CTA-01 Matthew Dick of Boundary Brewing

Welcome to this special edition of the GBH podcast, which forms part of our
Coming to America series, brought to you in collaboration with Guinness.

Before we get started today, I want to tell you how excited I am about
bringing our Uppers and Downers festival of coffee, beer and coffee beers
to London this May. It takes place at Mick’s Garage in Hackney Wick on
Saturday May 19th and will feature over 30 exceptional brewers and
roasters—including today’s guests, Boundary—each collaborating on some new
and exclusive beers that you’ll only be able to try at the event. Tickets
are limited and selling fast, so head over to goodbeerhunting.com and hit
get tickets to secure your space.

In our Coming to America series we’ve brought you stories about upstart and
iconic breweries from around the world that have been impacting U.S.
drinkers for generations, and those that are just beginning to make the
journey. Stories like how Pilsner Urquell originally came to the US, and
how young breweries like Denmark’s Alefarm are trying to find their place
in the same market in the age of modern and local.

Today’s guest is Matthew Dick, co-founder of Boundary Brewing Cooperative,
based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. If you read our article on Boundary
back in May 2016 then you’ll already be somewhat familiar with this
Northern Irish upstart, which is only the second brewery to open in
Belfast. Using the cooperative model as a base, which Dick will explain in
detail later in this episode, Boundary began its journey in 2015, thanks to
the investments made by over 1000 owner-members. It’s a model that’s
relatively unique within the UK brewing industry, but its one that’s so far
proved successful for this young business

Before the brewery opened however, Dick spent many years living out in the
United States. He met his wife in Reno, Nevada, where he lived for several
years, and latterly he spent some time in Austin, Texas, where he worked
for the now defunct homebrew equipment manufacturer, Brewbot. To say that
the US brewing scene inspired Dick—in particular breweries working with
barrels and mixed-fermentation beers like Jester King—would be something of
an understatement.

An American-inspired entrepreneurial spirit resonates through everything
that Boundary does. With three years under its belt it’s starting to become
established in its home markets of the UK and Ireland, but this isn’t
without its challenges, especially with the ever-darker clouds of Brexit
looming on the horizon.

Now, however, Boundary is beginning to look further afield and after
securing a distribution deal with Shelton Brothers it has started to export
its beer to the US. Boundary had the honor of taking over the taps at DC’s
Churchkey this past St. Patrick’s Day. It also recently debuted its beer in
New York City with an event at The Jeffrey. In this episode we’ll learn
about the value of these US exports to such a small brewery, and how it
balances this alongside activity the needs of its domestic market.