At this year’s Australian International Beer Awards, I was incrediblyhonoured to be the recipient of the inaugural Crafty Pint Australian Media Award for beer writing. However, as the award was sponsored by The Crafty Pint, the site’s founder and Australian craft beer’s #1 ticket holder James Smith was unable to enter the awards. So while it was a huge thrill and I was very proud to bring home the trophy, in my mind, my name will forever have an asterix beside it the history books. The Stephen Bradbury of beer writing.

James is one of the busiest, enthusiastic and most compelling beer writers in the country. As a result of his magazine writing, The Crafty Pint website and his central involvement in the creation of Melbourne’s Good Beer Week, James has developed an international reputation. He has spoken to, worked with or had his views sought out by some of the biggest names in the contemporary craft beer world. He know his stuff and he is worth listening to.

If you think this post is unusually gushy for Australian Brews News it is because for all of the above, James is about to release his first book and on his own website the release is heralded not with trumpets and fanfare but with the anaemic announcement “Crafty Pint founder James Smith has written a book on Australian beer”. Someone needs togive you a reason to buy it because it will be well worth buying, both to read now and as a time capsule documentingthis very exciting point in Australian craft beer development. James is at the very forefront of all that is happening.

It’s not yet available, but 150 Great Australian Beers: Your Guide to Craft Beer and Beyond will be on shelves at good book shops nationwide in time for Father’s Day 2014.

It is also available for pre-order now via Bookworld here.

Not one to gush about his own work, this is all that James has to say about it.
Do you know your porters from your pales and your stouts from your saisons? Are you a home-brewing legend or a draught devotee? Or do you think dubbels and tripels are just spelling mistakes?

Regardless of how much you know about beer or what you like to drink, 150 Great Australian Beers is sure to have something to please your palate. Join beer writer and enthusiast James Smith in his quest to discover 150 of Australia’s greatest beers, whether they are incredibly ‘sessionable’, perfect examples of their style, off-the-wall with flavour or quirky and experimental.

Complete with the fascinating history of beer in Australia, a breakdown of the brewing process, style spotlights and guides on how to store, serve, enjoy and match beer, 150 Great Australian Beers is perfect for anyone who has ever enjoyed a pint.
At Brews News we very rarely back something sight unseen, but we will go out on a limb here as anything that James has put his name to will be worth paying real money dollars for. So pre-ordernow rather than waiting for it to appear on a remainders table in three years time. And buy one for dad too.