56
THE ALLEYNIAN 710
The name ‘Brueri Alleyniensis’ is an obvious play on the first line of the school song “
Brewing up a storm
BrewSoc, otherwise known as Brueri Alleyniensis, is one of the more recherché societies in the Union, as Abel Banfield and Fred Edenborough (Year 12) discovered when they interviewed BrewSoc founder, and chief brewer, Physics teacher Keith Rowney
Abel Banfield and Fred Edenborough: When did you start brewing? What inspired you? How did you go about introducing it in Dulwich College? Keith Rowney: I started homebrewing a couple of years before I started teaching at the College. Microbreweries were increasing in number and popularity, and when I learned about the Union of Societies I thought that students in the Upper School would really enjoy learning how to brew their own beer. I made a detailed proposal to Mr Scarisbrick and, after quite a bit of deliberation and legal advice, he agreed. Mr Willetts and I went on a one-day homebrewing course at U-Brew in Bermondsey in the summer of 2017 and made a batch of amber ale, which was reasonable. BrewSoc started officially that October. Interestingly, the
school statutes (written by Edward Alleyn himself) include the statement that boys should drink ‘beer without stint’ with every meal. This is because water, at that time, was not safe, due to typhoid and cholera, so weak beer was far safer. I love the idea that there was a brewery onsite 400 years ago and would love to re-instate a brewery. Calista Lucy, the Keeper of the College Archives, sends me a regular stream of information from the archives about transactions for malt and other ingredients over the years. Recently she found an invoice related to payment for the tiling of the brewery. The Brew Society motto is ‘Beer without stint’, for obvious reasons. The name ‘Brueri Alleyniensis’ is an obvious play on the first line of the school song, and was created by Arjan Gupta OA, founding member of DC BrewSoc.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker