no. 046 | DEYA
DEYA is meaningless. The English spelling of ‘Deia’, a beautiful village in Mallorca, founder Theo chose a name that had little to no connotations, and he and his team have been imbuing it with meaning for the last decade.
There’s quiet confidence to DEYA. It’s the sort of self-assuredness that comes from doing one thing exceptionally well for a very long time and, in this case, that thing is delicious, hop-forward beer. Started in 2015 by Theo Freyne, who learnt his craft by studying a Masters of Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University before undertaking an internship at Odell’s Brewery in Colorado, U.S.A. This was a formative experience that sowed the seeds of DEYA as its known today.
When he returned to the UK, Theo started cuckoo brewing his earliest recipe, Steady Rolling Man, while hunting for a permanent home. “I spent months brewing Steady Rolling Man over and over again, while listening to the blues greats,” Theo tells us. “The heady concoction of old time blues records and juicy American hops transfixed us from the start.”
The beer became the backbone of DEYA, and its name, pulled from a Robert Johnson lyric, became something of a manifesto. Steady Rolling Man was not just a beer, but an approach. From 2016 onwards, it was the sole focus of the fledgling brewery – brewed and refined obsessively, it set the standard for everything that followed.
Today, Steady Rolling Man is DEYA’s flagship beer and continues to be brewed from their brewery in Cheltenham, which is next door to the site of their original home. Kitted out with 40 hectalitre, four-vessel brewhouse, it also has a beautiful taproom that opened just in time for the chaos of 2020. While the pandemic brought challenges, it also forced DEYA to evolve as they embraced direct-to-consumer sales and push further into cans.
The old brewery didn’t go to waste either. It now houses DEYA’s mixed fermentation programme, while the original taproom has been reborn as The Swamp, a collaborative space run with local cocktail makers, FOUR CATS.
The DEYA story isn’t just one of hops and hardware, though. It’s also a visual story, told through the instantly recognisable artwork of Thom Hobson, the artist who has been with the brewery since day one. His playful, trippy, analogue-feeling illustrations have become synonymous with the DEYA name, lending personality and texture to each can.
“As the name DEYA is quite abstract, we’ve built up the imagery and identity behind it,” the team explains. “Thom has been instrumental in building our brand and the visuals.” Just like the beers, the artwork never feels try-hard. It’s impactful, irreverent, and unmistakably DEYA.
A decade on, DEYA is no doubt bigger than it was and capable of doing much more. Indeed, the team is now sitting at an impressive 50 people. However, their deep commitment to quality, community, and making beer that sings remains unaltered. “Quality is non-negotiable,” says Theo simply. Continuing to show up and continually improve, the mission is clear: keep rolling.