They appear to have set themselves quite a challenge at Smith Street Cellars – the sort of challenge The Crafty Pint wholeheartedly encourages. Namely, finding the space within their already fit-to-burst store to cram in heaps more quality craft beer. The little bottleshop in the heart of the craziness that is Melbourne’s Smith Street has long had a reasonable selection of good beer, but since new owners took over in 2010 and brought in new beer-loving staff to help out, they’ve set about filling every nook and cranny with brews from across Australia and further afield.

There’s still a bit of fridge space dedicated to the Smith Street inhabitants who’ve called the area home since long before it became hip, but the focus is increasingly on the other end of the beer market. Now you’ll find shelves where limited release Aussie crafties in champagne bottles sit side by side with the likes of Hitachino Nest and Rogue and fridges with an increasingly kaleidoscopic array of six-packs from local microbreweries.

For the new owners, Troy and Sarah, Smith Street Cellars was their step out of the corporate world, inspired by a trip through Europe during which they sampled plenty of high end wine and beer along the way. As a result, it’s not just the beer offering that’s changed since they took over; they’ve also set about removing many of the wine brands you can find at bigger stores to instead focus on single vineyards.

There are free tastings every Friday that alternate between beer and wine – plus plans to turn one of the upstairs rooms currently used for storage into a private tasting area capable of catering to bigger numbers than the shop allows. As anyone who’s visited Smith Street knows, it’s a little bit different to most streets, and that’s the long-term plan for the Cellars too: to make it a little bit different to other bottleshops.