A unique craft beer subscription service from Steam Machine Brewing Company has passed its target of 100 subscribers, and is now opening up to the next 100 beer fans.
A community-led subscription box, where users are heavily involved in the creation process, The Fellowship of Beer offers the chance to get involved with an active online community; discuss all things beer; suggest beer styles; and vote on bespoke ingredients, barrels for beers to age in, names, and label designs.
The Fellowship is an extension of Steam Machine’s mission to showcase how different every pint of beer can be. Founded in 2015 by husband-and-wife team Nick and Gulen Smith, the North East brewery has always focused on direct relationships with consumers. Their idea of craft concentrates on the ultra-artisan side of the market, with draught-led quaffing pints fresh from tanks, and distinctive strong beers, often featuring foraged ingredients, aged in extra special barrels for months and years.
Locals have made up 50% of the first group of subscribers – with a wider national audience also embracing the consumer-led style.
Co-founder and head brewer Nick acts as the beer guide for The Fellowship, steering the creativity, providing options, and answering community questions.
Members can be as active as they like – visiting the brewery, suggesting and voting on recipes, joining communal foraging trips for ingredients and meet-ups for beer – or they can just sit back, relax and receive a box of 12 beers every other month.
Subscribers are polled regularly, featuring their ideas and discussions from the private Facebook group, and then the brew team leaps into action. An example of how this works is the Brzozowy Birch-Smoked Grodziskie, an almost extinct Polish low-abv beer. This unique beer came about from members discussing among themselves experiences of smoked beers from UK and international breweries. A member asked if Nick had ever smoked his own malt, so a poll followed, offering the chance for The Fellowship to have their own smoked beer. A vote was made to decide on the style, from various types of smoked beer. To take it one step further, the wood type was then chosen to be used to smoke the malt. The full process was documented on The Fellowship of Beer’s YouTube Channel, from creating the smoker to cracking open the first bottle of this smoky and Champagne-like 3.4% beer.
“Building The Fellowship of Beer community has been about taking beer far beyond being just a transactional arrangement,” said Nick. “I love what I do, especially being creative. Offering members the chance to be involved in every part of the creative process has been so rewarding, and I love the ideas that are being suggested left, right and centre. Our tagline is why should brewers have all the fun, and sharing that fun with everyone is truly exhilarating.
“Most beer subscription boxes have followed one of two paths: the first offering short-life budget beers along with a couple of tasty brews to keep you interested, the second often direct from modern breweries like us, where you receive a similar monthly line-up of what’s currently available in their webshop. Ours works differently. We are involving our members in every stage of the creative process, engaging with them on a private forum, and making sure everyone is having fun with the project.”
The first full box has been extremely well received and features an eclectic mix of 375ml bottles and 440ml cans (as well as a few surprises), created with the community input from Fellowship members. It features: Brzozowy (3.4%) Birch-Smoked Grodziskie, Subtle Eclipse (3.4%) Heritage Mild – based on Victorian recipes, Steam Machine – Resolution (4.1%) Bavarian-Style Pils, Steam Machine – Middle Earth Maoris (6.8%) Bright NZ IPA, Drunken Kiwi (8.4%) NZ DIPA – users voted on the hops, Rioja Barrel-Aged Elderberry Stock Ale (7.5%), Steam Machine – Barrel-Aged Saison Riesling Reprise (6.0%), Steam Machine – Tipsy In Tennessee (11.0%) Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout, Red Grape Rioja Barrel-Aged Saison (6.0%), Up The Kriek (6.4%) Lambic style wild cherry beer, Moonlight Fields (11.0%) Black Barley Wine, and Speyside (11.0%) Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout.
Members have also voted on the creation of imperial strength beers that don’t get as much love in the UK, including a Quadrupel, Golden Tripel, and a Doppelbock. They’ll receive the base beers in their next box, and have also voted for beers to be aged for later in the year.
Members are constantly suggesting and voting on innovative beers for the future. The idea of a spruce tips beer was recently suggested, gained traction during the voting period, and Nick is now eagerly planning a local foraging and beer picnic for members. Also on the cards is a collaboration with Charles Faram – the UK’s leading grower and supplier of hops – for a British hopped beer, and members will get the chance to visit Steam Machine and be guided through new and lesser-known hop varieties. Nick is keen to take these activities nationally, with members suggesting a foraging trip to the south in search of wild samphire for a gose, and hopefully field trips to producers such as Crisp Maltings.
Nick is adamant The Fellowship of Beer will be exclusive to 450 members only, which is how many bottles he can get from a barrel-aged beer – taking into account extra ingredients like apricots in a white wine barrel-aged tripel or blackberries in a rioja barrel-aged barley wine. After that, there’ll be a waiting list to enjoy this unique vision of craft beer.
Sean Mckeown, Fellowship subscriber and Belper Beer Club podcaster, said: “This is one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in the world of craft beer. For me, it seems like Steam Machine is the one brewery that could do this, and I can’t think of a safer pair of hands than Nick’s that we would entrust on a project like this.”
The Fellowship of Beer has now opened its subscription boxes up to a further 100 people. For more information, visit www.fellowshipofbeer.org
