The New Spirit in Adams House

Something’s brewing in Adams House, and it’s not just beer. Last week at Carpe Noctem—Adams’ answer to the other houses’ more plebeian Stein Clubs—a blonde ale called “Gold Room Gold” made its debut and house pride bubbled to the surface. The five gallons of “Smada” beer (“Adams” backward), brewed in the house kitchen under the direction of brewmaster Joseph D. Hiatt ’11, ran out within the first 15 minutes. “Nice fuzz, full body. I’d come back for more,” Adams House Master Sean G. Palfrey ’67 said. The House plans on making Smada unveilings an Adams tradition, with a new home brew offered every week at Carpe Noctem. I’ve never been more proud to be an Adams House resident.

The idea for an Adams brewery was born late last year when poetry tutor Zachary C. Sifuentes ’97 proposed it to the House Committee. Before approving it, the House Masters needed proof that the endeavor had been fully thought through. “We wanted a brewmaster and we wanted a plan that didn’t involve making it in the bathtub. We have a bias toward medically safe procedures in the house,” Palfrey, a specialist in pediatrics, said.

The craft beer dreamers came through. They appointed Sifuentes faculty advisor and Hiatt brew master. David A. Seley, the manager of Adams House dining hall, agreed to advise students on keeping the brew bacteria free. Sharon L. Howell, the Resident Dean, checked that no brewer could be ad-boarded for the hobby. (Legal note: even those under 21 can make beer. The trouble comes with possessing it.) The Diaspora Kitchen in H-entryway was secured for Friday brewing sessions.

“Everyone in the house has been extremely supportive of the venture,” said Hiatt, who learned the craft of brewing with his father and would love to go into the industry. “The way I see it, HoCo is paying for me to do something I love. I want to do it forever. The trick will be to find a sophomore in two years to pick it up when I graduate,” Hiatt said as he transferred the fermenting liquid from the barrel to the carboy to remove sediment. He spends about ten hours a week preparing Smada, making the hallways of Randolph smell like the steam behind John Harvard’s. “Just smell it, it smells great,” he said.

A part of the excitement involved in beer brewing stems from the relative dearth of knowledge about the process. Although the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub is doing its share to raise beer awareness on campus, inviting specialty brewers to speak, beer expertise still isn’t mainstream. I knew next to nothing about brewing myself, though it’s surprisingly easy. The process, essentially liquid baking, can be broken down into five steps.

First, choose a recipe and buy all the ingredients. “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” by Charles Papazian is the bible for craft beer makers and Homebrew Emporium, a fully stocked homebrew shop at 2304 Mass Ave., carries everything from hops to grains to starting kits.

Second, make “sweet wort” by steeping grains in not-quite-boiling water long enough to wake up the enzymes.

Then, bring the liquid to a boil, adding hops gradually. Hops are the female flower cones of the hop plant that give beer its bitter flavor.

Fourth, throw the liquid into a sterilized bucket, add the yeast, and let it ferment.

Finally, to get a clearer, better brew, periodically transfer the wort to a new container to remove the sediment. At this point, it’s also the time to “dry hop” it with fancier flavors like roasted coffee grounds or coriander to give the beer more complex flavors.

The whole process, from start to first sip, takes about four weeks.

Smada has instilled Adams with a fair amount of house pride. “In Adams, there’s no secrets. No surprises. Everyone’s on board. Maybe that’s why Adams did it first,” Sean Palfrey said.

“It’s just another reason why Adams is the best house,” Amanda R. Wallace ’10—HoCo secretary and my roommate—said, sipping the Gold Room Gold.

To be fair, although Adams house was the first to formally make beer brewing a house tradition, it wasn’t the first to venture into the world of wort. Last fall, Winthrop tutor Jonathan P. Wilson began making the bubbly stuff in Winthrop’s Senior Common Room. His e-mails over the Winthrop House list, inviting anyone over the age of 21 to help brew, have met with plenty of enthusiasm. “I’ve had as many as 30 kids watching the pot boil,” Wilson said. When I met with him, he was stirring a pot of murky water with muslin sacks of barley bobbing near the surface. He was making a porter to be dry hopped with cacao and vanilla beans. Not quite Natty Ice.

And if Chris N. Lewis ’09 gets his way, the other houses will soon be joining the brewing elite. Lewis, of Lowell House, is trying to drum up support for an inter-house Brew-Off, dreaming of a “Pfoho Pfilsner” and a “Lowell Lager.” So far seven of twelve houses have taken up the gauntlet for the competition, slated to begin January 2009.

In his emails to the various HoCos, Lewis advertised brewing as both a green project since it reuses beer bottles (that have been religiously sterilized) and as a way to return Stein Club to its original intent—to foster community building in the presence of tasty beer. Palfrey, Sifuentes, and Hiatt package it as a way to teach and encourage responsible drinking. Adams HoCo claims it saves them money. These reasons may be legitimate to varying degrees, but the true reason Smada should be celebrated is because it inspires house spirit in this post-randomization age of apathy. People piled into the upper common room last Thursday to try the house beer for the same reason they got riled up during the Eliot vs. Adams rug scandal of 2008 and the Pfoho gong drama of ’99. Our ancestral sense of house spirit was called forth. We wanted to be a part of a petty demonstration of house pride like that displayed on Housing Day. And since beer was involved, we were ready with our war paint.

Next step? Tutor Jade d’Alpoim Guedes is trying to approve the installation of a brick-oven pizza so Adamsians can enjoy homemade pizza for Carpe Noctem. Other houses, are you up to the challenge?