BarleyNY

Thanks! I suggest hooking up with a local club with active judges. I joined the Niagara Association of Homebrewers (NAH) which is in the North towns. South Buffalo has Sultans of Swig. There are a few others, including the Goddesses which is all female. Some of judges at NAH (along with some Sultans) periodically run a tasting class that preps you for the certification test. I’m sure other clubs do that too if you are not local. That tasting exam is no joke so some real preparation is in order. There are a lot of local judges in the clubs who can help you and they are nice/good people to a person. The BJCP test differs from the Cicerone test in that BJCP is beer back and Cicerone is beer forward. Both involve a lot of tasting and critique of beer. BJCP then focuses on being able to discern why the beer tastes like it does - especially where flaws are concerned - and what the brewer did and should change to correct any flaws. It sounds worse than it is, but the test is not easy. Cicerones are more concerned with beer forward stuff: proper storage, dispensing techniques, glassware, pairings, etc. Good luck and PM me if you need any help.

I’m not talking about the pretentious BS that’s out there. Just well made products that show craftsmanship. I was a home brewer for 20 years, a professional brewer for 3 and a certified BJCP beer judge for 8. The turn in the market is a big reason why I walked away from the industry instead of opening my own brewpub. In the end, to each their own. You should drink what you enjoy. I usually only ruin things like flavored beverages for people after they ask me about it and are fairly warned. (I do the same with food.) I really enjoyed the educational part of what the industry was like. You really can’t enjoy something like a great drink or food unless you understand it. But unfortunately that’s not what usually sells. Indeed

Well gross. Sorry, but “natural flavorings” added to liquor, wine, hard seltzer and beer (and some waters) is a pet peeve of mine. They are disgusting unless used extremely sparingly, which is rare. Zero craftsmanship required for an inferior product that’s dumbed down for a crowd with terrible taste. The underage crowd is often a target market too. In their early stages, craft beer and craft liquor were trending toward education of customers and high quality products (like higher end wineries do), but those markets are now dominated by crap like this. It’s cheap and easy to make and most flaws are covered up by throwing in some extract. It’s a shame.

That looks horrific. First truly bad news this offseason. I think the team is strong enough to weather this though.

Ouch. Probably even worse for Nelson since he puts a lot more weight on it. Plus the added stress on it from fighting in the trenches.

Say hello to PSLs. I can’t tell you how much I hate them, though I understand why they’re incorporated into stadium financing. One facet that gets glossed over is that they are a revenue stream for the team. It works this way: Initial PSL revenue goes to fund the stadium. 100% would be expected to sell initially. That would certainly be the case here with the team’s current success. As long as the team continues that success those people wanting to give up their season tickets would be able to sell their PSLs to those in line. No big deal. But eventually there would be down years. When season ticket demand falls off to the point of no waiting list, then PSL owners who no longer wanted their PSLs would have to sell at a discount or outright eat their PSL fee and turn them back in to the team. (A lot of people ate their PSLs in Cleveland.) Then the team would get to re-sell them at full cost and pocket the money. So a team that cycled between good and bad stretches could actually make more on PSL/ticket sales than one that was consistently good. Which really sucks IMO.

More like legal extortion. Unfortunately it seems as though cities have to pony up if they want to retain their major sports franchises. Smaller markets, which are usually less able to raise money than larger markets, are under an increased threat of relocation too since there are comparable markets waiting to snag a team. Some of them would be happy to pony up. It’s a big political win. The flip side is that politically it is usually catastrophic to lose a team - especially an NFL team. So politicians are at a big disadvantage in negotiations. They almost always have to come up with a way to make team owners happy. And we all know who pays the bill for that.

Epenesa was asked to lose weight, but it wound up that it was too much so they had him add some back during the season. I think that is probably the point of confusion.

Oweh is raw. Pairing him with a short term vet like Houston is the right move. He can back him up and learn from him while he earns his reps. The Ravens were very thin there as well so it’s not like they didn’t need another body anyway.

I’m sure the Bills inquired about both. Bills: We are interested in moving up. What do you want for 1 or 4? Browns: 1 isn’t for sale. We want (a lot) for 4. Bills: Okay. Let’s talk about 4……….

If I read that right she allegedly made $700,000. At $10k a pop that’s 70 calls. That’ll be peanuts compared to what she makes when she starts her OnlyFans site

Too many bands for me to list. Agree with pretty much every one listed so far and there are many, many more. So many movies too. I’ll add: Kraft Mac & Cheese. Damn near inedible now. Though a grilled cheese with white bread and Kraft American cheese still brings back fond memories.

All true. I still have very bad feelings about him stealing money here too. But he’s probably right about Judge. Also WTF is Gettlemen thinking with that OL? It might be the worst in the league. You can’t develop a QB behind that.

This tells me that it is on the Jest org. The agent is just holding firm to the precedent the league - and the Jets - set and followed in the past. The Jest org is trying to change it to the team’s advantage. No decent agent would let that happen. So the Jest are gonna lose this one. So stupid to do it at all, but especially with a QB you need in house. Jest gonna Jest I guess. They are in the top 3 or 4 worst run organizations in the league and arguably the worst.

I do like a nice, well-rounded Bass

If we are going to do more zone blocking then Moss is the better fit. That might be game plan dependent though.

I voted Bar Bill, but only the original Bar Bill. The new one is good but not special. It’s still a lot better than Duff’s though.

Dude, enjoy your fantasy world

There is zero evidence Allen has done anything behind the scenes. Nothing has leaked out. Beasley picked up right where he left off on Twitter so he hasn’t done anything there. And he obviously hasn’t done anything publicly. Yet you take this to the opposite extreme, completely baselessly speculating that Allen could be doing a lot of good behind the scenes (but if he was doing a lot, it would be leaking out) while also giving him a pass on not being effective (which really doesn’t make sense since effectiveness is a key component of good leadership). So you’re suggesting a possible situation that’s as glowingly optimistic as possible but is as far removed from the facts and logic as possible.

Dude. I don’t even know what to say to this.

What I said is that this could be something that divides the locker room, not that it already was. The point would be to head that off before it happens. Do you disagree?

As I already said, we can definitely see that Allen is either doing nothing or something that has been ineffective. That’s been borne out by what we see. Suggesting that the team’s QB should show some leadership when something threatens to divide the locker room should not be controversial. He can do so without taking a public stance or by calling any particular player out.

He’s not doing anything of substance behind the scenes - or if he has been, it obviously hasn’t been effective. He could go the route that Baker Mayfield did. Or he could simply make a statement to the effect that players need to put the team first by respecting each other’s opinions, following whichever set of rules they chose and keeping anything decisive in house.

As much as I disagree with everything Beasley has said on COVID vaccinations, nothing he said seemed racist to me. I saw this covered way up thread by another poster, but I’ll reiterate it here: This would be an excellent time for Josh Allen to show some leadership.