At Van Dieman brewing, Will Tatchell is creating tasty brews from the hops up.

As the summer starts to wind down, my feet are starting to get itchy again. I’ve already made plans for the fall, but at the moment I’m reminiscing on my travels through Nepal and Tasmania last year. I realized that I’m woefully behind in posting.

To mitigate that sad fact, and to light a fire for catching up, I thought I’d share a story that came out of that trip: my tour of craft breweries in Tasmania.

Tassie is known as the “apple isle” as it produces tons of apples–so much so that it was a major supplier for the world before more low cost options started coming out of countries like Thailand. However, after the apple economy tanked, some savvy apple growers started making hard cider…and the Tasmanian Cider Trail was born. There are currently 10 cideries in Tasmania– a large number for a small island.

Though craft beer has been booming on mainland Australia, it’s been moving a bit more slowly on Tasmania. However, the industry is gaining speed and there are several great options for craft beer lovers to explore on this wild island.

Read on in an article I wrote for Weekly Pint: Tasmanian Revel

One of the brewers that I met, Will Tatchell of Van Dieman Brewing, is also embarking on a new project: creating the first 100% brewery-grown Estate Ale in Australia.

This is just a taste of my time in Tasmania…more to come soon!