1698 (Shepherd Neame)

Name: 1698
Label: "Bottle conditioned strong ale"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 6.5%

Rating: This lovely bottle of 1698 now has a sexy new label. Check it out on the right. Here's the old label and original review.

Game: Currently having a blast on Dirt 3. The rallying is great, as is the buggy racing and the drifting stages. The only current fly in the motor oil is the Gymkhana events. Firstly I don't like the name "Gymkhana" - it's stupid. It doesn't involve a gym (thankfully) or a khana. According to Wikipedia the first element of gymkhana comes from gend meaning ball in Hindi/Hindustani/Khariboli. This element is distinct from the English word gym, short for gymnasium and gymnastics which has Greek and Latin roots. The second element, khānā is Indo-Aryan (ख़ाना) for place or compartment and Persian (خانه) term for dwelling, house. So it should be called "Ballcompartment", far more catchy and relevant. Anyway, I'm rubbish at the Gymkhana events so stop talking about them please.

Sundew (Woodforde's)

Name: Sundew
Label: "Deliciously golden and refreshing - Woodforde's Norfolk Ales - Bottle conditioned real ale"
Brewery: Woodforde's
ABV: 4.1%

Rating: Subtle golden beer - pale in colour and light on the palate with the distinctive hoppy Woodforde's finish. Fate decreed that the first production of this beer coincided with the revival of the beautiful and mysterious wetland flower of the same name, in the heart of East Anglia, much to the delight of naturalists everywhere. This is a perfect ale to compliment a warm summers evening, or a cold summers evening... or any evening for that matter.

Game: Not played a decent racer in a while so step up Dirt 3.  First point of note is that it looks absolutely amazing. The cars, trucks and buggys handle brilliantly too compared to the last racer played which was Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (seriously, the handling seemed totally broken to me on that one).  A neat feature of Dirt 3 is you can upload your triumphs and, in my case, epic fails to YouTube. Here are two reasons why this noob ain't a rally driver in real life: reason one, reason two. During the second clip the co-driver, or whatever he is, said something like "It's ok, I think I'm still alive" or words to that effect. Cheers for that.