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!

Been there, done that, got the glass

GBBF is done and dusted for another year. It hasn't really all settled in my mind yet, but as always, it was an immense pleasure to hang out and share beers with my fellow Ratebeerians. I've got about 70 rates to type up, including the ones from Chris's pre-GBBF tasting and the evening I spent at the Rake's Stone tasting. What makes this hobby so good? Mark Dredge has just put up a post on his blog that sums up the essence of why we drink superbly.

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.

I love it when a prediction comes true

Especially if it's one of mine :-D Microsoft quietly announced at E3 that they will be beginning downloads of full retail Xbox 360 titles in the Autumn and it has now been announced that the Games on Demand functionality will be introduced with the next dashboard update, due on August 11th (though you'll need to ferret around in that press release to spot it!) Now the question is how long before we start seeing larger hard disks for the 360 hitting the streets?

You like to shoot, so don't deny it

In recent weeks I've been playing a new Xbox Live Arcade title straight out of Rotterdam, namely Rocket Riot from my friends at Codeglue. This is a title I was pitched back in 2006, when it was called So Square (it was also Jetpack Junkies before settling on the final title). It's a fun little pixel-based arena blaster with a very distinctive style and a lot of wackiness, in-jokes and humour. How often do you watch an opening cutscene that has to explain why noone has any legs? How many games these days have a theme song?


With a jetpack strapped to your backside and a rocket launcher in hand, you face off against wave after wave of pirates, zombies, ninjas, commandos, aliens (you get the picture) in a free-for-all blaster characterised by utterly destructible pixel scenery and few opportunities for breathing or blinking.

It is generally harder to gauge the likely success of multiplayer focused titles than singleplayer ones as they need a decent sized fanbase to succeed. When the game launches, it either captures gamers' imagination and quickly builds a fanbase or it is passed over and the multiplayer never really gets off the ground. The very nature of the beast makes it tough to predict whether you have a hit on your hands until the game is out in the wild and this is the main reason I didn't go out to bag the game back in 2006.

Rocket Riot offers a frenetic blasting experience but with its real-time, manic nature, I feel it doesn't offer a change of pace from most full-price boxed shooters. The side-on perspective brings Worms to mind but that game has carved itself a niche over the last decade and a half by, in my opinion, offering a singular experience of pressurised turn-based play cycle and artillery gameplay, boosted by a great weapon set and bags of charm.

However, Rocket Riot gives itself the best chance possible, with its distinctive art style and its quirky presentation. Only time, and sales figures, will tell if I made the right call or not. Help make me look like a fool by checking out the demo - and thank your lucky stars that Pete and the guys removed the GDC test level that was made out of my company mugshot!

Things I learned from videogames #8

If you hear a phone ringing, even if it is just a payphone you happen to be walking past on the street, answer it. It will be something pretty important, such as a job offer. It will never be someone trying to sell you double-glazing or insurance.

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."