I’m not sure I understand this article completely:

A ‘virtual brewery’ started by former employees of Red Hat and Computer Associates could be listed on the Newcastle Stock Exchange by the end of the year.

Brewtopia, described by former Red Hat employee and now chief executive officer Liam Mulhall as "…a marketing experiment to see if you could bring a product to market that did not exist without spending money on advertising," succeeded by using a strategy Mulhall calls "viral equity".

The scheme sees would-be customers awarded a share in the company if they join its e-mail list, an additional share each time they buy a case of its "Blowfly" beer and another share each time they encourage four friends to join the e-mail list.

Their website describes it as an "open source beer company." It seems that they allow anyone to design their own label and customize their own beer and then order it up… I think. And then by offering shares to people just by signing up, and ordering beer, that’s where the "viral" part comes in.

Interesting concept, if I’m following it correctly. But, I’ll admit that I still don’t quite get it.

And, they’re located in Australia. Do they ship outside of the country?