Harvard Students Celebrate Wonders of Beer

Ian W. Nichols ’06 won’t discuss any official business at board meetings until he’s had at least two beers.

Such are the rules of the Harvard Beer Society, a new organization dedicated to raising student awareness of good beer.

About a dozen beer enthusiasts traveled yesterday to Beeradvocate.com’s Belgian Beer Fest, held in the Boston Cyclorama, an open auditorium in Back Bay.

Before the group left Harvard, members and other drop-ins gathered for over an hour in a slant-roofed common room in the upper echelons of Dunster House.

William P. Deringer ’06, the group’s President Pro Beer, served a variety of hand-picked beers from around the world, drawing pint glasses from a tetrahedral arrangement while preparing members for the upcoming festival.

Deringer characterized Belgian beer as a hybrid of wine and a traditional beer that is fruit-flavored and contains sediments. He said some are even brewed by monks in abbeys.

Once the group entered into the Cyclorama, they toured about 30 booths of importers and brewers, according to Nichols, the group’s Beer Czar. They made small-talk with the importers, heard speeches on Belgian beer and sampled the goods.

While ticket-holders were only supposed to sample a limited number of beers, Nichols said that provision was not strictly enforced and that it was “essentially all-you-can-drink.”

Nichols said the Stone Vertical Epic Ale was the best drink available; he even donated money to that brewery because he liked it so much.

He said the purpose of the club is to promote the consumption of high-quality beer by Harvard students.

“It turns out most Harvard students have drunk shitty beer,” Nichols said. “Binging on cheap beer is an American concoction.”

It seemed that these beer aficionados certainly know their stuff. Whether it comes to explaining the historical need fulfilled by India Pale Ales (IPA) or matching the proper glass to each brew, the board members are well-informed on all things beer. They even keep a “beer log” with ratings and comments on sampled brews.

The group is currently seeking a faculty adviser so it can register as an official student group and apply for Undergraduate Council grants to defray some of the costs.

The group’s emergence comes at a time when other alcohol-based organizations have popped up on campus.

Thefacebook.com lists a group called Society of Harvard Imbibers of The Terrific Yeasty Beverages Egregious Elitists Refuse (SHITTYBEER) that boasts more than a dozen members.

Shanon T. Peter ’05, who started the SHITTYBEER group for fun, decried the lack of affordable drinking spots around Harvard Square. Although he said he prefers drinking more sophisticated beers, it can be an expensive habit.

“You’ve got to respect the shitty beers. They have their place in the world,” Peter said.

In addition to the Harvard Beer Society, student enthusiasm for alcohol has manifested itself in other outlets. Eliot House has its own wine society. Last spring, Matt Kozlov ’04 successfully petitioned to create an anthropology class about alcohol entitled “Intoxicating Agents in Comparative and Historical Perspective.”

But the Belgian Beer Fest won’t be the Harvard Beer Society’s last excursion. According to Nichols, the Society plans to attend two beer fests sponsored by Beeradvocate.com later this year as well as organize an overnight trip to Portsmouth, N.H. to tour three breweries renowned for their sophisticated beers. Nichols is also seeking to interface with a House Stein Club to conduct a joint event.