According to College senior Genevieve Deutch, “Penn doesn’t teach us basic life skills such as balancing a checkbook or picking up a girl on the dance floor.” To remedy this, the Penn chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi Society — of which Deutch is president — invited nationally acclaimed beer home-brewer George Hummel to speak about his profession. A small but interested group of students came to hear him speak in the basement of Meyerson Hall Thursday night.
Hummel began his talk by explaining why people brew their own beer, noting that “it’s just another level of appreciation.” A brief history of beer-brewing followed, flavored with the occasional anecdote — such as the time that one of his friends dressed as Benjamin Franklin turned down a free beer rather than accepting and quipping that “a penny saved is a penny earned.”
Moving on to the mechanics of brewing beer at home, Hummel explained the role of yeast, malt and hops, complete with a pot of boiling barley and a small glass container filled with actively fermenting ale.
The talk ended on a more philosophical note, with Hummel asserting that “beer belongs on the dinner table, just as much as wine does.”
Furthermore, one’s favorite beer depends on circumstance. “Modern Americans need to have the best of everything,” he said, “and they can’t accept that what’s the best on Tuesday isn’t the best on Thursday.”
The owner of Center City’s Home Sweet Homebrew, Hummel has taught courses on beer at Drexel and Temple universities and is a recipient of the Governor’s Inspiration Award for his contributions to Pennsylvania and its beer industry.
Wharton sophomore Matt Gould, a member of Alpha Delta Phi who organized the event, invited Hummel because he expected that “this is definitely something that people will rally around.”
The talk was part of Penn’s chapter of Alpha Delta Phi’s attempt to bring uncommon learning to campus. “We’re traditionally a literary society,” College senior and Alpha Delta Phi member Amy Tarangelo said. “We wanted to consider knowledge that people don’t usually get in college.” As compared to a typical fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi’s events are “more academically inclined — or in this case, more fun,” Tarangelo added.
Engineering junior Hannah Min thought that the fraternity succeeded in this goal. “I definitely learned something. [Hummel] was very knowledgeable about beer,” she said.
Engineering junior Blake Bleier said, “I thought brewing beer was much more difficult. And I really want to try making it.”
