The Other Side of the Sky — Steam Machine Brewing Company, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham
You’d be forgiven for thinking that 26 Northfield Way was just another warehouse. It stands, grey and inconspicuous, on the outskirts of a 400-hectare business park in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. But behind the doors of this unremarkable-looking building is a beer lover’s equivalent of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. It’s here where you’ll find local heroes Steam Machine Brewing Company.
Photography by Matthew Curtis
Founded in 2015 by Nick and Gulen Smith, Steam Machine epitomises the term “passion project.” A pair of warm and welcoming personalities, the couple exude enthusiasm for their business—a quality that has undoubtedly aided them in making it a success.
“All the best breweries start from a love of creative homebrewing,” Nick tells me.
It’s a love he first developed as a student in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, back in 2003. While there, he noticed a distinct lack of diversity in the beers available in and around the city.
After graduating, Nick moved to Guernsey to work as a science teacher, where he met his future wife and business partner, Gulen. The first time she visited Nick’s house, he offered her one of his homebrews. It was a small gesture, but it ended up being a watershed moment for the couple.
Gulen is originally from Turkey, where, she tells me, making things yourself is still common practice. While she wasn’t familiar with homebrewing—she didn’t know about fermentation, and thought alcohol was added as an ingredient—it interested her immediately. Her background is in sport and management, which also proved handy, adding an administrative yin to Nick’s science and brewing yang.
““Our local CAMRA group disowned us because we weren’t sticking English bitters in cask.””
During a nine-month period that they spent travelling to South Asia, New Zealand, and Australia, among other places, Nick and Gulen decided to embark on a joint venture. After considering other ideas, including a farmhouse café, they chose to open a brewery, with the intention of producing the kind of beers that were not readily available at many mainstream establishments.
“Beer won,” as Nick puts it concisely.
After combining their savings and acquiring a loan from Virgin StartUp, the couple relocated to Nick’s hometown of Newton Aycliffe. They were trepidatious as to whether there’d be demand for the kind of beer they wanted to produce. However, the reasonable cost of rent, and the family support network they’d have in the area, gave them the confidence to press on. They purchased a third-generation brewing kit and got to work.
Starting their own brewery wasn’t without incident, and the couple experienced a little resistance from some locals. A portion of the Newton Aycliffe community outright advised the couple that their business wouldn’t succeed, while some CAMRA members didn’t feel it fit with their organisation’s culture.
“Our local CAMRA group disowned us because we weren’t sticking English bitters in cask,” Nick says. “They’ve changed now that the old guard has mostly gone.”
It’s a notion that Ian Taylor, chairman of the nearby Darlington CAMRA branch, can verify. “There was definitely a split opinion when it first arrived, a split which mirrors the greater CAMRA divide,” Ian tells me.
“The keg-friendly side, of which I am a member, on the whole were the younger members of the branch who see how independent keg and cask can go hand in hand in both production and pubs,” he adds. “The old guard dismissed it very much as a craft-slash-keg brewery and were reluctant to engage with them.”
Thankfully, enough locals did take an interest in Steam Machine’s beer, and got behind the business. After that, word about Nick and Gulen’s new venture began to spread, and demand grew quickly. As a result, the brewery had to upsize in 2016, and again in 2019, and is now located in its third premises.
Today, Ian confirms, Steam Machine has won local CAMRA members over.
“After 10 years and quite a bit of CAMRA engagement—adding them to the Good Beer Guide, including them in our Darlington Ale Trail, dropping in on branch social outings, inviting them to supply a cask to our beer festival—I think they are very much seen in a positive light,” he says.
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Steam Machine’s pair of expansions weren’t without challenges of their own. In both premises, the brewery built a customer base that became settled with what they considered their local. They expressed their opposition to its relocation, even though the moves were never more than a few hundred yards away.
“People got very much attached to the previous premises,” Gulen says.
Despite the proximity, moving the equipment between premises was a challenge. Nick and Gulen recall the hassle of manually rolling their L-shaped bar from one space to another.
Still, the relocations were necessary, due to issues ranging from size constraints and leases not being renewed to the time a floor literally dissolved in one building. Additionally, access to one of the previous premises was onerous, requiring staffers to open a gate to let customers in.
“It was like a Cold War prisoner exchange,” Nick says with a wry grin.
Now settled in a building that amply fits its needs, Steam Machine can turn its full focus to its ever-changing selection of interesting and adventurous beers. The array of styles on offer includes everything from light session IPAs and fruity Belgian-style saisons to rich, chocolatey stouts. There are even historic recreations of medieval ales that make you feel like royalty when drinking them, and beers made with wild herbs, botanicals, and other foraged components—another of the couple’s passions.
This wide, even eccentric, selection delivers on their aim of showcasing the vastness of the beer world.
““The beer is great and diverse here, but what actually keeps us going is the community.”
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It’s this diversity of styles that makes Steam Machine stand apart from other local options, as well as its openness to experimentation. Today, the brewery has more than 50 oak barrels in house, ranging from ex-wine and -spirit barrels to those sourced from the Canadian maple syrup industry. Together, they offer a varied palette of flavours to play with.
However, as much as Steam Machine’s beers are an attraction, there’s more to the place than that.
“The beer is great and diverse here,” Gulen says. “But what actually keeps us going is the community.”
That community aspect is epitomised by what Nick and Gulen call “The Fellowship of Beer.”
This customer-led subscription service allows members to be directly involved in the creation of new beers. It invites them to gather for regular events, during which they decide which styles to brew, and what to name the beers. As part of the service, subscribers receive exclusive packages every other month. In total, The Fellowship of Beer comprises roughly 30% of Steam Machine’s production.
“The Fellowship is a beer subscription service like no other,” Fellowship member Carl Milburn tells me. “It’s a genuine community of beer enthusiasts from across the UK, brought together by a shared love of great beer.”
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Steam Machine’s taproom is divided between two main rooms, both of which are family- and dog-friendly. The first is snug-like, resembling a fairly typical traditional British pub—there’s a bar, cushioned seats, and even a piano that invites patrons to tickle the ivories. Then there’s the room where the magic happens.
The Brew Room at Steam Machine could so easily be a cold and soulless place. Yes, it’s vast, industrial, and has high ceilings, plus the requisite stainless steel tanks and fermentation vessels. Yet somehow it still feels cosy. Tables and chairs are strewn across the room, homely lighting lends warmth, and ample heating is provided to combat those all-too-common cold North-Eastern days. Guests can sit among the beer-making equipment while they drink and chat, or retire to a yurt that has been erected inside the warehouse if they prefer a more relaxing environment.
It’s also completely unpretentious. Whether you’re a professional brewer, a homebrewer, or a casual drinker, something about the place makes it easy to feel at home. So do the friendly bar staff, who are happy to help every visitor find a drink that works for them.
For example, if you’re someone who would typically walk into a pub and order one of the widely available lagers on offer, you might be partial to a glass of Autumn Walks: a straightforward, easy-drinking amber lager.
The taproom also hosts wide-ranging entertainment offerings and events, some of which are organised by customers. These include live music performances, open mic evenings, comedy sets, beer festivals, and pub quizzes, but also traditional ceilidhs and trad sessions.
““Steam Machine has become something of a hub for traditional folk musicians here in the North East.””
Folk music is a particular focus at Steam Machine. One Sunday every month, it plays host to one of the biggest traditional music sessions in the North East.
Performers have come from near and far to showcase their talents in the taproom. One customer even introduced Nick to prominent American country singer Jeremy McComb, who performed at the brewery less than 24 hours after entertaining thousands of fans at a gig in Lithuania.
“Steam Machine has become something of a hub for traditional folk musicians here in the North East,” says Andy McLaughlin, a regular performer at Steam Machine, who also helps organise the monthly folk music events. “At our open music sessions, we have regulars travelling from as far as the Lake District, Leeds, and Northumberland.”
“Folk musicians aren’t averse to a pint or two, so the fantastic range of beers is a big draw, but really it’s the welcoming atmosphere,” he continues. “Nick and Gulen know their music, and know how to provide a welcome. It’s a great space to play in.”
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Two of Steam Machine’s longstanding regulars are Fellowship members James Grieve and his partner, Keely Madgin. They frequented the place back when it was in its infancy, in its first, considerably smaller, unit just down the road. They’re testament to the business’s ability to maintain a loyal customer base throughout all of its evolutions.
James is also a keen homebrewer, and he and Keely regularly travel in search of great beer. Still, they find Steam Machine hard to beat.
“We first found the Steam Machine beers when they were sold in the old Post Office in Woodham [a suburb north of Newton Aycliffe],” Keely tells me.
“We then spotted an advert in a local newspaper about brewery tours. We arranged to do one and ended up being the only ones there. We got chatting to Nick and found out more about the place, tasted the beers, and never looked back.”
James elaborates on what the couple love about the taproom, from the warm atmosphere to the fact that, despite its expansions, it has never lost the intimate vibe created by Nick and Gulen. He also points out there are more beers on tap than ever before.
I can personally attest to this perk. While I’ve sampled my way through the brewery’s range, I think its IPAs are particularly exciting.
My favourite is the Raspberry and White Chocolate Ice Cream IPA. It’s a collaborative effort with another local brewery, Caps Off, and remarkably tastes exactly as its name describes. Sipping on it takes me back to my childhood, and being treated to a cold, sweet, creamy milkshake on a warm day.
I’m also partial to the amusingly named Odin’s Jam Jar. Another milkshake IPA, this one combines sweet and sour flavours, with the addition of bilberries providing a tart and distinctive punch. Again, it triggers those feelings of youthful nostalgia, this time for the era when eyewateringly sour sweets were all the rage.
Then there’s Social Hand Grenade, a 9.4% imperial IPA. It bombards the tastebuds with huge flavours, to the extent that drinking it feels like being on the receiving end of a citrus fruit explosion. The label copy notes that it is “dedicated to all of the social liabilities and trouble makers out there,” and there’s no doubt it’s one to drink sparingly—take it from me, it only takes a couple to make your bearings go all to pot.
But the fact that so many people give a different answer when asked to name their favourite Steam Machine beer is a testament to the range on offer. From lagers to barrel-aged saisons, there are few styles the brewery hasn’t put its name to.
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There’s little doubt that Steam Machine is now an integral part of Newton Aycliffe’s community. That feels like a particularly impressive achievement, given the aforementioned initial opposition. It’s also a worthy destination for hopheads, and a great provider of beer education for anyone wanting to learn more.
In a town known for its industry, Steam Machine provides a suitably rustic haven for hardworking locals that’s unique to anything else on offer in the area.
So what does the future have in store? Given that the business is doing well, despite the current climate, Nick and Gulen are happy with the brewery’s size and taproom. Nick says they have “no lofty plans” to expand, and aim to keep the Steam Machine experience intimate, and to continue hosting its wide-ranging events.
Having previously employed kitchen staff, they also have no intention of going back to serving food in-house, due to the complexities it adds to the business. Instead, they plan to continue bringing in many of the region’s best street food vendors.
They do, however, wish to grow The Fellowship of Beer further. The goal is enabling more people to have their say on what gets brewed, and educating greater numbers of people about beer, brewing, and the Steam Machine experience.
When Nick asks Gulen if she would ever consider moving premises again, she replies with a matter-of-fact “absolutely not.” I have no doubt that her answer is music to the ears of Steam Machine’s increasingly loyal band of regulars.
