Treboom Brewery turns 5 and celebrates at The Slip Inn

One minute, you’re the new bar or brewery and you’re the talk of the town. Before you know it, you’re an established part of the scene and someone else has popped up behind you.

So it is with Treboom Brewery, the hugely-popular operator at Shipton-by-Beningbrough.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we were writing about their launch, and their tentative hopes that their first beers would be well-received. But time flies when you’re having good beer. This week, believe it or not, marks their fifth birthday.

They’re celebrating on Saturday [Dec 17] in suitable style, with a big bash in The Slip Inn in Clementhorpe. Five of their beers will be on the bar, showcasing their popular mainstays and a few of the more experimental recipes.

Treboom’s story has been a fascinating one from the start. Brewer John Lewis, who runs the brewery with his wife Jane Blackman, was previously a scientist for many years, working principally on leukaemia and prostate cancer research at the University of York.

But he was always a keen homebrewer as well, and turned his dream into reality, thanks to the backing of friends and a grant from the Rural Development Programme for England.

The brewery name was chosen to represent the sound of a drum-roll, but Treboom have been broadly content to march to a steady and gentle beat. While some breweries target national reach straight away, Treboom have grown steadily outwards, building a high-density customer base in and around York, and now further afield.

“We have tended to grow fairly organically from York outwards,” says John. “Nowadays, we go right across Yorkshire, from Huddersfield to Hull and from Sheffield to up near Darlington.”

Many new breweries neglect that approach, craving instead the transient adulation of handfuls of drinkers around the country. Steadily building local loyalty, as Treboom have done and as others like Half Moon have sought to do, seems more appealing.

“It has gone really well, particularly the last couple of years,” says John. “It was a struggle at the start, like for any new business, but it has taken off now really well. Yorkshire Sparkle has been the one that everybody loves. It has been great for us.”

Sales are now growing at around 20 per cent, says John, and they are looking to expand, by adding at least one more conditioning tank and fermenter and many more casks, to keep up with demand at peak times.

Saturday’s event begins at 7.30pm and the beers available will be Yorkshire Sparkle (a pale ale); Baron Saturday (porter), Spice Cracker (a spicy winter ale), Christmas Treboom (more of a session winter ale) and Powderkeg (a smoked tea stout). There will also be food and live music.