LCBO Food & Drink Spring 2020

SUSTAINABLE SIPS

MILLING ABOUT Last year, Mill Street committed to reducing its energy consumption and water usage by 10 per- cent, a goal they exceeded in both categories. Raise a glass of Canada’s most popular (and oldest) organic Lager or try the fuller-flavoured Tankhouse Organic Ale. The female-led team at Brickworks Ciderhouse sends apple pomace to local farms for feed and recently planted a pollinator garden; a sip of its Mint & Basil Cider transports you to a herb garden in full bloom. Mill Street Original Organic Lager LCBO 247627, 473 mL, $3.30 Brickworks CiderhouseMint & Basil

Green beer

Planting thousands of trees, reducing waste and returning clean water to their local environments, these breweries walk the talk. Water might be beer’s least-talked-about ingredient, but breweries use a lot of it. Reducing waste and returning clean water to the local environment are top of mind for breweries like Sawdust City Brewing Co. in Gravenhurst and Bench Brewing Co. in Beamsville, which have both installed BRU Clean systems from Toronto-based Econse Water Purification Systems Inc.    The employee-owned and -operated Beau’s All-Natural Brewing in Vankleek Hill was the first Ontario beer maker to earn Certified B Corporation certification in 2013. Becoming a B Corp isn’t easy: B Lab, a non-profit that operates globally, verifies that businesses meet stringent require- ments demonstrating their positive social and environmental impacts. High Park Brewery in Toronto and Ernest Cider Co. in Aurora have now joined the B Corp ranks.    Planting trees is one way Kenora’s Lake of the Woods Brewery gives back to its community. Partnering with the First-Nations-owned Miisun Integrated Resource Management Company, it has planted 10,000 trees in three years.    Another Northern Ontario brewery, Sleeping Giant Brewing Co. in Thunder Bay, works with EcoSuperior Environ- mental Programs to encourage land stewardship on Lake Superior’s shores by using sustainable packaging and holding trash-cleanup events.

LCBO 900324, 473 mL, $4.25 Mill Street Tankhouse Ale LCBO 399162, 473 mL, $3.30

  Cowbell Brewing Co.

BLYTH, ON | COWBELLBREWING.COM

On average, it takes 10 glasses of water to make a single pint of beer.

When Grant Sparling, Cowbell’s chief development officer, is asked why sustainable practices are so deeply ingrained in the ethos and actions of the brewery, it comes down to one word: family. For generations, the Sparlings have built family-focused busi- nesses with a commitment to giving back to their largely agricultural community in western Ontario. With achievements like constructing North America’s first carbon-neutral brewery, and its no-impact on- site waste-water treatment, Cowbell continues to lead the way with new initiatives. Up next: a zero-waste kitchen program.

COWBELL IMAGE BY AUSTIN CHAFFE

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SPRING 2020 FOOD & DRINK