Today we’d like to introduce you to Ian Cameron.
Ian, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Self-financed, wanted to have full control of the business’ heading without external influences as it was critical to the success of the company and its branding.
Started up by signing the lease of the location and did most of the construction myself and the assembly of the brewery and the hardware. Had ROC certified and registered contractors do certain jobs that I couldn’t do myself such as HVAC components of the cooling systems and the drainage. Some major electrical work as well.
Brewed our first two batches of beer before we had the tap room open and had buyers for the products already. We quickly used those funds to fund the tap room construction which was largely done by myself with a little help from family and friends. We found ourselves in a position where our type of beers wasn’t widely understood being of old time, traditional beers that were developed over 150 years ago. One recipe, our flagship beer, the Scotch Ale was developed over 300 years ago.
Nowadays we distribute less than 2% of our stock and sell 98% of our product through our tap room by means of pints, crowlers (to-go cans filled with beer at demand), and growler fills.
We were profitable in our first year which is uncalled for more than 98% of breweries in the USA.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it was not a smooth road.
First battle was with the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which is a division under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE). They deal with licensing of breweries on a first come first serve basis. So, we had a brewery in front of us in queue, that took almost five or six months to complete due to multiple owners. We took a hit financially because of that. We had to maintain rent, maintain monthly payments of support services and leases.
Second battle was with the building permitting division which wasn’t as bad as the TTB. It was always a small technicality that turned into a catch-22 issue. Fortunately, we had inspectors that were fairly young and understood the brewery scene. The addition to the difficulty was that we were the third brewery to open up in Mesa, Arizona and the city’s permitting divisions of any kind are fairly not knowledgeable about how breweries are built and designed.
Third battle which was ongoing was with the Maricopa Environmental Services (MES), Health Department division. It was a matter of administrative errors several times on the MES behalf. They lot our application and payment a couple times. We gave up and let them come to us if there was a complaint. Basically, we operated without a permit for six months before a complaint was made about a dog that was in our brewery and photos on a social media outlet was used to reinforce whereas the dog appeared to be a normal dog in our facility, when in fact, was a service dog, properly vested and labeled. We were able to counter and cancel the complaint with further evidence from surveillance cameras we have on premise that the dog was a service animal and did not do what was described in the complaint. We were able to get their attention after that point and finally get our permit to operate. This battle continued for a year and a half. Half of a year was to cover the initial application phase where the MES consistently lost our application and payments.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Lochiel Brewing – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Lochiel Brewing is a brewery that focuses on specifically Scottish Styled beers. We also make some beers that are not Scottish but remade in the Scottish standards using Scottish malts and yeast strains using water profiles that matches the waters in Scotland used for distilling.
We maintain extremely high standards of sanitation and maintenance of any one of our beers.
We focus on specific types of beers and expand our selections organically, meaning that we respond to customer demands in the whole not individually and develop our repertoire with customer understanding of our products. We educate people as they find our products fairly different and unusual than what is usually found in the USA.
Bottom line, we are the Scottish brewery in Arizona. If not, the Southwest or the USA. It is also one of the very few breweries that’s wholly owned by a single individual which brews the products and operates the business with a small, but, effective and efficient labor force that is paid a nice and respectable wage to support their living needs with only one job, not two, or three.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are looking to expand into our adjacent suite with a distillery to produce Scotch whisky and Bourbon whiskey.
We are also looking to expand our fermenting capacity into the adjacent suite in 2018. We also expect to engage into bottling of a few of our popular products.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7143 East Southern Avenue Suite 131, Mesa, AZ 85209
- Website: https://lochielbrewing.com
- Phone: 4806660915
- Email: contact@lochielbrewing.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/lochielbrewing
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/lochielbrewing
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lochielbrewing
Image Credit:
Lochiel Brewing Media
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