Each spring, alumni fill orange and black plastic cups with beer from thousands of kegs planted firmly in the grass beneath Reunions tents. But this year, one major class reunion will not be on tap.
Not that its celebration will be dry, either. At the Class of 1975's 30th Reunion, revelers will drink amber bottles of Tiger Beer, a Singaporean lager popular in Asia and the United Kingdom.
Months after his 25th Reunion in 2000, Jay Finkelstein '75 drank his first bottle of Tiger Beer while on vacation in Vietnam with his family.
An alumnus with Old Nassau always on his mind, Finkelstein could not help being attracted to the golden tiger on each bottle's label.
After he became treasurer of 1975's 30th Reunion Committee, Finkelstein started to think about making Tiger Beer a reality for his class.
The 75-year-old beer company seemed a logical choice for Princeton, 30th Reunion Chairman Bill Baumbach '75 said.
"Without thinking of any other aspect of the beer, it was purely the idea of the Princeton Tiger that made us want to serve this beer at our reunion," he explained, adding, "I was determined to bring in higher quality beer for the entire class."
When Finkelstein called Tiger Beer's New York office last July, he learned the company had neither a license nor a distributor in New Jersey.
"New Jersey wasn't on our radar for expansion during the first couple years of Tiger's distribution in the U.S.," the company's Market Development Manager Sean Davis said. "But the opportunity at Princeton presented itself to us and got us thinking about what we could do."
There were other obstacles as well. Bottles of beer had not been served at any Princeton Reunion in recent memory, and the break from tradition presented Baumbach and Finkelstein with the challenge of receiving approval from the Alumni Council.
As part of the agreement, the class will recycle the bottles and take precautions to ensure that no one is injured by broken glass.
So, this week, Tiger Beer will be served beneath 1975's tent. "I was surprised by the quantity they wanted — 240 cases of 24 beers [a total of 5,760 bottles]," Davis said. "But I suppose it will be a lot of fun."
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