Flying Machine Tap Handles: How a Wilmington Brewery Built One Brand Across Every Tap

By Brad Lugar, Steel City Tap Co.

Quick answer: Flying Machine Brewing Company in Wilmington, North Carolina now has five tap handles from us that read as one brand: a wood handle for their cider, a sculpted handle each for Alta Mar and Electronic Fog, and the two newest, a core brand handle and a handle for the Pils, both approved in September 2026 and sampled in October. They share one round logo topper, one set of proportions and one ferrule. The beer changes the body. The brand never moves. This is how the family was built, with the CAD, the first samples and the details up close.

Who is Flying Machine, and what is on their wall?

Flying Machine is a family owned brewery on Randall Parkway in Wilmington, a few miles from Wrightsville Beach. Founder Grant Steadman started the project in 2016 and opened the taproom in November 2018. The brewery pushed into wider North Carolina distribution in 2020 and launched Big Ocean Cider Company in 2022, a dry hard cider made in the same building with American grown apples.

The beer list is wide for a brewery that size, and it is the reason the handle program matters. On a given week the taproom and the accounts around town are pouring Le Pils, a French style pilsner with a fresh bread malt character and a soft floral finish, Alta Mar, a clean Mexican lager built for a beach town, Electronic Fog, their Modern IPA, plus Plane Arms Vienna Lager, Coast Carver West Coast IPA, Dreamy Eyes Tangerine Ale, Boat Soda Key Lime Ale and Roswell Vanilla Porter. Aviation runs through all of it. Electronic Fog is named for a flying term. The logo is the name stacked into a mark that fits a circle.

That circle is where the whole handle family starts.

What makes five handles read as one brand?

Put the four beer handles next to each other and the system shows itself. Every one carries the same round topper with the Flying Machine mark. Every one stands the same height, with the same shoulder under the topper and the same ferrule at the bottom. From ten feet down a bar you see four Flying Machine handles before you see four beers. Walk closer and each body tells you which beer it is.

That is the whole idea of a brand family on a tap wall, and it is harder than it sounds. The easy version is one handle with a swappable label. It is cheap, and it looks cheap, because a sticker on a stock lever does not say anything about the beer. The hard version is a shared skeleton with a different body on each one, so a bartender can grab the Pils without reading it and a distributor rep can spot the brand across a crowded cooler door.

How did the family start?

It started with cider. In December 2022 Flying Machine asked for a handle for Big Ocean, the new cider company. We built it in wood, with the Big Ocean mark on a paddle shape and a soft fade from the brand's ocean teal into cream. It is a different animal from the beer handles on purpose. Cider is its own brand under the same roof and the handle says so.

The beer handles came in 2025. Grant got on a design call with us on May 22 of that year for two beers, Alta Mar and Electronic Fog. The first concept sheet went out five days later. We went three rounds over the summer, and the notes from the brewery were the kind you want: specific and fast. Keep the gradient on Electronic Fog instead of a flat color. Make the electricity a graphic on the body rather than a molded ridge. Put a real rope on Alta Mar, sculpted, not drawn. Alta Mar was approved for production on August 25, 2025. Electronic Fog took a little longer because the beer itself was rebranded that summer, and the handle followed the new can.

• December 2022Big Ocean cider handle. Wood, the brand's own colors.
• May 2025Design call with Grant for Alta Mar and Electronic Fog. First concepts five days later.
• June and July 2025Two more rounds. Gradient stays, rope goes 3D, Electronic Fog rebrands.
• August 2025Alta Mar approved. Electronic Fog finalized in early September.
• August 2026Brief for two more: a core brand handle and a Pils handle.
• September 2026CAD proofs on the 11th. Both approved on the 30th.
• October 2026First samples in hand.

Why build a core handle at all?

Because not every tap gets its own handle, and the ones that do not still have to say Flying Machine. A brewery with eight or ten beers in rotation cannot sculpt a handle for each one. It should not try. The core handle is the one that covers the seasonals, the one offs, the collaboration beer that is on for six weeks, and the account that only takes one line. It carries the brand and nothing else.

So we kept it quiet. A white body, two black bands with a thin gold line, and the wordmark running tall down the front so it reads from across the room. The round topper on top. That is the whole handle. Next to Alta Mar or Electronic Fog it looks like the parent, which is exactly the job.

What did the Pils handle need to do differently?

The Pils is the beer Flying Machine wants on the most taps, so it earned its own body. We started from the Core silhouette and drew the Pils can onto it. The orange collar under the shoulder comes straight off the label. The four bands at the base, brown, blue, orange and green, are the can's stripe. The nameplate is the Pils script on a cloud shape that stands off the body so it catches light, and above it, small, the line from the can: A Very Fine Pilsner.

Three rules kept it in the family. Same topper. Same height. Same ferrule. Everything else was free, and that freedom is what makes the two handles work as a pair instead of a mismatch.

What do you check on the first sample?

A sample is the last cheap place to be wrong, so we photograph it from every side and check it against the model, up close. On the Pils we checked the edges of the bands first. Four colors stacked tight will show any bleed, and these came in with clean lines. We checked the orange collar against the can. We checked the nameplate, that the cloud shape has the same stand off all the way around and the script sits flat on it. We checked the topper print for registration inside the circle. And we stood the Pils next to the Core to make sure the shoulders line up, because a family is only a family if the heights match.

Flying Machine approves the physical sample before the run starts. That is our rule on every custom handle, the same one we followed on Beeps for Three Taverns and on Next Quest's sword. The run comes out looking like the sample instead of like a surprise.

What this program teaches about a brand on tap

Build the skeleton first. Flying Machine did not start with the core handle. They started with two beer handles, and the shared topper and proportions came out of that work. When the core and the Pils came a year later, the skeleton was already there. Every new beer handle from here is a body, not a whole design.

Give the big beers their own body. Give the rest the core. The Pils earned a handle because it is going to be on the most taps for the longest time. A seasonal does not need one. The core covers it and still says Flying Machine.

Draw from the can. None of these handles have a color or a shape that did not come from Flying Machine's own packaging. That is why they look like the brand instead of like a tap handle company's idea of the brand.

Every order runs through our shop in Birmingham, Alabama, from the first concept through the sample you hold before anything goes into production. If you have more than one beer on the wall and the handles do not look like they came from the same brewery, send us a photo of the wall. A logo and a picture of the cans is enough to start.

Frequently asked questions

How many handles does a brewery need for a brand family?

Two is a family. One core handle that carries the brand on any tap, and one handle for the beer you pour the most. Flying Machine has five across cider and beer, and added them over four years as each beer earned its place.

Can a new beer handle be added later and still match?

Yes. Once the topper, the height and the ferrule are set, a new handle is a new body on the same skeleton. Flying Machine's Core and Pils were drawn a year after Alta Mar and Electronic Fog and they match because those parts never changed.

Do you make a sample before the full run?

Yes, on every custom handle. One physical sample goes to the brewery for approval before production starts. The Core and the Pils samples went to Flying Machine in October 2026.

What does the brewery need to send to start?

The logo and a photo of the cans or the tap wall. Formal art files come later, after the direction is picked. Flying Machine's first round came from a phone call and their existing packaging.

Where are the handles made?

Every order runs through our shop in Birmingham, Alabama. Design, modeling and color approval happen here, and we build in our own shop and with trusted production partners.