The Haul Report 330

 Last day of the month, and as such the last haul for july as well.

And lo and behold, it's actually wargame stuff first and foremost!

I got my solo game cards for playing MechaTop, so I can really start to try out the game now in earnest one of these weeks.  Not only that, my order also came with a free stack of dice and an additional button!

 

 

More wargame essentials in a way, as I picked up two bottles of Vallejo white, so I can actually continue painting the little gundams.

 

 

Finally, my Archonia month box arrived, containing volume 8 of Gigant and the 4th and final volume of I`m the Hero. 

So, a fun way to close off the month it is!

Tiger & Bunny 2 part one

Move over My hero Academia, the real superheroes are back!!!

And it took far to long, but finally there is a new season of Tiger & Bunny.

Time to sit back, and enjoy this 25 episode trip!

 

And it starts with a heap of new superheroes entering the fray, giving our beloved duo more competition as they all partnered up with someone now.  But as a super villain appears, two of the younger heroes rush in, causing Barnaby and Kaburagi to intervene.  One of those younger heroes, Subaru, really has problems though with how it all focusses on the commercial side of things and ratings, especially when he becomes pushed in a supporting role for his partner.  His urge to shine makes a bust go sour, only barely managing to gather the needed evidence but causing friction with the other heroes as a result.

The series focusses in the following episodes on all the nely formed duo's, mirroring the success of the Tiger and Bunny team up.  But they have underlying issues that need to be handledm while Kaburagi himself is faced with his daughter Kaede wanting to go to the Hero Academy.  In the meantime, two sinister villains arrive in Stern Build City, responsible for defeating 24 heroes before, and looking to take out all our heroes as well, while He Is Thomas struggles with himself and thrusting other people.

 

Bunny gets severly injured during a mission, Kaburagi now has to go at it alone for a while, out for revenge against the villain that injured his partner so gravely.  But the villain escapes, only for Tiger finding him gravely injured in a tree.  When Fire Emblem and Sky High are knocked out, their cams reveal the villaneous twins at last to the heroes... and their awesome strength.  They start picking off the heroes one by one.  But Kid and Origami manage to overpower one of the brothers, but they are deceived by him as he warps away with both of them.

More heroes are abducted and have to face the twins, but even with six of them gathered they have trouble facing Mugan and Fugan, barely managing to escape.  But the twins, beaten up, get a drug injection making them even more powerful.  Barnaby awakes, and now the 5 remaining heroes in Stern Bild must see to overcome the two.  They get severly beaten back however, but Barnaby has figured out a way to incapacitate Fugan, who is the powerhouse of the twins.  Magical Cat manages to take out the other sibling, as I Am Thomas finally takes down the other, stopping the thread of the twins.

Well, this was a good entertaining show once again, and I look forward to the second part of the season as it will come to Netflix around fall season!

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

 The latest Marvel movie, and we watched it on Disney+ at the brother in law a while ago.

And even though Marvel movies aren`t my must watch flicks, they are usually just highly enjoyable, and this one was no different.

A girl called America Chavez is fleeing from a huge demon, together with Doctor Strange, in a weird dimension.  But when Strange seems unable to lock it away, he wants to take the power of the girl.  This results in his demise, and Chavez portalling to our world as it seemed at first it was a dream.

The demon appears again while Strange is attending a wedding, and after he and Wong defeat it they learn she is a dimensional traveller.  As Strange recognizes strange hexes, he consults with Wanda, but it turns out it was she that is behind trying to capture the girl.  She wants her powers to have her children with her in this dimension as well, and Strange and Wong try to keep her safe in the wizard city of Kamar-Tai.  But their combined powers proof to be no match for the Darkholdt empowered Scarlet Witch.

They flee to an alternate universe, Earth 818, where Karl Mordo is the Sorcerer Supreme.  He captures them, and soon they find themselves in front of the Illuminati, a gathering of the strongest heroes.  The Scarlet Witch, possessing the Wanda of that reality, attacks, and makes short work of them however.  Trying to take the Book of Vishanti, an antithesis to the Darkholdt, Wanda destroys it though.  Taking over Chavez's mind, she throws the others to a dimensional incursioned realm.  Defeating that reality's Darkholdt corrupted Strange, he uses it's power to dreamwalk into the corpse of the first alternate reality him, buried on Earth 616.  Together with Wong, he frees Chavez from Wanda's capture, and encourages her to use her power, managing to bring the Scarlet Witch back to her senses.  She sacrifices herself to bring down Mount Wundagore and destroy all copies of the Darkholdt across all universes...

Strange devellops a third eye though as a result of dreamwalking in a corpse, and is soon visited by another sorceress asking him to join in the Dark Dimension, to face an incursion he has created...

This was a good MCU movie for sure, with some nice effects and cool wizard battles.  I kind a liked it, and perhaps it is time to finally start watching the various Marvel series as well, and shame on me, the ënd movies" of the Avengers at last as well...

Black Mirror season 5

 The most recent season of the cult series me and Noshi watched on Netflix recently, though season might be cutting it...

It is only a measly 3 episodes long!

Though, we do get some big names in the season, with Anthony Mackie and Miley Cyrus being lead plays in the episodes.

But while it where some fun episodes to watch, there is a certain thing I started feeling in season 4 as well.  It all seems less far future set, and due to that, makes it just less believable in what might be coming to us.  Episode one is about two youth friends falling in love due to a virtual reality game, episode two is about a hurt person wanting to contact the head of a Facebook like site going to great lengths, and episode three about a teen pop sensation exploited by her aunt.

Sure, there are still not yet with us techniological things in those episodes, but yet, it isn`t that cool as for example the first season episode where a guy needs to earn points to free his friend out of the porn industry and such.  It really paints less of a Black Mirror before our eyes this season, and more a sort of drama series of all day possible events.

No, this very short season kind of made the magic and intrigue of the series flow out of me to be honest...

The Quintessential Quintuplets volume 3 - Negi Haruba

 Aaaah, time to read some more on that favorite sibling family of mine, the Quintessential Quintuplets.

And volume three as such found it's way to my reading chair, to indulge myself again in the world of Futaro and his bride to be.

And he is up for a serious task, as midterm exams are coming up and he needs to make sure the girls pass or fear losing his tutoring job.  But his stress only becomes worse when Nino discovers what is at stake.  And the studying doesn`t get easier as Futaro gets to sleep in Miku's bed, only to have a semi sleeping Miku accidentally get in with him.

But the midterms are taken, and while they still fail, improvements have been made as each of them passed at least their favorite subject.  While father Nakano wants to fire him, Nino intervenes, making sure he can stay their tutor for now.

As the school prepares to go out on a camping trip, Futaro's little sister falls ill, causing him to miss the bus.  But Itsuki appears at his home to take him along together with her siblings and make sure he can join the camp after all.

So another volume of this cute manga gone, so soon I`ll crack open volume four for more quitesque adventures!

On the Painting Desk 207: preparations and continuations

 A blistering heat the past weeks, but I did manage to get at least a little bit done.

Not as much as I hoped, but every little bit counts me thinks.

The first part I did some paint works on the Freedom gunpla, adding the second layer of both the blueish gray as well as the red to it.

But I also took a moment for glueing works this week, assembling at last a heap of gachapon Gundam, as well as some gachapon saints and Phoenix Ikki from NS Models.

And put the first layer of goldlike colour on Scylla Io.  Slowly but surely, I will get them all done.  I just can't say it would be this year I guess...

Date A Live IV

 The dating of spirits is back, and that means also more Kurumi!

So after a couple of years of waiting, season 3 being from 2019, it's time for the antics of Shidou in trying to seal potentially world destroying spirits away by making them falling in love with him.

 

And a new season of course means new spirits as well!  And it begins with Shidou meeting otaku and mangaka Nia Hounjou, who reveals herself as a spirit.  She is not against being sealed away, but she can only seemingly love 2D figures.  They decide to make a manga to have Nia fall for him, and sell it at Comico.  But just as Nia opens up to Shido, she inverts.  This is a result of the manipulations by Westcott, who had held her captive, and he swoops in to steal her demon king energy crystal.  But a bit of spirit remains, allowing Shido to seal her.  Nia is suprised when they tell her not all spirits where once humans...

When they prepare themselves to seal a spirit lingering in space, codenamed Zodiac, they are visited by their chairman.  But as he explains the origin of the organisation, the base comes under attack by Westcott, who traps Shidou and the spirits in a fairy tail realm.  They escape and head to space to try and free Mukumo, but come under attack there by an enemy fleet. A space battle ensues, but Shido manages to unlock her heart with the help of the other Spirits, and she whisks him away to go on a date after he protects her from falling to Earth.

But after the date, everybody seems to have forgotten who Shido is.  Only Origami remebers, and Tohka who inverts as a result.  Shido manages with the help of the others to get the crisis in check and restore their memory locks, but then Kurumi appears at his school.  She challenges him, either she kills him, or he seals her.  They unravel her goal, as she wants to travel back 30 years in time with the power she can get from Shido.  That way, she can stop and destroy the Spirit of Origin.

It turns out Shido actually died 204 times in these days of the date so far, but Kurumi keeps sending her mind back to try and protect him over and over again.  Phantom appears before her, but she manages to paralyse her and reveal her identity... which is no one other then Reine!  On board Fraxinus, Shido vows to now help Kurumi in return.

A very good season of this charming and hooking series, and I for one cannot wait for season 5 to hit, which probably be again in a year or two.

Shikimori's not just a cutie

 Time for another RomCom anime this season, and miss Shikimori might become the Marin of the spring season.

And this is about a girl that looks like the perfect girlfriend on the outside, but has a dark twist if things don't go her way...

 

Yuu Izumi is a guy who looks to draw bad luck to himself, tripping constantly, getting birdpoop on his head, ...  and boyfriend of Micchon Shikimori.  As misfortune keeps befalling him, she always has his back and protects him.  But on a movie date, he convinces her she should choose for once, and ends up meeting his parents.

After their exams, they go for a holiday outing to the river and have a barbeque, where it turns out that Izumi is actually good at cooking, one thing he is actually better at then Shikimori.  He saves a little girl in the river drifting off, but as his leg cramps Shikomori saves him in his turn.  After returning home, he is suffering from sunburn, but never the less wants to go to the fireworks festival.

But Shikimori can be very jealous as well, for example with Kamiya, volleyball club ace and librarian co-worker of Izumi, in whome he confides how he got together with Shikimori.  Kamiya confesses her feelings to Shikimori though, who forgives her.  When Izumi calls in sick and asks Shuu to take notes, Shikimori even sees him as a rival though.  But a shopping trip with Nekozaki and Kamiya seems to open her up more to friendship instead of rivalry with others, while Kamiya seems to become less distanced from people.

The friends are teamed up in the mixed relay of the school athletic competition, forcing both Izumi and shut in Hatchimitsu to grow above themselves, showing all to each other how serious they actually take their friendship and the lenghts they want to go for it.  We also learn in an episode from Shikimori's youth that she became so protective in love due to the influence of a manga she read when younger, and that she wanted to become a kawaii girlfriend while being actually a tomboy.

 

Izumi takes her for christmas to an amusement park created for people you love, they have a nice date.  When the power fails, they find themselves alone in a little boat, declaring their eternal love to each other.

A fun little rom-com, perhaps not as big as the hype pre-spring season was giving it to be, but never the less it was nice to watch every week.

Fun fact: the classmate that looks like Bakugo of My Hero Academia, Shuu ... is voiced by the same Seiyu.

Fantasy Anime League - Spring 2022

 After my rather poor performance of predicting last autumn's best performing anime's (I ended in the top 96% lol), I'm tried again this season.

And that with a team of anime, well, once again mostly based on my own tastes...

My Top 5 team as such consisted of the following series.

1. Date A Live IV: because of course, Kurumi

2. Aharen is Indecipherable: cute protagonist, popular theme, seemed like a good bet.

3. Love Life! the second season: this also seemed a good team member, considering the high rating of the first season.

4. The Greatest Maou is Reborn to Get Friends: because everyone likes isekai, and it might be a break out one.

5. Kyokai Senki 2: no way I could leave this awesome mecha anime out of course.

While on my bench, I put the following series: Build Divide Code White, Kono Healer and RPG Fudousan, again with the idea of getting a good isekai and swap it in the moment one seems to become a break out hit.

So how did they perform?  Welll...

 

Aharen scored best ending 6th, followed by Date a Live on 7th.  But then we got 16th for The Greatest Maou, 21st for Love life and nothing in the top 25 from there on... needless to say, that didn`t bump my results, and I think I have to really learn the Ace system next time...

 

Here was my result of autumn 2021

 

 

And this is how this season's predictions ended... 

Seems I went up one percentage and am really, really bad at this, but it's fun and it gives some limited edition badge for the profile.

Black Mirror season 4

 Time for Noshi and me to sit back and watch some more of this very critically acclaimed series.

And one that while set in the future, paints a very realistic picture of what might be in front of us, as some of the older season episodes are already starting to form in our society.

I sometimes do wonder some technobuffs out there use this series as a guideline...

And as an otaku, for example the first, extra long episode of the series has a big Sword Art Online feel to it, with a power hungry shut-in locking people in a game.

Now, this series seemed to focus a lot on the mental control aspect of people, going from extreme parenting over to simulating relations for an app.

All coming to a very intriguing closure this season in the Black Museum episode, in which a lot of previous episodes and seasons "artifacts" make a cameo.

As usual, this series draws a grim, but possible, view of modern day society and where we might be heading, and this series has a bigger mixture of UK and USA made episodes, with Arkangel (the second of the season) even being directed by Jody Foster.

Perhaps more then the previous seasons, this one seemed "closer to now" in what can be possibly done with technology, as in perhaps 20 years from now as compared to the often "50 to 100 years" feel of the earlier seasons.

Intriguing to say the least...

The Haul Report 329

 The dragon roars in this week's haul report.

As thanks to an Instagram user here in Belgium, I got my hands on Shiryu of the Cosmo Memoir series.

These nice price figure scale models are a great addition to the collection, and for now that means I am only missing Ikki of this series.

 

And I got some stickers and a button as bonus.

The hunt as such continues!

Unboxing Cosmo Memoir Shiryu

 Rozan Sho Ryu HAAAAAAAAA!

Shiryu, bronze Dragon saint, roars into my collection thanks to Instagram.

Finding him there with MikuKlcosplay, I was hot to take him.

And now that he is here, let's unbox the fearless and fearsome saint.

God I love that tattoo...

My Neighbour Totoro

 So, strolling through Netflix, I watched this classic Studio Ghibli gem at last.

And for a good reason bar it being a classic, as it will also yield me the MAL summer time badge for an anime, A Summer out of this World.

In the 1950's, Tatsuo and his two daughters Satsuki and Mei relocate.  They move to the countryside to be closer to their ill-stikken mother.

When the girls get acquainted with life in the country side, Mei encounters a small bunny like creature.  She gives chase to it, and meets Totoro, a giant forest spirit she befriends.  She introduces him to her sister as well, and they soon are in for a life of magical adventures with the other fantastical beasts of the forest.  Including the awesome cat-bus that picks them up on a rainy night.

They even manage to grow a huge tree overnight with the help of Totoro, much to the amazement of their dad who can't figure out where it came from.  One day, Mei get's lost in the village as Satsuki tries to call her father as he needs to contact the hospital as quick as possible.  She finds her way back, but their mom isn't feeling well and Mei is in denial of this.  As a result, she runs away as Satsuki goes to look for her.

With the help of the cat-bus and Totoro, she finds her back, and they race to the hospital, where they can watch their mom from a tree, seeing she is doing good, as Mei can deliver her corn to mama that way.

 

 

Yups, this was some good old, retro anime as this movie was made all the way back in 1988, which is about 2 years after I fell in love with the style and genre of japanese anime.  It makes one feel young again for sure!

The Rising of the Shield Hero season 2

 Yesss, Naofumi, Rapthalia and Filo are back for the second season of the Shield Hero, an isekai i really enjoyed last year.

And with naofumi now rebuilding and lording over the lands Raphtalia hails from, preparing for the next Wave.

He and the other heroes are summoned by the Queen, as an ancient monster, the Spirit Tortoise, has awakened and she wants them to investigate and stop it if needed.  In the meantime, Naofumi gains a new "slave" as the girl that joined his band at the end of the first season, Rishia, wants to do everything to become a capable adventurer.

Naofumi is approached by Ost Hourai, concubine and regent of the Spirit Tortoise lands, but in reality a human familiar of the ancient beast.  She explains how the Spirit Tortoise is seemingly malignly released, and how it works to block of the Waves should the Cardinal Heroes not manage to overcome those yet.  

The Spirit Tortoise (terrible CGI mind you!) attacks, and the army suffers heavy casualties before the heroes party finally overcomes it.  But as Ost doesn't disappear, that must mean the Spirit Tortoise isn't completely defeated somehow.  They mount the tortoise, but upon entering the inner body meet L'Arc, Therese and Glass...  They learn from them that one of the vassal weapon wielders of their world, the Book vassal Kyo, is gathering the power of spirit animals around the realms, and that the only way to stop the Spirit Tortoise is by killing Ost.  Kyo has captured the other 3 Cardinal heroes, but they manage thanks to Rishia to stop Kyo and force him to flee back to his own world, at the expense of Ost as she and the Spirit Tortoise dissolve.

They follow him, but Filo becomes seperated as they end up back on their starting levels in a place called the Infinite Labyrinth.  There they meet and team up with Kizuna, the Hunter hero from Kyo's world that has been stuck there for years.  Together they manage to transfer themselves to the world of Kizuna, and have to start levelling up again, but in a well laid trap by Kyo, Rapthalia is taken away from the group as well.

Creating a shikigami to find her, they come across Filo who is being tortured by a circus artist.  They free her, though she is a Humming Faerie in this world where Filolial don`t exist.  Raphtalia in the meantime finds herself imprisoned together with L'Arc, Therese and Glass.  they maintain their truce in order to escape, and visit the ceremony that will appoint the new Katana vassal weapon wielder.  But the sword chooses Raphtalia instead, and while it levels her up fast as she overcomes the jealous intended wielder, her power wanes as a huge Byakko arrives.  But Naofumi and his party intervene, reuniting him with his dear Raphi-chan.

 

 

Naofumi and Kizuna seal a pact that they will stop the waves without their worlds destroying each other, and together with L'Arc and his party to stop Kyo.  But Kyo completes his work, and creates a wave of his own design.  As Naofumi faces of against him, he nearly succumbs to the te;ptation of the Wrath shield, but Risia and Ost can bring him back from the edge and he defeats Kyo, allowing them to go back to their own worldm where they reflect on the events that had unfolded.  They bring a final farewell offering to Ost and walk back towards their destiny.

 

 

 

Okay, so this season, going by the first 4-5 episodes, looked like way less then the awesome first one, but it quickly started redeeming itself and picking back up to the high level of enjoyment.  Naofumi remains a great character, and once the new characters in his party found their place and the story really progressed again, it was anew a series you just counted down the days for the next episode to air.

Queen's Blade Unlimited

 A reboot of the original, ecchi series, this OVA series came to an end after 2 episodes.

Though for two years it was still in doubt wether it would continue, until the mobile game came out instead.

First things first, the storyline has changed.  Announced as more violent, there is a certain truth in that.  Though the works of gravity on the oppai, whom are a plenty, is also pretty obvious, as they all seemed to have grown a few sizes in that area.

The story has changed more to a tournament to see who becomes Queen, instead of the world adventure of the original series.  A big difference is that now an angel needs to attend a duel as a referee, or the battle can`t take place.  For the rest, it actually doesn`t differ that much from the older series, but it did get a great animation update, and the fight sequences are pretty niftily made.

So is this worth it?  Surely, if you laike those fanservice series.  But the sad part is, it won`t continue anymore so the 2 OVA's are the only thing of this reboot that is out there.

JK Haru is a Sexworker in Another World volume 3 - Ko Hiratori and J-ta Yamada

 Perhaps one of the most special settings of an isekai manga of past years, and on the contrary to the title not that explicit as one might think.

And I now finished the 3rd volume of the series, about how JK Haru tries to crawl her way up in a world that is pretty much looking down on women.

 

And she finds some innocent entertainment in the most unexpected of places: by kicking cans.  Meeting some biys playing this game, she learns it's actually an official sport and she joins their team, preparing for an important tournament.   Using her "other" skills, they manage to win the tournament, but she resigns the team afterwards as the rules are changed no longer allowing for girls to participate.

But she tries to make conversation with the mysterious stranger always sitting alone in the brothel.  She manages to get a short conversation with him, but doens't learn much except he dislikes humanity and that rain always falls where he walks.

When soldiers visit the brothel, one of them, who is the boyfriend of a higher ranked collegue of Haru, starts hitting on her.  She manages to evade it, and later on gives Chiba's girlfriend a talk on the behaviour of her lover, and men in general.

Another strong volume in what is turning out a really decent isekai manga I must say.  Now to wait until volume 4 gets released in a few months...

The Haul Report 328: Happy birthday to me

 So yesterday was my birthday, and that meant some nice presents to be added to the gathered loot.

Though the "big one"will be revealed later in the year.

But from the little man, I got some nice manga to read!

And I also got this handy little travelguide for an upcoming city trip in december.

Nice little thingies for certain.

Kyoukai Senki season 2

 The Gundam series that isn't Gundam is back, and hopefully as enjoyable as the first season.

And great fun that was, a true mecha series, so let's hope this will be something to look forward to every week as well once again.

 

The story makes a jump of 8 months forward, finding Shion and Gashin in battle.   They need to get refugees out, but with just their two machines it is near impossible to take on the opposing North American force.  But right at the moment they seem defeated and the refugees threatened, a black AIMAM intervenes, quickly taking them down.  Amou and Kenbu have returned!

Together with the chief, they brought supplies and replacement parts courtesy of an organisation called ARES, as the chief tells them she was the one that developped Ghost originally.  Bringing upgrades for the two other AIMAM as well, they decimate the opposing North American army.  But Amou seems changed, being no longer his joyful self.

The North Americans have enployed the Ghost AI in a new model, commanded by captain Watt, bringing it to the field against an enemy Russian force, quickly defeating them.  In the meantime, Amou tells them what happened during the months he was away.  They arrive at a sanctuary city, and decide to help them out to protect them from a pending North American assault.  But the enemy has downloaded copies of the Ghost program, making them far more vicious and hard presses the defenders.

Chairman Kidyo in the meantime is trying to forge ways to have the colony recognised and supported.  This can lead to a part of Japan being declared independant again as New Japan, supported by the Chinese, Russian and Oceanic governments.  But the NAC doesn`t seem to fond of this idea, as it unites the others against them.  So Brad Watt goes into a meeting with Amou.  But NAC forces attack, decimating the chinese defenders, collapsing the front line as Shion and Gashin rush to the front.  With Gashin's new and improved gunfighter mech getting it's field debut, but Amou is held hostage in the end by the NAC, but Watt gives them a window to escape.  They make it back home, but at a great cost...

 

 

The NAC manipulates the events to be able to launch a large scale attack on the New Japan area,  and during battle Captain watt in the Ghost installed unit isolates Amou in order to battle him in a duel.  They are fairly matched, but as Watt is getting more and more injuries due to turning off the safeties inside his cockpit, Gai shortcircuits, leaving Amou defenceless.  But the other AI's arrive just in time to back Gai up and bring Kenbu back online.  Together with the AI's, and his believe in them, he overcomes both Ghost and Watt, destroying the enemy unit, but at the cost of Gai who dissolves in his cockpit.  But Japan has been established again as a nation, and peacetalks with the NCA are starting up...

Yup, I liked this series as a great mecha fix the past weeks.  As I said at the beginning, this could just as well been a Gundam series, and it was great fun to watch.

Antwerpen Bierpassie Weekend Festival

 A bit of the moment spur, as we only found out saturday evening on Facebook about this event, we went to the Beer festival in the centre of Antwerp sunday mid.

And it was a cosy event, busy but not bustling, with 38 new beers and 200+ beers in total to be tasted.

the entrance was free, but you bought a starter pack of 10 euro containing your 20 cl glass, a keychain with bottle opener and 2 tokens for a beer.  Then additional tokens where 3 euro a piece, which considering it where speciality beers isn't to exhurbirant.  Going to have a regular pils beer in Antwerp, 25 cl, in the end costs you 2.5 to 3 euro as well anyways.

 

  All the while, some live music was present, like the Dixie Street Band.

 

So, armed with our glass and tokens, me and Noshi went out to explore and discover some specialty drafts.

Round 1

So, with Noshi aiming for the fruitier beers, and me going more towards the hoppier triple's, these where our first drinks:

Cuvee Watou (8%) from brewery Leroy and Pink Killer (5%) from brewery De Silly.

 

Watou

Pink Killer

 

A good starter for sure for me, and Noshi's grapefruit based beer was while to sweet for my taste, quite refreshing.

The fun thing here, I ran into my childhood friend Toby.  While we kept in touch through Facebook, it had been 28 years (!!!!) since we last saw each other in the flesh.

 

Round 2

 

Rodenbach Fruitage (5%) by brewery Rodenbach and Straffe Hendrik Wild 2022 (9%) by brewery de Halve Maan.

Hendrik

Rodenbach

Noshi had a very fresh fruit beer, better then the first, but mine in hindsight was perhaps the least loved one by me in the end.

Round 3

Femme Fatale Brett (6%) by Evil Twin Brewing and Quintine Blonde (8%) by brewery Des Legendes

Quintine

Femme Fatale

Noshi's Femme Fatale was a last moment addition to the event, and isn't in the catalogue, but it was also her least favourite.  It was a good beer, but not a fruity one.  The Quintine Blonde was a decent hop beer for me.

Round 4

Fram Bush (8.5%) by brewery Dubuisson and Hopruiter by brewery Scheldebrouwerij.

Hopruiter

Fram Bush

For my final tatser, I let the bartender inspire me, and boy did I love that beer.  A fresh hoppy one, and for me the best of the one I tested.  Noshi went for a heavier beer, with a nice raspberry taste.

So, that was a wide selection of beers that have been tried and tested, and my Untappd shows for it.

And little Thorin?  He enjoyed a good nap in the not to blistering summer sun.

We will be back for sure next year!