Knighthood is within reach for Boston University students through the Quest at the BU Pub.
A BU Pub tradition, the Quest allows students to sample more than 70 craft-style beers. A student of legal age must try 50 beers over the course of more than 12 weeks to complete the quest.
“The Quest is a quest of knowledge about different beers the world has to offer,” said pub manager Michael Leo. “Most students come to college with a limited knowledge of beers outside of the popular domestic beers like Bud and Coors. Craft beers have really taken off over the last few years and the Quest gives people the opportunity to try some really interesting variety of beers.”
Since its commencement, the popularity of pursuing knighthood has grown.
“We have roughly 1,800 students that have been knighted over the years, and currently 1,400 students are on their quest,” Leo said. “The quest started many years ago and the true origins are known only to those that started it.”
60 percent of knights-in-training are men and 40 percent are women, Leo said.
“When a woman completes the quest she becomes a Lady, and the men are Sir,” he said. “When you come in for a knighting your friends pick some fun nicknames and we choose one to be your knight name.”
Victors are given a special tankard to drink out of like those used in the medieval days of knights and ladies.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Andrew Bisdale, a former Daily Free Press contributing photographer, said he started the quest because of the hype surrounding it.
“I heard that drinking beer could be a quest toward something and that you could gain a title just by drinking a lot of beer,” he said. “I’m not going to graduate cum laude or with honors or anything, but if I can graduate with Sir Andrew Bisdale in the eyes of the BU Pub that would be an accomplishment.”
For Rachel Johnson and Cynthia Cano, both CAS seniors, the BU Pub Quest is on their list of things to do before graduation.
“I have a crappy list of a few things &- the quest, a Duc Tour, and I want to go to the observatory here and the [Isabella Stewart] Gardner museum after hours,” Johnson said.
The quest is both social and educational, Johnson and Cano said.
“A couple of my friends were knighted and I saw the pictures and I really wanted to go. I heard their names and they were hilarious,” Cano said. “I’m not going to tell you what they are because they are naughty, but they are so funny and I’m terrified for what mine is going to be.”
College of Engineering senior Patrick McDowell, who became a knight less than two weeks ago, described the ceremony as something similar to a roast.
“You come with a bunch of friends and they come up with some names for you,” he said. “They make some drinks for you, bartender’s choice, and they read all the names and then you get dubbed a knight. You get your first beer in one of the nice mugs.”
ENG senior Sterling Worth also took part in the Quest with McDowell, his roommate.
“I heard about it and I thought I haven’t had that many beers in variety,” he said. “We were dedicated, because we wanted to finish before our senior year was over.”
He said he pursued the quest to expand his boundaries to figure out his likes and dislikes with different drinks.
“If I go someplace else and they don’t serve anything that I know, I can go, “what type of beer is this’ and I can go, “OK, well, I like that.'”
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