Lion's Roar (Banks's)

Name: Lion's Roar
Label: "English Ale - Fide et Fortitude 1875"
Brewery: Banks's but brewed and bottled by Marston's according to the label
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: Banks's Lion's Roar is a rip roaring beer for every English football fan to enjoy this summer.  Its got Latin on the label as well (faith and fortitude) "Nice to see your own beer with foreign words on it, thats loyal support for you, for f*cks sake."

Game: It's the eve of the crunch match with Slovenia. France are out. John Terry made a bit of an ass of himself by saying in a press conference that Fabio Capello should play Joe Cole. So that now puts a whole load of pressure on Joe Cole and probably slightly annoys Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. And it pissed off Fabio Capello. And why is Terry pretending to still be Captain? Douche. Bag.

Spring Breeze (Batemans)

Name: Spring Breeze
Label: "Demeter Goddess of Spring and Fertility"
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: In Greek mythology, Demeter is the Goddess of the Harvest who taught mankind to sow and plough. Spring Breeze celebrates the gentle winds of spring which caress the harvests.  Not really a "rating" I guess, it just sounds nice.

Game: Still confident for Wednesday's game against Slovenia. England should get through easily and will probably top the group.

Captain Smiths (Titanic)

Name: Captain Smiths
Label: "Classic ales by Titanic Brewery
Brewery: Titanic
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: Captain Smith's last reported words as he went down with the ship were "be British boys, be British"

Game: The World Cup is well under way and in the group stage after two games so far Spain have lost, France have lost and Germany have lost. England haven't lost a game and yet the fans, lucky enough to be there, boo the team off the pitch after a 0 - 0 result against Algeria. Rooney loses his temper with the fans. I'm with Wayne on this one I think. The fans are whining that its cost so much money to get to South Africa. I guess they're forgetting that they haven't paid thousands of pounds just to watch England, they've also paid for their airfare, their hotel, their sustenance, oh and because they've gone on HOLIDAY.

Rhymney Bitter (Rhymney)

Name: Rhymney Bitter
Label: "Refreshing and full of flavour - Brewed to quench the fieriest of thirsts - Affordable indulgence"
Brewery: Rhymney Brewery
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: It says on the back label that this is a complicated beer using 4 types of Warminster Malt. This may sound slightly pretentious but is a surprisingly accurate description.

Game: No gaming recently because of the World Cup. Just received an email about the new Xbox 360. Spin sucks, so here are the new features as advised on the official email but with my comments tagged on the end:

Features:
Sleek New Design
A bold design and the glossy, black finish mean that the new Xbox 360 looks every bit as good as it performs. (So the Xbox 360 I have doesn't look every bit as good as it performs? The Elite console was black, does that also look shit now all of a sudden?)

Built-in Wi-Fi
Easily connect to Xbox LIVE, play with friends all over the world, and experience a world of entertainment. (Is it difficult to connect to Xbox LIVE now? No, but if so what makes this new one any easier? Just because the Wi-Fi is built in rather than something you stick in the back of the machine? Can't I play with friends all over the world now and also experience a world of entertainment? Yes I can, so WTF?)

250GB Hard Drive
The giant hard drive is perfect for downloading and storing HD films, games, game add-ons, music and more. (Is that really necessary? Films delete themselves after a few days or something so you ain't storing them long-term, and downloadable games and add-ons are such a stinking rip-off we should all be boycotting them anyway. And the DLC seems to be on the disc anyway - looking at you Bioshock 2.)

Whisper Quiet
The new Xbox 360 runs whisper quiet, allowing you to play games and watch films without interference. (I'm not interfered with at the moment when playing or watching films - chance would be a fine thing. And if I was being interfered with, how does a whispering Xbox solve this?)

Oh and Kinect my arse.

Discovery (Fuller's)

Name: Discovery
Label: "Refreshing Blonde Beer"
Brewery: Fuller's
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: A delicious malty taste bursting with rich biscuity flavours. It's getting really quite expensive now buying all the quality beer...

Game: Bought Guitar Hero World Tour ages ago and sold it. Now re-bought it for dirt cheap and I'm left wondering why the fiddlesticks did I sell it in the first place? Some quality tracks on there, a lot of chuff too, but some quality, and a Chimaira track downloaded for free, win.  A couple of Nirvana track packs are just asking to be downloaded soon too...

One-Twenty (Prospect)

Name: One-Twenty
Label: (Pre-launch edition with the 'unofficial' label)
Brewery: Prospect Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: The Prospect Brewery website. Go to it and buy some stuff.

Game: The World Cup is fast approaching and this means many nights of no gaming (sad face), but it also means lots of football and watching England win for a second time (smiley face). So no new games during the month of Footy so it's time to trawl through all of the Guitar Hero collection. This includes 2, 3, World Tour, Metallica and Van Halen. Thats a lot of songs and a lot of shredding to be done before Friday 11th June.

Big John (Prospect)

Name: Big John
Label: (Pre-launch edition with 'unofficial' label)
Brewery: Prospect Brewery
ABV: 4.8%

Rating: It's a stout, it's also probably one of the best stouts I've ever had. Admittedly I don't drink stout all that much, but still... If this was available in the shops I'd buy it regularly, that's all you need to know.

Game: What now after the mighty Gears of War 2? A bit of Forza 3 perhaps? Forza 3 ain't half yawnsome after spending the past few nights chainsawing dudes in the face. Bless it's little cotton wheels.  Not in the mood for driving games then? No.

Hop Vine Bitter (Prospect)

Name: Hop Vine Bitter
Label: (Pre-launch edition with 'unofficial' label)
Brewery: Prospect Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Awesome, this should be available everywhere. Supermarkets should definitely be carrying this, why aren't they?

Game: Gears 2 ain't too bad on Hardcore difficulty. In fact I just kicked its ass, don't think attempting Insane difficulty is such a good idea though. Roll on April 2011 and Gears of War 3.

Piddle in the Hole (Wyre Piddle)

Name: Piddle in the Hole
Label: "Traditional Cask Ale"
Brewery: Wyre Piddle Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Someone was obviously taking the piddle when they thought up the names for these villages; Upton Snodsbury, Peopleton and Crowle, Wyre Piddle, North Piddle and Piddle in the Hole.

Game: Just found out there's going to be three DLC releases for Alan Wake. My DLC boycott will be coming to an end I think, plus I get the first one free thanks to spending an inordinate amount of money on the Limited Edition on release day.  Hopefully Microsoft et al will have taken note of my boycott and will have fixed whatever I was moaning about in previous posts, I've forgotten what all the fuss was about to be honest. I'm rating Alan Wake 8 out of 10 by the way.

Pedigree (Marston's)

Name: Pedigree
Label: "Classic English Pale Ale - Official beer of England"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This is the pale version, slightly different label too, its paler...

Game: Just remembered how awesomely violent the Gears of War games are. Currently playing on Hardcore difficulty. I remember trying it on Insane difficulty many many many months ago and it being far more difficult than Gears 1 on that difficulty. Lets see how we get on with Hardcore difficulty.

Waggle Dance (Wells)

Name: Waggle Dance
Label: "Beer brewed with honey - The Waggle Dance is the ceremonial performance a bee gives to alert the hive to a source of nectar."
Brewery: Wells
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: "Tantalising honeyed aromas tempered by a grassy, lemony nose - all leading to a finely balanced, fresh delicate flavour of hops with a lingering dry finish" - no wonder it costs £1.72 a bottle.

Game: Played a bit of DJ Hero to pick up some achievements, specifically the "5 star all songs on medium" achievement. Getting there but typically there's a song thrown in that is despicably difficult to 5 star even though the ones after it are peasy. This happens on Guitar Hero too. Annoyed... mildly.

Summer Lightning (Hop Back)

Name: Summer Lightning
Label: "Award winning golden ale"
Brewery: Hop Back Brewery
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Hop Back Brewery has won more than 70 awards for this, its flagship beer.

Game: Another Super Street Fighter IV gaming night tonight hosted by the great Ugly Geezer from the Frugal Gaming community. Not played for a few weeks and it was really noticeable how much everyone else has improved. I won my first three matches but then everyone else must have warmed up as I didn't get a look in after that. They're all on fancy fightsticks as well (sad face).