The shovels are officially in the dirt for a new local family-owned farm brewery.
The owners of Red Barn Brewing Company, located on Lagoon Road just outside of Blenheim, held their groundbreaking ceremony at the site Tuesday morning with Ward 2 Councillor Anthony Ceccacci, Mayor Darrin Canniff, and several local supporters on hand.
The brewery is a family affair, owned by Denny Vervaet along with his wife Sandy Vervaet and brother-in-law Daniel English and it will be located in the field next to the trio's family farm. The site plan for the business was approved in January and English said they're thrilled to officially break ground and be one step further in the process.
"It's exciting to finally see all this planning coming to fruition," said English. "Anxious and excited too, just waiting for everything to dry up so the equipment can get here and construction can begin officially."
The groundbreaking coincided with another momentous occasion for the business. Since the area doesn't have access to municipal water, the owners had to dig a well. Just before the groundbreaking ceremony, they found out that they were able to hit water.
"That's a promising thing, being that that's 95 per cent of our product, the water," said Denny. "We'll talk more about that later down the road when we share our story on how we are going to bring our water into the building."
The process of starting the business has been five years in the making for the family. Denny said there are still a lot of moving parts to figure out in the building phase but they are aiming to be open within the year. The site is being developed on two and a half acres of land. Besides offering the chance for people to try a unique variety of craft beers, the brewery will also offer some farm focused experiences.
"We have the opportunity to do some events on the property as well," explained Denny. "Agritourism and bringing people from outside the area to experience Chatham-Kent as well, which is pretty exciting for us to meet new people that haven't experienced the farm before."
Ceccacci said he believes the brewery will be a great addition to the Blenheim area.
"Just to see the family-oriented atmosphere that they're bringing to the table and hearing about how it was his grandfather's recipes involved and a family owned farm. That's what we want to advertise to our community, that we're a family-oriented community, we have a farm background, a rural background," explained Ceccacci. "It's nice to see all that equipped into one business."
