Cariboo beer hits Kwantlen café

By Kristi Alexandra
[culture editor]

The Grassroots café may be getting a new beer very soon.

Cariboo, from Pacific Western Brewing, could be replacing the Sleemans and Okanagan beers that are currently sold at the Surrey Campus café and lounge.

Adam Rhode, manager at the KSA-run Grassroots café, says he hasn’t yet solidified a deal with Pacific Western Brewing, but it’s likely to happen. An order may be placed with Cariboo once the current keg runs dry, he says.

Nathan Griffiths, event management representative for Pacific Western Brewing and former KSA marketing and communications coordinator, says Cariboo is offering three types of beer to the Grassroots café.

“There will be three products available: honey lager will be on tap, the genuine draft—the green cans—will be sold in cans, and the pale ale will be in cans as well,” he says.

Rhode says that if the Grassroots goes ahead with the deal, there’s a possibility that the cans might go down in price from the bottles and cans of Sleemans and Okanagan, which are currently sold at $3.95. The price for the draft beer, however, will stay the same.

“Our draft really can’t get much cheaper,” he says. At $2.75 per sleeve of draft beer and $4.10 per pint, students can’t complain.

Along with getting Cariboo into the café, Pacific Western Brewing will be offering a tasting to take place within the next two weeks.

“We’ll be doing a tasting of Cariboo and the other lines that Pacific Western offers, such as Nature Land, which is our organic line,” Griffiths says.

Mike Finch, a criminology and psychology student, says it would be a bad move to take away the existing Sleemans beers.

“The cheaper price is nice, but I prefer the taste of Sleemans over Cariboo,” Finch says.

“I would prefer to see all three in at once, more variety. It’s kind of annoying to have to choose the same beer over and over,” he says. “Part of going to a bar, especially if you’re a beer drinker, is that you want different types.”