Axes & Craft Beer Tours

MANIAX was the first Urban Axe Throwing company in Australia, established in 2014 in Sydney NSW. We are also the largest in Australia, with venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. We’ve had close to 300,000 people through our doors across Australia, which equates to approx 15 million axes thrown! That’s with no significant axe-idents beyond a splinter.

Grab a group of friends for some axe-throwing fun before visiting 2 of Adelaide’s exciting breweries.

• Have fun with your mates as you throw real axes at an indoor range
• Sample artisanal beers at the best breweries Adelaide has to offer
• Learn more about beer tasting and the art and science of making beer
• Stop for lunch at one of Adelaide’s unique craft beer pubs

Experience the thrill of Adelaide’s newest and most exciting sport – urban Axe throwing! The Maniax pros teach you the skill of axe throwing, followed by a competition to crown the champion. The prize? Bragging rights for the rest of the day!

After embracing your inner Viking we take you to two top craft breweries, for a behind the scenes look at Adelaide‘s beer.

At each venue we will guide you through a tasting session, and discuss ingredients, brewing techniques, styles and just general cool beer stuff!

This tour also includes an awesome lunch at one of our favourite craft beer pubs!

Which breweries we visit on the day does change – not all places are open every day and our beer tours are all about timing and providing a good mix of places, people, and beers.

Number of guests per tour – This Adelaide beer tour accommodates a minimum of six guests.

In the Summer of 2014, Perth brewers Jack Cameron and Jared ‘Red’ Proudfoot led a convoy of associates, chums and troublemakers on a journey across the Nullarbor Plain. Their final destination? Adelaide, South Australia - where a modest 1,000 square metre plot in the inner western suburb of Hindmarsh was patiently awaiting their arrival.
It was here that duo established Pirate Life Brewing and with the site keys buried firmly in their back pockets, an ambitious build schedule was put in to place: Install a 2,500 litre brew-kit, hook up six stainless steel fermentation vessels, lock in a semi-automated canning system and begin brewing their very own recipes in just 12 short weeks. Never ones to shy away from a deadline, Jack and Red got to work; and with the help of MC (Jacks dad, hospitality veteran and founding CEO), they promptly began transforming the site previously used to house spare air conditioner parts in to a fully functioning brewery.

We began brewing in Jason’s shed in a rented property in the Barossa back in 2002. The shed was huge, a farmers shed with easily enough room for the brewing equipment, cars, the Scalextric track (yeah that’s right), hardware, tools, everything. It also had a mechanics pit which was perfect for keeping our brews at a constant fermenting temp. It was here we began our love affair with making beer. We loved the fact we could follow our curiosity, what happens when you added berries to your brew (good things actually), what does using a different yeast do to the flavours? We made some cracking beers that folks loved, we also made some abominations never to be seen again… That’s part of the journey and not something we would remove from our experience.

​We rented a small warehouse in Royal Park, moved in and used our R and D setup to further design and refine our starting line-up. It has also been our business base and we have had many discussions with local brewing legend, Stephen Nelsen who helped with the design of our commercial setup.

​It all arrived and we put our first beer through the system in December 2013, FrankenBROWN. Since then we have added F-Yeah, Californicator and Kol Schisel to our core range.

​In September 2014 we launched our tasting bar and kitchen. Comprising of 6 taps and food that goes with our beer and you can eat with your hands. We are open Wednesday through to Sunday, slinging brews and food to eager locals and visitors alike. Cheers Craig and Jason

We're Fil and Ryan. We met in the early 2000s, working in games studios. We were nerds for games. Then we got into home brewing, and we were nerds for beer, big time. We'd talk about it, read about it and argue about it. A lot.

​Little Bang started in Fil's garage in 2013. We'd been home brewing together for years, the hobby was now a proper obsession. That's where the name came from, Fil and Ryan doing backyard science. By this time we both had jobs in or around the beer industry, and one day, after a few fine ales, we said to each other "Sure, yeah, let's mess around in the beer biz. It'll be fun."

​So we built a brewery in the garage. That took a LONG time. And we filled out all the paperwork and got all the permissions. That took a REALLY long time. But after about 18 months it was real.

​What we didn't count on was Little Bang going suddenly, unexpectedly, extremely well. Our tiny batches were getting pre-sold months in advance, it was impossible to keep up with demand. We had to do it properly or let it go. The garage just wasn't going to cut it. ​So... Big boy time. We did what we had to do. We asked our wives for money.

We got ourselves a neat little warehouse and put some much bigger tanks in it. We opened a little taproom bar in it. Every weekend was a crazy-ass party. It was fun as hell, it was freakin' hectic.

​In 2018, with a solid little team in place, we worked up the courage to move to a much, much bigger place. With the help of our remarkable friends we spent a year cutting concrete, laying pipes, digging, filling, building, sanding, painting, welding, wiring, tiling... AND brewing beer, and selling beer, and ALL the damn paperwork.

And now, somehow, we're not just two people mucking around in the shed any more. We have a crew of amazing, talented people (and Ryan and Fil). We brew and package thousands of litres on site every week, we distribute all over the country, we run tours and functions and events, and a commercial kitchen, we make our own wine and gin, and we host hundreds of people of all ages at our glorious 290 person capacity venue Wednesdays to Sundays. And we're not stopping there.

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