Friday 27 November 2015

Unicorn Black (Robinsons)

Unicorn Black (Robinsons)
Name: Unicorn Black
Label: "Deliciously rich roasted stout - A modern twist on an aged old recipe, Unicorn Black is a dark, mysterious, ebony coloured stout with a distinct aroma of roasted malt and chocolate."
Brewery: Robinsons
ABV: 4.1%

Tasting notes: "Rich, full bodied and deeply satisfying, Unicorn Black delivers a palate of roasted coffee and peppery hops leaving a robust after bitterness. It is perfectly balanced with a hint of sweetness."

Game: Assassin's Creed Syndicate is ace. The attention to detail is amazing. However, there only seems to be about three enemy character models which is weird.  It's like, "Oh, there's that stocky looking bald bloke again and the baddy woman lookout person." This happens every minute or so when traversing London's streets bumping into groups of Blighters. Seems strange given the obvious effort gone in to recreating London and it breaks the immersion. Breaks it worse than getting stuck on a wall mid-climb. A minor quibble so it still gets 9/10.

Saturday 21 November 2015

Headland Red (Wold Top)

Headland Red (Wold Top)
Name: Headland Red
Label: "Wold famous - A beacon of taste in an ocean of choices"
Brewery: Wold Top
ABV: 4.3%

Tasting notes: "A red beer to halt you in your tracks, giving you a warm red glow! A mellow malty flavour, from predominately Wold grown barley, dark Crystal malt and roasted barley, hopped with Progress hops. This is the beer to use for the best 'beef in beer!'"

Game: Here's a quick flyby birds eye view of a parked Millennium Falcon in Star Wars Battlefront. It's a very similar video to the eagle flying over London that Ubisoft did to promote Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

Sunday 15 November 2015

Amber Ale (Fourpure Brewing)

Amber Ale (Fourpure Brewing)
Name: Amber Ale
Label: "Inspired by Colarado USA"
Brewery: Fourpure Brewing
ABV: 5.1%

Tasting notes: "Fourpure is a London based family brewery founded in 2013. Beer is our passion and our travels are what inspires us to brew. We believe craft beer should always be bold and flavourful - enjoy one of ours, kept fresh in this can."  Craft ale in a can! Who'd have thought it?!

Game: I'm increasingly concerned that I've spent a tit-load of money on Star Wars Battlefront and it's not going to hold my attention for long.   There's only so many times that finishing mid-table or watching yet another AT-AT fall over can keep me entertained. Thinking positively though it's hopefully something I can dip into from time to time over the course of a year or two until Battlefront 2 comes out. And even though there's no single player, it's still got more story than Destiny...

Saturday 14 November 2015

British Clipper IPA (Meantime)

British Clipper IPA (Meantime)
Name: British Clipper IPA
Label: "Brewed exclusively for Marks & Spencer"
Brewery: Meantime Brewing Company
ABV: 6.0%

Tasting notes: "This rich, complex beer is brewed with British Fuggles and Goldings hops and has all the earthy, peppery notes of a classic IPA."

Game: Got a 10 hour trial of Star Wars Battlefront so I'm playing at being the rebel scums for a day or so.  It's interesting how much I suck at it, although it was a bit juddery for some reason which is totally the reason for the poor performance obviously. Looks like there'll be plenty to do when the game releases proper next week anyway, there's more game modes than you can shake a Jawa at. Just hope the lag sorts itself out or there'll be hell to pay.

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Blonde (Bottle Cap Brewery)

Blonde (Bottle Cap Brewery)
Name: Blonde
Brewery: Bottle Cap Brewery
ABV: 4.5%

Tasting notes: "The Blonde Ale is a sessionable, easy drinking American Pale Ale, with light floral notes."

Game: Yay free game time on Xbox One! This time it's Pneuma: Breath of Life. It's a first person puzzler. It's kinda pretty. It's also got one of the most horrendously annoying narrator/guide/disembodied voice thingys I've ever heard. It's constantly yapping about what's going on in the world and I can't work out whether it's trying to be funny in a Portal 2 / Stephen Merchant-esque way but with all the humour sucked out of it. The writing is terrible (bit like mine) and the delivery, although he tries hard, is lacklustre at best. Still you can nab 100 gamerscore for completing each level, and level one is just walking in a straight line! Win. But I can only stomach the voice for so long so it's back to Witchering for me! Huzzah!

Sunday 8 November 2015

Barry Island IPA (Brains Craft Brewery)

Barry Island IPA (Brains Craft Brewery)
Name: Barry Island IPA
Label: "An American style IPA - Collaboration brew with Simon Martin"
Brewery: Brains Craft Brewery
ABV: 6.0%

Tasting notes: "Created by Simon Martin, aka Mr Real Ale Guide, this India Pale Ale was inspired by the 'IPA revolution' across the pond. The boy from Barry has used a trio of hops from the US in this pale coloured ale, which is bursting with citrus aromas. A unique smooth malt taste upfront is finished off by a vigorous bitterness and a 'tidy' clout of citrus and berry hop flavours." Barry Island sounds like a really rubbish holiday destination. Like the George Coast or the Timothy Isles.

Game: Started to play The Walking Dead by Telltale games again. This time the Xbox One version. I've took some alternative choices this time round. Made the opposite decisions to what I made on the 360 version and I've made a startling discovery! Generally the choices don't make all that much difference to how the game pans out! Bit like real life, stuff just happens as its intended to happen and you're just given the ILLUSION of choice!  This is getting a bit heavy so I'm off to drink some more beer. It's still a great game though by the way...