Australians have a reputation for enjoying a drink, and hotels (also sometimes called taverns, inns, pubs and bars) are mostly where it all happens. Traditionally, public bars are male enclaves, the place where mates meet after work on their way home, with the emphasis more on the beer and banter than the surroundings. While changing attitudes have converted some city hotels into comfortable, relaxed bars, many Outback pubs are still pretty spartan and daunting for strangers of either sex, but you'll find barriers will come down if you're prepared to join in the conversation.

Friday and Saturday are the serious party nights, when there's likely to be a band and - in the case of some Outback establishments - literally everybody for a hundred kilometres around jammed into the building. Opening hours vary from state to state; usually 11am to 11pm, closing early on Sunday.

As anyone you ask will tell you, the proper way to drink beer in a hot country like Australia is ice cold (the English can expect to be constantly berated for their warm beer preferences) and fast, from a small container so it doesn't heat up before you can down the contents. Tubular foam or polystyrene coolers are often supplied for tinnies (cans) or stubbies (short-necked bottles) to make sure they stay icy. Glasses are always on the small side, and are given confusingly different names state by state. The standard 10oz (half-pint) serving is known as a pot in Victoria and Queensland, and a middie in NSW and WA, where the situation is further complicated by the presence of 15oz schooners (a "Darwin stubby," with typically Territorian eccentricity, is two litres of beer in an oversized bottle). Buying in bulk from a bottle shop, a carton or slab is a box of 24 tinnies or stubbies, and is always cheaper warm.

Australian beers are lager- or pilsner-style, and even the big mass-produced ones are pretty good, at least once you've worked up a thirst. They're considerably stronger than their US equivalents, and marginally stronger than the average British lager at just under 5 percent alcohol. Fosters is everywhere of course, but each state has its own label and there are fierce local loyalties, even though most are sold nationwide: Four ex (XXXX) and Powers in Queensland; Swan in Western Australia; Coopers in South Australia; VB in Victoria; Tooheys in New South Wales; Boags in Tasmania. Almost all of these produce more than one beer - usually a light (or lite) low-alcohol version and a premium "gold" or bitter brew. There are also a number of smaller "boutique" breweries and specialist beermakers: Tasmania's Cascade, WA's Redback or Matilda Bay, Cairns' Draught and Eumundi from Queensland are more distinctive but harder to find. Larger bottle shops might have imported beers, but outside the southern capitals (where Irish pubs serve Guinness) it's rare that you'll find anything foreign on tap.

Australian wines have long been appreciated at home, and it's not hard to see why; even an inexpensive bottle (around $8.50) will be better than just drinkable, while pricier varieties compare favourably with fine French wines. The secret is to be a bit adventurous: you're extremely unlikely to be disappointed. Even the "chateau cardboard" 4-litre bladders or wine casks that prevail at parties and barbecues are perfectly palatable.

The biggest wine-producing regions are New South Wales' Hunter Valley and the Barossa Valley in South Australia, but you'll find smaller commercial vineyards as far north as Stanthorpe in Queensland and in southwest Western Australia. Buying here you'll be able to sample in advance, though there's occasionally a charge for tasting to discourage over-enthusiastic visitors from just trying everything and leaving. Most bottle shops will in any case have a good range of very reasonably priced options.

The Australian wine industry also makes port and brandy as a sideline, though it's not up to international standards on the whole. Two excellent dark rums from Queensland's sugar belt are well worth a go, however: the sweet, deliciously smoky Bundaberg, and the more conventionally flavoured Beenleigh. They're of average strength, normally 33 percent alcohol, but beware of "overproof" variations, which will have you flat on your back if you try to drink them like ordinary spirits