The Idealist's Guide

Basically choosing at random from the wall of beers at the Beverage Barn, and taking into consideration their interesting label, (who wouldn’t want to try a beer with the backside of two cows on the bottle?) I chose the Double Bag Long Trail strong ale.

What it is: Double Bag Long Trail is a strong ale from Bridgewater “middle-of-nowhere” Corners, Vermont. It is dark amber in color, and full of rich, caramel chocolate flavor. Sounds good doesn’t it? This beer is not for your casual beer drinker who enjoys a bud light or two on the weekend. This beer is for someone who wants something with flavor and a lot of character.

From the label: “The secret is that this brew is so smooth, you’d never believe it has an alcohol content of 7.2%!” This is very true. It goes down smooth with some strong flavor, but beware, drink in moderation!

Final Grade: B+

STATS:

Alcohol Content: 7.2%

Like dark beers? Then this beer is something you will want to try. I’ll give you a warning that I’m a fan of darker beers, with Guinness being one of my favorites, so I’m a bit biased. With that being said I was a bit disappointed with this one. But I still enjoyed it even if it wasn’t one of my favorites. It is beer afterall.

It’s deep brown, almost black in color and there is a definite smokey chocolatey smell. When you take your first sip make sure to let the beer reach every part of your mouth to get the full effect. It may sound ridiculous and you may look silly but that’s ok, by the time you finish a few beers no one will remember. There is some carbonation, but it’s nothing overwhelming and definitely adds to the taste.

To sum up: dark, heavy beer with a chocolatey flavor, and if you concentrate hard enough you might be able to convince yourself there’s some weak coffee flavor there too. Good for one or two at a time, but nothing special.

Final Grade: C

STATS:

Alcohol Content: 5.5%

Pairing Suggestions: pretzels and more beer

For no particular reason at all except it gives me the excuse to try new beers, I’ve decided to start a new set of reviews. These reviews will give people a place to go to get new ideas if they want to try a new beer. I found that it’s important to drink the beer from a glass rather than straight from the bottle because that way you can see the color of the beer and you can get a better idea of what the beer smells like. I’ll include some relevant things and some pointless things, but hopefully you can get a good idea and maybe even learn something. I know I’ll learn a lot.

While it’s not the first beer I’ve ever tried, I had to start somewhere. To start things off I’ve decided to try a beer from the Harpoon Brewery in Boston. It’s called the Harpoon Ale and it was one of the first beers brewed by Harpoon. From the bottle: “The first in the Harpoon family of beers, our ale is light amber in color, medium bodied, and well balanced. The slightly fruity aroma is from Harpoon’s special yeast. Enjoy!”

True to the description it is golden caramel in color and is considered American Pale Ale
or Amber Ale. It also doesn’t have a lot of carbonation which really brings out the “fruity” flavor they talk about. The first aroma will be fruity which is produced by the yeast. The second perceptible aroma is from the malt, with a delicate caramel note. When you taste Harpoon Ale, you will find that the malty, fruity character is nicely balanced by the mild hop bitterness. It has a smooth, medium body. The finish of this beer is crisp but not dry.

Confused yet? Don’t worry it’s pretty easy to translate. All one really needs to know is that there is a fruity flavor blended with a caramel flavor, it is slightly bitter, but goes down smoothly.

Final Grade: B

STATS:

Alcohol Content: 5.0%

Pairing Suggestions: Pizza, beef, shellfish

So it’s taken me a while to get everything organized since I’ve been back from Florida, but I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to compile everything into a somewhat useful post. Granted we got very lucky when we went down to Florida because we didn’t have to pay for lodging, but we still managed to rent a car and see a ton of cool things while we were there.

As a couple of college students traveling on a budget we took great care to find some amazing things to do and keep costs low. We learned a lot, discovered quite a bit, and gained a ton of experience traveling by ourselves for the first time without adults.

Here’s a travel log of what we did in St. Petersburg, Tampa and some of the neighboring towns and cities in Florida. Enjoy!

Just found this op-ed piece in the New York Times explaining why I’ve been suffering from allergies ever since I got to New York. When I first got allergies in my freshman year at school I thought it was just a cold, but the doctors informed me that it was in fact allergies. A couple prescription allergy meds later and I was cured. Even though Hofstra is a national arboretum you would think that they might take some of these things into account. Oh well, life goes on and I’ll continue to cough, sneeze, and cry from allergies.

Here’s the article:http://nyti.ms/dwjx5d

I’ve started to renew my faith in Karma. Someone switched my laundry over and paid the $1 to start it up! Just switching it over is a nice thing to do, but to spend the $1 is just incredible. I know, it’s small, but still makes a difference. Life is good.

Who is MGMT? At least that’s what this Brooklyn based twosome is asking their fans on their web page. Known for their electro pop and strange antics MGMT has just released this new song free for download.

Starting quietly and slowly building momentum, Flash Delirium builds into an exciting dance song with their typical raucous harmonies that really get you excited for their upcoming album. Who is MGMT? “Dance until the heart explodes and we’ll make this place ignite.” Sounds like fun. Grab a copy of the song here: http://www.whoismgmt.com/

Sick of the same old boring coffee? Personally I am sick of tasting boring, weak coffee that just doesn’t wake me up. It is time to put and end to the age old coffee dilemma at Hofstra University. Especially here where the options for getting a cup of coffee can seem like and endless task with incredible amounts of flavors and variations. Even though I’ve started making my own coffee with a french press in my room using ancient grounds from Dunkin’ Go-nuts, I have decided that there needs to be some kind of guide to getting a good cup of coffee at Hofstra. And so the epic journey begins. Hopefully I won’t overdose on caffeine and end up running around the academic side of campus babbling about random nonsense. Wait, isn’t that what a blog is?

Here are the infamous coffee “shops” on campus. If this goes well I’ll even venture off campus a bit! How exciting.

1. Kobricks Coffee in the Axinn Library

2. Starbucks at Cafe on the Quad

3. Seattle’s Best at C.V. Starr

4. Seattle’s Best at the Hofstra Deli

5. Seattle’s Best in the Netherlands Cafe

6. Pura Vida in the Student Center

7. The Student Center coffee

8. Bits and Bytes coffee

9. Mayflower? in Breslin Hall

As I run into more I’ll be sure to update the list. While there are some duplicates obviously coffee can be brewed differently depending on who brews it and how much love and care they put into it. “Love and care” from Hofstra employees, ha.

I’ll try a simple black coffee first and then add what I like to my coffee to get a complete picture. I’ll taste each “regular” coffee from the shops and base my review off of a few factors that should include:

. Smell

. First impression of taste

. Strength

. Actual taste (sweet, bitter, watery etc.)

. Temperature of the coffee

. Price

. Design of cup

. Design of each individual shop or coffee station

. Barista skill (speed, friendliness)

. Are the beans from a fair trade organization?

While there are many more factors that should go into reviewing coffee the fact is most students will simply not care. So here goes nothing, hope you enjoy it.