Community is what drives us here at MASHED. So it’s no surprise that we get major crushes on other independent businesses who value community. The Steam Machine Brewing Co. in County Durham is the perfect example. Founded in 2015 by Nick Smith and his wife, Gulen, the brewery delights with epic brews like Steam Lagers, treacle-based Imperial Stouts, Northern Brown Ales dry-hopped with Citra, and beers infused with Earl Grey tea. And their taproom is a thriving community hub hosting epic live music events. Community is also the heart of their other project, The Fellowship of Beer, a unique Beer Box Club where members help decide which beers are brewed by voting on recipes and the barrels used for ageing. Nick Smith tells us more.
What’s your starting point when designing one of your beers?
We like to start with envisioning the end product - the glass in hand, the look, the smell, the taste, and to back-engineer from there drawing upon our vast experimental experience. I think a lot of breweries work from a price and spreadsheet first, knowing their cost and price limits before they produce a beer, but for us that boring stuff comes later…
What does a great day at the brewery look like?
Oh wow. What a question! There are so many facets to Steam Machine and Fellowship Of Beer, and I wear so many hats. I like to think most members of our team are multi-talented too. Something I often reflect upon is how interesting it is here, and that no two days are the same. I hate monotony, and fortunately there’s not a lot of that going on! One day we could be re-developing the beer garden and pruning hop plants, another we could be on the lanes foraging unique ingredients like hogweed seeds or meadowsweet flowers. Another day it’s seeing if we can push more from our mush tun as we do a complicated mash for a quadrupel, or maybe event planning, filming videos for social media, or running the taproom bar and interacting with our customers. So probably a great day is one that has minimal paperwork, ends with a sense of achieving a project goal, and sharing a beer with friends.
What’s the best decision you’ve made with regards to The Steam Machine Brewing Co?
Another great question! We’ve just celebrated our ninth birthday, and we’ve been in constant evolution from day 1 when it was just Gulen (my wife) and I on a third-hand kit of repurposed dairy equipment. Sometimes we don’t realise the impact that our changes make until we sit back to reflect with a beer in hand. Over those years we’ve been unconsciously shifting our focus away from working with businesses to focusing on the consumer direct. What that looks like is the bustling community hub our taproom has grown into, as well as the national subscription community that is The Fellowship Of Beer. Interacting directly with your customers is so much more rewarding than dealing with wholesalers! You get to interact with the people who love your products and form real relationships with people. You can’t get much more artisan and craft than that in my opinion.
What’s the most unexpected thing that has happened to one of your beers (at any stage of the process)?
As part of The Fellowship Of Beer, we are handing over suggestions etc to our community. Recently we made a beautiful Golden Tripel, where we successfully manipulated the yeast in such a way that it exhibited pear esters. As well as suggesting and voting on the barrels that this beer was to be aged in, our members suggested we add something extra to one version of the beer. They came up with a ginger-flavoured beer, so we used high quality stem ginger added to a brandy barrel full of the Golden Tripel.
We’ve used ginger a few times over the years, but usually in darker beers. It turned out far beyond our expectations, and we thoroughly loved it. It was even more exciting that it was a community suggestion!
What beers are coming up next for The Fellowship of Beer members?
Oh wow, so many! Earlier in the year we brewed a Black Barley Wine, and different variations of it have been ageing away in barrels. They are now being released, giving our members a chance to compare the effect of different barrels. One unique beer that is upcoming is a barrel aged low-ABV smoked beer that we are very excited about.
In January The Fellowship Of Beer voted for us to make a Birch-Smoked Grodziskie. We smoked our own malt to produce this lesser known Polish low-ABV sparkling beer. They were traditionally made with oak-smoked malt, but the birch was a Fellowship choice to put our twist on it. We’ve since released a Citra dry-hopped version, where the tropical hops contrast with the woody smoke, but we stashed some away in a Riesling barrel that previously held an Apricot Tripel, so it’ll be really interesting to see how the white wine, fruit, and Belgian yeast notes contribute and change this beer.
It’s been really interesting working with our own smoked malt, and it seems to be something that the Fellowship are keen for us to do again!
Top tip for brewing fruit beers?
Planning! Think about what you want to achieve with your fruit beer. If you want it to taste of a specific fruit, then think carefully how that’ll go into a beer. Fermented fruit rarely tastes of its original fruit, so consider yeasts that’ll produce complementary esters, or hops and even malts that’ll help accentuate those flavours too.Â
Think about how the acidity and tartness will impact on the beer, and if that needs increasing or decreasing depending upon what you’re brewing. Fruit can be incredible in beer, adding a myriad of incredible flavours, but always think where and how they’ll sit in the finished product. Good luck!
“Thanks for taking the time to read about Steam Machine Brewing Company and The Fellowship Of Beer project. If ever you’re passing the North East, then please call in! Our mission has always been to showcase how diverse beer can be, and the Fellowship is an extension of this. Our tap list is extensive featuring Tank Lagers, Fruited Saisons, mixed fermentation Sours, Belgian inspired big boozy numbers, barrel aged all sorts, heritage-inspired beers, and much much more...â€
Read more, see what’s on, plan your visit or buy beers: steammachinebrew.com
Join the Fellowship of Beer
www.fellowshipofbeer.org
