Andy
Whether it's shot-gunning Busch Lights in a Stewart bathroom or savoring a pint of Oatmeal Stout at Two Brother's, Middlebury students have a special relationship with beer. Like most American teenagers, I was not allowed to consume alcohol, so once I got to college I started drinking like an idiot. The same goes for anything - when you aren't allowed to do something you're going to want to do it ... like an idiot.
On any given Friday I was downing about eight beers, which is a lot for my size, and mindlessly participating in the degenerate shenanigans of my hall. Some of my low moments include vomiting, keeping Public Safety out of my hall with giant bales of hay, vomiting in bushes, indirectly supporting a lobster-fighting ring and projectile vomiting. It wasn't cute.
Even though I was well aware of my descent into alcoholism, there was no avoiding the anti-support group that was my all-male freshman dorm hall. But I don't blame them for my lack of self-control. It was the combination of well intentioned but overly protective parents and a bogus drinking age that forced me to learn how to drink by going completely overboard at first and then slowly cleaning up my act over the next three years. I can say now that I don't binge drink anymore, although I'm sure some people aren't so lucky.
Anyway, the dark days are over and my relationship with beer has changed from obsessive/destructive to truly reverent and respectful (kind of like girls). After taking a brewing workshop this past J-term I started making - and loving - beer.
I love everything about making beer. Millions of recipes exist in books and online, calling for ingredients as wild and esoteric as cayenne pepper, Chinese rock sugar, coffee beans, honey, ginger and just about any fruit imaginable. Currently, I am cooking up a batch of Imperial Cream Stout, a heavy and complex beer with a lot of mouth feel and hints of chocolate, coffee, soy sauce and mahogany. I'm excited about drinking it when it reaches maturity in November - which if you didn't know, is seven months away. You definitely won't catch me chugging my homebrew. Where beer used to be a means to an end, it is now a cherished ritual and creative outlet. Seriously.
That's why I propose that a brew club be started at Middlebury. Kids need to learn how to drink and appreciate beer. Do our parents expect us to learn how to drink from kids our age? I hope not. How does Middlebury expect us to drink responsibly when we're forced to hide in our dorm rooms and estimate how much is enough for a full evening? It sure as hell isn't social and it definitely isn't safe. A sub-free campus is as ignorant and insulting as abstinence-only education.
So, lastly, for the skeptics that think a brew club would just be a drinking club, please take into consideration that a beer takes at least six weeks to make! You're not going to chug your labor of love - you're going to sniff it like a bloodhound, swirl it and take a slow sip, letting all the beautiful aromas hit your hard palate before swallowing. Not to mention, it's really tough going back to Busch Light after drinking an Imperial Cream Stout.
Alex
Visit the school, spend more than a few days here. It's very easy to get a deceptive first impression but make sure you know what the campus life is like both during the week and over the weekend to get a good idea of what the school is like.
Quinn
The administration needs to start caring more about the student body and listening to its opinions. The faculty and staff are awesome, the students are great, but the President and higher-up Deans are pushing a certain agenda regardless of what anyone else says. The school is raising its tuition and spending its money on construction rather than financial aid. It seems that the school's leadership is concerned more with beating Williams/Amherst to the #1 spot on the Princeton review than what is truly important: the experience of the current students.
Finally:
If you wanted to go to Harvard but didn't get in, please don't come here.