A CRAFT brewery born on a town’s industrial estate is experiencing life in the fast lane at the heart of a North-East city.

Steam Machine Brewing Company has come far from its humble beginnings in a small unit on Aycliffe Business Park, Newton Aycliffe, to its current HQ at four times the size.

And less than two years in operation, it is now pulling in punters in Durham City as part of a three-month residency at Empty Shop - an arts and cultural hub, off Framwellgate Bridge.

Nick Smith, who runs the business with wife Gulen, said it was an “honour “ to be invited to set up camp in the venue, adding: “Empty Shop have been customers of ours since we first started and they have always sold our beers.

“In their shop in Durham they often have artists in residence and we are artists in residence - with us being brewers and producing beer as a craft. We have transformed their bar to serve our beer, and our guys are there to talk about our beers.”

A non-profit organisation, Empty Shop collaborated with the brewery earlier this year for the Bishop Auckland Food Festival when the pair took over the former Dorothy Perkins store on Newgate Street to bring visitors a pop-up bar and event space dubbed the Bish and Hop. They have teamed up once again to offer visitors to Empty Shop not only the opportunity to taste their beers, but sample the Steam Machine experience.

The space has been transformed with a Steam Machine-flavoured theme complete with new lighting, colours and the addition of “upcycled junk”. Events including beer tasting and talks on how the beers are made will take place during the brewery’s residency.

“It’s a lovely, quirky environment that has a great feel to it,” added Mr Smith. “We do sell put beers nationally but Empty Shop is one of our favourite places to go in the North-East. We function as a destination place in Newton Aycliffe and in Durham we have people off the street.

“It’s great to get into Durham and we hope after this residency we will get our own place in Durham.”

The bar at Empty Shop is open throughout July, August and September from Wednesday to Sunday from 3pm until late, although times are subject to change.