BlakChamber

St. Arnold's has limited distribution. They're only in Texas and the larger cities in Louisiana. I generally like all their beers. Summer Pils is a go-to warm weather beer for me. The Winter Stout is good as well, although I generally prefer dry stouts over sweet stouts.

Just get a decent paying job (I know, easier said than done). My craft beer consumption went up when I got a real job, since I could afford to drink good stuff. Then I got into homebrewing. So not only was I drinking my beer, I had to drink different craft beers to find different styles I liked. There's always a keg of homebrew and various craft beers in my house. Rough life... If you want an American lager but don't want a BMC product, go with Kona's Longboard. No adjuncts and perfect on a warm day.

^^^ I was there a month ago, no Transformers though.

The MSU hockey program has gone in the crapper, even with the National Championship in 2007. Fire Comley.

Just out of curiosity, what is keeping you from branching out to other brands? Sam Adams makes a good beer and is a good brand to use as an introduction to craft beer. But you live in Michigan, one of probably the top 5 states for craft beer in the country. There's so many good breweries in the mitten, what's stopping you from patronizing them? I'd love it if I could get Bell's, Founders and Short's (among others) at my grocery store. I've seen a couple of the MBC/Celis beers here in Texas, but that's it.

Anyone beer watching Brew Masters on Discover Channel. Pretty entertaining show. As a homebrewer I wished they showed a little more on the brewing process. But I'm not surprised, Sam talking about mash temps and ph levels wouldn't be very interesting.

They're two different styles so you other than the fact they're both dark beers, it's tough to really compare them.

Excellent recommendation. Picked up a six-pack of SN Celebration and Real Ale Coffee Porter. The SN is great, I should have been buying this earlier. Looking at the label I just assumed it was a winter warmer, and I'm not a huge fan of those. Instead, it's an IPA that hits you with a great piney/citrusy aroma with your first sip. The Coffee Porter is one of the better ones I've had in a while. Real Ale did a good job featuring the coffee, but not letting it overpower the rest of the malts.

I've seen it at Spec's but I haven't tried it yet. I'll have to give it a try.

I think its some kind of IPA/Wheat with Belgian yeast. Whatever it is, it works. And at 4 bucks, the price is right!

Can you send some Shorts to Texas? The only Michigan beer I've ever seen down here is a few of the Celis ones from MBC, probably because Celis was located in Austin for a while before Miller than MBC bought the brand. Every time I go home, I always stock up on Michigan beer. The mitten is easily one of the top 5 states for beer in the country, way way better than Texas. I've had plenty but I'm not just not a huge fan of Belgian and/or sour beers. I did have the lagunitas little sumpin wild a while ago, which is a Belgian pale ale that was pretty good. I don't know if Lagunitas distributes in Michigan, but they make some tasty beers.

What makes you think Harbaugh has any interest in coming back to Michigan? Has Mike Hart given him his Michigan Man card back? Really, what makes you think he'd coming running to Ann Arbor if the new AD picks up the phone? Why leave a program that he's turning into a winner to pick up the flaming and charred remains of the DickRod trainwreck? The NFL is going to come calling, Stanford certainly has the money to keep him if they want. He's got some great options in front of him. Why throw that away for a program on probation that has won 4 Big 10 games in the last 3 seasons and stocked with guys who aren't right for his system? I'm hoping for one of two things to happen with Michigan and their coaching situation. Either 1) give their current coaching staff a big fat extension; or 2) fire DickRod and conduct their next coaching search with all the competence they showed on their last one. Say hello to you new head coach, Brady Hoke!

The average career for a running back in the NFL is 3 years.

Been brewing for a couple years now. Right now I have an American Pale Ale in my kegerator (drinking a glass of it right now) and a bottled a hard cider a few weeks ago. Miller Lite. I'll drink just about anything, Bud Lite, Natty Lite, PBR, High Life, etc before Miller Lite.

UM left those points on the field because of the defense. I can't speak to the Iowa game because I didn't watch all of the game. But MSU took the big play away from UM. He had 86 yards rushing and his longest run was 16 yards. They stopped Robinson on the ground and forced him to pass, which was the plan. Robinson is certainly a better passer than he was last year where he chucked the ball into the ground regularly, but he's still not that good. MSU forced him to pass and he started to make mistakes. Looking at the box score of the Iowa game, it looks like the Hawkeyes tried the same thing. Robinson only had around 100 yards on the ground and again didn't break off any huge runs. Mistakes weren't made for no reason, the defense forced them.

MSU is #7 in the BCS and #8 in both polls! Those are words I wasn't sure I'd ever type. First time going 7-0 since 1966. It's been an amazing season so far and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down right now. I haven't booked my plane tickets to Pasadena yet, but its nice to be thinking about it. In a way, I'd almost rather go to the Sugar Bowl since I could drive there. But really, if MSU somehow makes it to the Rose Bowl, I'll be there. As for this week, Northwestern always plays MSU tough and their dink and dunk spread can be annoying, but ultimately I just don't think they have the defense to handle MSU's offensive attack. And this week, it would be nice to see the Spartans just come out and run the game, and not have to wait until the 2nd half to put it away. The Iowa game next week is going to be huge, especially if Iowa beats Wisconsin this week. Michigan's best chance for a win is at Purdue. Every other game is going to be a struggle to win. MSU and Iowa have shown how to stop Robinson. Will 6-6 with a trip to the Pizza Pizza Bowl be enough to keep DickRod in Ann Arbor? Better question, do you want to keep DickRod in Ann Arbor? Because I'm telling you guys, he is your John L. Smith. A good coach who just isn't in the right situation. I've seen how this story ends, and it's not pretty. The MSU/UM game was a complete reversal of MSU/UM for basically the last 40 years. MSU looked like they had Carr coaching when UM looked like JLS was on their sidelines. Fun fact. Dantonio and RichRod have the same number of Big 10 wins in Ann Arbor. And as a side note, the funniest part of Michigan's struggles isn't the fact they started out hot and look like they're going to crash and burn, again. Or that they won the coveted September Heisman for the third year in a row (McHurdle, Tate and Shoelace). It's that their fanbase has absolutely no idea what to do. For long suffering Spartan fans, it would just be more of the same for us. But prior to DickRod, Michigan hadn't had a losing season in what, 40 years? I think Bo's worst was 6-6 and Carr's was 7-5. There's entire generations of Michigan fans that have no idea how to handle a losing team. And they have no idea what to do. It's absolutely hilarious.

I'm actually shocked Tate is still on the team. My original prediction for MSU was 8-4, with losses against the Wisky, Northwestern, Iowa and Penn State. Looking at the remaining schedule, Iowa is the only game that the Spartans probably won't be favored in. Normally I write off the end of the season in Happy Valley as a loss, but if there was ever a year for the Spartans to win at Penn State, this is the year. Here's how I could see the schedule shaking out. Illinois: W. Normally I'd be worried about this being a letdown game, but it seems that finally the coaches have the players focused. @ Northwestern. W. The Wildcats always play the Spartans tough and dink and dunk spread times can give the Spartans problems, but MSU's offense will be too much. @ Iowa: L. I'm still going to call this a loss, but I think it's going to come down to the final play like last year. Minnesota: W. The Gophers are just bad. Decker will still cause problems but again, MSU's offense will be too much. Purdue: W. Final home game of the season, no way does Greg Jones and the rest of the seniors go out with a loss. Plus, Purdue just isn't that good. @ Penn State: L. I want to put this down for a W, I really do. But it's the end of the season in Happy Valley and who knows if it will be JoePa's last game. That place has been a snake pit for MSU. But, if Penn State contains to suck it up like they did against Illinois, I might change my mind. I'm trying not to drink the Green Kool Aide, but it's tough not to right now. 3 in a row over Michigan. 4 straight bowl games. Pass me another glass!

Great, great game by MSU yesterday. The Spartans did exactly what they needed to do against Robinson, which was two things. 1: stop the big play; and 2: force him to pass the ball. The MSU defense did a great job containing the big play. Robinson's longest run of the day was 16 yards! The secondary gave up a couple of long passes, but those 3 picks were clutch. The MSU secondary has come up huge the last few games and the defense as whole has been great, especially after last year. On offense, it was a very balanced attack. 249 yards on the ground and 287 through the air. Baker, Bell and Caper all contributed and 8 different receivers had catches. Martin was outstanding and really was the spark for the offense. He seemed to do whatever the Spartans needed. They were a stat on TV that Martin has scored a touchdown by rushing, receiving, passing, returning a punt and returning a kickoff. Cunningham is becoming a go-to receiver as well, and it's finally nice to see Dell stay healthy for a change. He's got a ton of talent but has never been able to stay healthy for a whole season. Hopefully I didn't jinx it. So, if Michigan's regular season ends with yet another loss to the Buckeyes, is DickRod fired? That would put him 0-6 against his rivals. And why doesn't Michigan run Denard at RB and Tate at QB, kind of a Pat White/Steve Slaton set up. Yes, Tate seems like a little *****, but he's been a better passer than Shoelace.

I meant an American-style brown ale as opposed to an English-style. But yes, it's from Big Sky Brewing, which is out of Montana. According to their website they have one distributor in Michigan. You might be able to find it if you looked around hard enough.

It's a pretty tasty American brown ale. I wouldn't mind being able to get it down here.

I think the Big 10 has to follow the SEC model and do it geographically and not the ACC model of...well...whatever it is that the ACC did. Drawing names out of a hat I assume. Potential breakdowns. North Minnesota Wisconsin Michigan Michigan State Northwestern Penn State South Nebraska Iowa Illinois Purdue Indiana Ohio State Or East Michigan State Michigan Penn State Ohio State Indiana Purdue West Illinois Northwestern Wisconsin Minnesota Iowa Nebraska Here's a reference map There's a much cleaner break in the schools if you go East/West. It probably makes more sense from a rivalry standpoint as well. And while my initial reaction was that the East was way more powerful, after thinking about that a little more, top to bottom the West is better. The East is top heavy with OSU and Penn State, but they've got Indiana and Michigan there dragging them down. The West has Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin on top. The top 5 teams (currently) are split pretty evenly and the rivalries are protected. These are the current protected rivalry games for the Big 10. Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana Indiana-Purdue, Illinois Iowa-Minnesota, Wisconsin UM-MSU, OSU UMinn-Wisconsin, Iowa MSU-UM, PSU Northwestern-Purdue, Illinois OSU-PSU, UM Penn State-OSU, MSU Purdue-Indiana, Northwestern Wisconsin-Iowa, Minnesota Going with an East/West alignment, the Illinois/Indiana and Northwestern/Purdue games are the only ones lost to the divisions. Looking at the trophy games, Illinois/Purdue, Michigan/Minnesota and Minnesota/Penn State (didn't even know they had a trophy for that game) would be lost. But none of those games were protected games anyway, so there was no guarantee they'd meet every year. Plus, this way Michigan and Ohio State can keep their precious game with no chance of rematch. Edit to add: Regarding the Big 12 and their setup, when the Big 12 formed, the North was the far better division. Now the South is the better one. Things change in college football and past success is no guarantee of future success. Right, Michigan fans?

Dark Horse makes some quality brews.

Hopefully 6-6 with a trip to the Pizza Pizza Bowl will be enough to keep DickRod's job. I'd hate to see him go.

Tater Tot will lead them to glory What's everyone's take on how the Big 10 conferences should be set up?

Mrs. Chamber likes the Preds. Playoff time can get ugly at our house.