FlaSoxxJim

I'm in Melbourne, on the east coast about 90 minutes straight across from The Mouse.\ I've fantasized about openinng a brewpub or a beer-themed resturaunt for a long time, but alas I sit on my duff. There are maby three top notch brewpubs in the state and several lesser ones, a couple of very successful upscale wine-themed resturaunts (my office mate's Brother owns a good one in Orlando), and a couple of other oases in a sea of mediocrity. I don't think it's a bad idea to do something in Florida - the upside is you have a lot less competition in those niches. You also have to keep in mind that you don't need to float everybody's boat - just enough to fill your tables and barstools. The places that have closed down have done so either because of poor business management or in the case of a few marginal brewpubs because their beers were subpar or their systems were chronically infected. When you're down, if you haven't done it already I strongly recommend a road trip up to the Tampa Bay Brewing Company in yBor City. Hands-down the best brewpubb in the state right now - very daring in their offerings and proof that you don't have to appeal to the least common denominator to be successful. (If you put your trip off until May, you can catch the Sox at Tropicana )

He was talking about beer? I thought that was his primer on dating!

Hopleaf rocks. I also recommend the Clark Street Ale House if you have not been. Around the holidays they usually have a lot of barleywines on tap (Old Foghat and Bogfoot), good midwest stuff from Third Coast and Bells and Three Floyds, New Glarus, etc. Plus it's a stumble away from the Clark Street Blue Chocago and some good tapas resturaunts. Someone please rescue me from the beer wasteland that is Florida!

The (sadly) now defunct Weinkellar brewpub from Berwynn did a tremendous Bavarian weissbier. A brewing industry friend of mine did his internship there after getting his degree at Siebel, before opening up a Bavarian-focused micro down here. Sadly, that is also now closed - due much more to the crap beer tastes of the unwashed Florida masses than the quality of his beers. I'll also have Blue Moon if the only alternatives are American megaswill. I think it's a damn sight better than Sam Adams' early attempts at wit-influenced beers, although they have improved a bit as well.

Pretty please...? 56789 is right. You shouldn't bash the man every day. We can work out a schedule and we'll all take turns.

Blue Moon is a mega's attempt at a witbier on a budget, so of course it is going to fall flat. Try Hoegarden or Bavik Wittekerke or Allagash and see if the style is for you. I adore the style, love it's folksy farmhous brewery history, and I think it's amazing that the style literally died out before Pierre Celis resurrected it in the 1080s. It's also impressive that the really good examples of the style can pack so much complexity into such a delicate beer (courtesy of some creative late-spicing in the kettle and a little Lactobacillus fermentation).

That's why me and you get all our music info from Tiger Beat, right? Or, is it just me?

I could tell a joke? *crickets chirping*

Sad. Just about all that survived was the frame and the... TIIIIIIIIINN RROOOOOOOOOOOFFF! (*rusted*)

Now he goes by one name.............. Tex.

Too much glue... "strong stuff."

I'd probably really like that. Sounds like a nice traditional Bavarian Rauchbier (smoked beer). Have that with some nice German sausages and sharp cheeses ande that is living. Alaskan Brewing Company's Smoked Porter is broadly in the style, and when I get my hands on one of those it's like beervana.

I'm going to have to go with OE800 of that list, simply because on the label it's big selling point is "charcoal filtered". I mean, Stroh's is 'fully krausened', Old Style was 'From God's Country,' Hamm's is 'from the land of sky blue water,'... None of which could have touched Tuborg, 'The Beer of Danish Kings'! (Ah, beer marketers...) But, if all a beer has going for it is that it's 'charcoal filtered' (implying they are using skanky water, btw), then I think you have a winner. Sadly, maybe once a year I partake in the ritual drinking of the Old English 'foty' - when the state lotto gets up close to 100 million and I break down and buy a ticket at 7-11, I usually pick up a foty and try to bargain with the universe: "OK, if I drink this... ALL of it.... how about letting me win?" So far it has not worked.

Elwood.

Welcome aboard! First, I have never heard anyone in the states other than myself utter the words, "I am a big geuze fan" There are only one places in my entire state that carry it, usually just Lindermnn's and Leifmann's (sp??), and it's at least a 90 minute drive to get. Sometimes they carry a faro as well, but I like to pretend I'm in a nice Brussels cafe and make my own with table sugar. You can get the damn fruit lambics anywhere (not that they are not also nice), but people look at me like I'm from another planet if I ask them for the gueze. I can't say anything bad about Great Lakes - other than the fact that it's just up the road from the Jake and it cheeses me off that undeserving Tribe fans get such a good place. I've not had anything from them in a Belgian style though, so that Anniversary ale sounds intriguing. How does it stack up to the North American neo-Belgians like Ommegang, New Belgium, and Unibroue?

Dumb move. Selling off the franchise of one of the all-time American icons for next to nothing. Maybe her ex-hubby called and needs a quick cash infusion.

But "Passion" was an R- or NC-17 movie, so the safeguards to insure age-appropriate viewing are in place. The GTA games and games like them should not be consumed by 10 year old kids. It has nothing to do with inability to tell reality from fantasy and everything to do with exposing minds that are way too young to murder, rape, drug abuse, disregard for society and law, violence, and just about every other abscene thing that you would never in a million years want your oen 10 year old exposed to. And a parent can be the best, on-top-of-things parent in the world, but that doesn't mean that your kid isn't getting exposed to the stuff at their friend's house or wherever. There is no reason these games should not be age-restricted.

Yeah, usually one per game. Sadly, that's usually all it takes. I think Garland inherited Danny Wright's kanck for the single-inning implosion in some kind of twisted Karmic curse.

"Yes, but it's a dry heat." ...Kind of what I imagine Hell would be like.

Dang. I'll be easy to pick out because I'll be one of a handful of people cheering for the man and acknowledging the 8 years he gave us.

Now you are scaring me.

Yeah, that was some of Gonzalez' brilliance as well. 'Hmmm, let's see... who's not so hung up on this whole not-torturing-prisoners thing..." Egypt would be nice though, I think.

So if we were willing to overpay Clement there for a while, let's preemptively overpay Perez - not that he'd jump at it knowing he's the next (last?) big fish in the pond...

I can live with Pryz (I'll still hate him) and Perez if we would just friggin' do it already.

So, to sum up the last hour: • Hudson is gone • Sox no longer in the bidding war for Clement • Sox no longer pursuing the mult-team deal that might have landed Johnson Yep, now it seems like a White Sox off-season.