Rectangles of the year 2010: Other things

Continuing my round-up of my favourite media that I consumed this year (little of which came out this year)...

Books

Looking back, I didn't read much this year and bought very few books. However, I did read two sets of superb books, kindly lent by a friend. These were the Takeshi Kovacs books by Richard Morgan and the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercombie. If you like your characters hard and extremely nasty, I cannot recommend these highly enough. Best Served Cold, which is a standalone revenge story set in the same universe at the First Law books (and featuring some cameos) is also excellent.

Music

I'd say that my "thing of the year" was Spotify, which has completely altered how I listen to music and got me listening to new (to me at least!) music again. I completely love it.

The album that I've found myself listening to again and again this year is The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem.

Movies

I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim and Inception but I was really blown away by watching The Prestige on DVD. It's a clever and gripping film and certainly made think better of Christian Bale. David Bowie does a great little cameo as Nikolai Tesla too!

Rectangles of the year 2010: Games

Taking my cue from Ricky's excellent piece of terminology, here is a quick run-down of my favourite games of 2010.

Over the last month, I've spent well over a hundred hours playing Dragon Quest IX. It's the first DQ I've played but it seems to included got all the good things from JRPGs while eliminating nearly all the bad (ie it makes backtracking instant and you can avoid battles). Some of the side quests are based on random drops and can turn into grinds but that's a small complaint. It has vast additional content with random dungeons, new daily items via wi-fi, new quests weekly and co-op play. I get the feeling that I will end up playing it as much as I did Disgaea on PS2 (200+ hours).

Back at the beginning of the year, I posted about VVVVVV and I still consider it one of the best games I've played all year. It gave me one glorious night of platforming par excellence (and I usually hate platformers) and a soundtrack that I've listened to regularly since January.

Red Dead Redemption makes the list for letting me to feel like Clint in a classic western. Lots of great moments but even just riding round doing nothing is a pleasure. I haven't bought the DLC yet but everyone in my office who did buy it has loved it.

An honourable mention goes to Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light as I had a great time playing local co-op with a mate and then went back and 100%-ed it too. It alas also gets a nomination for "Most Botched Launch of the year" imho.

Likewise, an honourable mention to Bayonetta. Thanks to the easy mode, I was finally able to enjoy a game of this sort having never been able to get anywhere due to poor skills before. I got to play right through and kick a god into the sun for chrissakes! That's got to be worth something.

In the middle of the year I went through a phase of playing Mount & Blade: Warband obsessively. It ran like a dog on my old home PC but I was still playing for half a day at a time and taking save games back and forth to my work PC with a USB key. It's too structurally flawed for it to be one of my games of the year - I ended up giving up playing it in frustration at the confusing and broken strategic game. (If anyone out there knows how to successfully keep hold of a castle, I'd love to hear from you!)

However it's definite honourable mention. Leading a cavalry charge in M&B is a feeling that you don't get in any other game... you lure the enemy into a position where the terrain is in your favour, give the order, then build speed, drop your lance and break their infantry in front of you... then swap to a sabre or mace and start laying about you. It feels amazing and the very real risk of over-extending yourself, being cut off from your troops and having your horse hacked from under you in the mêlée gives every battle a tense edge. Taleworlds deserve a lot of credit for the game and for putting the nascent Turkish development scene on the map.

And finally, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes gets an honourable mention for being nearly a perfect DS title and definitely the overlooked game of 2010 (2009 release in NA, 2010 in EU). Bursting with charm, a smooth difficulty curve, great mechanics, lovely art, it gets -1 Caspar point for having a missable sidequest (that I duly missed). However, I'm going to buy the XBLA version when it comes out so I can thrash people in online multiplayer.

(Sitting on the shelf expectantly: Mass Effect 2 (I dabbled a bit but need to get stuck in) and Nier (really interested in this due to what I've heard online).

Beers of the Month - November 2009

Time has really flown this year and we're now into the cold months, so it is time for heavier, stronger brews. Notable beer outings in November were my annual Bonfire pilgrimage to Lewes, a cider and perry tasting at the office, a Brewdog tasting at the Rake (which included their limited edition "Shark") and the White Horse Old Ale festival at the end of the month.

This latter event boasted a truly excellent line-up of winter beers, including some UK greats on draught in the form of Thornbridge St. Petersburg, Bass P2 Imperial Stout, Gales Prize Old, Dark Star Imperial Stout and Thomas Hardy's Ale. However, my favourite beers of the festival, and thus my recommended beers for November are both Italian brews. Italy is not a country that many people would associate with fine beer. It is rather more well known for cars, shoes, wine and women but it is actually very much a rising star of the craft brewing world, with a number of artisinal brewers producing beers of superb quality.

Baladin Noel is a dark brown beer bursting with Christmas spices and rich fruit flavours. There's a peppery hint of alcohol at the finish, but if you would never guess it was 9% abv from drinking it. It's a sublime Christmas beer and my beer of the month for November.


Birra del Borgo Re Ale Extra provides a contrasting but equally excellent experience, as it is a robust IPA. A sublime nose of perfumy, floral and citrus hop notes leads into a wonderfully balanced sip. In the mouth it is lively and fresh with lots of peach and lycee flavours. I'm happy to highly recommend it!

Beers of the Month - July 2009

Drinking highlights in July included an afternoon of Hophead consumption in the Evening Star in Brighton, but the best moment of the month was getting to try some of the new 13th Anniversary Ale from Stone. It is my beer of the month for July. Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing, was over in London and was given an understandably warm welcome by the London Ratebeer crowd when he came to the Rake.


If you know the brewery, you won't be surprised to hear than the beer is a monster with tons of resinous hop flavours and aromas, great malts that manage to hold their own and a sublime finish.

My highly commended beer for July is Brewdog 77 Lager. This is their new lager, that supercedes Cult and Hop Rocker. It lives up to its billing as "a lager that actually tastes of something". An uncomplicated, but extremely drinkable beer, it will be my quaffing beer of choice from now on.

Beers of the Month - June 2009

My beer of the month is Brewdog's How to Disappear Completely which I sampled from the cask at the Rake. It's a completely bonkers beer: 3.5% ABV but packing an obscene 198 IBUs of bitterness, due to the brewers hopping it every which way they could with Columbus and Centennial hops.

Named after their favourite Radiohead track, Brewdog are dubbing it an "imperial mild". You have to love hops to enjoy this beer. The aroma is likely sticking your head in a sack of fresh hops and inhaling. On the tongue it is scorchingly bitter. You feel like you're either getting tongue cancer or being cured of it, and to be frank, you don't care which. In an earlier age, this would have been sold as a patent medicine. If you're down with the hops though, it is a delight as the sessionable strength means you can drink it for hours. Just don't expect to be able to properly taste what ever you drink directly after it.


It was a reasonably quiet month for drinking and no beer stands out to be highly commended, so instead I'll tip my hat to the wonderful samples of Harvey's beers provided on their superb brewery tour. Guinness may waffle on about waiting for two minutes for the perfect pint, but the waiting list for the Harvey's tour is over two years - and it is worth the wait. Ian Burgess was a superb host and incredibly generous to the Ratebeer crew, allowing us samples of some special brews, both old and new, and it was a great evening. The engraved souvenir tasting glass says it all: "Many a soul hath found good cheer in harmony with Harveys beer."

Beers of the Month - January 2009

My Beer of the Month is Bracia from Thornbridge Hall, which I tried at the Thornbridge tasting at the Rake. This is very special stuff from a brewery that is beginning to really make waves on the back of some superb beers. Their St. Petersburg Imperial Stout wowed me before Christmas, their Jaipur IPA is quickly becoming a UK classic and the selection of beers at the tasting didn’t disappoint. Bracia has a complex taste with hazelnut, chocolate, coffee and truffle flavours from the malts balance by a dazzling array of hops and the sublime signature ingredient, chestnut honey. There’s more information about the beer on their website and Bracia can be bought direct from the brewery at £5 per 500ml bottle. It’s worth it.


My Highly Commended beer for January, comes most gratifyingly, from a new micro-brewery in my local area. Sambrook’s Brewery is located very near to my old office in Battersea. They only started brewing in November 2008, but their first beer, Wandle Ale, a 3.8% session bitter, is extremely drinkable. The choice of Fuggles and Golding hops and Maris Otter malt is quintessentially English and I feel that you could slot the resultant beer into the range of say, Harvey’s, and nobody would be any the wiser. It’s great to have a new craft brewery opening up on my doorstep and with the news that Young’s may open a microbrewery as part of their planned museum on the Ram Brewery site, the year has started on a positive note in the SW postcodes. Wandle Ale is available in free houses across South West London (with Dave’s help, I tracked it down in the Magpie & Crown) so do your bit to support a fledging brewery by sampling it.

I've got a good feeling about this!

Left 4 Dead is my Game of the Year 2008 and here's why - coming soon!

Beers, Brewers and Beer Festivals of the Year 2008

This year has been a fruitful one for me on the drinking front. Due to Ratebeer being down for most of November, I'm not up to date with my rates, but I estimate that I sampled close to 800 new beers in 2008. There were some exceptional brews among them and if 2009 is even as half as good to me, I'll be a happy man.

Four beer festivals that I attended stand out this year. In February, I was able to attend the Battersea Beer Festival for the first time since 2004 as I wasn't attending Casual Connect in Amsterdam, which had caused me to miss the previous three years. I had a great time hanging out with Maria, Ang, Mes and some of the other Ratebeerians. I had a half dozen superb milds during the festival but the highest score I gave out was for the Alvinne Balthazar (a bottled Belgian ale).

August brings GBBF, the Great British Beer Festival, staged in Earls Court. I took the whole week off work and was able to relax and drink my way through some wonderful beer in the always-pleasant company of the Ratebeer crew. I got through 100 beers in the week and it's very hard to pick a single best one from the top half dozen. De Molen Tsarina Ezra and Lost Abbey Angel's Share are both incredible beers but for something you could drink every day, I'd say Brewdog Speedball. "Class A Strong Ale" indeed.


The following month saw the inaugral European Beer Festival in Copenhagen. This counts as my main holiday of the year I guess - I stayed in the stylish Hotel Fox with Maria and sallied forth to spend a nearly obscene amount of money on beer. I have so many good memories from the trip - standing outside Ølbutikken on a cold Saturday morning for the special Mikkeller "Six Pack" release (120 beer geeks drinking Beer Geek Breakfast for breakfast - superb!) , finally getting my hands on some Kaggen Stormaktsporter again after losing my GBBF 2007 rates, Royce's giant measure of Mikkeller Black, the deserted Heineken bar (with its stunning barmaids), the 'moshpit' around Stand 28 at each Mikkeller hourly release, Maria's tales of her night out with Christian and Jens, drinking 8% American Double IPA for breakfast, playing table football with FatPhil, paying £5 a pint for rubbish beer in the hilarious Scottish theme pub during the post-festival come-down and enjoying a final beer at the Norrebro bar in the airport with Ang. This was the festival of the year for me - outstanding beer, superb company and a lovely atmosphere. Choosing a beer of the festival is very hard, so I'm going to recommend Amager Herr Frederiksen, De Molen Steen & Been and Avery The Maharaja, on top of the Kaggen and anything from Bryggeriet Djævlebryg (see below).


Last but not least, the quietly excellent Eastbourne Beer Festival in October. I picked this festival as it gave me an excellent opportunity to catch up with Roger from the Beachy Head Brewery. He didn't let me down - giving an enjoyable talk on the brewery (with Charlie), showing off his elite Morris Dancing skills and taking home the award for Sussex microbrewed beer of the festival for Legless Rambler! It was a very well-run festival - lots of seating, decent entertainment, a great selection of beers in very good condition, filling food and a good vibe. More info on how it went can be found here. My personal favourite beer of the festival was Welton's Horsham Old Ale.


Picking a brewery of the year is actually easier than choosing a beer of the year, especially as I'm minded to choose a brewery that I wasn't aware of twelve months ago. That said, I'm still going to go with two choices - Bryggeriet Djævlebryg of Copenhagen and Brewdog of Fraserburgh.

Bryggeriet Djævlebryg (literally 'The Brewery Devil's Brew', but I think 'The Devil's Brewery' is a better translation in terms of sense) stood out in the Copenhagen programme with their stylish logo and their unique twist on a charity beer. I worked my way through their restrained seven beer range and can say that there isn't a bad beer among them. For the sheer strength-in-depth quality of their line-up, they've earned the title of brewery of the year. Here's to more from the purveyors of "Satan's Good Ale" in 2009.


On the other side of the North Sea, Brewdog ended up in the headlines when the Portman Group (the drinks industry's own watchdog) attacked them over the wording on some of their labels. However, you should already be following them as they are (in my opinion) showing the way that a new UK micro should conduct themselves. Superb beers backed with bags of attitude, great branding and a sense of adventure. Not content with producing superb Imperial Stouts barrel-aged in whisky casks, they also make very decent amber ales and lagers, not to mention a mild, Edge, that Ratebeer (and I) currently consider the best in the world! They kick off 2009 with an exciting plan to make a true British IPA and able to celebrate a victory for common sense over the Portman Group. More power to their elbow in 2009!


I enjoy reading maeib's Beer of the Month posts on his blog and I'm going to try and post in a similar fashion here in 2009 but for now, here are a few more beers that caught my eye in 2008 and which you really should check out. I may come back to some of these and talk a bit more about them if I get the time. All the beers I recommend in the festival section make this list as well, of course.

Session beers

Alehouse NCR21
Bowman Quiver
Bowman Swift One
Mikkeller Draft Bear (well, I consider it sessionable!)

Milds

Brewdog Edge
Hobson's Mild

Strong dark beers (porters & stouts)

Harvey's Gunpowder (yes, finally got hold of some - thanks Ang!)
Thornbridge St. Petersburg
Brewdog Paradox Smokehead

IPAs

Stone Ruination
Mikkeller Simcoe IPA
Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA

Sours

Phil's Wild Mild (Valley Brew Stockton Sour)
Mikkeller Blueberry Lambic
Rodenbach Vin de Cereale

Other

St. Sylvestre 3 Monts
Ayinger Weiss Bock
Kunkel Alter Kahlgrunder Speierling Apfelwein ;-)

Special beer moment of the year: people who know me well will know that on election days, I like to stay up all night and watch the results come in (while drinking) and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Barack Obama's historic victory on November 4th/5th. I toasted the moment the result became offical with a large bottle of Stone Arrogant Bastard and it tasted fantastic! Interesting note: the beer served at Obama's victory party came from well-regarded local Chicago brewery Goose Island. McCain opted for Budweiser courtesy of his wife's distribution company for his event. Says it all really!


Wrapping things up, here are the beers that I will be seeing the New Year in with. I'm going to finish off 2008 with bottles of Brewdog Zeitgeist and Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout and then start 2009 with a bottle of Avery New World Porter. It's a new world out there, baby so here's to drinking more fantastic beers in 2009!