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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-03-03, Page 1INSIDE THIS WEEK: DONATION - Pg. 3 Local Foodgrains Bank donation tops $25,000 SPORTS - Pg. 8 Local girls hockey teams rebranded as Huron Heat POLITICS - Pg. 13 Local MP, MPP meet with farmers at annual forum Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON NOG 1H0 4Citiz Volume 32 No. 9 n WELCOME TO BINT H $1 .25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 3, 2016 Blyth, Clinton host girls WOSSAA tournament A little congestion The St. Michael Catholic Secondary School girls hockey team from Stratford earned a gold -medal win and a chance to defend its 2015 Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association's (OFSAA) championship in the Western Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association's (WOSSAA) A/AA girls tournament hosted by St. Anne's Catholic Secondary School on Monday with games in Clinton and Blyth. The Central Huron Community Complex and the Blyth and District Community Centre both hosted two games; semi-finals at 9 a.m. and the gold medal game in Clinton and bronze in Blyth at 1 p.m. St. Michael took the gold medal with Mother Theresa Catholic Secondary School earning the silver medal. The bronze medal game in Blyth, shown above, pitted Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute in white taking on London South Collegiate Institute with Ingersoll earning an 8-0 win as well as the bronze medal. (Denny Scott photo) Cowbell project Blyth's most ambitious By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen After years of planning, research and development, the wheels of Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company are now officially in motion with a plan to construct a craft brewery in Blyth at the southeast corner of London Road and County Road 25. Phase one construction at the site will include the brewhouse, a restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating, an over -20,000 - square -foot multi -use space and a retail store, as well as an on-site farm. Several beer ingredients, including hops and barley, will be grown on 23 acres of farmland to the south of the main building. Fruit, berries and vegetables will also be grown on the farm, all for use in the company's beer and food. Through several interviews with General Manager and Vice -President Grant Sparling and investors Steven and David Sparling, along with several other members of the team over the past two months, The Citizen has been granted exclusive access to the genesis of the concept, the process and the future of the company. THE HISTORY The process began, Steven said, five years ago when various economic development -themed discussions identified the potential for a union between Blyth and the booming craft brewery industry. "That led to a conversation about what people look for on such `destination' trips," Steven said. "There is an unprecedented effort in Blyth to understand the `creative economy' and in Huron County to support real opportunities for building destination tourism. Cowbell is pleased to be one part of the solution. We are clear in our support. We will work together and we will win together." Talks were initiated by Blyth's Rick Elliott, who was instrumental in the early stages of the concept, and who led the group through the earliest fact-finding stages. Along the way, plans for the brewery were put on hold until Grant returned to Blyth several years later and, over the course of a summer, he led a business development team to build and test the case for a craft brewery in the village. Grant graduated from New Hampshire's Dartmouth College last June and just 10 days later he began a comprehensive program at BrewLab of Sunderland, England. Through this program, Grant learned about the craft brewing industry — from ingredients and pairing beer with food to the business side of running a craft brewery. The program also included work placements in a variety of breweries in the region. He graduated from BrewLab in September as a Brewer and soon after returned to Blyth. Since the process began, those behind the project have reminded themselves the world doesn't need another brewery and it doesn't need another beer, so the goal very early was to provide a different kind of product and experience. Building upon that foundation, Grant and the team have extensively toured locations in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, visiting over 100 craft breweries from which they hoped to learn. Along the way, the pair identified a number of practices and concepts they liked and hoped to Girls hockey teams from across southwestern Ontario converged on Huron County on Monday to compete for the top spot in the Western Ontario Secondary School Athletics Association (WOSSAA) A/AA Girls Hockey division. The tournament, was held at the Central Huron Community Complex in Clinton and the Blyth and District Community Centre. Current Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) champions St. Michael Catholic Secondary School (SMCSS) from Stratford took home the gold at the tournament, besting Mother Theresa Catholic Secondary School (MTCSS) from London 5-2 in the final in Clinton at 1 p.m. Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute (ICDI) earned a bronze - medal finish, besting London South Collegiate Institute (LSCI) 8-0, also at 1 p.m. in Blyth. As a result of the tournament, the team from St. Michael and Mother Theresa will both go to the OFSAA championship in March which is being hosted by SMCSS. Earlier in the day, MTCSS bested ICDI 7-2 in a semi-final in Blyth at 9 a.m. and SMCSS beat LSCI 11-1. The tournament was hosted by St. Anne's Catholic Secondary School, organized by teacher Steve Geiger. "It was Huron -Perth's turn to host WOSSAA," he said. "It consists of the Huron -Perth conference and London conferences." The conferences stretch to include teams from Woodstock and Ingersoll. Geiger, a seasoned coach with St. Anne's, having headed up the boys hockey team in the past and has now coached the girls for several years, said it was unfortunate that the St. Anne's team wasn't able to compete after they were eliminated during the Huron -Perth championship earlier in February in the championship game 4-1. • in years integrate into Cowbell Brewing and others that were interesting, but could be made unique and specific to a project in Huron County. Meanwhile in Ontario, they were busy "identifying pathways to market" with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) while also building Cowbell's individuality along the way. The goal was to have beer in LCBO stores this spring, Steven said, and that would support the vision of Cowbell Brewing as a tourist destination, where its products could be sold in various forms, as well as served as either part of the tour experience or through the location's expansive restaurant. Going forward, the Cowbell Brewing experience will be one of the pillars of the business — an Continued on page 10