A Case of Kwantlen
Why not showcase KPU Beer on every campus?
Like many workplaces, the staff of The Runner conformed to annual holiday tradition and conducted an office-wide Secret Santa, wherein each staff member gives a single gift to a randomly selected coworker. My past experience with Secret Santa means I know that I can expect one of two things: either a gift so personal I would have never expected it, or a gift card.
While I’m totally the gift-card-guy, there are people with creativity. A few years ago a coworker bought me a small punch and die set to make my own guitar picks. I remember being struck by the thoughtfulness of her giving.
I had the same feeling this year when I was given a 64oz Growler filled with Oatmeal Stout from the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Brew Lab by Staff Writer extraordinaire Kier-Christer Junos, because if there’s anything that I love as much as poetry and punk rock, it’s craft beer. I can’t proclaim to know anything at all about beer, but after a trip to the U.K. about 10 years ago, I fell in love with dark, flavourful ales and that KPU Oatmeal Stout reminded me of a beer I’d sampled at the Cains Brewery in Liverpool.
Such is the evocative power of taste to transport through memory and time. This KPU brew transported me back to Liverpool: low light of the north England gray, salt of Merseyside in the air. I got to thinking: what else am I missing that KPU has to offer?
Wouldn’t it be great if the vast talent of Kwantlen students, such as those in the KPU Brew Lab, could be showcased across all the campuses? Imagine taps on every campus serving KPU Brew Lab selections. I’m sure students might have heard about the Brew Lab from a friend or by reading The Runner’s profile, but there is no better way to experience beer than to taste it.
Unfortunately, Brew Lab sales are currently only at the Langley campus for limited hours per week and this makes it difficult for students without transportation to enjoy the product of the Lab’s labour.
Many students I have spoken with criticize the transitory nature of KPU. The complaints frequently stem from the fact that the institution has few spaces students can really call their own, spaces where students engage with each other and the great work each is doing in their field of study. Yes, fine art students have galleries to display their creations and political science students have an undergraduate academic journal to showcase their research, but neither of these fosters a sense of Kwantlen community outside of their respective departments.
I’d like to see spaces where students can engage with each other in a liberated way. I wish I could pop into Grassroots at the Surrey campus (or maybe even our very own student pub) to grab a pint of the Brew Lab’s finest after an evening class. Nothing would be better for the Kwantlen community than conversations spilling from the classroom into the barroom and continuing into the night.
