HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-03-03, Page 10PAGE 10.THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016.
23 -acre farm planned to
r
row Cowbell ingredients
SOCCER FIELDS
DONATED BY THE
SPARLING FAMILY
An ambitious plan
The future site of Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company is
situated on the land between Sparling's Propane and the
Emergency Services Training Centre in Central Huron. The
site will rely heavily on its main "barn" building
and then 23 acres of farmland on which many of the company's
beer and food ingredients will be grown. The village's two soccer
fields, donated by the Sparling family, will remain as they are, with
improved access to parking. (Courtesy AI!an Avis Architects)
11GBis
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SOCCER FIELDS
DONATED BY THE
SPARLING FAMILY
EMERGENCY
SERVICES
TRAINING
CENTRE
AREA OF CROP PRODUCTION
{HOPS. BARLEY. ORCHARDS.
BERR4ES AND VEGETABLES).
Continued from page 1
absolute priority to those behind the
project.
THE SITE
At last week's special Home
Opener event, Steven discussed the
vision of his father Grant Sr., who
moved to Blyth with the Bank of
Commerce for a brief project. He
then moved to Kitchener and
returned to Blyth a year later and
bought a hardware store in the
community he truly loved.
He also discussed the importance
of being "here by choice" in Blyth.
The stakeholders and residents of
Blyth and the members of the
Cowbell Brewing team could make a
difference anywhere they chose to
live, he said, but they've chosen
Blyth.
He said that as the world changes,
it's important to identify challenges,
but also recognize opportunities and
the Cowbell team thinks they've
found a great opportunity in Blyth.
Similarly, Grant said that as a
student at Dartmouth, he was on a
path to a future in the U.S. Navy, and
he was surprised and thrilled when
the opportunity to come home to
Blyth became a reality.
"I'm really excited," Grant said in
an interview with The Citizen. "I'm
looking forward to coming home.
Working with my dad, my uncle and
the team has been incredible and it's
a great opportunity."
As shown to those in attendance at
last week's event, Cowbell's main
"barn" building will rely heavily on
stone and wood in its design with a
large glazed window facing London
Road allowing passers-by the chance
to see into the brewhouse. In the
spirit of so many historic Huron
County farms, the buildings will
have heritage features but will seem
as though they were built at different
times, decades apart, giving the
appearance of the evolution of a
century -old family farm, built piece
by piece over the years.
The entrance to Cowbell will be
located on County Road 25, where
visitors will cross a stone bridge to
reach the building, travelling
through rows of hop vines in a
tongue-in-cheek nod to many winery
entrances that pass through grape
vines.
The site itself and the name
Cowbell Brewing are a marriage of
history and authenticity. The Henry
family farm that once occupied the
future Cowbell site used to be home
to cattle and crops many decades
ago. The creation of Cowbell
Brewing represents a return to roots
for the property.
After being extensively involved
last year in the Canadian Centre for
Rural Creativity's garden project,
Rick Elliott will be part of the
Cowbell team, managing the site's
farm. The project, he said, is
consistent with his love for Blyth
and his faith in its potential.
While many of the company's
ingredients will be grown on-site,
with the amount of beer Cowbell
plans to brew on an annual basis, the
farm will not have the capacity to
produce all necessary ingredients.
Whatever isn't grown on-site will
be sourced locally whenever
possible with over 30 agreements
with local producers, leading
Canadian and global suppliers and
organizations already in place, as
well as a plan to work
collaboratively with fellow area
restaurants.
The site itself will be as "smart" a
location as possible, utilizing several
forms of renewable energy including
solar, geo-thermal, steam recovery, a
small windmill and "smart" building
design, all while recovering and
recycling its greywater on-site.
At the Home Opener, Steven said
that Cowbell Brewing, to his
knowledge, will be the only "closed-
loop" brewery in Canada, with no
reliance on municipal systems.
Because of the nature of the site,
which will include both the "farm"
and "table" phases of the farm -to -
table concept, the Cowbell team
aims to provide an educational
experience through its tours, starting
with the farm's soil and ingredients
and ending with a glass of beer.
"Most of us don't have full
appreciation for how all of this ends
up in a product," Steven said. "This
will truly be farm to tap and farm to
table."
THE PRODUCTS
While there are plans to produce
as many as eight varieties of beer at
a time, depending on the season,
Cowbell's first beer will be called
Absent Landlord, a nod to Henry D.
Blyth, the Englishman who was
Blyth's namesake in the mid -1800s,
having purchased many of the
town's lots, but never saw it with his
own eyes.
The beer will be the first in what
the company is calling its Founders
Series — a series of beers that will all
tell tales of interesting, real-life
characters from Blyth's storied
history.
The Absent Landlord packaging
will include a few sentences
explaining the story behind the
name, as will all of Cowbell's
products.
To uncover the story behind Blyth
(the man, not the village), Grant and
Robin Honey, Chief Creative Officer
of Arcane in London consulted local
historians Brock and Janis Vodden
looking for interesting characters
Continued on page 11
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