A Brief History of Northumberland Brewery After studying at the Brewlab in Sunderland and training at the now closed Longstone Brewery two lads one from Ashington the other from Newbiggin opened their own brewery in 1996 on the Northseaton industrial estate in Ashington with the aim to produce their own real ales based on traditional Northumberland recipes using a newly installed 5 barrel brewplant. Northumberland Brewery opened with a range of four main ales Northumberland Castles 3.8% Northumberland County 4.2% Northumberland Best 4.2% Duke of Northumberland Premium 5.0% Later the range expanded to include Bomar and Secret Kingdom. In 1997 the brewery moved to ecologically friendly premises at Earth Balance. In honour of the move a new beer was created named ‘Balance’ at 4.2% which went on sale at the newly opened onsite bar. Other beers were created at this time to tie in with Northumberlands mining heritage G.N.C (Great Northern Coalfield) and Mainseam. In April 2002 the Brewery changed hands with Dave Roberts Buying the brewery from his uncle. Due to the changeover the brewery changed the name of ‘Secret Kingdom’ to ‘The Original Northumberland Ale’ but still kept to the popular recipe. Other new beers have followed such as Reivers and the very popular Strawberry Blonde along with a range of seasonal beers such as Santas Secret. The latest to be added to the range are Holy Island Ale and Golden Lab. The brewery is also the home of the famous Highway Robbery ale. A full list of the currently produced ales is shown in the our ales pages In January 2007 the Brewery moved into it’s new premises at Barrington Road with a new 10 Barrel Brew plant brewing  30 to 40 barrels a week of a wide range of traditional style ales.  The new onsite Tap is named Fuggles after the hop.