The time is upon us. It’s time to start signing up for the Spring BIF (Beer It Forward, if you don’t know what it is yet, click here). Signing up will mean you’ll be both receiving, and responsible for shipping, between 72-96 ounces of locally produced beer from and to another participant. You will be required to at least provide your general location (to avoid shipping to someone you could just drive the beers to). If you wish to include swag (glasses, stickers, coasters, shirts, etc) from the local breweries, it is encouraged, but not required.
For shipping beer, you can look at this guide to see about the best packaging and shipping methods. I generally recommend cans and crowlers (32 oz cans filled and sealed at a brewery/bar) over bottles (and strongly recommend against growlers). Do not ship USPS, as it is a felony.
To sign up, I’d ask you to e-mail me at my handle at the mail of Google, as well as posting in this thread. In your e-mail to me, at least provide your handle and general location. If you have beer preferences or dislikes, then please include those as well. At some point you will need to provide your address to someone so that they can ship to you (if you provide it to me, I’ll pass it along).
I will also do my best to avoid having any previous participant from shipping to someone they’ve shipped to before. This is a great way to learn about beers that aren’t available in your area, and to share your favorite local beers with someone elsewhere in the country. I’d like to keep sign ups open up until about May 18th, with the plan of having everything shipped by June 7th.
I like beer.
Does it make you a jolly good fellow?
Do you know who else liked beer?
The infamous Hyperion?
Me.
You got it, Marge.
No deer for a month.
Does the Lord count?
I’m always intrigued by the BIF, but last time you gave everyone in the group homework and made them write a review. That was enough for me to scuttle back into the shadows.
You might not think having to do a quick write up on the beer you receive is a big deal, but you need to walk a mile in Mike S’ teepee creepers. First he has to trap some critters so he can tan their hides so he has something to write on. Then he has to blood let his wife for something to write with. Then he has to march 20 miles to his neighbor who “knows his letters” to help him with the big two syllable words. Then he has to give the review to some traveling itinerant salesman to deliver to the big city post office. Just a real hassle.
So, What I’m hearing is to pack extra leaches in MikeS’s shipment.
He thinks those are like the worms in a tequila bottle.
The ones he doesn’t eat himself, he shakes them out and uses them to catch walleyes.
I never wrote my reviews. Which lines up with how I did homework in High School. And College.
You don’t have to write about it….
There was no assignment, I just took the opportunity to provide filler material for the Gliberati.
You put filler in the beer?
After the last BIF, I discovered an interesting quirk in Iowa law — it is illegal to lie to a general carrier that a package does not contain alcohol when in fact it does.
I’m glad I’ve never broken that law…
That would be an interesting law, I’d be curious if anyone was ever charged with it, and why the law came into being.
And an older article talking about some other quirks of Iowa state laws when it comes to alcohol.
Someone in the local brew club mentioned that bottle shares were illegal in Iowa, but only for beer.
So, I spent some quality time reading the Iowa laws. Home beer-making and wine-making were legalized at different times, and this involved edits to different parts of the law. The law is pretty clear that home made wine can be bottled, and the bottles transported to competitions and tastings. The law is murky as hell regarding beer. You can make it at home and that’s about it. There is another edit under the commercial beer rules that exempt home brew from certain rules, so it’s implied that it is legal to bottle your home made beer. But there is nothing about transporting outside the home.
A different part of the law covers shipping requirements. There are mandatory labels required for any package containing alcohol. This is where they add the law that it is illegal to tell a common carrier that an unlabeled box does not have alcohol in it when the box does in fact contain alcohol.
Sounds interesting as usual but… you know…
Vampires will drink your beer?
No, the Eurocrat “Quality Assurance” team in the post office.
I’ll know by next week, but it looks like I can parcipitate,
Yay!
Count me in. I just need to make sure I send an email sometime before the 18th! Missed out on last fall’s, which was a travesty because it was stout and porter season. Boooooo!
I’ll be emailing Neph here sharpish, but I thought it might be prudent to list preferences here, too.
Likes: stouts, porters, full-bodied lagers and red ales, just about anything with “coffee” or “chocolate” or “vanilla” in the name.
Willing to try: interesting/novel IPAs, pilsners, sours.
Absolutely, under no circumstances: light beers of any kind.
If I didn’t name it above, I’m likely happy to try it anyway… as long as it’s not a light beer, seriously.
Semi OT: I love this disclaimer from Pragmatic Capitalism
https://www.pragcap.com/three-things-i-think-i-think-berkshire-jobby-jobs-and-chase-tweets/
¹ – Please remember that past performance is not indicative of future results. Different types of alcohol involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any alcohol, drinking strategy, or alcoholic product made reference to directly or indirectly in this article, will be profitable, equal any corresponding indicated historical performance level(s), or be suitable for you. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this article serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized alcohol advice from Pragmatic Capitalism.
i never lied. that’s a yeast culture suspended in a short-chain carbohydrate medium.
*slaps a “Biohazard* sticker on the box*
The rate is 16x normal for biological cultures.
The National Homebrew Competition recommends labeling the contents of the shipment as “liquid yeast samples”.
i might just put “carb” and let the guy think it’s a carburator.
The contents are clearly liquid. You have to explain that somehow.
Mind didn’t, it was optical glass…,.
I said “Glassware and a hat”. Which was true. Some of the glassware was glassware, and some also contained beer.
I’m game. Are either of our other NM Glibs participants?
I’m not. I’ve cut way back on my beer drinking and when I do it’s something pretty mild like Santa Fe Pilsner or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
One dodge I did when shipping wine was to slap a label on the product reading “Laboratory Sample: Not for human consumption.” For things like Coturri, Turley, or most Australian wine, the latter was literally true.
Fruit preserves.
All
FYI,
I get a 12 pack a month from my MIL and FIL as part of a beer of the month club. I will try to reuse the box and nifty cardboard inserts for BIF. They must be available online from someone. They hold the bottles perfectly intact. Unfortunately the recent shipment had a large (can not be accepted by anyone under 21 sticker) on the box. This required someone to sign for the package.
Similar to these.
https://www.amazon.com/Crafty-Shipping-12oz-Bottle-Trays/dp/B0796GH6GK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Crafty+Shipping&qid=1557163380&s=gateway&sr=8-1
This sounds like so much fun, but the number of beers I’ve found even tolerable in my lifetime is so small that I can’t imagine it’d be worth it.
I am in again.
Dislikes:
Stout, Rauchbier, rice lagers.
Likes:
Hops, malt, water and yeast.
Re: Two comments on the last thread
1. Mild meant “served fresh” as opposed to keeping beer, which was aged. Still, 10% without aging could be rough. But it wasn’t contradictory. The style XXXX meant really, really big mild.
2. Agreed on both Stone and New Belgium. NB was my first thought and Stone wouldn’t surprise me either, although I doubt the text of Arrogant Bastard could survive the buy out.
1. Mild meant “served fresh” as opposed to keeping beer,
Interesting. I am not well-versed in 19th century brewing. I generally don’t pay attention to anything past the 17th century.
Because post-war milds are dark, low alcohol, and low hops, people have come to think that is the definition of the style. It was mild in alcohol and hops. But that isn’t the historical meaning of the word, which is obvious from examples like this, that are light in color, heavily hopped, and boozy.
Mildly OT, but it falls within the realm of booze, bitches and boomsticks: Cory’s Plan to End the Gun Violence Epidemic
To make justice a reality for all, we have to end the epidemic of gun violence and invest in communities that have been shattered by the trauma left in its wake. To do that, we need to adopt a plan that introduces aggressive gun safety measures — the most forward-leaning this country has ever seen.
Cory’s plan would:
Keep guns out of the wrong hands
Hold gun manufacturers accountable
Bring the fight to the NRA
Uh huh…
We won’t wait for more thoughts and prayers for communities that have been shattered by gun violence — from Pittsburgh to Parkland to Charleston to communities where kids fear the fireworks of Fourth of July because to them they sound like gunshots.
We will pass universal background checks. We will ban assault weapons and close the loopholes that allow people who should never have a gun to get one. We will bring a fight to the NRA like they have never ever seen before. And we will win.
1) I don’t think that is a thing. 2) Define “assault weapon” and explain how it is Constitutional to prohibit private ownership of any particular firearm. 3) Please continue your crusade on the NRA, other groups do the real legal work to protect 2A.
The details further in the “plan” get increasingly tyrannical and illegal.
Booker’s specific plan is irrelevant because I’ll be president before he gets it. Unfortunately, all the other Dem candidates are just as bad.
Biden recommended people go out and break the law by firing their shotgun into the air to scare off intruders.
here’s a vid of Biden words mixed with women failing at shotgun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafkVM-jnbE
Double Barrel Joe…
As much as the NRA is a gun rights or Second Amendment organization, it’s most significant power is in its function as a governmental transparency organization. For all the talk of the money they spend lobbying, their budget on this is pretty modest, at least in relative terms. Their much more significant power is to alert their members to various politicians’ support or opposition to gun rights. Its the resulting opposition from the public that politicians fear. For a guy like Booker, that doesn’t much matter. He’s safe in his seat with or without them. But, a guy like Booker knows that the transparency that the NRA provides is dangerous for many of his colleagues on his own side of the aisle.
Guns are effectively banned in many cities. How’s that working out?
Moran.
It is working out fine. The point is to keep the rabble from marching on city hall with pitchfork and rope in hand. It seems to be accomplishing that.
I’d love to see a constitutional amendment requiring every piece of legislation introduced to cite the specific power enumerated in Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution which authorizes each clause and if such clause is determined not to be supported by the cited portion of the Constitution by SCOTUS, the legislator who sponsored the bill is barred from holding elected office for eight years.
Unfortunately, every bill would cite very first sentence, specifically the “general welfare” clause, and SCOTUS would almost always uphold each such law.
By the way, gotta love usconstitution.net’s definition of “welfare”, which includes a statement that:
Spartacus is an idiot and he’s just regurgitating all the half-baked, thoughtless, stupid ideas the gun grabbers always trot out as shorthand for “We want to ban private ownership of firearms”.
As for the NRA, while much valid criticism can be leveled against it, one thing the NRA does whether it likes it or not is provide cover for other organizations that do more effective, immediate legal work. So, let Cory Booker wage legislative war against a single political action committee, as if that’s not the clearest demonstration of political tyranny he could make.
So who wants me to send them a case of Red Dog?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-mistakenly-claims-margaret-thatcher-who-died-in-2013-is-worried-about-trump
Biden mistakenly claims Margaret Thatcher, who died in 2013, is worried about Trump
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reportedly had to correct himself over the weekend after telling donors Margaret Thatcher is concerned about the United States under President Trump.
Thatcher, the former prime minister of Britain, died in 2013 – nearly two years before Trump launched his first campaign for president.
According to Bloomberg News, Biden eventually corrected himself, explaining to the donors he meant to say British Prime Minister Theresa May instead of Thatcher, blaming the mix-up on a “Freudian slip.”
Biden’s confusing comments came Saturday during a closed-door fundraiser in Columbia, South Carolina. He listed Thatcher as one of 14 heads of state who he claimed have voiced concerns to him about Trump, the outlet reported.
Biden’s 76 years old now so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s starting to slip. Then again, we all misspeak from time to time. On the other hand I’ve seen a couple of recent appearances where he’s mildly slurring his words which is obviously not a good sign.
And their big attack against that asshole McCain was that he would have been 72 and too old. Assholes, the lot of them.
Eh, he’s been doing this stuff for years. Remember during the debate with Palin when he talked about recently visiting a restaurant that had closed many years before? It didn’t even sound like a lie. I think he really thought he’d done it.
So stupid not senile? I could buy that.
More like so wrapped up in the lies of their bs narrative that they believe them. Like the time Hillary dodged sniper fire, the exploits of Brian Williams or Dunphy banging Morgan Fairchild.
And he talked about Franklin Roosevelt going on national television to reassure people during the Great Depression.
If Biden is the Dem candidate, then they cannot attack Trump’s old age for two election campaigns in a row. And Trump is the oldest US President in history. It’s remarkable that they cannot take advantage of ageism.
Biden has the reach but Trump has too much mass on Biden and would win in a bum fight.
I thought the winner of a bum fight was who had the most drugs in their system?
Biden would get a steel chair to the back of the head courtesy of Pence. Trump is a wwe veteran and knows a thing or two.
I’m worried that his campaign will be cringy-sad instead of just cringy-funny.
TBF, May smells a lot like Thatcher.
May smells of Hillary like commie.
I’m assuming Thatcher wasn’t creamated.
Oh good, quarterly all-hands meeting.
Let’s see who poses the most ridiculous, entitled question to the webcast forum this time around.
Do share.
This is probably the most entitled, so far:
That’s not even a question, BTW.
“Will you please open an office near my house?”
Just ask it like the world revolves around you.
Well the way it was phrased is better than what it should have said which is…
“Why the &^%$ are you morons paying a premium on Boston locations for workers who do not need to be in Boston when doing so makes said employees demand higher wages to compensate for the outrageous commuting costs and time when you could get office space for 70% of the cost out on the I95 belt and give your workers an extra productive hour each day”
out on the I95 belt
Fuck that – I and many others would bail. That would just be a terrible commute in the other direction.
75% of the company is outside of Boston, including a satellite office near New Hampshire. We also have an extensive work-from-home program.
That makes the logic of moving the jobs even further out stronger. I just picked I95 because it is the next thing outside of Boston. You could easily locate a series of offices along the 495 belt where space is significantly cheaperStick one in Haverhill, one in Billerica, One in Acton, Marlboro, etc let people work in whichever is closest to them when they aren’t working from home.
Commutes of 1:15-1:30 each way are now disturbingly common
Is this not normal?? My downtown commute in Dallas was that length and I wasn’t even in an outer suburb. My 12 mile (as the bird flies, 22 mile by the odometer) commute is 1:30 during peak rush here in DC, and I’m only commuting between suburbs. I go in off-hour to shave it down to 45 minutes. Many people here commute 2+ hours each way, and, disturbingly, that’s considered normal.
That’s fucking nuts. I consider my 20 minute (~15 mile) commute just about perfect.
Ditto. My wife hates our 10 drive into town. Takes 15-20 minutes.
Not a chance.
We regard people who have an hour long commute as being insane.
Highest-voted question:
That’s not a terrible question, as the flexibility really has been a perk; but they’re going to be disappointed.
The reason the policy changed is due to tax consequences; U.S. based employees were going back to, say India for a time, taking a week off but then working from there for several more weeks. As I understand it, tax authorities in the US & India have some issues with doing that.
As ever, the government is making things worse.
“Can I call it in from the beach and get paid?”
2nd-highest voted question is a legit question about technical debt.
This quarter’s questions are less derpy than usual.
My guess? Someone from HR.
Apparently we’re sponsoring a program for girls in one of the countries we’re in (good), but it’s not just STEM skills – it’s “STEAM skills” – the ‘A’ is for ‘Art’.
So, we’re going to help prepare them for a lucrative, high-demand job in the arts…
One of these is not like the other.
I am offended by sticking and A in the middle of my EM.
Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics is funny.
I honestly think the whole gimmick is about destroying people’s ability to utilize categories. STEM, in itself, is a useful category. It describes a set of fields with clear meaningful connections that share real properties. Adding Art to the mix only renders the category less meaningful.
I used to live near a high school that called itself a STEAM school, but the A was for Architecture. That fits in with the rest of the category a whole lot more than Art does.
Purdue?
Yeah, I’d call that an offshoot of engineering. It does have an art component, but it’s actually a useful one.
Industrial design? UX/UI design? Game development? Etc. All those have an element of “art” in them.
Art in the sense of intuitive skill as opposed to methodical skill is a component of all the STEM disciplines. If they are including the Fine Arts and Performing Arts that makes less sense.
Dear webcast forum. Stuff like this never usually happens to guys like me….
Note: Questions shown above are moderated to avoid duplicates and ensure professional tone
I can’t imagine what doesn’t make it through.
I hereby sign up.
Huzzah for BiF and the fine folk who make all of this run smoothly. Please count me in for this iteration. Sours would likely be my least favorite and stouts or porters my most but I’m open to trying anything; Glib-brewed products are especially welcome.
On an tangential note, I can’t say enough nice things about BaklaBot. It’s so shockingly well-balanced.
I am in. I want to thank Swiss for including BIF in the things to come post. I nearly threw out a perfect box and bubble bags today, but then remembered this was incoming
Did we lose the PM links?
No, go back to the main page and scroll down a bit…
Dems to hold Barr in contempt
Yeah, sorry, you desperate bunch of fools. You can say whatever you want, but you ARE NOT the law. You’re 1/2 of the legislative branch. But I am sure you’re too stupid to even know what that means. Man, the dems are in for a world of hurt and all they can do is wish for more.
Haha
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/06/irony-new-york-blocked-new-pipeline-guess-just-found/
It’s OK. Just ask the esteemed mayor of NYC and their newest esteemed congress critter. They’re going to run NYC on magical unicorn farts. No wait! Farts cause climate change! Make that magical unicorn dreams. Rainbow colored unicorns floating on puffy clouds, who would never fart and cause global warming. Yep, it’s all good.
This is good. They can enjoy the consequences of their actions.
I had a last minute cancellation. If anyone is interested in 2 tickets to the Indianapolis 500, email me at the handle listed above @ google’s email.
Looks like RP has a little crush. Can’t say I blame him. TW: TOS.
https://reason.com/2019/05/06/ron-paul-has-a-favorite-in-the-democratic-presidential-primary/
So, it’s official, Ron has Alzheimer’s?
Harsh.
Out of all the Dem candidates, she’s the least objectionable. So she has no chance of winning the nomination.
Creepy Joe is the least objectionable
“Paul noted that he and Gabbard had some differences on economic policy. ”
Lmao.
“Schwartz noted he and Hitler had some differences on Jew policy”
I can haz evening lynx?
There’s been an active afternoon links for hours… just below this article on the main page.
“Active” being a relative term.
I thinks it’s ‘Spring Fever’. In most of the country, this is probably one of the first days you can go outside, without having frost on your ballz.
I did see a LOT of people out walking/jogging compared to normal, today. Semi-Couch taters are emerging from their hibernation. It’s an ugly spectacle for sure.
Really? I thought everyone was glued to their tv or other news outlet waiting with bated breath to find out what the new royal baby is named. Or watching videos of Lady Gaga’s latest wardrobe extravaganza. Just think about how many Democrats must have entered the presidential nomination race while us sane people were out enjoying sunshine.
“glued to their tv or other news outlet waiting with bated breath to find out what the new royal baby is named”
Inbredio?
I am afraid I must sit this one out. I greatly enjoyed the last one, but am currently too focused on reducing my tubbiosity. I have noticed that a graph of my weight shows clear peaks coinciding with beer drinking.
You’re going to have to reduce the beer drinking (my weakness), or greatly increase your metabolism, through exercise. I chose the latter, for now, but it’s a lot of work.
Oh oh! I have a solution for you. Stop recording when you are drinking beer.
why so quiet? Good morning glibs!
Some of us work! LOL.
How is it going over in Vampireland?
could be better…
Any particular downer? Work? Weather? Wrong blood type in the last victim?
as I complained before, apartment renovation issues
Work? Around here? Give me a break, none of the one percenters here work. They’re on the internet all day.
Good morning.
I had the Monday from Hell today. Fortunately I was in a good mood and thereby impervious to the shit that was flung in my general direction at work. I am doing a good manager’s duty and taking the undeserved flak for the team so that they can get their jobs done and not know about the ulcer-inducing shit I deal with.
I miss the time when technical problems were my main challenge. Now it’s all people problems, but my underlings give me happy feedback routinely and I know I am in the right place now for them and for me.
You should try adding beatings to further improve morale
Right on, bro.
You just described my work life via a vis my wife and kids.
So… that’s the new job?
I don’t like beer
See, that is what happens to you when you don’t like beer. Don’t be that person.
Alright, if you’ve tried to sign up so far, and sent me an e-mail as well, you should have a response. If you don’t have a response, I didn’t get your initial e-mail.
Wait… is this a time warp? Isn’t this thread from yesterday?
Because of some travel, if folks are willing to receive late from me, and ship late to me, I’m in. I can sweeten the pot for whomever receives from me with some beer from my travels.
I’m actually in the same position, would work great for me to ship a little later.
Please count in this lurker, as well. Vicarious living has left me entertained, but without an adequate supply of beer.
Outrage of the evening – two Environment Iowa reps (Poli Sci majors) just showed-up asking us to sign a petition to ban pesticides that are killing all the bees. The spouse said no thanks, but didn’t appropriately ridicule the party of science.
Those fucking bees! *shakes fist at clouds*
Life has kept me from posting much or even lurking lately but luckily I stopped by tonight. Count me in!
Sign me up. I love a good BiFFING!
So….just asking for friends, but….umm, can we go O/T in this thread now?
OK, OK–will “we” be doing so?
I love beer, but no more drinking alki-haul for me.
You could just scroll down to the new posts.
Alright all who have signed up so far, you should have received an e-mail from me. If you did not, than that means I didn’t get your e-mail, and you’re not on the list.
How many do you have so far?
10 so far, with a couple more potential people.
/looks at l0b0t, Riven, and the Checker of Thermostats
There’s still 10 more days for sign ups as well.
I’m getting there! Some of us work in understaffed offices! In the private sector! Where they expect results!
I’ll take a crack at it this year, I guess. I’ll email you, Neph.
Bif and his best friend Chet are both rich assholes.
Sign me up.
Email on the way shortly.
I’m in.
I’m in. Email on the way.
I’m in. But I want my shipment to go to an aunt/uncle who have had a shitty spring. Random beer being delivered to their house would be great.
Thank Zod, only 4 moar dayz of having to look at this at the top of the homepage!
Alright all, if you’ve gotten an e-mail from me you’re in. If you haven’t, I don’t have you on the list. Sometime either tomorrow or Sunday I’ll be sending out the shipping assignments.
And shipping assignments have been sent out. Have fun all.