Hot Cross Ale (Titanic)

Name: Hot Cross Ale
Label: "Brewed especially for Spring, this beer combines spices, sultana flavours and hops to create a delightful ale with a hint of hot cross buns - Seasonal beer, limited edition"
Brewery: Titanic Brewery
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Does actually taste like hot cross buns. Spicy.

Game: The announcement of Gears of War 3 (here is the Gears of War 3 Ashes to Ashes trailer) has spurred me on to revisit Gears of War 2.  Having shamefully done only one play through so far, it's definitely well overdue a replay.

Cumberland Ale (Jennings)

Name: Cumberland Ale
Label: "Pure Lake District - Late afternoon in October looking over Cummock Water"
Brewery: Jennings
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: New label with nice picture.. still doesn't taste like sausages... Win.

Game: Oh no, gaming burnout? Worries about work and family stopping me from enjoying anything?  Depressed.  Don't know what to play, might be time to buy Red Dead Redemption, it's GTA but with horses. You can upgrade your horse. Everywhere is sold out. FAIL.

Newcastle Brown Ale (Newcastle Federation Breweries)

Name: Newcastle Brown Ale
Label: "Newcastle Brown Ale is the yen an' anny after all" - not sure what this statement on the label means, think it's in foreign or something
Brewery: Newcastle Federation Breweries
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: Just to prove it's not just consumed by pissed geordie scum-bags, I drank some and it was alright by me.

Game: Feeling mildly depressed after finishing Alan Wake. Got 1000 gamerscore and 100% complete, go me etc etc. But it feels like when a really awesome series you watched as a kid finishes, coupled with some weird shit going on at work its enough to want to make me find an alternative use for my shoelaces. Doom on me, indeed.

Guinness Foreign Extra (Guinness)

Name: Guinness Foreign Extra
Label: "Genuine Quality - St. James's Gate Dublin"
Brewery: Guinness
ABV: 7.5%

Rating: It's not an ale, it's a stout. So what?  Just realised there are two "n"'s in Guinness.

Game: Can Iron Man 2 break the trend of shite movie tie-in games? This is going to shock an awe you into next week... Of course.... it can't break the trend. It has lived up to expectations as mediocrity in game form and weirdly not even as much fun as the first one. I still secretly like it though because it's Iron Man and it's Marvel.  Here's my full review: www.frugalgaming.co.uk/?p=20427

Double Bock Beer (Cains)

Name: Double Bock Beer
Label: "Brewed under Reinheitsgebot purity laws with authentic Munich malt and complimented with Saaz and Hallertau hop.
Brewery: Cains
ABV: 8%

Rating: Lager that looks like real ale, first brewed in the 14th century in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck, Germany, from which it gets its name.

Game: Took just under a week to finish Alan Wake on normal difficulty.  Forget Hard difficulty I'm ramping it up to Nightmare difficulty and replaying it again pretty much straight away. Yes, it really is that good. So many collectibles though - this site: www.swearingatvideogames.com seems to be doing a superb job of helping us find all those pesky collectibles.

Pedigree V.S.O.P. (Marston's)

Name: Pedigree V.S.O.P.
Label: "Very Special Old Pale - V.S.O.P. combines maris otter barley malt with fuggles, goldings and sovereign hops to produce a very special pale ale of exceptional character - Matured in the Burton Union oak barrels - Limited edition bottle: 20136"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 6.7%

Rating: For a minute I did actually wonder what V.S.O.P. stood for...

Game: The boss of Frugal Gaming is sending me a copy of Ironman 2 to review. How awesome is that, getting sent a game to review! I liked the first game to be honest, yes it was frustrating, yes it was repetitive, but there was something about it that made it fun, and for a movie tie-in it was pretty good. So I hold out hope that Ironman 2 will have improved on the first one and will be pretty good even though it's a Marvel / movie tie-in. Even if it's not that good, I can't complain because it's just ace reviewing and playing games!

Tiger (Everards)

Name: Tiger
Label: "Brewed in Leicestershire - Best Bitter"
Brewery: Everards
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: A true award winning best bitter with universal appeal

Game: Alan Wake: Limited Edition now in grubby mitted possession.  Lots of eerie suspense and lives up to my expectation of playing a Stephen King novel.  It's impossible to play a novel but this is a close second. No rating yet because I've only got to Episode 2 so far.

Owd Roger (Marston's)

Name: Owd Roger
Label: "Very strong country ale"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 7.6%

Rating: Brewed to a recipe believed to be over 500 years old.

Game: More Battlefield Bad Company 2. Picked up some more achievements that I missed out on last time. Whilst playing, I realised that all this ale is costing me a bloody fortune... but the sheer variety of real ale on supermarket shelves is staggering, and it's all so yummy.  Since September 2009, already the amount of ales consumed and blogged about has past the century mark (now at 105 at the last count give or take a couple of duplicate ale posts).

Lancaster Bomber (Thwaites)

Name: Lancaster Bomber
Label: "Best of British beer - Full flavoured with a hop aroma - So more-ish"
Brewery: Thwaites
ABV: 4.4%

Rating: Winner of the best English Ale at the European Beer Star Awards

Game: Figured out that I was in the mood for some FPS style fun so opted to play through Battlefield Bad Company 2 again.  UglyGeezer's BFBC2 game nights on a Tuesday have been really good and the multiplayer side of it is most fun.  Single player campaign is short and sweet so should be finished in time for Alan Wake.

Bitter Lakeland Ale (Jennings)

Name: Bitter Lakeland Ale
Label: "The Jennings Castle Brewery, nestled between the rivers Cocker and Derwent"
Brewery: Jennings
ABV: 3.5%

Rating: I love castles me, and to think one is also a brewery!

Game: Going through a bit of gaming crisis at the moment. Don't really fancy playing anything. Must be a dose of gaming burnout or something. This will surely be fixed by Alan Wake next week. I've had another article published by the way, this time for the excellent www.b4hd.com website. It's about movie tie-ins.

King Goblin (Wychwood)

Name: King Goblin
Label: "Special Reserve - An extraordinary beer of exceptional quality - Only brewed on a full moon"
Brewery: Wychwood
ABV: 6.6%

Rating: This is the best beer I've ever had in terms of presentation. It even comes with a little booklet which means it is win in a glass. I think the bit about it only being brewed on a full moon is a fib though.

Game: Its election night, so I've decided to watch Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie as I'm in a Street Fightery mood. And then I did some DJ Heroing. Randomness: Frugal Gaming are doing a competition to win Red Dead Redemption in association with Zavvi. I looked at Zavvi's site and it says:

"Pre Order Red Dead Redemption at Zavvi.com and recieve an exclusive Mini Brady Guide to the game.
The Brady Mini Guide is a must-have survival guide for Red Dead Redemption, an epic adventure set in the biggest, and most dangerous open-world Rockstar Games has ever created..."

So ambiguously the Zavvi exclusive is either a "Mini Brady Guide" or "Brady Mini Guide". So not sure if its a guide about a small Brady or a guide by Brady about a small car.

Hobgoblin (Wychwood) - in a Hobgoblet

Name: Hobgoblin - in a Hobgoblet
Label: "Brewed with roasted malts for a well-balanced, rich, smooth taste, a beer full of mischievous character"
Brewery: Wychwood
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: Tastes even better out of my awesome new Hobgoblet. Click the picture and marvel at its greatness.

Game: The Halo Reach Beta has finally been wheeled out today.  I attempted to download it but it was taking its sweet time so I suddenly lost all arsedness and the will to play it.  I like playing online but when its against randoms I can take it or leave it. I'll wait for the game proper, whenever that may be.

One and All (Keltek)

Name: One and All
Label: "Supreme Champion Ale 2006 - Real Cornish Ale"
Brewery: Keltek Brewery
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: Out of all the ales I drank tonight, and like the label says, it is supreme.

Game: Played for the longest amount of time ever online today, two hours solid on Super Street Fighter IVwith some of those splendid chaps from the frugal forum. I was the only one using a joypad apparently as everyone else was using snazzy FightSticks. I think I held my own though *snigger* won a few bouts and unlocked a few achievements.