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BEER TENDERS
Bartenders who really know their beer IAN CAMERON, LOCHIEL BREWING Alison Bailin Batz » The Entertainer!
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an Cameron is making history of being the first deaf brewery owner in the United States. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is partnering with Cameron to increase public awareness of deaf issues, people and culture. Lochiel Brewing in Mesa was founded in 2015 by Cameron on the passions of bringing the malty Scottish, English and Irish beers to the southwest United States. According to Cameron, Lochiel Brewing would be one of the few breweries in the North America that focuses on malt-forward brews. With Lochiel Brewing, Ian would be brewing a flagship Scotch Ale from a family recipe created during the Jacobite Uprising Era of the 1700s. The history with the brews is as deep as the history of the clan Cameron and their involvement in the Jacobite Uprising. According to Cameron, Lochiel as the name, means the chieftain and nobles branch of the Cameron clan. He was the inheritor of the Lochiel recipes due to his familial affiliations and recognized natural ability to brew the family’s beer.
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What do you think makes craft beer special? Craft beer is unique in every way due to the factors of time, variety of grains, yeast, hops and water profile, brewer and individual preferences, giving way to millions of different combinations of brews. No one brew is exactly the same. How did you get your start in craft beer? My grandfather combined with paying attention in high school biology and chemistry when I was in my teens. When I went to Texas to visit my grandparents in the summer, the first thing on the agenda the addition of yeast to a carboy full of root beer extract, water and sugar that we mixed together. Between myself and my grandfather, being a similar science, physics, and engineering nerd, we would observe the changes, note them, At the end of my stay, two weeks later, there would be blown bottles, sticky liquid everywhere due to the moderate heat outside, and a line of kids from the neighborhood ready to share some because of how good it was. This was a tradition every summer for my grandfather. The rest became history as I started building my own home brewery set ups using things from the local home supply store. The
their own. It is my desire to replicate that here in my locale. volume of demand kept increasing year after year until I decided to make the plunge into a fully licensed brewery. What is your favorite part about the beer culture in the Valley? My favorite part about the beer culture in the Valley is the comradery of brewers and brewery owners. I have found to be treated equitably (do my part to be equal) regardless of my hearing loss simply because I make great beer and I tend to it properly. After a couple brews, people seem to forget about differences amongst ourselves. In addition, the potential for growth is so immense in the Valley and it is just starting to realize it. Why is Lochiel Brewing the perfect place for craft beer? I wouldn’t say that Lochiel Brewing is the perfect place for beer. It’s the perfect place for freshly brewed Lochiel brews, but the truth be told, there’s no “the.” Wherever Lochiel Brewing goes, tapped, served and then enjoyed would be the perfect place. That goes without saying that the Camerons have long distributed their brews throughout the lands of the family in Scotland. It has been the belief of the family that the anyone’s preferred watering hole, is the perfect place. Every one to
What is your favorite part of the beer culture? Beer culture has a way of neutralizing sensitive topics. For example, like I said earlier, people forget that I’m deaf for a day and treat me like an individual. Everybody becomes more interesting because our own defenses are suppressed. As a result, we are less stressed out. Leading to lubricated socializing. Making a new friend has never been easier. It’s a win all around. What is your favorite beer at the moment? I’m a little biased, but I will say the Lochiel Scotch Ale right off the top of my head. But, truthfully, I couldn’t possibly restrict myself to a number of brews because of the ever-changing field of brews. New ideas happen, new ideas to be enjoyed. At the same time, we should respect the old timers because if it weren’t for the old timers, this beer renaissance would not be happening.
Lochiel Brewing
7143 E. Southern Avenue, Mesa, lochielbrewing.com.