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Clinton News Record, 2016-06-29, Page 2HUHSBWi i11i1�E 2 News Record • Wednesday, June 29, 2016 The Stone House Brewery. Owner Mike Corrie in his brewery on Parr Line. Photos by Justine Alkema Clinton News Record Stone House Brewery sells 6000 bottles in three weeks Zevn rinwVearryn a back into it. In fact, he has over 20 years of experience in the field. He had a brew on premise in London for 15 Justine Alkema years, sold that, and then Clinton News Record represented other beers, wines and spirits to LCBOs There is an increasing and the Beer Store. demand for craft beer, and that "In the LCBOs, seeing demand is being met by an people pick up the basket, increasing supply, even here in going to the craft beers sec - Huron County. Onenewbrew- tion and buying single cans ery, the Stone House brewery, made me start thinking that has opened up in Varna. Busi- maybe I should get back into ness is booming. brewing beer again," said Construction for the brew- Corrie. ery started in June 2015. The In order to make sure his building was up by mid- idea was feasible, Corrie first December, they set up their had to do two things - make inside operation over the win- sure his land could b e ter, and they opened on June rezoned for commercial use 1. The business is the brain- and see if his old brewmaster child of owner Mike Corrie was still brewing. After find - who built the brewery on the ing that both of these things same property as his house. were a go, he got to work on Corrie used to be in the starting the business. business of manufacturing Corrie and the brewmater beer, and he decided to get are the only two employees. The brewmaster comes into make the beer, and Corrie does the rest. Corrie's first beer is a Czech Pilsner; he gets his hops straight from the Czech Republic. He had to decide if he wanted to get his malted barley from the Czech Republic or Canada, and he decided to go with Canada because Corrie pointed out that, "Canada has really good malted barley:' "The flavour profiles that match between the Czech hops and Canadian malt has really turned out well," said Corrie. They use well water for the beer which goes through a reverse osmosis process. After that, the brewmaster adds minerals and salts to the water to get the water in Varna just like water in the Czech Republic. Their first beer, the Czech Pilsner, is not overpowering but not light tasting. It is described on the brewery's website as a "very crisp, clean, approachable and refreshing pilsner with light straw grass and mild malt grain finish [...] exception- ally easy drinking Czech Pils- ner with good levels of bitterness:' The beer has been flying off the shelves. They sold close to 6000 beers in the first three weeks, selling out of the beer for a short time. Part of the reason it sold out is because people who came in just to try it kept going back for more. For now, the brewery will just feature the Czech pils- ner. Maybe in the future Cor- rie will introduce an IPA or lager, but that will be down the road. The Czech pilsner has gone over so well, he will stick with that. For now, the beer will just be sold out of the brewery. Eventually, Corrie will approach bars and restau- rants to get licensing accounts. The building is on Parr Line, and it is there for a rea- son. Corrie considered other locations, but he decided to build on Parr Line because many people take this road to go to their cottages in Grand Bend and Port Elgin. They are also only five min- utes from Bayfield, close to Goderich and Bayfield and in close proximity to Lake Huron in general. Plus, Cor- rie wanted a well on site. Corrie grew up in Clinton; his family owns the Fresh - mart in town. He moved away for college and started his brew on premise in Lon- don when he was 22. When his kids were about to start school, he bought property near Clinton, so his kids could go to the same schools where he and his wife went. There are now three brew- eries in Huron County, and all of them are very new. Half Hours on Earth Brewery in Seaforth opened a few months ago. The Cowbell Brewery in Blyth is under construction and is set to open in 2017, and they sold 1000 tickets for their first beer tasting. Then of course there's the Stone House brewery. "Huron County loves their beer; there's no doubt about that," said Corrie. "To have beer that's made right in the county, that's kind of a no- brainer for people." The Stone House brewery is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11:00 am - 6:00 p.m. and Friday, Satur- day and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. r CANADA DAY HOLIDAY FRIDAY JULY our - 'a'iIme'rlIie My s issue t1ws Record fgagi have Eo questions fly*•ri JJ be be KTE concerns, pleasegive Z •• • Albert St., Clinton www.clintonnewsrecord.com djohnston@postmedia.com 519-482-3443