Beer52 is a craft beer club that will send you a monthly crate of craft beers and ales from all around the globe. From as far away as Estonia or as close as up t'north the selection of beers received are always unique and varied.

I was recently in contact with the people over at  Beer52.com who offered to send me a box of their craft beer service so I could review the experience as a whole and let you guys know what I think. The box arrived around Friday last week. That night I said down with my housemate, got pen and paper at the ready and got drinking (for science purposes of course).

Each box comes with 8 craft beers, a snack and a copy of that month's instalment of Ferment magazine. Of the 8 beers I received there was one name that really stood out. One of the beers had an almost completely blank label with a few random photos poorly formatted in. Thinking this was a mistake at first I tried to look for the name of the beer. Quite fittingly this beer was called "Fuck Art". I'm not even joking here, the beer was genuinely called "Fuck Art.". The beer itself was a disappointment. Difficult to enjoy drinking continuously but then again, I'm not a huge fan of Grisette at the best of times.

I won't be discussing much detail of each beer since this is more about the experience as a whole and not a review of the breweries of produce the beer. The other beers I received were named: Santa Paws, Mikkeller, Littlebro, Mordue - Krampus, Wiper and True, Rouge and Flower Power Hippy Dippy All Things Pretty (again not joking here). As you may have been able to tell there was a Christmas theme going on this month, I can't exactly tell why though. Using a rating system (seen below) the best beer I received was Brewdog - Santa Paws. I'm not a massive ale fan but this Scotch Ale was quite weak in taste and easy to drink and enjoy. This scored the highest rating of 75/100.
The lowest scoring beer was named "Wiper and True", a Berliner Weisse from Bristol. Even though it has a lovely, simplistic design along with a pleasant aroma it was it's taste and after taste that let it down, resulting is a score of 35/100.



As any beer fan knows, to really enjoy a craft beer you need a salty snack to munch on. As with every monthly box I received a snack as well. This month it was chilli flavoured seeds from the company "Munchy Seeds" and my go were they the perfect compliment to my beer binge. I loved them so much I've been tempted to buy even more of them, just perfect. Added into the box was the latest issue of Ferment and after reading I've fallen in love with it's writers, a great combination of information and comedy rolled into 1 magazine.

The price for a single box is £24 making each beer around £3 each. This is around the same amount you would pay for a craft beer in a pub so it's not too dear, especially since you get a snack and a magazine that retails at £4.99 included too. Despite this £24 a month can be a bit of a strain on your bank account, especially as a student. But if you split the price between you and a friend or 2 it could be a nice investment. I know I won't personally pay the £24 per month for the box but it could be acceptable for someone with more surplus income. Overall I rate this box highly. There's a great variety of beers from around the globe, great snacks and a good read too.

Brainwavz have asked me again to review their new range of earphones. This time I am reviewing the Jive series of earphones.

The Jive set is a model of wired earphones that are available in 5 different colours: Black, Blue, Green, Red and White. I have been sent the green set to review. The earphones come with an in-built volume control on the wire complete with a microphone and call/play button so you can make hands-free calls without the need to invest in the more expensive Bluetooth alternative. I tried out using the microphone on Skype and the quality was abysmal. This may be due Skype but have never had the problem before.

The earphones cost $28 so what do you get for you money? Well of course you get the earphones their self but you also receive the standard Brainwavz hard case to protect them. In addition you receive a Velcro cable tie, 3 silicone tips (S,M,L) and a set of comfy Comply foam tips. This is all the standard stuff from the company. But this is the first time I have noticed a shirt clip included in the pack which will help with concealing the wire and protecting it from being tangled and damaged when performing physical activities like running.

Now let's get down to the important stuff. The sound quality. This is a slighty improved quality of sound from the BLU-200 I reviewed last week but that may be down to the wired connection as opposed to the wireless. I used these whilst walking around for about an hour capturing Pokemon (I know, my life's great). They served me well and don't show any signs of damage what so ever but do seem slightly less durable that the previous models by looking at their build but only time will tell.

Again, since you receive multiple different sizes and shapes of ear tips the comfort isn't really an as you can change how you please. I used the already attached ones (medium) as they fit and feel best. This model has been kept light-weight and minimalist so it doesn't pull or drag your ears to the point of discomfort. The earphones come with a huge 24 month warranty so Brainwavz must be confident in the durability and strength of their product.

TeeBlox is a monthly subscription service where you pay $9.99 a month to recieve a little bag of goodies including a licensed geeky t-shirt. You can choose from multiple themes of tops including Gaming, Disney, Cartoons and even Beer. TeeBlox offered me a free 1 year description so I decided to go for the gaming subscription. This sub includes the top, a comic book, stickers, and sometimes badges and posters. This is what I received in February's edition.

Licensed Super Mario Bros 3 Tee

The main item was a licensed Nintendo tee with images of 3 1-Up mushrooms from the Super Mario games with the text "Get a life? I already have 3". The tee is of very high quality which is expected from a licensed product from as big a company as Nintendo. The game this tee is specifically licensed from in Super Mario 3.

The New Avengers 5

Next up I have a "The New Avengers 5" comic which retails at $3.99 so that's already 40% of the money you paid back. Usually the comics come in a plastic sleeve with a card back to protect it but sadly this month's comic did not which has resulted in the comic arriving quite creased and bent but luckily there are no tears in the comic so it is still easy to read.

TeeBlox and Green Lantern Stickers

The last things in this month's bag were 2 stickers. One of them being the typical TeeBlox stickers but the other a quite high quality Green Lantern sticker..

Overall I am pretty pleased with the selections this month. The tee was of one of my favourite games and of high quality but the condition of the comic was a bit of a bummer. This month's bag is getting a 7/10.