Breweries and their connection to admissions

A public service advisory from the blogger-in-chief, in answer to the question that seems to be on every caller’s mind this morning.  What time is the deadline?  The deadline is 11:59 p.m. EST (GMT-5) tonight, January 10. 

And now, we return to our regular content.

My short blog survey last fall yielded many useful topic ideas.  And then there was this one:  breweries.  While I don’t know why someone thought this was a topic of vital importance to the blog, I nonetheless am happy to rise to the challenge and, moreover, to demonstrate the topic’s relevance to the Fletcher community.  I realize this frothy post might not be what you were expecting on the day of our main application deadline, but when better to distract ourselves?

So, breweries.  While Boston is not traditionally one of the main commercial brewing centers in the U.S., we nonetheless have rich local offerings.  To get you started, I’ll note four breweries in particular:  The big guys, Harpoon Brewery and Sam Adams Brewery, both in Boston; and two Somerville-based nomadic tenant brewers, Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project and Somerville Brewing Company.  For a more complete reckoning, refer to the BeerAdvocate list.  A beer aficionado could happily drink local for the length of a Fletcher degree program.

But what if our aficionado wanted to talk beer with other students.  Well, then, membership in the Fletcher Fermentation 101 club would be a must.  The mission and guiding principle of the group is:

Fermented products know neither time nor borders, and have been shared and enjoyed by many cultures throughout history.  Fermentation 101 seeks to create a knowledge-sharing community at Fletcher that teaches and learns about the multifaceted wonders of fermentation.  We explore all of the possibilities of fermentation, which include beer, wine, cider, cheese, kombucha, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, kimchi, yogurt, and tempeh. Our club hosts popular “beer and cheese pairings” each semester, as well as other events such as sourdough bread making, yogurt making, beer tastings, and private tours of local breweries. All members are encouraged to share a curiosity about fermentation and a desire to be involved in the greater fermentation community around Boston.

Finally, dear blog reader who challenged me to write about breweries, there’s this.  The Boston Globe recently ran comprehensive lists of the area’s best beer bars, and followed up with the honorable mention selection.  Many of these locales are within two miles of campus.

So there you have it.  Breweries and a connection to the Fletcher community, even if the only admissions link is that we could all use a distraction today.