At the risk of being too romantic, we've also imagined being a third place.

American sociologist Ray Oldenburg first described these places — spaces for people to meet, gather, and linger — in the 1970s, having noticed European cities had them, and American cities didn’t.

He named them ‘third places’ because if your first place is home and your second is work, your third place is where you relax in public.

These social places are easy to access. They're open to people from all walks of life.

When we started with the idea of being a neighbourhood brewer, we pictured this:

Enjoy!

Paul & Karen

They say it takes a village to raise a child. We reckon it takes more to restore old buildings.

That's mostly due to new regulations but also because of old trades, such as brick pointing.

It was inspiring to watch a whole tribe of southern tradies bring 389 Princes back to glory, giving this RA Lawson-designed building a new lease of life.

And it was humbling to work with a team of experts squeezing a brewery into the basement floors.

From NZ Heritage Properties inspiration to Weldtech, Dunedin Heat Pumps, Atmos (now DBC), McIvor Plumbing, Adhesion Sealing, Jason Scott, Salmac, Dispense Worx, IPC Automation, and Zoom Tech ingenuity, we were buoyed by a collective 'can do.'

To now see their work through the eyes of our customers is a real joy.

Because it's everything we hoped for, a neat place, tucked down a laneway waiting for discovery.

Come see for yourself!

Paul & Karen

We've finally achieved our founding idea: to be a neighbourhood brewery. And it's been worth the wait, with a great building in a great location.

Tucked down a laneway, No Name Alley, in Dunedin's old Bond Quarter, it makes a great place for sharing a pizza and enjoying beer served fresh from the tap.

The laneway is easy to get around and safe to enjoy, and we want to take advantage of that with a friendly, family atmosphere.

Having started with the idea of being a neighbourhood brewer, making and selling our beer locally, we can now see the finish.

Enjoy!

Paul & Karen

This week is a much anticipated milestone for Steamer Basin. After all the wait we're no longer a 'building' but a brewery with fermenting beer in our tanks.

We've still got a few things to tidy up but we're now close to opening our doors.

Thanks for your patience. We can’t wait till the work is done and we can share our beer with you.

Paul & Karen

Since 2018 we've watched our 'brewery' take shape in the dark, boarded up for building security.

Now we can see it a whole new light:

and what a difference the doors make!

They're exactly how we imagined, open and inviting.

Soon!

Paul & Karen

They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It's a comforting idea — that we can respond to stresses by becoming stronger.

But it's been incredibly frustrating to watch the weeks slip by while waiting for the building's structural and fire safety plans to be decided and drafted.

The bulk of that work has now been done and with council consent, our fitout can be finished.

By then we'll be 15 months behind schedule and at least twice as aged.

By that measure, we'll be twice as strong.

Paul & Karen

Winston Churchill famously said, "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us."

He was speaking about re-building the House of Commons, destroyed in 1941 by "one of the last bombs of the last serious raid," but his words still ring true today.

In Dunedin we're lucky to enjoy our country's finest built heritage. And in The Bond laneway, we're moving into the quarter that was centre of New Zealand's maritime trade (and the third busiest port in southern hemisphere) when built.

This legacy of gold-rush prosperity and slum (Devil's Half Acre was just across Princes Street) is why we can't wait to get started.

It invites you to explore both past and present, making connections between old and new.

Our new building is bringing this to life in a spectacular way. It's inspiring to see such care and attention to detail, preserving as much as modern codes permit.

These codes aren't shaped for old buildings. With further delays in finalising the structural and fire safety plans, the fitout of our brewery and taproom will now run into next year.

See you in 2020.

Paul & Karen

They say you should plan for a new brewery to take twice as long and cost three times as much.

We approached our plan with this in mind but having anticipated it would take twice as long, we now expect it will take twice as long again. And that's both frustrating and exciting.

Frustrating because we can’t wait to get started and share with everyone the beer we’ve worked so hard on.

Exciting because we consider ourselves very lucky to be going where we are.

The work on the building is turning out even better than we hoped, and is already giving the laneway a real lift.

Roll on spring!

Paul & Karen

Five years ago we were freezing in a shed behind Spelt Bakery when we decided to go for it.

Looking back, we barely knew what it was, but we knew what it wasn't — making beer in a shed without electricity, without hot water, and with louvered windows stuck open.

Moving to Wharf Street we picked 'Steamer Basin' because we loved the link to Dunedin's heritage but also, we'd come from 'steam brewing' in the shed. (When it was 4° outside it was 4° inside, and during the boil it was like being in a sauna, with condensation dripping off the ceiling.)

We've now moved out of our room in Wharf Street to make way for the expansion of Blue Water's shop. This means we'll be taking an enforced break until we start manufacturing in our new premise.

It gives us a chance to catch up and do some backyard brewing on our Farra brewkit.

It took us nearly a year to launch Steamer Basin after making that decision, so it feels like we've come full circle.

We'll come back bigger and better, and we hope you join us for the next five years.

Enjoy!

Paul & Karen

The biggest change in moving to a bigger brew system is we’ll actually be manufacturing beer.

(In New Zealand brewing any amount of commercial beer outside your home — even 50L batches — is classed as ‘manufacturing’ for both zoning and excise, limiting where you can brew and what you can earn.)

When brewing at ‘nano’ scale, you do everything by hand, and at each stage you’re touching, smelling, and tasting the beer you’re making.

With our new system we’ll be using dials and pumps to produce the beer. We’ll sample and test, of course, but our handiwork won't be as hands on.

That’s ok, because while making beer is hugely satisfying, it takes a huge amount of work to keep running.

Even if we just make enough to get by, manufacturing beer will be far more rewarding.

Enjoy!

Paul & Karen