BWBB

Hey Folks!

How's everyone doing? I know I have been seriously slacking on the blogging, especially the Bi-Weekly Beer Blog, but I am going to try and make amends starting now.

So in the interest of full disclosure, I've only had the pleasure of drinking this beer once, but it was great. The beer is the Iowa Pale Ale from Millstream Brewing Company, which is based in Amana, Iowa. (Yeah, I know, I'm biased in favor of Wisconsin beer, but I'm trying to expand my horizons here!) Honestly, I don't even know where the heck Amana, Iowa is...but apparently, at least one resident knows how to brew pretty good beer. I can't vouch for any of Millstream's other brews, but I would love to try them. Maybe sometime in the future I'll get the chance.

OK, let's talk about the Iowa Pale Ale. (A little brewing 101: ales are created using top-fermenting yeast, whereas lagers are brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast) According to the brewery's website, the beer is a mild and balanced ale with a "citrus zing." This seems to me like a pretty decent and simple description. This pale ale is not as hoppy as some of the other pales I have had recently. It was much easier to drink as well, which can be good or bad depending on my mood. I would disagree with the "citrus zing" portion of the description. I'm not a big fan of citrusy beers in general, but I didn't notice any overly fruity taste when I was drinking the Iowa Pale Ale. The beer is 5.7% alcohol. As you can see from the picture above, the beer is a hazy, golden-orange that is making me thirsty just looking at it. Millstream suggests drinking the pale ale with "fried seafood" (yeah, we call that a fish fry in Wisconsin...get with the program Iowa) and spicy food. Since I haven't had the opportunity to eat while drinking this beer, I will hold off on analyzing these food pairings, but I can't imagine the Iowa Pale Ale not being great with a fish fry...assuming you could find a delicious, polka-filled fish fry in Iowa.

So at this point, you are probably asking one question: "Jon, where can I buy a 6 pack and share it with you?" Well, that might be a bit difficult. But with a little detective work, I found out that you can supposedly buy Millstream products at Brennan's Country Farm Market in Brookfield. Unfortunately, I can't confirm that the Iowa Pale Ale is available there, only that they claim to have Millstream beers available. I'll have to make a trip out to Brookfield sometime in the near future---otherwise I'll just have another excuse to go to Iowa.

Totally Off Topic: Christina has vaulted in the lead for the bracket challenge with Egel only one point behind. The bottom-line is if Duke beats WVU, Christina wins; if WVU beats Duke, Egel wins. The rest of us have just fallen by the way side. Christina has requested a "date night" if she wins....does anyone think I should change the rules for her? Or should she get the beer sampling just like everyone else would have? (I mean, who I am kidding, obviously, she will get what she wants, but I'd welcome other opinions just for the entertainment factor.)

Alright, that's all the blogging I have time for at this point. I hope everyone is doing well.

Long Time, No Blog

Hey Folks,

Lots of good stuff going on since my last post. Spring Break was great, as always. (see photo evidence on left....btw, how hot is my new suit? Also, can we all just get passed the fact that I am hairy? I know. It just means I am manlier than 99% of the general population)

As most of my faithful followers already know, Christina and I went to Florida for five nights. It was pretty low key but really relaxing. The weather even turned out to be pretty decent. Highlights of the trip included: 1) Christina drinking an entire bottle of Framboise in one night....haha, how the hell did that happen? 2) Christina spending approximately 2 hours eating crab legs 3) The ladies making fantastic food for me every day 4) Great basketball games, especially on Thursday 5) Christina getting sunburn after an hour outside 6) Alex's severely flawed lotion logic which led to a raw chin and 7) Me locking myself and C in the bedroom on our first night; she eventually had to climb out the window....haha, I couldn't make that up if I tried.

I could go on and on about stupid, yet entertaining things from Florida....but in the interest of time, I will move on.

So we got home from Florida and decided to tag along with Alex to her parents' house in Iowa for the weekend. Definitely a great decision. Big props to Judy and Danny (Al's folks) for providing C and I with great food, plenty of drinks and hours of comic relief. Unfortunately, no pictures to memorialize Iowa, but trust, it was awesome. Best moment: Al throwing her driver's license down the conveyor belt at the grocery store when we weren't even buying anything alcoholic. The look on the cashier's face was priceless. It's ok Al...hahahaha.

Monday was a long day back at school. I was sitting in class at 7pm with images of beer, wine, hot tubs, pools and beaches dancing around in my head.....but such is life I guess.

A few quick unrelated notes:

Michigan has scheduled its first home night game ever for Sept. 2011 versus notre dame. Wow. Already looking forward to that.

Healthcare: A good start, but there is more that can/should be done. I think people are overreacting to this first bill. There is really nothing too radical. I will reserve judgment on the bill until a few years from now. I will say that any legal challenge to it is pretty much totally frivolous. Commerce Clause power is extremely broad, as most of you legal nerdy mcnerdies already know.

Beer blog: I know, I know. I missed the bi-weekly blog. I will make up for it in the near future. Spring Break took priority.

Tourney Challenge: Ok, I understand that the prize was only a night of drinking good beer with me, but seriously people! It was FREE!!! I'm really disappointed with the turnout, but I am even more disappointed with the performances by the participants. Alex is winning right now, but it looks like Emily has the upper hand. C and I are pulling up the rear, and I think I might actually be in last using the tiebreaker....damn, that's embarrassing.

Alright, that is everything I can bring myself to write for now. I'm looking for some good comments and emails about things of interest. I hope everyone is doing well and still somewhat enjoying the blogs. Until next time....

Tournament Challenge

Ok, a quick and most likely last blog before I go to Florida. I set up the blog bracket challenge through Yahoo this morning. Entry is free...so sign the heck up. The winner gets all the glory, prestige and bragging rights that go along with being crowned the In A Nutshell Challenge winner. I think I also previously agreed to supply the winner with a night (or afternoon if you prefer) of great beer selected by me. As always, beer requests will be accepted, but probably promptly shot down.

If you want to join the challenge, click here. You will need a Yahoo account to sign up, but I picked Yahoo with the hope that most of you would already have one. If you don't have one, create one.

The password is: blog

The challenge is open to anyone who is reading this and/or friends of readers. If anyone would like to donate additional prizes, or prizes for 2nd place, let me know.

****Remember to have your picks in before gametime on Thursday morning. (Keep in mind, the brackets don't come out until tomorrow night, but you can sign up for the challenge before then.)

Happy spring break to you all....damn, last spring break of my life.

Ann Arbor

Hey folks,

Now that the shock of having my car totally blasted has worn off, I am ready to get back to my good blogging. I saw an interesting article in Forbes magazine. It can be found here. Basically, Forbes did a study that analyzed the top college towns in America. The towns were rated based on 1) the success of their sports teams 2) quality of life 3) affordability of housing 4) quality of the public schools and 5) crime. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly to some of us), Ann Arbor came in #1! So apparently Forbes spent a lot of time and money to find out something that my wife and I could have told them about 6 yrs ago. Gee, now if our football and basketball teams could just get back to where they belong. Maybe we can even pull off a big upset against osu tomorrow at 11am. Madison is surprisingly absent from the list.

Quick followup: I told you about my first taste of the new Lakefront Fixed Gear a week ago. I wasn't really a fan, but I promised to give it a chance from the bottle before drawing any definitive conclusions. Well, I picked up a 22oz bottle tonight on my way home from school, and unfortunately, Fixed Gear is still not doing it for me. There is a slightly funky aftertaste that I can't get over. Damn.

Well, that's about it for tonight. Hope to hear from you all soon. Thanks.

Btw, I should mention that the picture above is the entrance to the law library at Michigan. If only I had spent a few more nights there and a few less at Noodles and Co. Oh wait, I'd probably still be right here...haha.

Fear the Deer

Hey everyone,

So, I mentioned that the (parked) car had a little incident with a hit and run driver at about 2am Tuesday morning. Lots of people were asking about the damage; so rather than try to describe it, see above. There is also a bit of damage to the hood and grill but not nearly as bad as the rear. The worst thing is that it's going to cost us our $500 deductible to get the car fixed. What a joke...anyways, let's move on to the happier aspects of this blog.

The Bucks, The Bucks, Light it up, Light it up! Great game last night against the Celtics. I don't think we scored any points the last two minutes of the game, but we managed to eek out a win. Clearly, the Celts aren't the team they used to be. Their big 3 are pretty miserable right now, and the best player they have is Rondo, by a mile. If the season ended today, the Bucks would actually meet Atlanta in the first round. But the Celtics are only a half game ahead of Atlanta. So a first round matchup with the Celtics is certainly possible.

It's hard to put your finger on the reason for the Bucks' success this season, but the new attitude has to be at least partially responsible. Bogut and Jennings are just fearless this year. I loved Bogut staring down Glen Davis last and Jennings just yelling at Garnett in the tunnel. It's kinda sad, but in the NBA, you only get respect when you demand it. You only get foul calls when you argue about them. So the Bucks are doing what you have to do in order to be successful in the NBA. Also, I'd like to add a plug for Salmons. We picked this guy up for next to nothing from the Bulls, and now, he is clearly our best option at the 2. Great managerial move.

Thanks to Yans for getting me to another Bucks game.

Quick side note: did anyone see that New Glarus just came out with a new pale ale? I'm not sure if it's even available yet, but certainly worth a try. Any brewery that puts out Spotted Cow, Stone Soup and Fat Squirrel definitely gets my backing. I'll have to make an attempt to get my hands on some of this new Moon Man Pale Ale in the near future.

Can I also just give a quick plug to the Cran-Orange-Pumpkin muffin at Alterra? I had one this morning that was just fantastic. As some of you know, I probably eat about three of them a week, and I am considering bumping it up to 4...haha. Just too good.

Last bit of positive news: C getting her bonus today....booya. Way to go Sugar mama. We are definitely getting a nice dinner with it!

Well, that's all I've got right now. Spring break is so close, I can taste it.

Until the next blog, peace.