Wednesday 29 July 2015

Strongarm (Camerons)

Strongarm (Camerons)
Name: Strongarm
Label: "Ruby Red Ale"
Brewery: Camerons
ABV: 4.3%

Tasting notes: "Strongarm is the brewery's flagship ale. First brewed in 1955 this is a well rounded, ruby red ale with a distinctive, tight creamy head. Strongarm delivers an initial sweet surge of flavour followed by a delicious malty taste. A North East classic ale!"

Game: Slowly progressing with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Now well into visiting the Skellige Isles and been reacquainted with "Uma, the ugliest man alive and the victim of a curse." Nice of CD Projekt Red to include me in their game. They said they would but I didn't realise it would be as such an integral character to the plot.

Sunday 26 July 2015

Strong Suffolk Dark Ale (Greene King)

Strong Suffolk Dark Ale (Greene King)
Name: Strong Suffolk Dark Ale
Label: "A rich dark ale featuring rare 2 year old oak aged vintage 5X"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 6.0%

Tasting notes: "As the name suggests, Strong Suffolk is not for the faint-hearted. We blend a proportion of our very special and rare vintage 5X brew with a rich malty dark ale to create a deeply satisfying and complex beer." I really enjoyed this beer, so there.

Game: Thirty two quid seems a lot for a season pass, however it was recently mentioned that the 1989 Batmobile from the Tim Burton films is going to be power-sliding into Batman: Arkham Knight! This news is muchos awesomes, although you may only be able to use it in certain situations rather than cruising around the city in it.  Just realised that the first Tim Burton Batman film was released 26 years ago... suddenly feel totally old.

Wednesday 22 July 2015

St Andrews Blonde (Eden Brewery)

St Andrews Blonde (Eden Brewery)
Name: St Andrews Blonde
Label: "Small batch locally crafted beer"
Brewery: Eden Brewery
ABV: 3.8%

Tasting notes: "We reckon no one will sit on the fence with this refreshing, drinkable beer. It has loads of hoppy attitude, and a flavour profile spanning apricot to, pineapple and grapefruit."

Game: The better half bought me a book recently, "1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die" by Adrian Tierney-Jones.  I'm definitely game for giving this a go!  I've already spotted a few ales that have graced these web pages in the past. And it has my fave, Well's Banana Bread Beer in there too so it definitely gets the Gaming Ales seal of approval. And it's like, you know, professional, well written and well researched... kinda the opposite to Gaming Ales in many ways.  Link below if you want to buy it.

Saturday 18 July 2015

Clock Brew (Eden Brewery)

Clock Brew (Eden Brewery)
Name: Clock Brew
Label: "Traditional Scottish Ale - Thank you for buying our beer and we hope you can enjoy being part of the journey"
Brewery: Eden Brewery
ABV: 4.3%

Tasting notes: "A classic Scottish red ale with a hint of pepperiness and hops up front giving way to a smooth multi layered finish."  It's Beer 'O Clock! On the label this beer actually thanks you for buying the beer. I say No! Thank you!  Thank you for this most excellent of brews!

Game: Two Batman: Arkham Knight DLC missions down and enjoyable they were too!  So far we've played as Harley Quinn and now Batgirl. Both missions have been criticised by most 'proper' journalisty things but I think they're pretty good. Batgirl's level only lasts about an hour and Harley Quinn's is even less (much less) but they make a nice distraction if you're still working your way through the main Batman campaign.
So stop moaning and enjoy it will you!  Just forget for a second that you've spent thirty two quid on a season pass. Just forget it! Five more months of DLC incoming. The whole will be better than the sum of it's parts, or something.

Sunday 12 July 2015

Seggie (Eden Brewery)

Seggie (Eden Brewery)
Name: Seggie
Label: "Our brewer's aims are simple: to help more people experience and enjoy really good beer more often."
Brewery: Eden Brewery
ABV: 5.2%

Tasting notes: "Based on a 17th Century Porter recipe and using local malted barley 'Seggie' has layers of flavour with roasted coffee, liquorice, and hints of chocolate in evidence. It is a smooth and deceptively drinkable beer that we are really proud of"

Game: So utterly addicted to The Witcher 3 I'm now actually looking forward to upcoming patches! What is going on? Patch 1.07 will include a player stash for storing items! Books will have a dedicated tab and be greyed out when they've been read. Crafting and alchemy components won't add weight! I'm super excited for these, which may sound sarcastic, but scarily enough these words contain zero sarcasm!

Saturday 4 July 2015

Fathers Day Ale (Oakleaf Brewing)

Fathers Day Ale (Oakleaf Brewing)
Name: Father's Day Ale
Label: "Great British Ale - Father's Day Crafted Ale - You're the Best"
Brewery: Oakleaf Brewing
ABV: 4.0%

Tasting notes: "Father's Day Ale, a traditional bitter ale brewed in Hampshire. This is a mid-brown session ale with a complex malt sweetness that leads to a long hoppy finish." I'm the best apparently, so much so that I MUST be woken up at 6am every morning after 2 minutes sleep, then get mithered, hit, back chatted and cried at constantly for the next 24 hours straight. Welcome to parenthood.  But then they get you beer and everything is okay :)

Game: I must admit I felt a twinge of disappointment at the start of Batman: Arkham Knight when we're informed that the whole city must be evacuated (again), and you're effectively left with an empty city interspersed by gangs of wandering thugs. It's a bit like town on a Saturday night. Nevertheless, after this initial disappointment the game then consistently fails to disappoint. Meaning it's batballs awesome!! 9.9999999999 bats out 10.