Asian Heritage Month Beer Release: Kinship Wheat Ale

May is Asian Heritage Month, and Stanley Park Brewing is celebrating diversity and standing against all forms of anti-Asian racism and discrimination. In collaboration with the PAC-Asia employee resource group, and in support of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, Stanley Park Brewing is launching their Kinship Wheat Ale, a beer celebrating the coexistence of cultures and embracing the diversity that makes Canada unique.

Tasting Notes

The Kinship Wheat Ale is a refreshing fruited wheat ale brewed with rice. You can expect a citrusy twang from kumquat and some sweetness from starfruit, for the perfect blend.

Design & Partnership

The label was designed by internal PAC Asia employee resource group member Michael Hua and Alisha Khanna, created to bring communities together and celebrate Asian Heritage Month, their cultures and kinship.

Stanley Park Brewing has partnered with the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, a registered charity founded in 2011 that honours a culture and community established in Vancouver more than 100 years. The organization is characterized by a spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and a passion to help the revitalization of Chinatown, one of Canada’s most iconic neighborhoods and the historic heart of Vancouver.

All proceeds from Stanley Park Brewing’s Kinship Wheat Ale are going towards the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, supporting their revitalization efforts.

Chatting with the
Kinship Wheat Ale Design Team

Alisha Khanna

I am the production manager on the draftLine team at Labatt, and within Pac-Asia, I’m the South-Asian lead, a new addition to the ERG team in 2022. Having planned a successful Holi event in March, I am looking forward to the Diwali celebration later this year!

Originally born and raised in Vancouver, I spent some time moving around with my family, even living in New Delhi, India for two years. It was during this time that I was able to really connect with and appreciate the Indian culture, experiencing local, diverse, traditions and celebrating holidays with my family.

Working on this partnership project with both Stanley Park and Pac Asia has allowed the opportunity to bring two things together that I value - the diverse community of Vancouver that I grew up in, and the importance of diverse Asian representation and Kinship.

Michael Hua

I’m a senior designer at Labatt’s in-house agency, draftLine, typically responsible for designing content for Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra. Born and raised in Toronto, I’m a second generation Canadian with my Asian heritage deriving from my Chinese and Vietnamese roots.

Kinship Wheat Ale
Questions & Answers

Tell us a bit about this label design?

Kinship is all about the social relationship between family, friends, and one’s community. To illustrate this, I wanted to showcase a group of friends all having a good time where each person is from a different Asian background wearing clothes important to their culture and traditions. The overall idea of the design was to show the sense of community between the friends who all hold strong kinship for one another.

Can you tell us your involvement with the Pac Asia ERG Group?

With PAC-Asia, I usually am brought on board to design and illustrate for different projects they have planned such as this Stanley Park beer as well as Mill St’s own version of Kinship Wheat Ale released last summer.

Anything you’re looking forward to with this group? What’s coming up?

Always looking forward to all the different events/initiatives PAC-Asia has coming next!

Please share what working on the Kinship Wheat Ale design project along with Stanley Park x Pac Asia ERG team means to you?

It is such a great honour to be part of this whole project. I’m appreciative of this amazing opportunity to have this platform to illustrate work that speaks to the Asian community. Representation truly matters. Also big thanks to Stanley Park and PAC Asia bringing this idea to life and giving back to the Asian community!

Any last notes/comments about Asian Heritage Month, this design, or anything that you’d like to share!

Love visiting Vancouver and Stanley Park! Nature and going outdoors are some of my favourite things and I’m always in awe of seeing the mountains scenery Vancouver has in the city skylines.