Pixels and Pints: Glyph

Before I started getting into beer properly, Guinness was my drink of choice.

I’d grab a 4 pack with my groceries and look at all the other beers that were on offer, including the incredibly tiny selection of craft beers at my local supermarket. They had maybe 10 beers from 3 different breweries, and most of them were IPAs.

Even if you’re not heavily invested in beer you probably know that they’re seen as the liquid emblem of the douchey craft beer bro, homogenised to near-uniformity by every single new brewery side-lining their aspirations of standing out in a bloated line-up of beer where ‘appreciation and deft use of all ingredients in balance and harmony’ by ‘putting in as many hops as possible’. Hops are fucking expensive, even before the global supply challenges pushed up the prices of pretty much everything involved in making beer!

I usually only go to the bottle shop very sparingly, as a treat for birthdays or whatever, so I don’t really bat an eye at getting a triple IPA for £8.50 a can every now and then, but a session of nothing but 9% hop bombs and imply stouts resembling tar is a recipe for disaster.

The humble pale ale does more with less. Dialling back the hops allows for a more balanced beer- one you can enjoy a few of in one sitting without getting too puzzled, thanks to the alcohol content being less severe than IPAs in general.

Today I’ve got some Kaleidoscope from Bristol’s Wiper and True, a 4.2% pale ale that has this to say for itself:

“This is our exploration into the flavours that a trio of hops can create. The combinations will change with the seasons but the intention remains constant: to bring you a pale ale that is harmonious, bright and refreshing.”

What a goal! Drinkability as the end goal instead of a dick-swinging hop g/l ratio that costs as much as a modest sedan.

It’s an excellent beer that’s, unsurprisingly, W&T’s best seller. Pouring gold with a gentle floral aroma, malt sweetness and piney hop bitterness swirling together into a beer that goes down really easily. Seasonal and year-round drinkability come together really nicely with the rotating hops and the modus operandi of brewing something that is simply to be enjoyed. It’s always nice finding something like this at the grocery store- without getting into the messy conversations surrounding independent retailers and the economy of scale, finding a good beer at a good price is always a treat. A bit like having a digital wander around the shop and finding Bolverk’s Glyph.

Glyph is a really good game. We had a lovely chat with Bolverk Studio’s Rasmus Jensen for a special podcast episode way back in season three. It’s a lovely fresh take on the classic ball rolling genre, sitting firmly alongside things like Marble Madness, Super Monkey Ball, and a few seconds of rolling around here and there in Metroid. You’re a little beetle type thing that rolls around as its primary means of locomotion. You’re collecting coins, gems, keys and all sorts across disparate desert levels where the floor may not be lava, but it’ll kill you if you miss the sparse platforms.

It controls well and looks really nice - the more free form platforming levels are broken up with architecturally striking challenges that push you out of gentle exploration and into quick races to the finish line. It’s always great to have varied game modes, and having a world hub instead of a level select screen is a really nice way of letting you choose how you break up your gaming. Do you power through all the regular levels to explore more of the overworld, and learn more from the other beetle things about just what has happened to plunge everything into the sand? Or do you systematically get 100% on every single level in order? The choice is yours, and you can have fun whilst deciding!

I die a lot in Glyph, and that’s ok. Loading times aren’t too punishing, and each level is short enough that you don’t get too dejected if you touch that accursed sand right before you’re about to enter the end portal.

You can lose an afternoon to Glyph, easily. Make a session out of it! And of course, a good session needs a good session beer. You’ll either die or complete levels at such a pace that you can enjoy a rewarding or conciliatory sip quite regularly, and Kaleidoscope is a fantastic choice to pair with Glyph. Both are accessible, both are easy to glug down, and both can really be savoured if you spend a decent chunk of time going a little deeper with them.