Cheers to beer: Graham DeLaet stirs up local flavour with new craft brew

A new craft beer with Saskatchewan roots will soon be swinging onto shelves.

PGA Tour golfer, and Weyburn product, Graham DeLaet has teamed up with Bomber Brewery to launch his own brew aptly named Prairie Baard – Blue Collar Craft.

“It’s as Saskatchewan as it gets, you know, that hard-working mentality,” DeLaet told The Brent Loucks Show Wednesday morning.

The brew pays homage to the golfer’s Sask. roots, with the inclusion of malted barley and wheat from his home province in the ingredients.

Pairie Baard also pays tribute to DeLaet’s heritage – ‘baard’ means beard in Dutch, and is a perfect complement to the golfer’s signature facial hair style.

“(The beard has) kind of become my thing I guess. I know that obviously not everyone likes it, and I’m not doing it for anybody else,” he said.

The Bomber Brew team, while based in Vancouver, is also made up of three hearty Saskatchewan boys.

In the upcoming weeks, the beer will be available in SLGA locations across Saskatchewan and in top liquor distributors throughout Alberta – including Sobeys, Safeway, Co-op and Liquor Depot.

“A lot of pro golfers come out with their wines or whatever – I mean, I do like wine – but my roots are in beer,” DeLaet said.

“I have a cold beer at the end of the day, the end of a golf round.”

DeLaet said demand has been high from the offset, but they’re still planning to start small with the goal to expand across Canada.

While the golfer has afforded his hometown of Weyburn plenty of headlines, he’s not the biggest news this week.

On Tuesday, a local KFC buffet – one of the last in Canada – was threatened with closure. DeLaet said he frequented the establishment, and was pleased to hear KFC corporate had taken a stance to keep the mainstay open.

“I thought that was normal for every KFC, you know, when you grow up in a small town,” he said.

The pro golfer will be on hand to officially launch the beer for people to try at the Saskatoon SLGA in University Heights on Nelson Road Wednesday from 5:30- 7:30 p.m. 

A second kick-off event will be held in Calgary, Alta. Thursday at the Sobeys in Royal Oak from 5:30-7:30 p.m.