul van de Walle can be found here. Radio Brews News is proudly presented by: If you’ve never been to Beervana — you might be wondering what one is. If you have been — you’re probably queuing up outside the August 2014 event already. Brought to you by Brewpack – Australia’s number one craft contract brewer. With over 100 craft

As some special bonus content, Matt & Pete snatched some time to catch up over a beer between sessions of last weekend’s Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular. Don’t expect insightful interviews, just Matt & Pete chatting about Good Beer Week, Matt almost apologising for dissing Warnie and the Australian International Beer Awards, including Matt eventually bringing the conversation around to his Australian Beer Media Award. Radio Brews News is proudly presented by: If you’ve never been to Beervana — you might be wondering what one is. If you have been — you’re probably queuing up outside the August 2014 event already. Brought to you by Brewpack – Australia’s number one craft contract brewer. With over 100 craft beers and ciders on the roster and counting, Brewpack specializes in offering growing craft breweries a home for their packaged and keg beer, no matter how crafty. Serious about hand-made beers, and with an open door policy, Brewpack’s brewers love having passionate, ha

Welcome back to Radio Brews News after our very long hiatus. Pete Mitcham and I see the podcast as one of the most important things we do through the site, able to discuss the big issue in Australian beer. Time and resources have always been an issue as the show is time consuming to present. However, thanks to a couple generous sponsors we are back and - hopefully - regular. In our first episode back, we catch up with Peter 'Pod' McLoughlin, Marketing Director at Carlton & United Breweries. This interview was actually recorded late last year and came after a lengthy period where Australian Brews News was seemingly blacklisted by CUB following our coverage of the Crown Lager, VB and Byron Bay Pale Lager issues. A change in staffing at CUB has seen much better relations re-established and Peter made himself available to discuss a very wide range of topics, including those three. Marketing Director at Carlton & United Breweries Peter McLoughlin The interview was recorded before the recent ACCC ruling, but Pet

It's great to be back with Pete and in this episode we record live at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular. While Pete was busy hosting the Craft Beer College, Matt caught up with a range of brewers and beer identities to get their thoughts on Good Beer Week, GABS and life in general. Apologies in advance for the sound quality, this was recorded on the floor at GABS,. Apologies too for the repetitiveness of the intros to the guests and other things...we're learning as we go as you know. Our guests are: Ross Jurisich (Stone & Wood) Dave Bonighton (Mountain Goat) Jade Flavell (The Wheatsheaf, Adelaide) Jasper Cuppaidge (Camden Town Brewery, London) Andy Scade (Little Creatures)  Thanks to the Steve Jeffares & Guy Greenstone from The Local Taphouse, directors of The Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular for hosting us at GABS and letting us set up shop to record the interviews.