Hops and Grapes Garden has connection to Langara College

Local businesses, The Artisan Wine Shop and Parallel 49 Brewery are setting up in the beer and wine garden at Community Day presented by RBC Royal Bank. Affectionately named the Hops and Grapes Garden – the popular festival attraction will be situated on the front lawn facing the main stage and will give the two vendors an opportunity to showcase their products to the Langara community.

And like much of the Community Day programming, there was a concerted effort to partner with businesses and performers who were also contributing members of the Langara community.

For The Artisan Wine Shop, the connection to Langara is Laura Geier, a 2016 alum and the director of People Operations at Mission Hill Family Estate Winery. Laura connected Langara to The Artisan Wine Shop through the Mark Anthony Group, of which it and Mission Hill are a part.

For Parallel 49, there are several connections, most notable is to Graham With, also a Langara alum and the beer maker’s head brewer. Graham was instrumental in Parallel 49 becoming an industry partner of Langara. As previously posted, the College has a project focused on designing bioinformatics and biochemistry tools that support the craft brewing industry in BC. Langara’s biology instructor Ji Yang and chemistry instructor Kelly Sveinson are leading a team of science students to collaborate with local breweries, including Parallel 49 Brewing, to develop tools for detecting beer spoilage and yeast degradation. A component of the project also involves analyzing the lineage of wild BC hops to support novel product development, a collaboration with Harvesters of Organic Hops Company.

Those interested in learning more about Langara’s partnership with Parallel 49 and Harvesters of Organic Hops can attend the Speaker Series session, Beer. An Applied Research Story. at Community Day from 11:15 am-11:45 am.

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