Cameron's gets tribute on garage

When Jennifer Blattman in Ottawa decided to paint a mural on
the back of the family's garage, they chose a scene that is VERY
familiar to me. The label of Cameron's Brewing's 12 Mile India
Pale Lager. Jennifer told me she and her husband were leaning
towards something tropical but opted for their favourite label...

When you think about it, Oakville and Ottawa are quite a ways apart. I mean, we're talking a distance of 486 km (302 miles) from each other.

So I was a little surprised to see my hometown homeys, Cameron's Brewing, get honoured by a family up Ottawa way.

And what an honour it is. Jennifer Blattman and her husband wanted to paint a mural on the back of their garage. At first they were thinking about something tropical - you know, beach, palm trees, ocean, something like that. Soothing, relaxing, vacation-like.

"I want a tropical mural, to be honest," she told me, "but after a phenomenal tour of Vancouver Island, I changed my mind."
The couple decided something a little more Canadiana would be a better fit. But what they went with caught us all off-guard. They painstakingly reproduced the label of Oakville's own Cameron's Brewing 12 Mile India Lager (to my mind, the best lager in the province.)

On September 15, she posted the picture to Twitter, noting, "We finished the mural on the back of our garage! Credit to Cameron's Brewing for the design. It doesn't get more Canadian than this. #12Miler." And just like that, my favourite local product was honoured from a family a six hour drive away.

As you can see from the Camerons-Mobile driven by the
co-owner and president, Bill Coleman, Jennifer is right
when she says, "We love all their can designs but especially
the 12 Mile (IPL). So much Canadian love!" Well, Bill, I
guess you can see your rebranding really took off with us!

Cameron's, of course, instantly retweeted it, saying, "This may actually be the greatest thing we've ever seen!" And, of course, since Cameron's and I follow each other like we're international spies, that's how I saw it... and then retweeted it myself, saying, "Wow! Check this out. @jblatts painted the Cameron's Brewing 12 Mile India Pale Lager label scene on the back of their garage. So awesome!"

Within minutes, people were jumping on with "likes", as well as my Twitter buddy, Sudbury Homebrew marveling, "That is a thing of beauty!"

Brewery employees, such as Ottawa-area sales rep Micha Miljevic, (@Awesomedefender) were equally blown away by the spectacular tribute, saying, "This is particularly amazing. #ottawa #beerlovers #represent. Nicely done, @jblatts. #Cameronsforthewin"

I would go as far as to say the Cameron's 12 Mile India Pale Lager mural
is now the most prominent feature of Jennifer's backyard... although it's
tough to beat an in-ground pool. Still, that mural is year-round. The pool,
not so much. But hey, that's a pretty cool thing to look at while seated.

So what kind of work goes into a project like this? Said Jennifer, "It took 30-plus hours, using masking tape, four-inch paint rollers and a Grade 6 geometry set. I recreated the mural in PowerPoint to scale so that we could then figure out how big to make the stripes. My husband is a detail guy so he took care of everything after the stripes! All the hard work!"

One nagging question I had was simply this: The wrap-around label for the can simply isn't long enough to fill what seems to be a 20-25 foot width of the garage. How did they fill it in? Simple enough, she said. "We added the mountains (on the right) to complete the Canadian landscape."

When my son, David, and I popped into Cameron's yesterday to
fill a couple of growlers with the brewery's new Haze Across
7 C's Pale Ale, part of their ongoing keg-only Hazy American
Pale Ale series, on hand to greet us was Cameron's sales rep
Robbie Levin. This beer should be an easy sell for Robbie.

And finally, Jennifer, what did your friends think about your artistic venture? "My friends love it! They came by throughout the process, always looking for updates. It's what we see when we're sitting at the back of the yard beside the pool. So we wanted to make sure we loved it! And we do."

Now here's an interesting tidbit about both Jennifer and my favourite Cameron's beer. When the World Beer Awards were held in Norfolk, UK back in mid-August, only two Ontario breweries won World Style Award Country Winners for their submissions. Muskoka Brewing in Bracebridge won Best Specialty IPA for their Berry Springer Fieldberry Milkshake IPA and the other was Cameron's for the 12 Mile India Pale Lager in the Hoppy Pilsner category. So it turns out we aren't its only fans, that much is certain. But still, that mural... unbelievable.

Okay, speaking of Cameron's, my boy and I popped in there after work yesterday so that Dear Ol' Dad could get a couple of growler fills.

Since Cameron's Brewmaster Jason Britton's new Hazy American
Pale Ale Series is keg-only, that means you better have some growlers
handy and be in the neighbourhood if you want to sample it at home.
I, in fact, DO have growlers available and they're two minutes away
from me. So I was in there for their Haze Across The 7 C's Pale Ale.

Was it 12 Mile India Pale Lager? Actually, no, I buy that by the can when I'm there. As I mentioned in my last blog, Cameron's Brewmaster Jason Britton has launched a keg-only Hazy American Pale Ale Series at the brewery. I have no idea how many different ones they'll do. But I knew this for a fact. I was going to be there for the first one.

Just a few days ago, they launched the first - Haze Across The 7 C's Pale Ale so I grabbed a 2L (64 ounce) growler and a 1L howler for my pale-ale-lovin' coworker, Jonny. This was an impressive start. Though lighter in body than I expected, the 4.5% sessioner was a tasty one. Hints of mango, citrus and orange on the nose with light pine on the way down, this was a dandy little brew. I will be heading back for more soon enough. And Jason, my man, with an eye to the future, the hazier and juicier, the better! Hit me with your best shot. Fire away. (I feel like that's been said.) Okay, Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...