ABOUT US
Breakaway Brewing Company was born out of a passion for hockey and enjoying a good beer with friends.
After playing five seasons with the University of Northern Colorado Bears (in the American Collegiate Athletic Association), owner and brewmaster, Owen Rauer put the degrees in communications and hospitality that he earned to work.
“Hockey is the only thing that I love as much as I do beer. Since I couldn’t go professional in hockey, I decided I wanted to try to go professional in beer,” says Rauer.
It was while sipping on his first craft beer saison that Rauer decided he was going to take a shot at brewing his own. He has come a long way since that one gallon stove top spaghetti pot that brewed his first beer. Rauer quickly found out that when you make beer that tastes good, you want to share it with as many people as possible.
"Beer is like sharing the wealth," he says. "Sharing beer is the best part of creating it. When someone enjoys what you spent at least a month on waiting for it to ferment and finish up, it's a good feeling. All your work poured into a gorgeous glass of beer — you don't want to keep that to yourself."
Rauer is self-taught from reading books, doing research on the Internet and of course - trial and error. He’d talk to other brewers and get a feel for the brewing practice on a large scale. All the while he continued to share his home brewed beer with friends to get their feedback.
“Every beer I made got a little bit better,” says Rauer, who offers a rotating selection of small-batch styles of beer at Breakaway Brewing Company's taproom in Summerland, along with a variety of food made from fresh local ingredients.
It was while he was perfecting his craft, the idea of building Breakaway Brewing Company was fermenting. With support from family, he started the business - located at 13220 N. Victoria Road. N. in Summerland, B.C. - and poured the first pint for the public in July 2019.
Currently open from Wednesday to Sunday, from noon to 7 p.m., for sit-down service, growler fills and takeaway food, the team at Breakaway Brewing Co. is looking forward to when renovations are complete that will expand the taproom.
CONTACT US
Call us at 250-328-4817 with any questions you may have, or send us a message on our Facebook page or to our Instagram account (@BreakawayBrewingCo). We will respond as soon as we can.