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Starward is on the hunt for Australia’s best New Old Fashioned — a cocktail that captures the flavour, creativity and modern Australian spirit at the heart of our whisky. The winning drink won’t just earn bragging rights: it will be bottled, labelled and released nationwide, giving one bartender the rare chance to see their creation become part of Starward’s story. The winner also receives a two‑day hosted trip to our Melbourne distillery.
Pint of Origin festival is the most important two weeks of the Melbourne beer calendar. First held in 2012 with just five venues pouring beers from five different Australian states, PoO has now grown to over 20 venues across Melbourne, from pubs to whisky bars, tapping beers from all over Australia and all over the world. Running from Friday 15 May to Sunday 24 May, there will be around 200 breweries represented, and over 800 beers to try.
The idea is simple: each venue picks a state, a country or a region to represent, pouring only beers from that place for two weeks, including special collaboration brews and hard-to-get imported frothies that Aussies rarely get to try on tap, with each venue also hosting special events and tap takeovers throughout the festival. It’s one of the very best opportunities of the year for curious hospo professionals to learn about beer, and for thirsty beer nerds like me (what, I’m a middle aged white dude with a beard, you wouldn’t want me to dishonour my people, would you?) to taste the rainbow.
Below, light edited for clarity and length, is a conversation I had last week with Pint of Origin and The Crafty Pint founder James Smith to talk about the festival, what’s happening in the craft beer world, and what he’s excited about for the future.
FRED SIGGINS: Tell us a bit about the history of Pint of Origin.
JAMES SMITH: We started Pint of Origin in the second year of Good Beer Week, right at the height of the craft beer boom, because the first year a lot of people in other states complained that Melbourne got all of the good events, so it was a way for us to showcase beers from other states in a way that was easy and fun for the brewers. It just kept on growing over the years and became a lot of people’s favourite aspect of Good Beer Week, which has been on a sort of extended hiatus since Covid, so we weren’t sure Pint of Origin would survive, but it has. When GABS (The Great Australian Beer Spectapular) also stopped, we weren’t sure it would survive that either, but here we are.
FRED SIGGINS: Why do you think it’s survived when those other aspects have been put on hold?
JAMES SMITH: The real success of the festival is down to the venues, the effort they put in, the relationships they’ve built with breweries all over the world, the amazing events they put on. We just try to be a platform for that.
FRED SIGGINS: There’s been a fair amount of doom and gloom in the craft beer world recently, at least as far as the headlines we’re seeing are concerned. Would you care to comment on the state of the craft beer industry, and if you see any silver linings?
JAMES SMITH: There’s definitely been a lot of restructurings and breweries entering [voluntary administration] over the last few years. But there are still plenty of folks who are small enough, and have their beers and their brand right, and they’re going well and still growing. Like Love Shack, for example. Everything about them is just good so it’s working.
Earlier this year, things were still hard, but it felt like it was starting to get better, and then this Middle East stuff came up and it’s been another blow. I mean we’ve been in a cost of living crisis for three years now. So most of the folks that are still standing, after all that, they’ll still be here in five years. And I’m still seeing new breweries and new venues opening.
And look, everything is cyclical. The biggest boom happened in the 2010s, we’ve certainly had a downturn since then, but we assume it’s going to come back. If you’re the kind of drinker who has discovered more flavourful, more interesting beer, you’re not going to go backwards.
BOOTHBY: And do you think younger Aussies are still interested in craft beer?
JAMES SMITH: One of my favourite quotes is from Tina Panoutsos [senior manager of consumer science at Asahi Beverages], who’s one of the head judges at the Australian International Beer Awards. “It’s not about demographics,” she said. “It’s experiential. You have to explain to people what environments different beers work in and why.”
BOOTHBY: I like that. You can spend a lot of time chasing trends and wringing your hands about demographic changes, but if you get the experience right, it’s always going to work.
JAMES SMITH: Exactly.
BOOTHBY: So what are some things we should be excited about during this year’s Pint of Origin?
JAMES SMITH: Oh man, so much. Tito from Carwyn Cellars has done a five beer blend with Evil Twin (New York), Beer Mash are getting [Belgian cult brewery] Cantillion on tap, which which we almost never see in Australia, and the guys from Double Vision and Sure did a fresh hopped collab brew where they literally chartered a plane to fly freshly harvested hops from where they’re grown near Nelson on the South Island to the brewery in Wellington.
BOOTHBY: And what would be your suggestion for one venue or one event that should be on the radar for someone who wants to expand their beer knowledge?
JAMES SMITH: Beer Mash in Collingwood is a great place to get a solid foundation of knowledge about classic beer styles, because their region is Europe, so they’ll have everything from traditional pilsners to Belgian farmhouse ales to some really fun modern stuff. Mr. West in Footscray is another great one because they’re doing the UK, so there’ll be some great classic stuff on offer there, as well as some newer styles.
BOOTHBY: I’m a big advocate of venues that sort of defy definition as a particular kind of venue. Places like The Lincoln and Mr West, which have a great beer selection, but also do amazing wine or cocktails are some of my favourites. And I think if you’re going to serve beer at all, you should serve really good beer and your staff should have the knowledge to serve it properly. Whisky & Alement is a place that does that really well. Despite being primarily a whisky and cocktail venue, they also have a great beer selection. So it’s great to see places like that participating in Pint of Origin.
JAMES SMITH: Whisky & Alement has worked really well as a PoO venue. I remember doing an event with Jules [co-owner of W&A] around Japanese beer and whisky, and in the context of that bar, it just makes so much sense. We even did a beer cocktails event last year at Captain Melville that was great, but the guy who was the driving force moved on to another job, so there’s nothing like that this year.
BOOTHBY: Sounds like an opportunity for a cocktail venue to jump on.
JAMES SMITH: Yeah we love that stuff. We’re collaborating with Proud Mary this year to get the coffee crowd a bit more involved. We’re always thinking, how over time do we cross pollinate these different areas of the industry? Most craft brewers do a pretty poor job of getting into other types of hospo venues apart from just pubs and beer bars. Cocktail bars are all about cool flavours and experimenting the same way that craft brewers do, so to me it makes perfect sense.
Around The Bars
Flower Children. Botanical-gardens inspired cocktail venue Bar Ferdinand is now open on Alfred Place in the CBD. I tried a few of their drinks for a preview article a few weeks ago, and they’re cracking, so definitely one worth checking out.
Child-Sized Flowers. Melbourne cocktail impresario Joe Jones is at it again, bringing his bartending chops to bear on the much-hyped French-Chinese pop up Little Rose in Fitzroy helmed by chef Rosheen Kaul. Running from May 9th to July 5th, you can expect dishes that reinterpret classic Chinese cuisine through a European lens. And we know Joey can mix a mean Martini, so I’m looking forward to drinks like the signature Little Rose Martini with gin, chrysanthemum vermouth, fino sherry and coconut water.
Black Milk. This Sunday 17 May, Luca — who you may remember as tall, charming Italian guy with the beads and former Melbourne-based Campari ambassador — and Nicola from Latteria in Adelaide are popping up at The Black Pearl with tunes by DJ Cazeaux Oslo. If you haven’t had the pleasure of getting to Latteria, the drinks are epic, so I can highly recommend. 6pm to 9pm, walk-ins only.
Starward is on the hunt for Australia’s best New Old Fashioned — a cocktail that captures the flavour, creativity and modern Australian spirit at the heart of our whisky. The winning drink won’t just earn bragging rights: it will be bottled, labelled and released nationwide, giving one bartender the rare chance to see their creation become part of Starward’s story. The winner also receives a two‑day hosted trip to our Melbourne distillery.
