Quincy House residents came to their first-ever Stein Club last Thursday night, prepared for beer and a good time.

Hard-core Quincy folk eschewed the provided plastic in favor of more spirited House steins, while students, tutors and recently appointed House Master Robert R. Kirshner mingled and made merry with cups of Bass Ale.

Kirshner decided this fall that Quincy should join the ranks of the 10 other Houses who host regular stein clubs. Stein clubs are an anomaly in that they are usually the only House-sponsored events that serve alcohol.

But in an age when College administrators are hyper-aware of curbing underage and binge drinking, stein clubs have intentionally shifted from events all about the alcohol to gatherings where members of the House can socialize.

The Houses that sponsor stein clubs set strict rules about who gets to drink, how much and even what kind of beer will be served.

A New Tradition in Quincy

Kirshner says he readily agreed when the Quincy House Committee approached him about starting a Stein Club. He even offered to have the House buy the first keg.

“The only stipulation I made is it had to be a good beer, not Bud Light,” Kirshner said Thursday, holding his “Evolution of the Universe” stein. “It has to be Sam Adams or better. It’s kind of like a low-brow wine tasting.”

But Kirshner says that alcohol is not the main focus of the event.

“The presence of beer is not an extraordinary thing,” he said in an interview before the event. “I’ll be there. The senior tutor will be there. This is not going to be a beer blast.”

Instead, the purpose of Stein Club is to give Quincy residents another opportunity to get to know one another, he says.

Quincy resident Kira C. Whelan ’02 said the event was just what she needed after a busy week.

“It’s a nice end to midterm period, a nice release in the middle of the week,” Whelan said. “We’ve got tutors and the Master and students coming together to chill, instead of studying in their rooms.”

But Stein Club hasn’t always had such a benign nature.

Lowell House Committee Chair Kyle D. Hawkins ’02 says that up until four or five years ago, the Lowell Stein Club was centered solely on alcohol and how much you could drink of it.