Pic: Gareth Williams / Press22
MORE than a century has passed, two world wars were waged and the lives of at least three generations were lived, since beers and ales were brewed in Limerick city.
But when Stephen Cunneen left his home in Limerick with an engineering degree, little did he think that he would be the one to return home to bridge the 100 year divide.
Stints working around the country preceded an oceanic move. Like many before him Stephen was forced to leave Ireland in search of employment when the last recession took hold.
His career was carved in Canada but with it grew a love for craft beer. It ran deep too as Stephen sought to go beyond the funky bottles with clever names and seek out the art behind their manufacture.
Knowledge, taste and technique; that’s what summarised brewing for Stephen before he made another big decision.
“I wanted to come home, I’m from Limerick, it is where I want to be and it is where I wanted to take the plunge into this business.
So Stephen did that very thing. Family in tow, he returned to Limerick and “gypsy brewed”. A term lost on most but it involves using the equipment of others to brew your beer.
That he did and Treaty City Brewing was born, in a way.
Harris Pale Ale and other occasional beers hit the shelves and quickly won a place in a growing market.
Stephen needed more and soon he was making the first moves towards opening his own brewery in Limerick City.
“Sure why wouldn’t I come back and open a brewery here. The River Shannon flows through the city and that is the best water in the world for producing beers.
“It has the right amount of everything – it’s as simple as that”, he proclaims as he explains the brewing process.
From boiling vats, to fermenting tanks and everything in between, the story of Treaty City Brewing is as fascinating as the man himself.
Helped by his Brazilian assistant brewer Gabriel, Stephen has been “laying siege to bland tasteless beer since 2014”.
But his hilarious story of loading a tonne of grain, by hand, into a massive steel tank in under seven minutes, must take second place to the story linking his father to the equipment the brewery uses today.
Stephen’s father, a fitter by trade, made huge steel tanks for dairies around Munster more than 30 years ago.
And, in an unlikely coincidence, one of those very tanks made in the mid 80s was purchased by Stephen last year.
It only became apparent as they were modifying the tank for the brewery and checked the serial numbers.
Stories like that litter the journey of this brewery and Stephen’s pursuits, but it is in the product he brews that the real story is.
Harris Pale Ale, in bottles or kegs, is a stalwart craft brew amongst Limerick beer lovers.
Thomond Red Ale, which coincides with the Munster Rugby season, is another, but the future is flowing for this new-age brewery as Shannon River IPA hits the shelves this week.
From the days of the O’Connell and City Brewery in 1739 to the closure of St John’s and Miss Tucker’s breweries in the late 1880, Limerick’s long tradition in brewing had faded into history.
Flat and lifeless, you could say. But with the emergence of drinks like Harris, Thomond, and Shannon River IPA as well as a pair of porters about to be launched, Treaty City Brewing is bringing new life to an old tradition.
