“I really get a buzz out of looking at flavours and the way things interact with each other.”

If you’re a consumer of beer, rather than someone working in the industry, there’s a fair chance you won’t have heard of this week’s trailblazing guest. After all, Tina Panoutsos doesn’t own a brewery, brew beer, pour beer, sell beer, or run a festival. However, over more than 35 years in beer, she’s become one of the key figures in the Australian industry and an inspiration to many.

We caught up with Tina at Melbourne Showgrounds ahead of this year’s Australian International Beer Awards judging, where she’s once again taking a lead role – as she has at countless beer competitions both here and across the planet – to look back over an extraordinary career.

Since joining CUB in 1989 – “a short little Greek girl”, as she puts it, with a chemistry degree and post-grad in teaching – Tina has transformed the world of sensory analysis, smashed through glass ceilings, and helped make the beer world an increasingly diverse space.

Over the course of our chat, we dive deep into the worlds of sensory and beer judging, discuss cellar palates, super tasters and standout beers, learn how small breweries can set up their own sensory programs on a tiny budget, and explore ways in which beer can reach new audiences.

There was plenty to discuss in the intro too: the results of the 2026 Perth Royal Food Awards – Beer; what One Drop’s OG brewer Nick is doing in Singapore; new owners with a new vision for one of Australia’s first craft breweries; a funding boost for Victoria’s indie brewers; ten years of one of the country’s most colourful craft beer pubs; and our second Pints of Origin preview.

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 12:18 – CoConspirators & 10 Toes on their #PoO26 collab
• 17:06 – Tina Panoutsos Part 1
• 42:19 – Tina Panoutsos Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

"We never stopped experimenting. That's in our DNA.”

Stone Brewing are one of the biggest names in American craft beer: a bold, brash brand with a fondness for IPA that helped drive the rise of the industry in the US and played a key role in the growth of the San Diego scene.

So we jumped at the chance to sit down with Jeremy Moynier when he was in Beechworth recently to deliver the keynote speech at The High Country Hop. He’s now more than two decades into his time at Stone, where he’s focused on new releases, pilot brews, quality and sensory, among other things.

He was in Australia wearing two hats as Jeremy is also currently chair of the Hop Quality Group, whose work – and recent success in bringing new public hop variety Thora to the world – is part of our chat.

As well as hearing about his career, from arts degree to wine to beer, and his experiences as both Stone and beer in San Diego were exploding, we explore the brewery’s approach to hops and experimentation, navigating the ups and downs of the beer world, reworking the iconic Stone IPA to feature Aussie hops and more.

It’s worth noting that this was recorded before Stone’s recent sale to Firestone Walker and Duvel USA. As such, we’ve cut the parts of the interview covering the brewery’s prior sale to Sapporo without losing any of the insight and considerable charm Jeremy brings to the show.

Before we get to Jeremy, Will and James celebrate yet another World Beer Cup medal for TWØBAYS, discuss Spinifex Brewery’s innovative new wastewater pilot project, part two of Will’s reworked Crafty Crawl along The 86 Tram, and the impending arrival of Pint of Origin 2026.

If you enjoy the show, be sure to like, subscribe, rate, review and tell your beer-loving mates so we can reach more people. Cheers

Start of segments:

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
• 13:41 – Jeremy Moynier Part 1
• 32:18 – GoTab on maximising taproom revenue
• 42:09 – Jeremy Moynier Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.

“I do still wake up at night and think of beer recipes and beer names and what I could do with certain hops.”

Time for the last of the interviews recorded while we were in New Zealand for hop harvest in March. And, while Kelly Ryan works for Freestyle Hops, the reason we were keen to chat with him wasn’t so much to pick his brains about his current role as to enjoy time in the company of one of the beer world’s most gracious and charismatic figures.

Prior to swapping the mash tun for the hop bine, Kelly enjoyed a fine career in brewing. It started out at DB Breweries – one of New Zealand’s largest – before he spent a few years in the UK, most notably at Thornbridge in the brewery’s earlier years, where he worked alongside BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie as the unique, game-changing operation transitioned from a tiny space in an outbuilding of a 14th century mansion to their current production facility.

Back in New Zealand, he burnished his reputation as a brewer at the likes of Epic, Good George, Fork & Brewer and Boneface, while his finely-tuned palate saw him invited to judge across the globe.

As thoughtful and engaging as anyone you’ll meet in beer, our conversation travels far and wide to the extent that we could probably have recorded a six-part series with him and still not come close to exhausting his breadth of knowledge or anthology of anecdotes. He’s simply a delightful human so we’re sure you’ll enjoy the chat.

There's a bit of a difference to this week's intro, as it features snippets of a chat between Will and two of the collaborators on a beer debuting at this year's Pint of Origin: Jack from Mr West and Chris from Banks Brewing, who've created a new IPA with the UK's Cloudwater. It formed the basis of article one in a new series, The Pints of Origin, highlighting some of the key beers appearing at May's festival.

Other new stories to hit the site this week include features on the Gold Coast's newest brewery, Padre, a Canadian brewer who recently joined Ocean Reach on Phillip Island, and a piece on serving beer which will hit the site before the weekend.

• 0:00 – The Week On Crafty Part 1
• 2:57 – Banks & Mr West on their Cloudwater Pint of Origin collab
• 6:16 – The Week On Crafty Part 2
• 16:04 – Kelly Ryan Part 1
• 44:06 – Entering the Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards
• 45:35 – Kelly Ryan Part 2

To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.