On the map: Bishop Auckland

Breweries such as Caps Off, McColl’s and The Steam Machine (all with their own superb tap rooms), as well as a burgeoning number of forward-thinking venues like Craft House and Knead A Slice are truly putting this corner of County Durham on the ale map.

“There’s definitely something happening,” says Wild. “This is an old mining area and it’s been run down for a long time. But the last few years, it feels like a corner has been turned. People are wanting to spend time here again and that means they want places to drink.”

Two wider factors may account for the transformation.

One: a massive privately funded regeneration experiment called the Auckland Project has pumped millions of pounds into improving the area’s cultural and heritage offerings, much boosting local footfall. And two: growing work-from-home freedoms have meant increasing numbers of young professionals moving here from nearby cities like Newcastle and York.

Caps Off, then, is perhaps proof of the demand for good beer that has followed.

Since opening three years ago, it has won multiple awards, twice moved into expanded premises (it now produces 3,000 litres a week at the town’s Century Court industrial park) and, today, has an onsite tap room that is regularly standing room only. A new town centre tap, meanwhile, will open this summer.

What’s their secret? “We have a great young team,” says Wild. “We know what our customers want to drink because it’s what we want to drink.”

A five-minute drive away, the George Samuel Brewery – good friends with Caps Off – has been on a similar trajectory.

It, too, launched in the weeks before lockdown. It, too, has never looked back.

After finding premises in a 19^th century rail workers' canteen in the historic railway hub of Shildon, founder Andrew Ferryman – previously head brewer at Play in Middlesborough – decided to go full steam ahead with the train theme.

Today, his wonderful 50-seat tap room has rail memorabilia everywhere, while his beers – a mix of largely sessionable keg and craft– all have names that riff on train terminology. His 5.5 per cent IPA feels especially appropriate. It’s called Terminus. “Because it’s probably a drink to end your night on,” the 41-year-old explains.

He loves the friendliness of the scene here. “It makes me laugh when you see places advertising ‘meet the brewer’ nights at £10 a pop,” he says. “You come into the taprooms [around Bishop] and you’ll probably meet the brewer anyway because he’s either serving you or sat there having a drink himself.”

If that’s true of Ferryman, it also applies to Nick and Gulen Smith at the Steam Machine Brew Co in neighbouring Newton Aycliffe.

The husband-and-wife team are the founders and lead brewers but also work the tap room bar. Indeed, the company ethos is that all staff must do all jobs. “One day you’re brewing, the next you’re repairing a leaking toilet,” says Gulen, a one-time sports scientist originally from Turkey. “It keeps things interesting.”

They keep it interesting, too, with their beer: an ever-changing mix of everything from steam lagers and wild sours to ales infused with Earl Grey tea. One of their most recent concoctions was a barrel-aged Belgian quadruple called Ascension, weighing in at 11.5 per cent. “I was a science teacher before,” says Nick. “I suppose experimentation is in the blood.”

The tap room is just as well thought out. Here, open mic nights, comedy evenings and live music all play out against a backdrop of fermenting vats and mash tuns. With added fairy lights. It is a beer-y paradise of sorts.

Which, indeed, may be a suitable way of describing the whole of this little patch of the North East.

Not everything here is perfect just yet, it should be said. The much-loved Hops and Dots brewery shut down in January while truly great bars – with odd exceptions like the town centre’s Craft House – remain all too rare.

Yet there is much anticipation for the future. “People here have always loved their beer,” says Wild again. “We’re building on that again. These are exciting times.”