Fanshawe brews up a new partnership

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: MELISSA NOVACASKA
Fanshawe's new partnership with Railway City Brewing Company is a learning experience for students to watch how beer is made such as Fanshawe's 50th anniversary Legacy Lager beverage.

Fanshawe College announced its new educational partnership with the Railway City Brewing Company in a Fanshawe news press release, earlier this month.

The partnership will provide students from the food and beverage management program, along with other interested students from the department, the opportunity to travel to the Railway City Brewery Company in St. Thomas, Ont., to witness the different steps and procedures that occur when crafting beer.

According to James Smith, the Chair of Fanshawe’s School of Tourism and Hospitality, the College is always looking for new opportunities for students to learn outside of a lecture/theoretical style classroom.

“We have a huge community in London and we like to connect with as many partners as we can from the community that help support our programs and student learning,” Smith said. “The partnership with Railway City Brewery will create an opportunity for our student to spend the day at the brewery and watch the whole process of how beer is made.”

The College has also launched a new beer to commemorate Fanshawe’s 50th anniversary called the Legacy Lager.

The commemorative beer will be available on campus at Saffron’s, the Out Back Shack and the Railway City Brewery in St. Thomas where it is produced.

According to the Fanshawe news release, the Legacy Lager is described as “a light gold lager with notes of sweet fruit and citrus, slight toasted spice, a hint of floral hops and a crisp and refreshing finish.”

According to Smith, students from the food and beverage management program along with several other Fanshawe students had the opportunity to taste test different types of beer in order to choose which one would become the commemorative beer for the college’s 50th anniversary.

In the end, the students chose a lager as the winner.

Simon Dunford, a Fanshawe graphic design student, had the opportunity to taste the Legacy Lager during the summer semester.

“I really enjoyed the Legacy Lager. I understand that they are trying to keep the taste more neutral and less hoppy than most craft beers,” Dunford said.

Andrea Ayala, a graphic design graduate from Fanshawe, created the unique hand drawn typographic illustration for the Legacy Lager.

Ayala explained that she wanted the design to have a vintage feel while still incorporating a modern twist. This fusion of styles commemorates both Fanshawe’s past and present.

Ayala explained that she’s been working in Fanshawe’s Reputation and Brand Management department for over a year and was given the task by the department to design the illustration for the can.

“It’s a really big honour as a student in graphic design to have been chosen for the project,” Ayala said. “You could say that this project was kind of like a design unicorn. It’s a project that not every designer gets but every designer wants.”

According to Ayala, she began working on the artwork at the beginning of the winter semester and many different designs were put forward before the final product was chosen.

“It was a pretty long process and I’m pretty happy with [the design],” Ayala said. “I even have a six-pack of it in my fridge.”