HOW IT ALL STARTED

Treaty City Brewery started in a small two bedroomed apartment in East Vancouver Canada. After a long night of general debauchery, plenty of merriment and many bottles of bland tasteless beer, we decided enough was enough. Something had to be done. Life was too short to drink bad beer. The next morning, while nursing a spectacular hangover we headed for the local homebrew store and purchased our very first brewing equipment.

When offered some advice by the owner Stephen duly recited the rich brewing history in Ireland and how it was engrained in our DNA. No instructions needed we declared and headed off with our new gear. After calling back later that day for the instructions we headed home to start on this incredible journey. The spare bedroom was quickly converted into a working brewery and we set about creating our very first beer. Harris Pale Ale was born after many exploding fermenters, boil overs, leaking mash tuns (I could go on it’s a long list). The recipe is still very similar today but we don’t brew on a hob in the kitchen anymore and instead of 20 litres we brew 3000 litres each batch! Soon after our foray into the brewing world, our first child Cliodhna came along and our brewery was promptly converted into a nursery. It’s amazing the structural similarities between a baby’s nursery and a home brewery.

With the new addition to the family and our own Clan so far away we duly set our sights on the emerald Isle. With a quick hop and a skip we were back in the Treaty City and ready for action. Treaty City Brewery was incorporated, labels were created, designs and reviews of everything from bottle caps to t-shirts. Stephen set to work, diligently tasting as many beers as he could (It was very hard work) and building the recipes for the iconic beers that are on the shelves today.