Pint of Origin is a unique festival showcasing the wide world of beer at venues across Melbourne for ten days every May. It's a choose-your-own-adventure pub crawl with bonuses and prizes on offer for the avid beer explorer.
A collection of the city's best pubs, bars and breweries host beers and brewers from different parts of the world. Some represent Australian cities, states or territories, others act as the home for entire countries, and a couple showcase beers from even bigger regions.
Pint of Origin debuted as part of Good Beer Week in 2012, conceived by The Crafty Pint as a way of allowing brewers from all over Australia to be part of the festival without having to do anything more than send a keg of beer. The simple concept struck a chord, becoming one of Good Beer Week's most popular features. Then, when Good Beer Week took a year off post-COVID in 2021, Pint of Origin went it alone.
New features have been added over the years, most notably the introduction of #PoO Passports. These allow attendees to collect stamps as they make their way around venues, unlocking bonus beers and gaining access to competitions as they go.
It returns to the Victorian capital for a fourteenth time from May 15 to 24, 2026, featuring plenty of old faces and a few new ones – including, for the first time, a showcase of craft brewers from China. The full festival program goes live in mid-April, which is when you'll be able to sign up for your #PoO26 Passport.
Keep an eye on The Crafty Pint's Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky and TikTok accounts – as well as the online magazine's weekly newsletters – for updates.
And if you'd like more insight into why this unique festival struck a chord, check out this article on The People of Pint of Origin from 2023 and The (Pint of) Origin Story from 2019 that looked back to the festival's genesis.
Have a go at everything cause you never know you might find a new style of beer you're crazy about, get out there and be adventurous.
It’s my favourite time of the year, it is the best craft beer event I have ever been to.Mel – Adelaide
The variety of venues, variety of locations and variety of beers – having an explore and trying a whole bunch of different things it’s just great. Love it!
Jez – Sydney
