DR9: I got me some

That, my friends, is Saint Arnold’s Divine Reserve No. 9, an Imperial Pumpkin Stout. What is an Imperial Pumpkin Stout, you might ask? I’ll let Saint A’s explain the beer for you:

Important: let this beer warm to at least 50° before enjoying.  This beer is black with some ruby highlights.  The nose is full of pumpkin pie spices and some alcohol.  There are notes of nutmeg, caraway and vanilla.  The taste starts with chocolate malt with a hint of spice and rolls into a warm spicy alcohol taste which has the effect of creating the balance that usually comes from the hop bitter.  There is some hop bitter on the finish, but not much.  Overall, this beer finishes relatively dry for such a big beer.  As it warms, the spices move forward in the taste and the chocolate moves to the finish.  The pumpkin provides a pleasant undertone and a nice mouthfeel.  The spices will probably fade some over time; they mellowed considerably while still in the fermenter.

There are only 1,500 6-packs, 23 half-barrels, and 20 1/6 barrels of this brew, and it’s a hot commodity in the Houston area right now. Several stores have already sold out, and others will be inundated with Saint Arnold fans in the next few days as the last couple of stores receive their shipment. This has to be the fastest a $15 6-pack of beer has ever sold.

Saint A’s has the hashtag of #DR9 already set up on twitter for those trying to find locations that still have it, and the tag has been surprisingly busy today. I’ll be doing my initial tasting a bit later tonight. I’ve got a differential equations exam tomorrow, and the 11% alcohol by volume may not be the best study catalyst.

Buckeye State Baseball Links

Helping out with Buckeye State Baseball’s link page. Not much to see here other than a long list of links.

Bayou Bucket Trip

It’s been a while since I’ve had enough time to enjoy something enough to write about it, but this weekend I happened to make it out to the University of Houston to catch the Bayou Bucket rivalry game between the Cougars and cross-town rivals Rice Owls. The game was in Robertson Stadium on UH’s University Campus, which is also home to the Houston Dynamo of the MLS.

Condi Rice to Replace Myles Brand?

With the recent passing of NCAA President Myles Brand to cancer, the NCAA will be looking to find a new face for the organization. While many names, including Michigan’s own Mary Sue Coleman, have been thrown around, the one name that I keep coming back to is Condoleezza Rice.

While many in the U.S. associate Mrs. Rice only with her role as Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, Condoleezza actually has quite the resume for a position with the NCAA. In 1987, She began her career as an assistant professor at Stanford University in political science.

After six years of teaching and national defense consulting, she would volunteer to be a part of the search committee for Stanford’s new president. After the group had selected Gerhard Casper, Casper would appoint Condoleezza to the position of Provost of Stanford University. As provost, Rice would be the top academic and budgetary official on campus.

Rice (pictured to the right by Stanford News) spent 1993-1999 as the provost, and she accomplished many notable achievements. At the time of her promotion, Stanford was facing massive budget deficits. The general consensus was that it would be years before it could be fixed. Condoleezza came right out and said she would have it eliminated in two years, and she did just that. At the end of the second fiscal year, Mrs. Rice balanced the multi-billion dollar budget and even provided a $14.5 million surplus.

The time at provost is probably the most important qualifier for the NCAA job, but for the sake of adding her political achievements:

• 2001-2005: National Security Advisor
• 2005-2009: Secretary of State

Obviously she can handle stressful jobs.

After leaving office, there was ample speculation that Condi might take over as commissioner of the Pacific 10 (PAC-10) conference. She expressed no interest at the time as she wanted to return to teaching and writing at Stanford.

It’s been seven months since the Pac-10 speculation, and one wonders if Mrs. Rice would be interested in taking the job with the NCAA if it were offered to her. The job definitely offers prestige, while allowing her to keep close to academics.

Add that she’s a tremendous sports fan, and it’s definitely a thought.

Questions for BigTenNetwork President

I’m supposed to be talking with a representative from the BTN tomorrow via telephone to discuss the new streaming venture available at video.bigtennetwork.com. I’ve got a list of questions going here right now. If you’ve got any other ideas, let me know in the comments. I’m not sure how much he’ll be able to answer, but I want to try as much as I can.

1) We’ve got a start. What sports can we expect this fall? I’ve seen volleyball and basketball on the schedule page already.

In 2009-10, the Big Ten Network is streaming a number of games in volleyball, exhibition and selected non-conference men’s basketball, selected non-conference and conference women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, wrestling, baseball and softball.

Are you going to get to any of the bigger field sports this fall semester? (soccer, field hockey, etc)

2) On that same note, will televised basketball and football games be archived for the same price, or will people have to go to the BigTenTicket?

3) Judging by the initial sports chosen (except maybe baseball/softball), are these going to be stationary single-camera views only?

4)What is the limiting factor on number of games streamed? Money? People? Gauging Interest?

5) Looking at the sports listed in the schedule page, there are a couple non-BigTen sports listed such as lacrosse and ice hockey. Does the BTN have a policy on those broadcasts? Does it have to be an official NCAA sports to be streamed, specifically, would the BTN show Michigan lacrosse (or Penn State ice hockey) as only a club sport? Also, I assume ice hockey will be only selected, BigTen-member home games.

6) Are these broadcasts going to include full announcing crews? If so, are they furnished by the BigTen or by the individual schools through either students or SIDs?

7) Obviously I haven’t seen a game on it yet, how are the commercials embedded into the broadcast? Are there commercials embedded into the broadcast, as we’re paying for the viewing experience already?

8) With the issues brought up about streaming in the US vs internationally, will the streams be equally available to US and international viewers (live or not)?

9) How long does a game stay in “my games”? I saw something that said “the end of the season.” Can I get some clarification on what that means? Does that mean 4-6 weeks after the NCAA championship?

10) If I purchase a game that doesn’t end up being played/broadcast, whether for weather or technical issues, does the BTN have a refund policy?

11) Are you allowed to disclose why the BTN isn’t offering a team/season package?

12) ESPN360 is what most of my readers can compare your service to, which has raised the question, are their plans after the next negotiation with service providers to make streaming live televised games in the US?

13) Our readship obviously has plenty of other comments and suggestions, some streaming, some non-streaming related, rather than burdening you with some of these technical or philosophical questions, where can I direct their concerns and questions? Just as an example, I get plenty of comments about the BigTen’s greatest games’ commercial break teasers being spoilers.

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