Tanked Up

This week our heroes recount their weekend in Birmingham visiting the Stirchley Beer Mile and hit a big food tangent. Lucy's been playing The Eternal Castle (Remaster), Aadil wants to talk Hop Stuff Brewery and takeovers and Ben chats a break from gaming (albeit a short one). The beers drank are from Salt Beer Factory, Left Handed Giant, Monyo Brewing, Brick Brewery and The Garden Brewery.

Its a beer and ben-less episode this week as Aadil and Lucy prep for the Bristol crew heading to Birmingham for some Lucy-curated beerbauchery. We manage to start with a conversation about youth drinking and the growing craft gin movement. We talk Prey and the latest Niantic augmented reality game: Harry Potter Wizarding World, while sipping on both sparkling and still H20. We also manage to talk hangovers, when we get them and possible ways to avoid them, hint: h20 is your friend.

Ben and Aadil had a little trip out last night so this weeks episode has some beer chat but doesn't feature any drinking, boo, hiss, we know. Ben and Aadil went to The Good Measure for a tap take over from The Kernel and tell Lucy all about the beers. Lucy's been playing more Super Mario Maker 2 and has finished Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. Ben talks a little about Sunless Skies and cries that PES was removed from PS Plus. Finally, Aadil has a list of indie titles to discuss including Distance, Flat Out 2, Nidhogg 2 and Super Flight.

Ben, Lucy and Aadil discuss Draugen and walking sims, Super Mario Maker 2, various Konami collections, Cadence of Hyrule and what insane game TV shows we'd like to see following the FF14 announcement. We drink beers from Magic Rock, Pressure Drop, Townsquare brewing, Cloudwater and Adnams.

As Aadil's still in Canada we discuss the take over of Wild Rose Brewery by the larger Candian brewer Sleeman Breweries (Sapporo), Lucy dives into Void Bastards and Ben has played a load of games including Tabletop Gods, Devlover Bootleg, Gato Roboto and Observation. Aadil has also been enjoying some Box Boy and Box Girl with a friend The beers this week are from SYC Brewing, Garage X Whiplash X Fuerst Wiacek, Ravens Brewing and Weird Beard.

Aadil, Lucy and Ben return to run down their favourite bits from the Bethesda conference.

Lucy, Ben and Aadil chat through the things they enjoyed the most and least from Microsoft's Xbox E3 briefing.

Aadil, Ben and Lucy discuss American Fugitive, Steamworld Quest, the Castlevania collection, A Link Between Worlds and Astrologaster. There is also a note here about E3 Strands but we've no idea what that means. Ben drinks 'New Best Friend' from Left Handed Giant and the North Brewing and Other Half collaboration DIPA. Lucy starts with the Wylam x Yeastie Boys collab 'WxY4' and follows it with 'Wow Signal' from Verdant.

With Aadil in Canada for another week... wait, he's in this episode? Aadil makes an early afternoon appearance to join Ben and long-time listener, first-time guest Callum Orr. They discuss what Callum's been up to now he's a fully fledged member of the craft beer industry, Instagram vs face to face beer interactions, Brewdog and FOMO on new beer releases. Aadil wants to talk Microsoft's Game Pass coming to PC and Ben jumps in with Kojima and what we want from a game reveal. As it's early in Canada when recording Aadil starts with a coffee then drinks the only beer he has, a Red Stripe Jamaican Lager. Callum brings beers from Meantime, the 'Anytime IPA' and a Brewdog X Bearded Iris collab 'Multitrack'. Ben has Yonder's 'Ophelia' and 'Too many opinions water down the original idea' from Verdant.

With Aadil on the road again we're joined by Adam Thomas to discuss GOG Galaxy 2.0 and his want for Total War: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Lucy and Ben have been busy playing a ton of games and bring discussions on Bastion, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Glass masquerade, Balacelot, Hades, Octogeddon, They Came From the Sky, Roundabout and Forgotton Anne. Adam has another week on the Ribena so Ben and Lucy make up for it with beers from Black Sheep, Wild Horse Brewing Co, Whiplash and the newly named Polly's Brew Co.

We kick off with a discussion on the Microsoft and Sony announcement and what Nintendo is doing with Mario maker 2. Ben's played A Plague Tale: Innocence, Lucy's played Alt-Frequencies and Aadil has played Florence. The beers this week are 'Massive Azzac' from Arbor Ales, 'Maz' from Omnipollo, The Wylam X Deya collab 'There's Nothing Wrong with Dreaming', Weird Beard's 'Duke of Dank', 'Island Hopper' from The Steam Machine and finally 'Day Bow Bow' from Pomona Island.

Heads up, we discuss mental health. This week Adam Thomas joins us to chat podcasts, more specifically mental health podcasts. We also get into some science and how the brain organises visual information using Pokemon. Adam kicks us off with his drink of choice, Ribena. Aadil starts with 'Riding East' from Beatnikz Republic and follows it with Burnt Mill Brewery's 'Rosetta Cone'. Ben begins with Release 03 'Simcoe' from the Fierce single hop project brewed with Gipsy Hill, he then cracks Verdant's 'Wow Signal'.

Aadil is back! He joins Ben and Lucy to discuss that Sonic trailer, two games from the recent Ludum Dare 44 game jam Dear Substance of Kin and Seaway to finish on the Backbone Prologue over some tasty beers. These are Dig Brew Co's 'Maleficarum' and Left Handed Giant's 'Green Line' for Ben. Lucy drank 'Modern Helles' from Tempest Brewing Co and from Thornbridge 'Tzara'. Aadil has two collaboration brut IPAs the first from North Brew Co and Stu Mostow followed by 'Wurlitzer' from Gipsy Hill and Donzoko.

Lucy and Ben get together to discuss the games they've been playing including Antenna Dilemma, Project Warlock and Dangerous Driving. They have a beer each with Lucy drinking Magic Rock's Grower Owned and Ben having the Wylam X Other Half collab Is There Music In Your Dreams?

We are joined by Carl Marshall, @ThaBearded1, of Twisted Barrel Ales to chat all things video games and beer. Carl chats the games he enjoys like Nippon Marathon and not having the time for bigger experiences. He then posses the question, what are the similarities between video games and craft beer. We delve into a ton of topics and tangents as we try to answer. This is followed by Lucy discussing Bastion and Supergiant games. Ben brings Love Thyself a visual novel developed by Amplitude and set in the Endless Universe. Carl drinks 'Technical Ecstasy' from 2nd Shift Brewing, 'Parka' from Double-Barrelled and finally 'Wrapped in Citra' from Twisted Barrel. Lucy starts with Beerbliotek's 'We're young, we smell good and we're alive', then 'Meet me in the city' from Deya and finishes on the same as Carl with the 'Wrapped in Citra'. Ben drinks 'Orange Gobblin' from Balck Iris, has Twisted Barrel's collaboration with Wilde Child 'Wilde at Heart' and ends with Comic Brewing 'You Never Can Tell'.

Ben and Lucy are joined by fellow OOL'er Alex Waite who's been playing The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit and The Sims 4. Lucy wants to discuss game difficulty and accessibility and Ben asks "Can EA fuck up Star Wars?". Alex brings three beers from the 'Citizens of Everywhere' Beer 52 box. These are from Fyne Ales X Beerbliotek, Gadd's X Pohjala and The White Hag X Boundary. Lucy drinks Whiplash's 'Northern Lights' and 'No Biggie' from Siren Craft Brew. Ben has 'Final Pulse' from Wylam and the Cloudwater X Against the Grain '#www.oooooo.ddd'.

A slightly bigger beer week this episode as we all drink 3 beers each. We also discuss some more Division 2 and Ubisoft's issues with political narratives, Lucy's been playing Photographs and tells us how harrowing it can be and we finish on a little word about the Taps Beer Festival. Aadil's beers this week were 'Chuggernaut' from Amundsen Bryggeri, 'Supersonic DIPA - Rainforest Lime Edition' from Nomad and Tiny Rebel x La Brasserie du Mont Saleve 'Mango Milkshake IPA' Lucy drinks 2 beers from Magic Rock, the 'Rode Goos' and the 'Californiashire' and finishes with a favourite, 'Mosaic' from Arbor. Ben's been to Tesco and has Unbarred's 'Mixed Berry Gelato Pale', North Brewing's 'Lost Cosmonauts' and to finish a DDH IPA from Wild Card Brewery.  

In a week where Lucy doesn't drink Ben and Aadil start with two big beers. Ben drinks the 'Maiden 2017' Barley Wine from Siren Craft Brew whilst Aadil has Northern Monks 'Honour', a West Coast IPA. With these beers come some games. Lucy has played and chats Kuso, Yorkshire Gubins and Where the Bees Make Honey (which she received a code for from the developer, and you'll find a steam link below). The three of them have also all played Baba is You. Aadil cracks a second beer, the 'Smoking Gull' from Half Acre beer and a short discussion on Tesco's continued push into the craft beer market ensues. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1001640/Where_the_Bees_Make_Honey/

We've all played games! Whooo! Lucy kicks off the discussion with Tick Tock: A tale for two, a co-op synchronous puzzle game then briefly touches on Engare. Ben and Aadil have been playing The Division 2 and try to focus this week on the positives of the game. Politics isn't mentioned, not once. Lucy drinks 'Trekker', a DIPA from Gipsy Hill and from Dig Brew Co the milk stout 'Durr'. Ben tries another beer from Yonder Brewing & Blending, the 'Dunstan's Exile' Pale Ale and Loka Polly's 'Patternist' IPA. Aadil a collab from garage Brew Co X Track, the 'Dreamlining' pale ale and follows it with 'Alligator Tugboat', an IPA from Pressure Drop.

This week the gang get together to discuss Lucy's time with The Occupation, the major bugs in Anthem, Slime Rancher and the curation on the Epic store. They then finish discussing Crackdown 3 and Days Gone being solid games but not groundbreaking. They all sink two beers each this week. Aadil begins with 'Granny' a collaboration sour from Padstow Brewing and Dig Brew Co and follows it with 'Island Hopper' DDH IPA from Steam Machine. Lucy drinks Gipsy Hill's stout 'Cosmonaut' and finishes with a Northern Monk Patrons 16.01 'Haze-Le-Nut' porter. Ben has a 'Crowd Surfer' DIPA from Signature Brew to start, then the 'After the Storm' stout collaboration from Left Handed Giant and Burnt Mill Brewery.