If your idea of the perfect day trip involves visiting a few distilleries and breweries, try these to start with:
Wandana Brewery, Mullumbimby: see story posted in Good Life. It’s a great down-to-earth place, popular with the locals, and away from the tourist crowds with a great range of beers. See wandanabrewingco.com.au.
Stone & Wood Brewery, Byron Bay: in the Arts & Industry Estate, five minutes bike ride from Byron CBD. It has 31 brewing tanks, a canteen serving up delicious plates every day and a leafy beer garden. You can bring the dog, and even your friends and family if they’re well behaved. As they have both their core range, and also a rotating series of pilot batch beers brewed on-site, it’s an opportunity to try new creations and innovations exclusive to the Byron Bay tasting room. See stoneandwood.com.au.
Husk Rum: the home of Australian cultivated rum (not like Bundy) and also the home of Ink Gin, Husk Rum is in the Tweed area. You can visit the expansive lawns and indoor/outdoor tables at the distillery, eat there and sample the produce. See huskdistillers.com.
Cape Byron Distillery: the home of both Brookie’s Gin and a wonderful range of high-quality whiskies, as well as a surprising number of unique other spirits (like the macadamia nut liqueur or the Davidson Plum infused Slow Gin). It’s located just outside Byron near St Helena, you can take a guided tour of the rainforest, a guided tasting, or just drink cocktails on the balcony overlooking the magnificent regenerated landscape (it used to be barren, treeless farmland before the current owners took it over). You should book for the tours at this time of year. See capebyrondistillery.com.
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