Video: Inside Yorkshire’s smallest brewery

Behind the nondescript green door of a back-to-back terrace 
in south Leeds lies what’s 
thought to be the smallest brewery in Britain.

The growing enterprise that is Sunbeam Ales is the brainchild of part-time support worker Nigel Poustie, who brews six different varieties of beer on his kitchen hob, in Sunbeam Terrace, Beeston.

The 33-year-old, who started 
off home brewing beer in 2008 before turning it into a small business in August last year, believes his micro brewery 
could have the tiniest 
commercial output in the country – pumping out as little as 70 litres a week.

But creating vats upon vats of homemade ale on your kitchen hob every week can have its downsides, particularly in a hectic family household with a partner and two excitable children – one aged just 15 months, the other four years old.

Nigel, who is originally from York, said: “I’ve always been a baker and a cooker and I’ve always wanted to have a go at brewing.

“There has been times where it’s been difficult but it’s settled down now, we’ve got a rhythm to our life now but there has been trying times.

“I wake up 45 minutes to an hour earlier than everyone else now so that I can get the main bulk sorted and that way they can get their breakfast.”

The brewer’s kitchen is dominated by a large metal vat and mash tun, the latter on a homemade platform built using a wooden stepladder and some off-cut wood so the family can crawl through to the adjoining basement, which itself is full of casks, fermenting buckets and empty bottles.

The overbearing smell of hops fills the ground floor of the tiny terraced house, something his family are used to by now.

But his appreciation of compact kitchen brewing is a world away from his first love of climbing, something he did professionally as a sponsored climber five days a week until recently.

The remnants of his pro climbing days, which he enjoyed alongside his partner of 14 years and keen climber Faye, are mixed among the basement brewing equipment, with a complete climbing wall set up down there.

Nigel’s home brewing success saw him win three rosettes at the UK National Homebrew Competition in 2011. That led to the creation of Sunbeam Ales which in turn has seen him sell his produce nationwide.

He now has six varieties of ale on sale including a coffee and orange stout, a lavender and honey ale and a Yorkshire pale ale, which have been sold at venues including Beer Ritz in Headingley, and Friends of Ham in Leeds city centre. Nigel has stockists dotted all over the north of England as well, with bottles regularly sold at Beer Ritz, The Crafty Pint, in Darlington, and the Rude Shipyard, in Sheffield. That means that every pint he creates is sold before it even begins to boil on his kitchen hob.

Casks of his beers at last year’s Leeds Beer Festival, and in recent months at Friends of Ham, sold out within 24 hours, which for Nigel is the ultimate feedback.

In fact Sunbeam Ales have now been sold in locations as far afield as Inverness and Essex.

But Nigel hopes the most restrictive elements of his micro brewery are soon to be a thing of the past, with a move to a new house near Bramley in the offing.

Nigel, who works two days a week as a support worker for people with learning difficulties, said: “When we move home I’m going to expand to 400 litre batches, which is a bit more but I don’t know if there’s anywhere in the country doing such small batches at the moment.

“It’s probably safe to say it’s the smallest in Britain.”

He’s also hoping that the change of scenery will make juggling family life, brewing and his day job a little bit easier on everyone.

Nigel said: “I’m going to get a garage so the brewery will be moving out of the house and I’ll have a proper space for it.”

But he’s determined to keep the Sunbeam Ales name and maintain and not forget its humble roots, Nigel is adamant that the growing enterprise will not lose that personal touch which includes, for example, using lavender grown in his own garden to make his lavender and honey beer.

He said: “The ambition is to work one day a week and brew one day a week – I’m not in it to make megabucks. I’ve got a frugal life and I just want to make a living and sell good beer.”

Visit: www.sunbeamales.co.uk or www.facebook.com/sunbeamales.