Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cameron Owen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cameron, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The idea first arose in college when I was taking art classes, working at multiple restaurants and promoting for regional music festivals. Although I was studying packaging science at the time, I was able to pursue a minor in Fine Arts. Here I was taught to refine my ideas, and pay closer attention to the smaller details of the puzzle while expanding on what truly interests me. I know all of this may seem like a lot to start but in a sense we are creating a palette of colors to build a fuller more complete image. Once the pieces came together the ida emerged that I wanted to create and immersive gallery that hosted local and regional musicians while also being a restaurant and bar. The goal was ultimately to create a location where art and society could mingle and meld together. In a way I wanted to show the evolution of social consciousness in a physical form.
After sometime passed, I eventually had learned how to brew beer on a professional level. People at the taproom were beginning to take notice of some of what we were producing.
It finally dawned on me one day, what if beer was used as an engine to propel the other projects that were passions to me? And thus it began; a beer anchored lifestyle project.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
how you got into your industry? I worked for a homebrew shop/ubrew where we would brew up to 10 different beers a week. Rapidly expanding my knowledge base into various styles.
what products do you provide? We are a Bar/Brewery/Restaurant. We provide various beer options In a large array styles. As a bar we focus on our Bourbon, Mezcal and our Solera Rhum Blend Cocktails
what sets you apart?
We are extremely small batch, experimental, and fleeting while aiming to provide well made, consistent quality products. In hopes of creating something genuine and unique, we aim to focus on what we legitimately finding interesting. Theres no point in producing things you can’t stand behind.
what are you most proud of?
Im proud of the national and global reach that we have managed to acquire despite being so small. Its really humbling to see that the size of what you are doesn’t matter if the quality and ideas are there
what are you known for?
We are primarily known for our High Abv stouts and barleywines. Although we aim to be well rounded brewery with equal focuses in lager, ipa, sour, saison, and seltzer
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
With the ethos and hopes of staying true to ones self, I would post random videos on our social feeds. Reposting and actively engaging with our audience has seemed to also help us out significantly and allows more open lines between parties. In addition to this we also collaborate with likeminded business locally and globally in hopes of bringing higher foot traffic to the brewery.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Craft beer is very particular yet always changing, so it can sometimes be hard to figure out what to do. By being experimental while still trying to maintain a stance on quality, we engaged cautious drinkers to become confident consumers. After producing and packaging for some period of time, problems are bound to happen, and it is up to us to correct the issue. Whether that is dumping beer, refunding product, to buying more equipment to ensure quality standards. We have incurred all of these issues and have managed to show our audience that we are persistent in our endeavor to make the best products we can. We hope that in the end each release from us improves upon the last one. Its sometimes hard but in the end is always worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: eighthstatebrewing.com
- Instagram: @the8thstatebrewing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eighthstatebrewing/
Image Credits
Cameron Owen all photos