Our Story

Must be something in the water is said when the incredibly uncommon occurs. Incredibly uncommon is kind of our thing.

You bet your sweet bippy there’s something in our water.

Drink Curious.

Something in the Water is a curious beverage company based in Toronto. Co-founded by Steve Waugh, Mike Lee and Rick Tanton, 3 former advertising agency executives with a passion for branding, and of course beer.

Curious beginnings.

We began our curious beverage journey in March 2020 (good timing!) with a sour beer: Lee River Blackberry Vanilla sour and secured a single LCBO listing 6 months later. Over the next year, we navigated LCBO expansion, a failed entry in Alberta, brief stints in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and listings at Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro, only to realize that maybe a single sour beer wasn’t enough to match our dreams of what Something in the Water should be.

2021 saw some changes where we expanded our company’s focus on curious beverages, not just curious beers. We created our Grace Bay Rum Cask Canadian Whisky, which won Silver at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and submitted our Sweet Brunch Stout to the World Beer Awards and won Silver. And most significantly, we began construction of our flagship brewery and taproom in Toronto’s Liberty Village.

2022 has been an exciting with Liberty Village opening in May and our second location in Kingston opening in October. We now have a product portfolio of over 15 curious beverages (3 of which you can find in the LCBO). We are continuing our unwavering quest to develop new curious beverages to bring to market through our Kingston and Toronto breweries.

Curiously committed to water.

Despite all the growth and changes of our curious beverage company, what has never changed is our connection to water.

From the day we came up with the idea of this company in a little bar on Toronto’s Danforth, we believed. Something in the Water beer is best enjoyed with family and friends by the water. Why else do you think we name each of our beers after our favourite bodies of water? Cottage hangs. Secret fishing holes. Creeks. Cricks. Pools. Ponds. Even charity dunk tanks. The best times we’ve had have been on, or near, water.

That’s just one reason why 5 cents from every can purchased supports clean water across Canada.

Another reason for this commitment? The brewing industry uses a tremendous amount of water. And while the end result may be delicious, it means we need to do what we can to make sure there’s plenty of clean, beautiful Canadian water to brew craft beer for years, dare we say decades, to come.

We acknowledge we are swimming in a much bigger ocean That is why we donate this portion of sales to Swim Drink Fish, a non-profit that has worked tirelessly to connect people with water. They focus on water because all communities need swimmable, drinkable and fishable water to thrive. And like us, they believe everyone has a right to it.

Need more Something in the Water? Drink up some fresh press:

TASTE TORONTO (June 2022)

BLOGTO (May 2022)

CURIOCITY (April 2022)