Sitting just north of Melbourne in the appropriately woody Woodend, the Holgate Brewhouse (and the beer contained within) is an unexpected pleasure.
In Australia, calling something or someone "feral" doesn't usually translate as 'good taste'. Not unless you find body odour and dreadlocks tasteful. An exception: Feral Brewing out of Western Australia.
Welcome to System D, the invisible economic powerhouse that's worth more than $10 trillion per year.
Curly hair, left-handedness, and an inability to whistle are just three of the "troubles" Dr. Pilkington's Miracle Cider claims to combat. While what it promises may be pretty outlandish, Dr. Pilkington's definitely delivers on cool packaging and great taste.
The grey area between crazy and sane isn't easy to illuminate, but if anyone should have a crack it's author of The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson.
In volume four we had a yarn to Charles Pates of Pates Tapes, who is digitising and streaming his entire mixtape collection for your listening pleasure.
While trout fishing in pure waters, with a bottle of scotch in hand and lush barley fields before him, Bill Lark decided that Tasmania should really be making its own whisky.
As Oscar Wilde opined, "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." Now in its fourth year, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, a joint venture between the Sydney Opera House and St James Ethics Centre, pays wide-ranging, controversial and sometimes funny homage to Wilde's dictum.
Charles Bukowski was a man who gave hope to us all; despite his almost crippling alcoholism he was still one of the most significant artists of a generation.
We've long planned to extend key Smith stories off the printed page, and the smokehouse story in volume four provided a top opportunity.