Alright, after two days, I’ve finally found time to taste Saint Arnold’s Divine Reserve #9 – Imperial Pumpkin Stout. So time to walk through my thoughts as I enjoy it for the first time.

Upon opening the bottle, I take a good waft from the bottle neck to get a strong scent of gingerbread and a slight hint of pumpkin. There is also a hint of alcohol, but it’s not prevalent. I used a standard pint glass, my Shiner Commemorator glass, for my tasting. There’s no way I’d waste a solid beer like this straight out of the bottle, eliminating the smells.

The pour is as dark as the bottle.

The pour comes out black with a slight caramel tint. The beer appears very lightly carbonated as there isn’t much of a head on it. What head there is comes as a dark tan. The smell here is definitely of alcohol, but there is a background of pumpkin spice. That 11% is definitely noticeable.

At initial contact, I can definite taste a bitter dark chocolate from the malt. Most of that flavor is nearer the front of the tongue. The middle taste moves to the side and back of the tongue, definitely bitter. My first few tastes, the bitter was overwhelming. I think this is due to drinking it before it either reached the right temperature or not letting it mellow enough.

The bitter taste finishes with a sweeter, yet still bitter, pumpkin pie taste in the finish. The aftertaste is more of a pumpkin spice than pumpkin pie. The finish is also very dry.

As I’ve worked through the 12 oz. bottle, it’s definitely improved in taste, so on my second tasting I think I’ll let it mellow out a bit more and warm up a little bit before enjoying it.

The end product has been delicious. I’m not a huge stout fan, but it’s been pretty good. It’s a shame I haven’t been able to get any of the previous DR beers. Several have claimed this to be the best yet from Saint A’s, so hopefully they continue the streak of ever improving but still great beers.

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.

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

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.

The fraternity tailgates, successive tents with kegs and loud music

As this was a last second decision, I didn’t really get to try much of the tailgating atmosphere, but it didn’t seem like it was too much of a miss. I took 4 out of my 12 pack of Abita Beer Party Pack (of which I’ll suggest their Amber and Restoration Pale Ale), drove up to the university, and started drinking. We walked through the above pictured fraternity tailgates, which were quite different than any other school I’ve ever been to.

Houston is very much a commuter campus, and there isn’t really any student housing anywhere close to the stadium, much less actual houses owned by students in the immediate area. Cullen and the area around UH is some of the really bad parts of town, with the university acting as a lone bright spot on the freeway.

It seemed like most of the area was filled by party buses and speakers all trying to drown out their neighbors. It was pretty annoying and seemed like more of a headache than it would be worth. We walked through really quickly and moved on to the gate.

As small as it looks

It turned out to be a great idea to buy my tickets at the gate rather than online. The guy at the ticket booth charged my friends and I all the student price without showing any ideas, so we all got tickets for $10 instead of the ~$25 it would had been otherwise. It was a great deal.

“Just take one of those things on the table” – girl working the gate

After we got inside, I was really unimpressed by the inner workings of the stadium. The building is obviously old and the concession stands weren’t much more than wood frame boxes up against the wall. Before I walk even 5 feet into the stadium, I notice something glorious, they sell beer and margaritas in the stadium. Oh glory day.

After grabbing a couple beers, I made it to the first seating entrance I could for pictures.  The stadium is obviously very small, with record capacity of just over 32,100, but it has a very cool look to it. The stadium is divided into four stands, two going along the sideline and two sets of bleacher seating in each endzone. A pair of palm trees are situated in each corner separating each set of stands.

Top two were during the game after crowds arrived, bottom is pregame during the home band portion.

The Cougar Band was pretty weak on the field. Between the pregame and half time shows, they never did anything but march up and down the field, no movement. What they lacked with on field prowess was made up for in the stands. The piped in RAWK MUSIK was cut as soon as the teams lined up for the opening kickoff. From that point on, it was the band playing (along with a siren for scores and a Penn State-like cougar roar). The band also played the Hokey-Pokey, which was awesome.

On a band related note, Rice’s approximately 40 band members made the trip across town and marched during half time. They did youtube memes, but nearly all of the jokes were the PA voice and not songs played. They did Numa Numa and Keyboard Cat, but that was about it.

There weren’t a whole lot of particularly special traditions at UH games. The team enters the field in a cloud of smoke (and promptly left the Owls alleged defense in just as much of a haze), and there’s plenty of cougar claws (or shockers) flying around.

On kickoffs, the stands beat as people stomp in a slow clap-like build up with the cougar claws swaying back and forth as the fans stomp. On first downs, the fans point with the cougar claw, when the school song is played, the cougar claw points to the sky, and when a guy bangs his girl in the restroom, there’s a cougar claw for that, too (I didn’t see it, but I wouldn’t doubt it).

The crowd at the game was packed and loud. While it didn’t match the sound levels of Michigan, that was only due to the lack of population. If you had 100,000 cougar fans, they’d be insanely loud. And they’d stay loud, even on 3rd downs in the 3rd quarter when they lead by over 50 points. I was really impressed with their dedication. Most teams I’ve seen play would have a nearly empty house when your team leads 52-0 at the half. The Cougars stayed and cheered on the team.

Yeah, that’s 52-0 with 4min left in the half

As for the game, there wasn’t much to say. Houston returned the opening kick for a touchdown (top two pictures below), forced a 3 and out, scored on the next drive that took just over a minute, then scored again on a pick-6 on Rice’s next series. It was that kind of a route.

They scored on this drive. They scored on every drive…

Case Keenum looked pretty good, but I think he might have had an off night despite the results. He didn’t play in the second half that I noticed, but I stopped really focusing in the 3rd quarter when I figured out that I couldn’t SuperSim to the end of the game. It was like watching a video game being played live. It just got boring after a certain point.

It really got annoying after scores as well. The Cougars have a buzzer/siren that goes off after each score followed by the fans counting the points. It was cute in the first quarter, but by the time we were counting into the 60s, it just became a pain in the ass.

I ended up leaving at the end of the 3rd quarter. Rice scored 14 points in the 3rd, but that was all against UH’s backups.

One side note to the whole game was the half time honors bestowed upon Houston’s 1989 team. That year was a huge one for Houston as Andre Ware won the Heisman and UH toppled a highly ranked Texas Longhorn team. Ware, who flew in after calling a game on ESPN earlier in the day, had his Heisman on the field with him, and the entire team rallied on the field with honorary captain for the game, and UH alum Jim Nance of CBS Sports. It was really cool as Andre talked about his team, his school, and his hopes to see Keenum in New York for this year’s Heisman Award Ceremony. All really cool.

Shasta! the cougar (his female counterpart not pictured)

On the whole, I feel like the game reinforced the notion of Cougar High for me. Many local sports fans call UH “Cougar High” due to it’s very high school football feel and large number of local high school students who go there. This was one of the few stadiums that I’ve seen with dance drill teams that you see in high school, a stadium of less than half the size of most college stadiums, and a high school style band (doesn’t march well and plays a lot of “southern rhythm” between plays). It wasn’t a bad thing, it just had a somewhat high school feel to it. That and there were a TON of kids at the game.

Still, it was a fun time, and definitely worth the cost, even if it was $20.

Oh, and Dick Post:

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.

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.

14)

St. Arnold’s has never been one to advertise. They’ve relied on word of mouth, quality 6-pack artwork, and their “tours” to do their advertising. Now, as they move into their new brewery, they’re taking on youtube. This is too awesome. A Billy Mays beer commercial for today’s release of Divine Reserve #8, a strong Scotch Ale coming in at 9.3%.

(HT: Fourth And Fifty)

With the hilarious MS Paint going around mgoboard and me being stuck at home sick, I needed something to keep me occupied. I give you Lexi Zimmerman vs Nebraska. I’m still disappointed with the neck line and face, but I thought the lower body worked out really well with the shadowing.

Subtitle: I promise I’m not a creeper.

A few days ago, I was invited by a friend of mine from high school to watch her coach a high school junior varsity volleyball game. As mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of volleyball, and I’m more than willing to go to any game offered. That said, how creepy is it for a 20-something year old guy to go watch a bunch of high school girls in spandex? Exactly.

My friend is the tall coach in the middle of the huddle

Luckily enough, I was only there by myself for about 10 minutes before another friend of mine showed up, a female, to take the creeper look down from 11 to just 5 or so. I mean, I did still have a camera and take quite a few pictures.

The setter was giving her hitters the ball a bit too far back.

Nothing against the girls on my friends team, but they looked pretty bad. I blame my opinion slightly on not having watched a high school game in at least 4 years, but also to this particular high schools new program and smaller sample size compared to my old high school. This new high school is around half the size of my high school, and the lack of depth is very apparent.

The sets did get better, I wish I had that vertical

That said, the game at least stayed interesting, and the two teams got better as the game progressed. I was really impressed by the home team’s #7. Her sets were money compared to the team’s actual setter. In the end, the JV would win in 5 sets.

The varsity came on after the JV and were leaps and bounds better, which is somewhat to be expected, but the margin was so great, I was rather stunned. It’s amazing how that one off season of club ball can really pick up some of the girls’ games.

Crossing shot from the outside hitter

The home team was anchored by some pretty good outside hitting and a really good setter. The setter did a really good job of placement on her sets, but her hitters weren’t all that consistent. Their big hitter didn’t distribute her hits very well. The above picture was one of her few cross shots around the block. Way too many went straight into the hands of the blockers.

The face she’s making cracks me up

The home team still held on to this one for the win, although, I’ve already forgotten the score. I want to say it was in 4 sets. It certainly wasn’t 5.

Victory for the home team

In a note totally unrelated to the game, it was weird at one point as I was talking with my coach friend. One of her players ran up to me and told me her coach could do “the jerk.” I’m pretty disconnected with mainstream pop songs, but apparently that’s some sort of dance. I was confused as all get out.

It was fun to get back out and see some volleyball in person. Now if I just had a less crappy camera.

I’ve come to the point in my writing at mgoblog that I’m really not sure where I should go next. Now that the season are starting for most of the teams, my google-stalking abilities only do so much. Most of what I’m capable of doing from a distance is just read the box scores and press releases. I don’t want to just rehash those, so I’ve got to find some other way of relaying what the teams are doing. Finding that way is hard.

Since I’ve started, baseball has always been my out, but I’ve hit the end of the rope on most of that posting. I’ve done some solid season previews (or at least I think so). The post on the volleyball team’s win was one of my better game recaps, baseball included, but that was because I was able to watch the game and get into it.

Now, going into the school year, I don’t have access to hardly any video of games. I’ve got very little radio through mgoblue. Even the few games I will be able to watch, they’ll be through streaming IPTV that I’m not even sure will hold up. What does make it through, I have no way of recording it. My life is too busy to watch all these games live for free.

So while the jihad bought me some time to think without people wondering where my writing is, I’m finding that I’m the odd man out and it sucks. I’m the writer disconnected from my topic. I’m the one that can’t be there to get the interesting input on the other side of Michigan sports – a place I really like being. So where do I go next?

My first thought is coach and player interviews, but how do I go about them? The ideal time would be right after games, but I can’t be there. So I go with midweek interviews, what do those really accomplish from a journalistic stand point? I’m not sure it’s much. Asking them about games they played a few days ago seems like dated information. Asking them personal information doesn’t seem like it would remain interesting as interviews would start to become stale for mgoblog’s readership. That kind of stuff is great on mgoblue, but mgoblog is an entirely different animal.

After that, I wonder what good I really can do with mgoblog as a full Olympic/non-revenue sports contributor. Do I just post a notes piece that bullet points how each team did? Do I try to preview weekends more in depth? I don’t know.

None of these ideas scream out to me the writer as something appealing, which makes it infinitely harder to write. If I’m not passionate about the information I’m spreading, I think it’s a waste for me to do it. I don’t want to waste my own effort.

What I am certain about though, is I want to continue to write, and that is what will have to drive me onward.