If you’ll indulge me, from time to time I will delve most deeply into my very personal connection with beer. Insodoing I hope to connect with you, the reader, while I share a little about yours truly. Ultimately as well as talking about all things beer I hope to increase awareness of blindness and vision impairment as well.
When I’m not writing, I am a daydreamer. My imagination is so active it could easily be mixed with hot liquor (water) to make wort.
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| A blind rebel indeed, holding a can of beer at a tram stop in Melbourne. Image shows a vision impaired man wearing sunglasses, holding a can of open beer and holding a white cane beside a tram/bus interchange. |
When I’m not writing, I am a daydreamer. My imagination is so active it could easily be mixed with hot liquor (water) to make wort.
Like so many of you out there I dream of owning and operating my own brewery. But the stark realities of not having a seven-figure bank balance or investors willing to back me with said sum comes crashing in like an unwanted Brettanomyces infection in the brew.
Not to mention the reality that it’s not all glory and no mess.
But you can’t stop me from dreaming about owning, running and brewing at my own brewpub and packaged brewery operation. You can’t stop me imagining that it would be located in Melbourne’s north-east or perhaps even near the as yet to be opened Canning Vale metro station in Perth (close to family and where there is likely a huge gap in the market). And you certainly can’t stop me from dreaming about brewing hype-beast TDH IIPAs, eisbocks brewed with chilli and maple syrup or wheatwines aged in locally produced whiskey barrels.
It would be a middle finger to every perceived notion of what blind and vision impaired people can and cannot do as held by collective society. It would be called Blind Rebel Brewing CoOperative, its slogan: “Walking on the edge of convention”, its primary image stylised footsteps on the wrong side of the yellow line and tactile markings at a train station.
All in the name of going some way to spreading awareness about blindness and low vision through beer. Because though I can’t change being legally blind and living life in a sighted world, I can change the attitudes of people, misconceptions and accessibility both in the real world and the virtual one.
Alt Text altbier, Tenji Bock helles bock, Seeing Rye Dog red rye IPA, Wit Cane Belgian wheat, APS American peated stout, Beer My Eyes helles lager and of course Braille Ale British strong bitter cask ale would comprise the core range. Puns with a slice of awareness, what’s not to love?
By the way links have been provided at the bottom of this piece so you can learn more about alt text, Tenji blocks, Be My Eyes and the white cane.
Beer is all about community, bringing people together, over history it has helped shape and even save the world. It certainly has the capacity to help blind people integrate with the world and people around them. Thanks to modern and adaptive technologies blind and vision impaired people have never had it easier (the iPhone has enriched my life beyond my wildest imaginings), however there is still a long way to go yet.
Blind Rebel Brewing may be a dream that will never become a reality, but the dream of a better world for the blind and vision impaired is materialising one Tenji block at a time.
APS (Accessible pedestrian signals, which I often refer to as traffic light audible indicators). If you do not have these in your city, write your MP/Congressman/your local road authority!
Be My Eyes.
Be My Eyes.
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