At Pub, Beer School is Back

Beer School is in now session.

The Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub kicked off its first evening of food and drink yesterday with guest speaker Jonathan A. Cadoux, the founder of Peak Organic Brewing Company.

Just after 5 p.m. a crowd of mostly undergraduates gathered at the pub to hear Cadoux speak about his brewery and to taste four of its signature beers. Bread, cheese, nuts and fruit were paired to each beer’s distinct flavor.

Last night’s monthly beer school continued the pub’s popular series begun last year that highlights a different craft brewer each month.

Each session is given a theme, and last night Cadoux touched upon how he first incorporated organic products in his business. While in his dorm room in 1998, Cadoux developed the idea to brew beer himself after purchasing some brewing equipment.

“I was always passionate about food,” he told the audience, “and I started to realize all the organic food was way tastier.”

Cadoux found farmers who grew organic barley and hops and started brewing in Vermont. He then took his ideas with him to Harvard Business School and, during his time there, was able to develop his business plan. The business took off from there.

In response to a question about the market for organic “craft” beers, he replied, “You read about all the gloom and doom. In this economy, people first drink more booze but also drink better beer. People are just getting more and more used to craft beers.”

One of the goals of the pub has been to make craft beers—which come from smaller breweries—accessible, explained the pub’s food and beverage manager Scott D. Alpizar ’09.

“We want to get people to enjoy good beer. There’s more to beer than just drinking as much as you can,” Alpizar said. “It’s very flavorful, very different.”

Philip “Beamer” R. Eisele ’08 began the program last fall to educate students about craft beer and give them an opportunity to taste its different brews. As someone who could tell you “anything and everything you want to know about beer,” his goal was to promote students awareness of craft breweries, according to Alpizar.

Craft beers also have distinct tastes not found in most supermarket beers. “Coors doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Craft brews usually emphasize flavor, such as pumpkin, grapefruit or raspberry,” Alpizar said.

While there are students who regularly attend these sessions, there are also many curious newcomers.

“It’s an unbeatable value! There’s food, beer,” Sergio Prado ’09 said about the $10 ticket price that covers both drinks and food. “I’ve loved beer for quite a long time. Our whole blocking group loves beer. This just seemed like a good idea.”

He added that, throughout last year, he and his blocking group tried to find one new beer each day.

The pub has two more speakers thus far on this semester’s line-up. In November, a representative from Allagash Brewing Company, and another from Samuel Adams, will speak in December. The pub is also working on creating a season pass for beer school that will also include other perks.

Alipzar would like consumers to remember that “there is more to beer than getting drunk.” Beer has a flavor of its own.