Brewski, Barleywine & Brisbane's Beautiful Beer Community

Few venues have made an impact on their city's beer scene quite like Brewski, the Brisbane venue opened by Antoinette Pollock and Matt Emmerson back in 2013. It was one of the first to wholeheartedly embrace craft beer and, along with its notable peers and the teams behind each of them, helped create one of the most colourful, creative and welcoming beer communities in Australia. Fired by a love of big beers and outlandish events, Brewski's reputation spread far beyond Brewsvegas, becoming a second home for many. In July 2024, Matt and Ant announced they'd made the hard decision to close; changing economic realities meant continuing to operate such a venue in the heart of Caxton Street was no longer viable. Given all they'd brought to the local beer world, we asked them to join us for a chat about the Brewski years, their approach to running multifaceted beer venues, the rise of craft beer, the future for beer bars, marketing and plenty more. Then, two days before this show was published, we learned there was a silver lining: they're opening another My Beer Dealer bar-bottleshop in Fortitude Valley and have, of course, grand plans for their new baby: they want it to be one of the biggest drink-in bottle shops in the country. Also discussed in the episode are the collapse of Valhalla Brewing and associated beer distribution business Lotus, plus the news that Brisbane brewers Slipstream are opening a venue on the Sunshine Coast. NB: The main interview was recorded prior to The Crafty Pint Podcast launching and is audio-only. There's some inconsistency in the sound, in part due to recording in the venue, but there's much to enjoy in the discussion too, hosted by Mick Wüst and Craig Williams. Links referenced in or relevant to the show: Valhalla Liquidation Impacting Multiple Indie Brewers: https://craftypint.com/news/3552/valhalla-brewing-to-be-liquidated-multiple-indie-brewers-counting-the-cost Slipstream Opening On Sunshine Coast: https://craftypint.com/news/3549/slipstream-to-open-a-venue-on-the-sunshine-coast Brewski To Close: https://craftypint.com/news/3507/brewski-to-close-after-a-decade-of-beers Ten Lessons From Ten Years: Brewski – https://craftypint.com/news/3288/brewski-ten-lessons-from-ten-years Bendigo On The Hop 2024: https://www.bendigobeer.com/both-2024 The Crafty Cabal: https://craftycabal.com/