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Beer is the social glue that holds most of Australia together, so it pays to know where the good writing lives. The Aussie craft beer scene has grown from a small rebellion into a legitimate industry, with hundreds of independent breweries, rotating taps in every second pub, and enough limited releases to fill a landfill of empties. Keeping up with it is a full-time job, which is where the best Australian beer blogs, podcasts and industry titles earn their keep. Read on for the ones still pouring fresh coverage worth your time.
How We Ranked These
We built this list by auditing every Australian beer blog, podcast and trade title we could find, then cutting anything that had gone dormant. Active publication within the past 12 months was the hard floor. Beyond that, we weighed editorial depth, industry standing, breadth of coverage across states and styles, independence, and whether the outlet has shaped the local craft conversation in a meaningful way. We also kept a small international inclusion where it meaningfully covers Australian breweries on the world stage. Defunct sites are moved to a dedicated section at the bottom so you do not chase dead links.
1. The Crafty Pint
Founded by UK-expat journalist James Smith in 2010, The Crafty Pint is the closest thing Australian craft beer has to a paper of record. The site mixes daily news with long-form features, brewery profiles, and the annual Pint of Origin festival, which pulled more than 50,000 pint sales across Melbourne venues in 2025. Membership, events, and an editorial team led by Smith and senior writer Will Ziebell keep it comfortably ahead of the pack. If you only bookmark one Australian beer site, make it this one.
Founded: 2010
Based: Melbourne, VIC
Covers: Craft beer news, brewery profiles, festivals, podcast
Standout for: Daily independent reporting and the Pint of Origin festival
Owned by: Independent, founder-led (James Smith)
2. Beer Cartel
Richard Kelsey and Geoff Huens started Beer Cartel as a bricks-and-mortar bottle shop in Artarmon in 2009 and have since scaled it into Australia’s largest independent craft beer retailer, posting $11 million in revenue in 2025. The shopfront closed in 2023 and the business is now fully online, but the blog kept going. Expect tasting notes, style deep dives, the long-running Australia’s Favourite Craft Beer survey, and subscription-box suggestions drawn from a genuinely curated catalogue. It is commerce and editorial fused into one.
Founded: 2009
Based: Artarmon, NSW (online only since 2023)
Covers: Tasting notes, buyer guides, industry surveys, subscription box
Standout for: The annual Australia’s Favourite Craft Beer poll
Owned by: Independent, founder-led (Kelsey and Huens)
3. Beer & Brewer
Beer & Brewer is the digital arm of the quarterly print title of the same name, now owned by The Intermedia Group after its acquisition. Editor Deborah Jackson runs a mix of trade news, new-release previews, brewery interviews and consumer-friendly explainers, with a foot firmly in both the industry and enthusiast camps. It is the publication breweries send press releases to first, which is as good a measure of reach as any.
Founded: 2011
Based: Sydney, NSW
Covers: Trade news, new releases, brewery interviews, print magazine
Standout for: Cross-industry authority and quarterly print companion
Owned by: The Intermedia Group (acquired)
4. Back of the Ferry
Born in November 2009 on the back of the Manly ferry, this is Australia’s longest-running continuously active beer blog. Five mates, known by their handles bladdamasta, illiards, pommy_ch, lamb0 and tonyfromtoowoomba, share reviews, travel write-ups, brewery visits and the occasional surf report. The tone is genuinely conversational and the posting rhythm has held steady into 2026, which is remarkable for a blog nearing two decades. A living piece of Aussie craft beer history.
Founded: 2009
Based: Sydney, NSW
Covers: Beer reviews, brewery visits, beer travel, casual commentary
Standout for: Longevity and the ferry-ride voice
Owned by: Independent, five-contributor collective
5. The Brunswick Beer Collective
Three Melbourne beer nerds, Jeff Chee, Paul Kristoff and Chris Shorten, recording at The Alehouse Project in Brunswick East. The podcast, hosted through Kristoff’s The City Lane, is as close as Australian craft beer gets to a clubhouse chat, with interviews, tangents and collaboration reviews running to 20 seasons. After a quiet patch the trio returned in early 2025 with new Rocky Ridge and The Mill episodes, and the Instagram feed is one of the largest in Aussie beer.
Founded: 2015
Based: Brunswick, VIC
Covers: Podcast interviews, collab reviews, industry banter, Instagram
Standout for: Long-form chemistry and industry access
Owned by: Independent (hosted via The City Lane)
Listen to Brunswick Beer Collective
6. Aussie Beer Voyage
The newest entry on this list and the most hands-on. Adsy and co-founder Joel Thomas launched Aussie Beer Voyage in January 2023 with a Brisbane launch party and a simple premise: tour every decent Aussie craft brewery and interview whoever is around. Sixty-six episodes in by September 2025, they have fanned out from Queensland into Sydney’s Inner West and beyond, and spun off a second show, Pour It Out. For pub-level brewer chat with zero pretence, this is the go-to.
Founded: 2023
Based: Brisbane, QLD
Covers: Brewery interviews, on-location podcasting, video companion
Standout for: Ground-level brewer conversations and video coverage
Owned by: Independent (Adsy and Joel Thomas)
7. Beer Advocate
Founded by brothers Jason and Todd Alstrom in Boston in 1996, Beer Advocate is the global elder statesman of beer journalism. The print magazine wrapped in 2019 but the web operation keeps publishing original articles, forums and beer listings, and it remains one of the few international titles that regularly covers Australian breweries at scale. After RateBeer shut in February 2025, Beer Advocate absorbed migrating users and now offers a rating migration tool. A useful global lens on local output.
Founded: 1996
Based: Boston, USA (covers Australia)
Covers: Global beer news, forums, beer database, reviews
Standout for: International exposure for Australian breweries
Owned by: Independent (Alstrom brothers)
Other Worthy Mentions
A handful of secondary outlets and newer voices worth a follow for Australian beer coverage:
- The Beer Healer – Chris Lukianenko’s long-running review and interview blog, now primarily continuing via podcast.
- Good Beer Hunting (Australia) – US-based editorial powerhouse that regularly commissions deep-dive pieces on Australian breweries and industry trends.
- Pour It Out (Aussie Beer Voyage) – Spin-off podcast from Adsy and Joel covering short-form beer news and opinion.
- Broadsheet Drinks – Mainstream lifestyle coverage with a surprisingly strong craft beer rotation across Melbourne and Sydney.
- Radio Brews News archive – Matt Kirkegaard has wound up publishing but the podcast archive remains a treasure trove of industry conversation going back nearly two decades.
Closed or Dormant
Australian beer blogging peaked between 2012 and 2019, and attrition since has been brutal. The following outlets were all once on our list, but have either wound up or gone quiet.
Brews News – Matt Kirkegaard officially signed off Brews News in February 2024 after nearly 20 years, citing retirement from beer writing. The site remains online as an archive but is no longer publishing new content. Kirkegaard was presented with the Independent Brewers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.
RateBeer – Shut down by parent company AB InBev on 1 February 2025 after the brewing giant pulled support. Founder Joe Tucker posted a final farewell in December 2024. Former users can migrate ratings to Beer Advocate.
Girl + Beer – Pia Poynton wound up the blog at the end of 2023 after more than a decade of writing. Poynton remains active in the industry as a Certified Cicerone and in operations at Nowhereman and Grape & Grain.
New South Ales – Marie Claire “MC” Jarratt’s blog domain dropped offline in 2024 after she transitioned into brewing full-time at Brick Lane Brewing Co. Jarratt was the first woman to win the AIBA Best Media award.
Sydney Beer – Tim Hodges’ Sydney-focused blog, which moved to sydneybeer.com.au, was taken offline in 2024. Hodges now operates as a beer-industry brand consultant.
The Beer Pilgrim – Tim Charody’s blog has not posted since June 2020, though Charody remains active in Australian beer tourism and partnerships. Treat it as an archive.
Ale of a Time – Luke Robertson’s Melbourne blog published its last post in May 2024, and the companion Podbean podcast has been delisted. Robertson is now running a brewery in New Zealand.
Beer Is Your Friend – Glen Humphries’ award-winning blog has not been updated since 2018. Humphries continues as a beer columnist for the Illawarra Mercury and has published several books, including The Slab.
Australian Brews News (distinct from Brews News) – The companion news site wound up alongside the main Brews News shutdown in 2024.
250 Beers – Darren Magin’s Brisbane blog stopped publishing around 2015. The custom domain has since lapsed; older posts remain at 250beers.wordpress.com.
Beers Are A Changin’ – The Melbourne blog, hosted at astrangebrew.wordpress.com, stopped posting in 2016.
We Love Craft Beer – Nigel Ayling’s blog and Facebook community last posted in 2017.
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The Crafty Pint, founded by James Smith in 2010, is widely regarded as the leading Australian craft beer blog. It publishes daily independent news, hosts the Pint of Origin festival and runs a dedicated podcast.
Most Australian beer blogs were side projects built during the 2012 to 2019 craft boom. Many founders moved into full-time brewing or hospitality roles, advertising revenue thinned, and long-running titles like Brews News and RateBeer wound up in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
Craft beer is beer produced at a small, independently owned brewery, typically with a focus on traditional or experimental styles rather than mass-market lagers. In Australia, the Independent Brewers Association certifies breweries that meet volume and ownership criteria.
The Crafty Pint Podcast is the most editorially rigorous. Aussie Beer Voyage is the best for ground-level brewer interviews. The Brunswick Beer Collective is the choice for longer, looser conversations between friends who know the industry inside out.
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