Claude_Verret

If you ask Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada) or Bill Koch (Sam Adams), they will tell you the father of the craft beer revolution is Fritz Maytag of Anchor Steam fame. We owe it all to Fritz. A few years back at one of the west coast NHC's, Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada gave the keynote address. It was a fascinating history of Sierra Nevada, from it's humble origins to the state of the art brewery he has today. He basically started the company brewing beer in a glorified shed. He also shared a slide of his hand written recipe from a spiral notebook of the very first batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Good stuff. Then he announced that all the first place style winners from the national competition would be invited to the brewery for a "beer camp". My friend won a silver that year for his schwarzbier (that he brewed at my house so I always try to steal some credit) and just missed out on the camp. The winners all collectively picked a beer to brew on the commercial system, then a few kegs were provided to an establishment in each persons hometown where they were able to preside over the official tapping ceremony of the special release. If memory serves I think they decided to brew an Old Ale, which is a style you don't see too often from craft brewers, although I had Southern Tier's "Old Man" when in WNY for Thanksgiving that was very good..

at 955. I'm going to rely on the back to back for the Sens here, so 100 on Buffalo

Exactly, but until such time it's much easier to assume/know that we will arrive in December right where we always do. When the final seconds are ticking off the clock in a Bills playoff clinching win is exactly the time when I will be sucked back in, and of course be ready to accept the next kick to the nuts that actually hurts again.

For those interested in the history of IPA and some techniques I recommend Mitch Steele's book. Mitch is the head brewer at Stone Brewing. IPA

Perhaps. But to an outside observer at a beer conference watching all the bearded, overweight 30-40 something males with beer stained t shirts, hipster might be the 1000th word that comes to mind to describe the overall scene.

I don't think the IPA craze ever was so much about hipsters trying to prove their devotion to the craft beer scene. IPA's have always been far and away the most popular entry in homebrew competitions all the way up to the national level. If you get a chance to attend the National Homebrewers conference sometime you will see for yourself that virtually none of the attendees are concerned in the least about outward appearances. IPA's are popular because people love them and that is all. IMO if you open a brewery these days without an IPA to offer then you're putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage.

i don't know if this is necessarily the case, it's not like brewers are dumping extra hops into beer styles when it isn't called for. The american palette in general tends to gravitate towards the hoppier styles like pales and IPA's, so the craft brewers are just providing what the market is demanding. Having said that I think that some craft beer lovers would be well served to branch out into say a nice German altbier or pilsner every now and then.

Prior to this season I would have disagreed because this criticism wouldn't be harsh enough to describe McKelvin's play. This season it isn't true because McKelvin, surprisingly, has in fact been very good as a CB.

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl UB vs. San Diego St.

Funny. When I decided it was time to turn off the NFL for the day, it wasn't because of the Bills suckitude, but rather I didn't want to watch how NE would eventually pull that game out. Your friend is an idiot for taking that bet. Predictable. Of course. Groundhog Day is my favorite holiday too.

If the first jets game wasn't horrible, it was damn close. Pittsburgh game too.

At 755. 500 on Habs.

Years ago I brewed a smoked porter where I smoked the malt myself on my weber smoker. I was a bit overzealous with the smoke and there must have been some residual pig that permeated the grains from the last pork butt I had smoked. The beer tasted like bacon.

Now that's a great first post. :thumbsup:

I don't care what we suffer through the next couple season, I'm more than happy to have stepped off the treadmill to nowhere. To me that approach offered even less hope for a cup in the foreseeable future than what we are seeing now.

Liquid lunch..Big Boss High Roller IPA.

Sorry to hear about your troubles bio. As much as it may suck, I think you are wise to stay put. If a guy isn't willing to make a bigger commitment after six years then it's likely not a good idea to uproot your life for him. This coming from someone who took way too long to wise up and propose to his wife, looking back I'm very lucky that she didn't kick me to the curb before I bought a ring. My complaint... I have a co-worker who keeps trying to get me to invest in his high risk, speculative side business. He keeps coming to me asking me to invest, each time acting much more desperate than the last. He's not just asking for a few grand either, but some serious coin so he's clearly got himself leveraged badly. Anyway, I've told him no courteously at least five or six times now, but if he asks again I'm going to need to be a dick.

165 on NYR

I hated lugging my kids around in those things ...very awkward. They showed the two kids carrying it in tandem so you're right it would make more sense to flee by just ditching the carrier.

Ok, thanks that's good to know. I was pissed yesterday when my wife called me over to look at something on her facebook and there right above it was someone posting a big picture of 'Herschel RIP' and I hadn't watched the episode yet.

Can you get it delivered to your office? That's what I do when I order the high ticket items.

WTF with the unannounced potential spoiler?

But really at this point isn't this exactly what you should have expected to happen two weeks ago? There is absolutely no way for this team to choke in spectacular fashion that can shock me anymore.

That's it. Had half for lunch around Pittsburgh, then the other half for dinner around the West Va / Va border.

Wegmans Danny's favorite sub. Great road grub for the trip back to NC