Some people were destined to brew, as if their friends and family, summer jobs and trips abroad, right choices and bad ones all pointed towards a career in beer.

And so it seems with Matthew Dick, brewer and founder of the Belfast-based Boundary Brewing, an enlightened co-operative that is helping to open Northern Ireland’s beer drinkers to styles far beyond the staid offerings of the majority of pubs and shops.

With a childhood that involved holidays to the Belgian town of Leuven and a move to the west coast of America, Matthew’s formative years exposed him to some great beers and breweries, in stark contrast to the uninspiring offerings of his hometown. When he moved back to Belfast in 2010 with his American wife to do a PhD in Theology, Matt sought to address the lack of good beer by brewing his own - his previous job working in a large brewpub on the West Coast of America no doubt inspiring many of his recipes. Then came a techy job with BrewBot, a firm that makes automated brewkits, but it wasn’t long after until Matt started thinking about his own brewery.

It was, he explains, while walking his dog on the beach that he realised how he’d be able to fulfil his ambition of building a brewing. With Belfast’s craft beer culture still rather small, he knew he needed to build a community even before he brewed his first batch. Opting away from the BrewDog’s Equity for Punks model, he set up his brewery as a co-operative, with ownership and governance spread out equally among its backers. Any worries about raising the capital were quashed within hours of the fundraising launch. In eight days, he raised £100,000 from 447 backers.

It’s been a whirlwind since. In January Boundary moved into a former linen mill in the city’s Strandtown – a space also home to John Robinson, the illustrator behind their beautifully abstract labels. In March, they started brewing. April, their first beers went on sale. Six months later and Boundary’s beers are crossing the Irish Sea, with the first batch of exports showing promising sales, and plans now afoot for a collaboration with Alechemy in Livingston.

FOUR GREAT BOUNDARY BEERS

India Pale Ale (7%)

Heavy on the aroma, light on the bittering, this is an IPA that offers you a shopping bag of flavours but lacks the lip-smacking bitterness of your American-style IPAs. It pours a cloudy amber, with flavours of wine gum, spruce and floral hops. Comes with a lot of alcohol, though you wouldn’t know it for tasting.

American Pale Ale (3.5%)

Another hop-heavy ale, though with this APA, the tropical fruit bowl of hops is served on a delicate biscuit-laden malt backbone with enough bittering – not too much, not too little – to have you coming back for more. Pours a burnt gold; a very enjoyable session ale.

Export Stout (7%)

Dangerously smooth, this dark brown beer reeks of chocolate, molasses and roasted malts, but it’s the bitter, black coffee that stands out most. Medium bodied and slick, there’s enough bitterness here to back up the sweet malt flavours giving a satisfying long and black coffee finish that every now and then lets a bit of sweetness sneak out.

Berliner Vice #3 (2.7%)

Light and playful with a thin orange sourness, soft wheat and light yeasty aroma, this light-bodied and salty Weiss beer pours a gummy cloudy yellow and is the latest in a series of specials from Boundary. Next up is a chipotle porter and a collaborative saison.