Our Story

We popped into soda-making a bit by accident. 

In 2012, we started with a dream, a love of beer, and enough foolishness to think we could make it all work. From meagre beginnings in homebrewing, fast forward to February 2014 and Callister Brewing was signing a lease on a building in East Van with a bit of duct tape, a lot of stubbornness, and a prayer that we would eventually see the brewery open its doors. And we did in July of 2015. We had a vision to build a community space that was a casual, welcoming hub, where neighbours would meet and regulars would make lifelong friends. And we did too. Our collaborative brewing space would welcome 10 different beer brands through its doors over 5 years. In 2018, we started  a small little soda company off the side of our desks. Over the years, Chris made some outstanding beers and we won the Canada Beer Cup in 2022. Meanwhile,  we saw a lot of folks come and go, relationships blossom and fade, and weathered a lot of ups and downs ourselves, through Covid, recessions, and tariffs (the first time). It sometimes feels like not a lot has changed. And yet, as our time there came to a close, we hollered, “LAST CALL!” for the final time on December 31, 2023. 

Callister Craft Soda was born from Diana’s passion for local products and local, sustainable food systems. When we opened Callister Brewing, Diana was making real fermented Ginger Beer at home at the time and it made sense to us that if our customers were coming to us for a locally made, craft beer, that we would make our own sodas as well, with the same ethos and craftsmanship. We started small, with Italian style syrups on the bar, testing out different flavours and recipes. We eventually started bottling by hand in 2018 and selling outside of the brewery. By 2020, as supply chain issues and the pandemic stressed everyone to new limits, we moved to cans and our soda sales started taking off. That said, we’ve still grown very organically, as the two of us were also running a brewery up until 2023, when our lease was up for renewal and we decided to find a new home. Thankfully, as we stressed about where we would build our new foundation, a space opened up nearby.

We make them ourselves. We have defined our sodas with the same honesty and craft that we approached making beer with real ingredients and real cane sugar – no fillers, no sweeteners, no artificial flavours.

We offer a collection of unique and classic flavours that are popular as a specialty non-alcoholic beverage or as a great cocktail mixer. They appeal to kids and adults alike – especially those sweet childhood beverages like Cream Soda and Root Beer that kids love and brings a rush of nostalgia in the rest of us. All of our recipes are our own and we also make and package them ourselves at our own production facility in Port Coquitlam. With this space, we also work toward supporting other local businesses through our own purchasing, as well as our private label and co-packing options. 

We hope you’ll give them a try and love them as much as we do.