Canada, ON: The Upper Thames Brewing Company preparing to launch in Woodstock on June 1

The Upper Thames Brewing Company plans to open in Woodstock, Ontario on June 1. After months of planning and working with the city, the business plans to begin operations at 225 Bysham Park in just under five months, Ingerloll Times reported on January 20.

Although the Upper Thames Brewing Company hopes for that spring launch date, Carl Bloomfield, partner and co-owner, said there is a possibility the date could move.

"We're targeting that. We really want to get there," he said. "It's generally a matter of how fast the contractors work at this point and how fast the licensing comes through."

Bloomfield, along with his four other partners - Moe Morris, Chad Paton, Frank Raso and Josh Bowes - began discussing opening a craft brewery in Woodstock well over a year ago. But it wasn't until November that the group decided it was going "all in" and began work on opening their own brewery.

"It really has come together fairly quickly since then," Bloomfield said.

Morris added that, prior to November, the group had put approximately 400 man hours into the research of starting a brewery.

"Finding brewing systems, the cost of brewing systems, looking at some locations, going to other breweries and talking to them," he said. "Since that decision was made to go all in on it, we probably have another 400 man hours in. Before this all opens, we'll probably have another 2,000 hours in because now the work really is starting."

The brewery will be running a three-barrel system, which is the equivalent to 42 cases of beer of 24 bottles each per batch. Morris said the smaller system is the essence of small-batch brewing. The owners are excited to have this system.

"One batch takes approximately two weeks, depending on the style," Morris said. "Josh (the brewer) has also discussed doing some Belgian ales, and those will take longer, probably up to five weeks."

At launch, the group hopes to have five beers ready, including a Scotch ale, a Belgian wheat beer, an English pale ale and a brown ale. The group also hopes to be able to do a few interesting seasonal craft beers throughout the year, including a pumpkin ale and a winter ale.

"Our brewer, Josh Bowes, comes from a home-brewing background, and I think he's been brewing for about five years now on a fairly substantial tactical system, which is certainly going to give him a great base to go on," Bloomfield said. "We're all craft beer enthusiasts, the rest of the partners ... and obviously we're going to have to learn the process and help Josh along as well."

In addition to being a brewery and supplying local businesses with their product, Morris said the Upper Thames Brewing Company will also be an openconcept brewery that will host tours and have a tied-house bar attached for people to come in and enjoy the beer. Bloomfield did emphasize the focus will be on supplying local businesses with their product, so in-house hours will be limited.

"We're craft beer enthusiasts. We're beer drinkers, we like beer and there's nothing wrong with admitting that, and for us to get into a business that is one of our passions, that definitely helps things along," Bloomfield said. "We saw that there was a void here (in Woodstock) that we could very well fill. Not easily, but we're looking to do it.

"You look at any city our size and you look at the craft beer industry as a whole in Ontario and over in the U.S. and Canada, and it's growing at an exponential rate. I think this city is easily going to be able to support this business that we have planned."

Morris said the group is really excited to be part of Woodstock and Oxford County's first "We want to create a great product that Woodstonian's can be proud of," he said.

22 January, 2016