The NCAA basketball pool

Great game for anyone who had access, to stay up and watch it. I fell asleep a couple times, but caught all of the last quarter and overtime.

The one knock on Memphis coming into the tournament was their free throw shooting. They managed to avoid that problem until now but it caught up with them in the final game.

Congratulations to aptly named WESTY WINNER Brian Bedrick who came from behind, and now gets to have Joe Stange deliver him a six pack of Westvetleren.

While my own performance was well short of what I had hoped for, I did meet my primary objective...beating Joe, who set this up. Let this be a lesson to you all, if you set your goals low enough you might just meet them.

Joe not only has to deliver a sixpack...he has also suffered the humiliation of having his wife Kelly, kick his ass!

RESULTS:

1Westy Winner, B. Bedrick 1220

2KELLEY 1, J. KELLEY 1090
3Rozeski 1, M. Rozeski 1070
4Peterson 1, R. Peterson 1000
5Dallmann 1, R. Dallmann 990
6Covington 1, C. Covington 900
7Folger 1, J. Folger 850
8Hetrick 1, M. Hetrick 710
9East Campus All Stars, J. Stange 700
9Schiefert 1, D. Schiefert 700

ROAD TRIP TO BEER MECCA

CLICK ANY PICTURES TO ENLARGE

If you've never made a trip to Beer Mecca, also known as the St. Sixtus Abbey, you might want to read this WALL STREET JOURNAL article in a previous STUDS post to see what all the fuss is about. I think there are actually guys who would leave their wife for this stuff. I had no luck getting through on the "beer phone" to get an appointment to pick up beer for myself, but Joe got lucky and got through on his third attempt, and made an appointment.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of riding along with Joe Stang our own Studs Belgian Beer guru, and John Montgomery to pick up Joe's monthly stash of Westvleteren, or "Westy" as it is affectionally called by Joe. The Abby is right outside Ypres in the middle of nowhere. We first stopped for lunch at The Trumpet, right next to the Cathedral and tried, Ypra, the local brew. It's hard to track down except in some souvenir shops and bars in Ypres. Very much in the style of an abbey Tripel, it also reflects the hop character of beers from this region.

Thank God for GPS, we arrive on Beer Street

Arriving at the Abbey, like I said, in the middle of nowhere, on a road that was about as wide as my driveway. We had to pull off into the grass to let a couple tractors squeeze by.

The first site you see, is the line of cars wound through the trees to pick up their beer. Although it took about forty minutes for us to get our beer, I'm told before there were appointments, the line snaked back for a mile along this thin little road.

We get to the front, and unload the empties. The look on these peoples faces picking up their beer reminds me of a kid on Christmas morning!

Joe gets his stash....is that the look of true love? He did sell John and I both a sixpack, as hard as that was.
To our disappointment the Abbey cafe was closed for the month of January so we weren't able to go in and try a cold one right away.

We took the scenic route back to Brussels and slid down to Wallonia to a small brewery called Brasserie Ellezelloise that is located down a farm road in Ellezelles for a beer tasting. I didn't know that my mother-in-law endorsed this beer, as she is pictured on the label.

To end our day in typical Belgian fashion we arrive at the brewery to a sign that says "closed on Wednesday". This initiated a trip to the local pub where we sampled the brew, and found a local store that sold us a boxed little five pak.

Thou Shalt Not Buy too Much of our Beer

The Trappist monks at St. Sixtus monastery have taken vows against riches, sex and eating red meat. They speak only when necessary. But you can call them on their Beer Phone.

Monks have been brewing Westvleteren beer at this remote spot near the French border since 1839. Their brew, offered in strengths up to 10.2% alcohol by volume, is among the most highly prized in the world. In bars from Brussels to Boston, and online, it sells for more than $15 for an 11-ounce bottle -- 10 times what the monks ask -- if you can get it.

For the 26 monks at St. Sixtus, however, success has brought a spiritual hangover as they fight to keep an insatiable market in tune with their life of contemplation.The monks are doing their best to resist getting bigger. They don't advertise and don't put labels on their bottles. They haven't increased production since 1946.

They sell only from their front gate. You have to make an appointment and there's a limit: two, 24-bottle cases a month. Because scarcity has created a high-priced gray market online, the monks search the net for resellers and try to get them to stop."

READ WALL STREET JOURNAL