Mazen Hajjar | Independence | Beer Travel | Birthdays
"When I first moved to Australia, I felt Australian beer was so far behind... I think we're at least on par with the US right now." When we switched The Crafty Pint Podcast to a dedicated weekly news show (plus fortnightly extended interviews [https://craftypint.com/news/4237/episode-118-be-brave-the-art-of-beer-and-food-pairing]), we promised we might invite on the occasional guest. Doing that has taken precisely one week – and what a special guest we have for you. Mazen Hajjar will be known to many in the beer industry as the face and voice of Hawkers Beer. Following the Melbourne brewery's merger with White Bay early last year to form the Social Drinks Group [https://craftypint.com/news/3678/hawkers-and-white-bay-merge-to-form-social-drinks-group], Mazen moved to Dubai for love, and to be closer to his family, and stepped back from day-to-day operations. In March, however, he returned to the role of CEO [https://craftypint.com/news/4009/judd-michel-to-depart-social-drinks-group-mazen-hajjar-to-serve-as-interim-ceo], since when he's been overseeing the business from Dubai. On one of his regular trips to Melbourne, we enticed him to join James Smith and Will Ziebell in The Crafty Pint studio to chat about life in Dubai, Hawkers, White Bay, independence, and his – and many others' – perennial bugbears: excise tax and tap contracts. The trio also talk about beer travel, inspired by Briony Liebich's Crafty Crawl around McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu [https://craftypint.com/news/4235/crafty-crawls-mclaren-vale-and-the-fleurieu] and Jono Outred's update of Wild Hop Brewing [https://craftypint.com/brewery/wild-hop-brewing-co]'s page on The Crafty Pint. Victoria is also amidst a rush of milestone birthdays, with Tallboy & Moose and Watts River celebrating ten years on the same weekend and Stomping Ground throwing a major street party [https://craftypint.com/event/14217/stompo-street-fest-2026] (for which you could win tickets [https://craftycabal.com/giveaways-and-merch]) to mark their decade next month. We'll be back with another special edition of the weekly show next week. We're recording it as soon as the winners have been announced at The Beer Championships awards night, for which ticket sales close this Friday. For now, if you've any feedback on the new format, or anything else you'd like to share with us, get in touch [[email protected]]! Start of segments: * 0:26 – Ryefield Hops 2027 Harvest Pre-Sale * 1:22 – Mazen, Social Drinks Group, Fighting For Independence & Helles * 17:14 – Stompo Street Fest * 18:04 – Beer Travel, Milestone Birthdays & Rezza To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact [email protected].