On the 14th anniversary of the first entry in the original Beer Diary, George and I present a "holiday special" of sorts — a look back on what's changed, and what hasn't, since we last talked and since we first talked. We cover a little of the long arc of news, entry and exit from the subculture of beer (or anything else), the ageing of beer and of ourselves, and keeping things in balance in a peculiar world.

This conversation was recorded on 17 September 2015 and is one of those 'lost episodes' we mentioned in s05e05. Two more to come shortly.

We sat down for a few beers 'on the record' with our friends Dave Wood and Denise Garland. Dave is the general manager of Wellington beer bar Hashigo Zake as well as the current President of SOBA (the Society of Beer Advocates) and Denise is a journalist — and both have long been key members of the beer community. They talk about the rapid evolution of the local scene, their introductions to it and their 'epiphany' beers, the simple pleasures of everday beers in their right place, and the joys of making your own homebrew. We also discuss the bar business, SOBA festivals, women-in-beer groups like Beerded Ladies and Pink Boots, lament the general lack of brown ales and have a few dated-but-foreboding words to say about company takeovers — Dave idly ponders a Ballast Point buyout that was just a few weeks in the future.

Damn these recurrent hiatuses. It happened again, as these things do. But we're back this week — rather fittingly, after the long weekend — with a little look at crowdfunding in the beer business, some reminiscences over my marvellous trip to the Mussel Inn, and looking forward to the Great Kiwi Beer Festival this very weekend, at which I'll be doing one of my little rambles. All that by way of bicycle bells and videogames, and accompanied by two rather strikingly different Beers Of The Week.

There are several sadly-long-neglected episodes in our proverbial back pocket, which I'll upload over the coming weeks. You — our listeners and our excellent guests — have our apologies, and also our welcome back.

Recorded at Beervana 2014 and lost for a year on account of technical difficulties, this was our second "live" session, from the Saturday night. This time, we were joined by blogger and podcaster Luke Robertson (an ex-pat New Zealander living in Melbourne) and Denise Ratfield from the Pink Boots Society and Stone Brewery.

Recorded last year in the seminar room at Beervana 2014, and waylaid since on account of technical difficulties. We were joined by Australian beer writer and founder of BrewsNews.com.au, Matt Kirkegaard, and Sean Burke of the Commons Brewery in Portland.

And so the Beer Diary Podcast is back for a fifth season, and with our traditional delay in hitting 'publish', no less. Episodes should return to their usual non-super-sized format and a sharper turnaround in this back half of the year — but you all know what kind of paving projects are undertaken with good intentions. Here, we accidentally settle on a G-theme: we catch up about the end of my tenure at Garage Project, including some thoughts on how they make their interesting beers; the debut of GABS — Sydney Edition, which also makes us ponder trans-Tasman beer availability; and read a neat little piece in the Guardian on Gastrophysics which sets us wondering about experiments that really should be done at the beer awards.

Back at last for a traditionally-belated — but moreso, at no extra charge! — 'Year in Review' episode, George and I called in a few guests to help ponder what 2014 meant to us in beer, since we were both extra-busy in everything else.  Now-recidivist Friends Of The Show Jono and Hadyn graciously took up the challenge and joined us in searching their memories for the year's highlights, disasters, themes and oddities — and they also threw in bonus musings on professional wrestling and the sociology of Palmerston North.

Following straight on — after a quick re-play of the introduction, thanks to some clever editing by George — from last weekend's episode, we're delighted to present the second half of our Very Special podcast takeover on Women & Beer, by women, drinking beer. Megan, Beth, Hayley and Steph continue their conversation, covering topics as diverse as canned beer, food matching, 'extreme' beers, festivals, labeling and tastings — as well as discussing the potential need for (and nuances of) dedicated women's groups in the community, and the role of (and need for) overt feminism in the beer business.

For a Very Special episode, George and I relinquish the microphone entirely to four of our friends. We'd wanted to dedicate an episode entirely to 'Women & Beer' for some time and eventually realised that we were sufficiently blessed for potential guests — and also sufficiently lacking in personal experience, for obvious reasons — that a takeover episode made all kinds of sense.

Our replacements are, in order of introduction: Megan Whelan (journalist and producer for The Wireless), Beth Brash (blogger at Eat & Greet), Hayley Adams (bartender at Golding's Free Dive and project coordinator for the Safer Bars Alliance) and Steph Coutts (SOBA stalwart and founder of Craft Beer College — and thereby occasionally my boss). They discuss their own beer epiphanies and preferences, run-ins with lamentable marketing and experiences as part of the beer community — good and bad, grating and brilliant. Here, with my traditional apologies for the delay in posting it, is part one; part two will follow shortly.

An episode with no beer. Well, none were consumed — out of a vague nod to Dry July, but more a result of us both being in losing phases of the age-old battle of Monkey v Microbe. We ponder Dry July, as a charitable enterprise (we're unconvinced) and (much better) a way for people to test and/or manage their relationship with one of humanity's favourite drugs. We drink some worthwhile non-beers, and I have a little ramble on the social history of tea and coffee and whatnot. And an episode this time of year wouldn't be complete without a looking-forward toward the beer awards and Beervana.