Far SideBeers

Tucked along Burwood Road, this is a shop built around the fridge rather than the aisle — a rotating line-up of pale ales, IPAs, sours, lagers and dark beers organised for drinkers who already know their hop varieties from their yeast strains, alongside those still working it out. The categorisation says a lot: bitters and browns get their own shelf, saisons sit with the sours, and there's room made for non-alcoholic beer and cider too, rather than treating them as afterthoughts. A short spirits selection rounds things out for those wanting something to sip slower. It's an evening-and-weekend kind of place — closed Mondays and Tuesdays, then open from mid-afternoon through to late, which suits its role as a post-work or pre-dinner stop for locals rather than a big-box destination. The name gives the game away: this is beer from beyond the mainstream, sourced with an eye for the interesting and the small-batch, the sort of bottles you won't find lined up at the supermarket. No pretension, just a genuine fridge-deep interest in craft brewing, presented simply and without fuss to a neighbourhood that's clearly come to rely on it for something a little more considered than the usual slab.