Orange Peel (Wadworth)

Name: Orange Peel
Label: "The Beer Kitchen is a new range of intensely flavoured, hand-crafted beers, made for the discerning by Wadworth. Brewed in small batches, using the absolute finest ingredients, these beers were specially created to perfectly complement food or savoured on their own."
Brewery: Wadworth
ABV: 6.0%

Rating: "Rich, golden and full bodied with a sweet and tangy orange flavour, and aromas of citrus, melon and spice. Munich malt, US hops and orange peel provide complexity but with perfect balance. A superb compliment to game."  A beer that actually says it goes well with gaming! Finally!

Game: Two DLC packs got released the other day and being season-passed up to the eyeballs I now has extra content for Assassin's Creed: Unity and Alien: Isolation. The Alien DLCs are the timed challenges which are a great change of pace to the main campaign. The difficulty however seems to be turned up to a thousand and I can't turn it down! The Alien is a total pain in the ass (and face). I'm working my way through the challenges though slowly but surely. "Get away from me, you bitch!" Did I mention that Alien: Isolation was Gaming Ales's game of 2014?  Just did.

Rye Pale Ale (Marston's for Tesco)

Name: Rye Pale Ale
Label: "Revisionist American Hop - Cold Conditioned, Dry hopped with Amarillo and Citra - Spicy with citrus hop"
Brewery: Craft brewed by Marston's exclusively for Tesco
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: "Bank's Brewmaster Simon Yates', IPA with a twist, inspired by the American craft beer movement, using Rye Crystal Malt to create a spicy, nutty flavour. Brewed with five different American hop varieties."

Game: A shout-out (is that still such a thing?) to Creative Assembly. They gone and made one of the best games I've ever played!  Alien: Isolation completed, time to start the challenge map things. Usually when I finish a game I mostly play something else... mostly.

Imperial Red (Wychwood)

Name: Imperial Red
Label: "Imperious Deep Ruby Ale"
Brewery: Wychwood
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: "Do not fear the Imperial Red who comes in peace to liberate your taste buds with his robust yet succulent beer. A toasted malt flavour balanced by a bold pronounced hop delivered in a rich russet beer. Enjoy the imperial majesty and raise the red standard in celebration."

Game: Totally addicted to Alien: Isolation but Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is occasionally able to break the spell. With it's brilliantly well thought out mix of Assassin's Creed meets Batman Arkham City, a bit or orc slaying makes a nice change from hiding in a cupboard. The game is very orc / Uruk-hai oriented, so there're no stupid Hobbits ruining the baddie decapitation. It's actually quite dark and violent, more-so than the films which makes it extra great. Rating: 8/10.

Bill's Beer (Caledonian Brewery)

Name: Bill's Beer
Label: "Cunning as a bag of weasels - Celebrating the 90th anniversary of Bill McLaren - Welcome to the Bill McLaren Foundation. Your support will help us to develop and promote the sport of rugby union and its values and to create an educative centre which will include the Bill McLaren Archive."
Brewery: Caledonian
ABV: 4.6%

Rating: "Bill's Beer is brewed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of 'the voice of rugby'. Classic style with a cunning balance of malt & hop characters and a local twist."

Game: Good grief have you played Alien: Isolation yet? Scariest game ever! Started it on the hardest difficulty as it's the recommended setting for the best experience apparently. Spent about three hours trying to get past a group of people, hadn't even seen the alien at that point. Current thoughts: where am I? what am I doing? what's this alien-esque drool dripping on to my shoulder? Oh, shiii...