Blind Ninja Studios

The official Blog of Blind Ninja Studios

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Bent Brewstillery Opening

Hello Everyone!

As most of you know last February, Blind Ninja Studios had the honor of interviewing Bartly Blume from Bent Brewstillery.

  At the time they were scheduled to open in March, but unfortunately they had to postpone.  So we waited... And waited. Finally the date was announced at that day was 8/21/2014.  That fateful Thursday I went to the opening as the self declared, completely unqualified,  craft beer correspondent from Blind Ninja Studios.

The opening started at 2pm so I figured I should be fashionably late and didn't get there until 7.  Luckily it was still nearly impossible to find a parking spot (always a good sign).

This is us in February in a very empty parking lot.

This is the same parking lot on the day of the opening.

Once I was inside I was blown away. Let's take a quick trip down memory lane... Here is a few pictures of how it looked before the remodel.

It's very industrial, warehouse chic.  Now let's take a gander at a brand new filled taproom.

Wow... Just... Wow.  Bartly and the crew took a large open warehouse and made one of the best looking taprooms I've every seen. And talk about a great opening; the entire place was standing room only, even the patio out front.  But I think that's enough gushing about how the place looks, let's get to the reason you're all here, the beer.

Here is where I started my journey for the evening

As you can see I'm outside, waiting in line for a drop of sweet nectar.  Luckily this gave me time to ponder over the beer list and figure out what I wanted to try first.

Unfortunately it was too much too big of a decision for one man to handle so I had to take the cowards way out...

A flight.  I got a flight. (Left to right: Nordic Blonde, Moar IPA, Rage On Wombat, Dark Fatha)

  Because I'm not an idiot and the line was long, I also grabbed a generous pour of Acclivity.

The Nordic Blonde was as good as I remembered: light, refreshing and well made.  It's a good easy drinking beer.  Maybe nothing to write home about but on a hot summer day it's the one I'd reach for.

Moar IPA was described as a Scottish Session IPA and at around 4.5% it delivered the session part.  The taste was good too.  Fresh citrus hop flavor with a delightful aroma and enough malt sweetness and mouthfeel to make it feel like a bigger beer.  Definitely something I'm looking forward to drinking a few pints of.

Rage On Wombat, the Australian Sparkling Ale, was the weakest of the flight.  That's not to say it was bad, just nothing really stood out.  It was a well made, easy drinking light ale.

Dark Fatha is a big delicious stout, and the perfect way to end the flight.  Dark Fatha had all of the flavors I was looking for, a nice dark roast with a smooth finish.

And then we get to my favorite beer of the night, Acclivity.  This is a Rosé Berliner Weisse and it was spectacular.  I may be a bit biased because a good sour makes me go weak at the knees but this was really well done.  It was tart, acidic and had just the right touch of sweetness that had me going back for more.  And that's just what I did.  I went and found the food truck

and ordered up some Chips with Gravy.  Then I brought that back to my Acclivity and had the best dinner ever.

Jealous?  Because you should be.

After dinner I snapped a couple of shots on my way out the door and the place was still hoppin'

So next time you're in Roseville, MN take an hour or so out of your day and go say hi to Bartly and the Crew at Bent Brewstillery.  I guarantee that you'll be glad you did.

- Casey Vlastuin

Craft Beer Correspondent, Blind Ninja Studios

[blindninjastudios]

Almost Infamous

 Matt just started working at one of the local watering holes. I say one of because there are like nine bars within a mile of us. Casey and I, being the good friends we are, decided to pay him a visit. Casey went easy and chose a Maker’s Mark. Matt doesn’t really know what he is doing yet. So I naturally ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. It was the most complicated thing I could think of at the time.  We were just hanging out, like you do in a bar. I got to talking with some bearded fellow about the plane crash in the Ukraine, and how it was likely linked to Russia. We talked about the Israeli invasion going on now. We both expressed our distaste for the current political atmosphere. He drunkenly cursed the God of War. I agreed to that, fuck Ares. That guy is a dick.  I had a couple free drink coupons to use up, so I ordered myself an IPA. Casey was sitting on my left, and was talking to some hipster kid. Big glasses, stupid pants. He was also wearing like a hat, or scarf of some sort. Something stupid. I was feeling the Long Island and it is a bit fuzzy. Anyway, so Casey was only going to have one.  We just came to tip Matt a few bucks and show our support. Our glasses sat empty. I looked at Casey and asked.  “You ready to go?” He nodded in agreement, and we told Matt we were going to settle up. I was exchanging departing pleasantries with Drunken Bearded Fellow. I believe it was Casey who mentioned something to Matt about getting together for a show, or something along the Blind Ninja line.  “You guys are in Blind Ninja Studios?” piped up a hipster voice with a slight lisp, along with general enthusiasm. I looked at Casey and he looked at me. We looked at Matt, who looked at the hipster. The three of us smiled and said, “Yeah!” Hipster Kid gets all smiley, and says how he listened to our shows. He praised our good work, and we talked about the recent home brewing competition we emceed at. Drunken Bearded Fellow manages to slur, “Oh yeah, I thought I recognized you. My friend had a couple entries and I drank beer. You took pictures of my dog.”  “Shepherd or Pit Bull?” I asked remembering both dogs, but not the beard. He says his is the shepherd. I get a dim light bulb go off in my brain. I faintly recognized him, having seen more than enough strangers that day. I had gotten a good buzz too. Hey free beer. Who am I to say no to that. I told the guy he can see his dogs picture online, through Facebook. He thought that was pretty cool. Us Blind Ninja guys thought it was cool to be recognized.  On the way out, I light up a cigarette. I know, I know, quit smoking. Don’t judge me. Casey shifts his eyes to me, and has a cheesy grin on his face. Now, this may be the alcohol fogging up my recollection, or perhaps just satisfying memory, but we had this short exchange and we sounded like Beavis and Butt-Head.  “Uh huh-Uh huh-huh. We got recognized. Uh huh.” Said Casey. “Yeah, yeah. Were like, famous and stuff. Heheh.” I replied, with a drag from my smoke. “That was cool.” We both agreed, moronic guttural laughter coming from out mouths as we headed into the sunset. It was a pretty neat experience. Definitely a nice love tap to the Ego.  In all, I just want to say thanks to those two guys. Next time ask for an autograph. That would make me feel much cooler. Thanks too, to all the listeners, and the growing number of new Facebook friends we are acquiring. The number of likes gets bigger everyday. I’m going to start a weekly blog thing for you. Just so you can know what it feels to be almost infamous.

- Eric

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Ryck's Asshole Hefeweizen

Here is the recipe for Ryck's Hefeweizen that we tasted on the latest episode of Homebrew Bound.

Asshole Hefeweizen (5 Gallons) Ingredients: - 6 lbs Wheat LME Syrup (Mallard Malts) - 1 lb Wheat DME (Muntons) - 1 oz. German Hallertau hops - 1 Package Danstar Munich Wheat Beer Yeast - 7 oz. Priming sugar Boil (60 Min): 3 lbs Wheat LME Syrup @ 55 min 1 oz. German Hallertau Hops @ 55 min 3 lbs Wheat LME Syrup @ 15 min 1 lb Wheat DME @ 15 min Note: Ferment between 68-75 degrees for best yeast character, slightly warmer than recommended on the Yeast packet itself.

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Casey's Competition Pale Ale

Here is the recipe that Casey is using for the Pale Ale competition against Myles, Myles's recipe will be up shortly.

The Best Pale Ale

Batch Size: 5gal OG: 1.053 FG: 1.012 Malt 10 lbs 2-Row 0.5 lbs Crystal 60L Hops 1 oz Citra @ 60min 0.5 oz Amarillo @ 30min 1 oz Citra @ 0min .5 oz Amarillo @ 0min Yeast Wyeast 1056 American Ale

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Eric's Untested Chocolate Milk Stout

Here is Eric's Chocolate Milk Stout recipe that we talked about on the 6/1/2014 episode of Homebrew Bound

This recipe is still untested, so test it for him! Let us know how it turned our or what you would change.

Batch Size: 10gal

OG 1.060 FG 1.010

14.5 LB Maris Otter 2 LB Flaked Barley 1.25 LB UK - Chocolate 1 LB Roasted Barley 1.25 LB UK - Brown .5 LB Extra Dark Crystal 160L 8 oz Cacao Nibs 2 LB Milk Sugar (During the episode Eric mentioned that he was thinking of dropping this down to 1lb to cut down on the potential sweetness)

Hops: 1.5 OZ Northern Brewer 7.8 AA @ 60min

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Show Starter ESB

Hey guys the following is the recipe for Casey's Show Starter ESB that we tasted and critiqued on the 6/1/2014 episode of Homebrew Bound.

Batch Size: 10 gal

OG: 1.058

FG: 1.011

IBU: 33

SRM: 7

Ingredients

Pale 2-Row (UK) 20.0 lbs

Crystal 15L (UK) 1.0 lbs

Crystal 120 (UK) 0.5 lbs

East Kent Goldings (UK) 4.0oz @ 60min

East Kent Goldings (UK) 2.0oz @ 0min

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

On the show we talked about a few changes to this recipe that might help put it over the top.  The first thing I'm going to change is back the Crystal 15L down to 0.5lb, that should help cut some of that malty sweetness down a bit and let the hops come through a bit more.  The other change would be to use Fuggle instead of EKG as the 0min addition.  If you brew it let us know how it goes!

[blindninjastudios]

Advice for New Players

As most of you know we have a show on our network called Tabletop Theatre where we get together and play a different pen and paper RPG each month.  It's a ton of fun to record and just as much fun to listen to, so if you haven't listened you really should.  But that's not what I wanted to talk about today.  I was recently asked by some friends, who were new to these games, if I had any advice for them.  I started thinking about it, jotted down a few things and then realized that this is something I wanted to share with a wider audience so here are a few tips for your first Pen and Paper game. 1) The Rules are there to help the story, not hinder it. Nothing grinds a session to a halt faster than a rules lawyer preventing the party from doing something awesome by taking forever to look up the exact rolls and percentages that are needed to do a jumping summersault onto a moving train.  So don't be that person.  And don't point out if the DM has done something not quite by the book. They're just trying to move the story forward at an enjoyable pace. 2) The dice are trying to kill you, the sooner you realize this the happier you'll be.  There are going to be times during sessions where it seems like a particular die really has it out for you.  Maybe it thinks you killed it's family, maybe you actually did, it doesn't really matter. Just remember to bring extra dice and give that one a time out, away from the other dice until it learns it's lesson.  If you are buying your first set of dice figure out what ruleset you're playing and 2 or 3 extra of whatever the primary die is, so in Dungeons and Dragons buy extra d20s. 3) Don't get hung up on failure, because you will fail.  It might be you who trips over the bucket alerting the goblin horde or it might be someone else, but the dice will turn on you or you'll try something outrageously stupid, either way failure will happen. Just remember this: Success is fun but failure is memorable. I think that about covers it. If you remember those 3 things going into your first game I guarantee you'll have fun. Until next time, Casey Vlastuin President Blind Ninja Studios

[blindninjastudios]

The Blind Ninja Studios crew was fortunate enough to take a tour of Bent Brewstillery (formerly Pour Decisions) and interview the owner, Bartley Blume. Bartley was a most gracious host, and made a great beer related interview. We discussed his background as a NASA scientist, his thoughts on the craft beer scene and his vision for the future of his company. It was a great time for everyone, we laughed, we drank beer. We got bottles of Nordic Blonde to take home. It was a good experience for the Blind Ninja crew, and hopefully for Bartley. So if you ever find yourself in Roseville Minnesota please check out Bent Brewstillery. You won't regret it for sure! You can find Bent at: www.bentbrewstillery.com Here is the interview on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v258hGjIV3k You can listen to all our archived podcasts and now watch live broadcasts of Blind Ninja Studios shows at: www.blindninjastudios.com Like us on Facebook! Facebook.com/blindninjastudios Follow us on Twitter @Blind_Ninja Thank you for your support!

[blindninjastudios]

An Update and Apology

First things first I need to apologize to you, our loyal listeners/viewers/friends, for our sporadic update schedule on our YouTube channel.  I could offer you excuses but instead here is a picture of a puppy.

Now that is out of the way, let's talk about what we have actually gotten done in the past month and were we are headed in March.  First we have started streaming on Twitch, and I guess by we I mean me.  We are slowly ramping it up but currently you can find me streaming mostly Payday 2 a few nights a week.  But with the start of streaming came our first collaboration!  The Tin Hat Brigade, a gaming channel run by our good friends, challenged us to a Game Dev Tycoon tournament, which I am sad to say we lost, by a lot.  They killed us bad.  We have more collaborations and hopefully tournaments like this planned in the future. This month also saw the launch of 2 new podcasts, Breaking Brief and BandWagon!  Both of which are doing really well, so thank you everyone who has been listening and if you haven't been why not?! February also saw production begin on our first scripted series, which I personally and super excited about and I can't wait for you to see it, but the launch is still a couple of months out.  Our channel will be filled with other delightful content including more episodes of Gamers Kitchen (Those ribs were delicious by the way), Josh's World is continuing, My Vlogs will be coming back in a slightly different form (the pancakes aren't dead, worry not!) and there is a few more things I want to announce but I have to keep under-wraps for the time being. So again, sorry for a slow month of February but hold on because March is going to be crazy!  Until next time!

Casey Vlastuin - President www.blindninjastudios.com [email protected] @CaseyVlastuin @blind_ninja

[blindninjastudios]

State of the Union (Sort Of)

Wow... It's been awhile since I've had a chance to post anything here.  For those of you who don't know I'm in charge of this whole mess and let me just say, I'm sorry. Since it's been so long I figured I'd give you a quick update on the things we've been working on and that are coming your way soon. Podcast wise we have 2 new shows coming out starting next week, Breaking Brief and BandWagon.  Breaking Brief is basically a show proving that we can't let go of a good thing. We are going through each episode of Breaking Bad and talking about things that we picked up, themes of the episode, etc.  The show is being hosted by a new host to our network, Spencer Fobbe, That will be out on Thursday, Feb. 6th. BandWagon is a new music show, coming out Monday Feb 3, that Brandon and Ryck are hosting.  It's going to take the conversational part of SoundWave and expand on that.  Speaking of SoundWave, as most of you know that show is on Hiatus until BNS Co-Founder and Samurai Matt Evenson gets back from his stint in Japan where I'm pretty sure he's learning how to be a sumo wrestler or something... His letters are pretty vague.  But you should hopefully be hearing from him on YouTube Channel in the coming weeks. That brings me to our new YouTube channel, as of writing this it's pretty sparse with 2 shows, Pancakes with Casey and Josh's World, but starting next week (if there aren't any production issues) we have 2 more shows coming to the channel!  The first is another vlog called the Carlos Perspective.  Our very own Carlos is going to give us all a glimpse into what actually goes on in his mind, be afraid.  The 2nd show is called The Gamer's Kitchen.  It's a cooking show that forms recipes based on food items found in video games.  Eric Littlejohn is hosting the show and food he's made so far as been delicious.   Along with all of this new content we will be rolling out a new and improved website next week as well.  I have been toiling over it for the past couple of weeks and am really excited to push it out to all of you, it should make finding all of our content alot easier. Thank you for reading all of my ramblings and I promise I'll try to have another video game post up soon (those are fun to do).  If you have any questions for me or any of the other staff members please ask away in the comments below or send us an email to: [email protected] Casey Vlastuin - President www.blindninjastudios.com [email protected] @CaseyVlastuin @blind_ninja

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Verbal Vomit on a Silver Platter

Ahoy. Brandon here.

First off, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this. That is, assuming you're taking the time to read this. If you're not, I really have no cause to thank you. I hope you jump off a bridge.

Not you, though. You're reading this. Thanks for that, by the way.

Looking back through the previous posts on this blog, it's mostly gaming related (and fittingly so). If you've come here expecting me to talk about gaming, I must apologize. I don't really intend to do so. 

Those of you who know me know this could very likely devolve into being about music. It's my thing, you know? I rambled about it on a weekly basis for many months on the music podcast SoundWave and will do so again on the upcoming and soon-to-be smash hit music podcast BandWagon. For quite a while, I also posted semi-regularly in music review fashion for my old blog, the Daily Anthem. Long-winded album breakdowns abounded over on that tiny corner of the internet.

Rest assured, this will not be about music either. Not solely, at least. My intent for my part of this ongoing written space will be mostly stream of consciousness mixed with a lot of nonsense. Ultimately, something of a behind the scenes in my brain.

For the record, I don't typically think complicated thoughts. Par for the course when you're a self-analyzing idiot.

So don't expect long-winded philosophical mumbo jumbo. Don't count on music or gaming discussion. That said, don't count against it, either. Every so often, my brain is going to vomit on the computer and I'll hit post.

*blargh*

Brandon Telle -- Creative Director www.blindninjastudios.com [email protected] @mrtelle - @blind_ninja 

Questions? Comments? Send them to [email protected]!

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Pokemon time

Tomorrow the new Pokemon games X and Y drop and so in today's podcast we talked about the good old days of Pokemon Red and Blue, games we here at Blind Ninja Studios fondly remember from our childhoods.  Pokemon Red is my second favorite game boy game of all time (my favorite being the amazing Dragon Warrior Monsters.)

In preparation for the new Pokemon games dropping i sat down and watched Pokemon: Origins.  This anime mini-series follows the story line of Pokemon Red/Blue/Green very closely and brought back those old memories of the games.  It starts with the protagonist Red acquiring Charmander and finishes with the showdown with Mew-Two.  An altogether enjoyable show, and far better then the main Pokemon cartoon following Ash "worst trainer ever" Ketchem.  I would highly recommend this to fans of the game. 

Right now Pokemon: Origins is only available in fan subtitled form but for those willing to wait until November 15 a English dub will be made available online.

[blindninjastudios]

Console Cowboys: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Thank you for attending this open house at Mandus Manor.  Would you like to start the tour of the house and ground? Excellent. Right this way.

As you can see all the doors are intricately hand carved and the decor is just to die for!  If you will please follow me upstairs I will show you just the greatest nursery.

Yes the back wall needs a little work but it is fully furnished and comes with 2 ghost children that are a great disciplinary tool, just imagine saying, "Johnny you stop pulling your sister's hair or I'm going to lock you in with the demon children again!" Johnny is sure to listen right away.  Now the house is just a small part of the estate, Why don't we head outside.

Don't mind the pig carcasses, there is a fully functional slaughterhouse on the grounds that we will tour in a bit, but just imagine fresh bacon all the time!

As you enter the slaughter house we will see the worker's cafeteria.  Now I know you're worried about having to pay all these workers to run this place for your but good news...

the workers are inhuman manpigs that you can just lock up after their shift! No unions, rights or pay! They are the perfect factory workers.  Now if you'll follow me we'll head down through some of the sub levels and you can see how great this place really is!

Here is the main control room for the factory, does it remind you of anything?

It's a tie fighter window!  You don't know what a tie fighter is?  Sorry the disembodied voice that is in charge of the factory can see the future and he had a heavy hand in designing this facility.  To give you important information he will just ring you up on whatever phone you happen to be by.  He's the best plant manager you could ask for.

Here we are in the pigman church and I think this is where we will end our tour.  So are you interested in purchasing this wonderful property?

[blindninjastudios]

Console Cowboys: More Payday 2

Now we here at blind ninja studios have been enjoying the game Payday 2, and we covered the game in our brand spanking new podcast Console Cowboys.  But enough shameless self-promotion, lets talk the game.

This game is a first person shooter where you attempt to pull off heists to acquire money and experience so you can level up, buy better guns and skills and make more money.  There is a varied selection of maps with different goals.  One early heist wants you to steal jewels from a jewelry store while a later multi-day heist tasks you with stealing paintings, trading the paintings to a senator, and then framing said senator.

The context of these heists can change depending on how you are handling it.  For example the above-mentioned senator job can be handled with stealth saving you from an unhealthy shoot out with the cops and netting you more cash, but if stealth fails the mission changes and the job becomes harder.

While Casey posted about his psychopathic one man bank jobs the most fun you will probably have is playing with others online.  Ideally it works best with friends you already know but the game actually has a decent community.

In short I would highly recommend this game to any one who is looking for a tense, action packed game that lets you live out your dream of being a modern day thief.

[blindninjastudios]

Console Cowboys: Payday 2

Let's talk Payday 2 for minute, specifically let's talk about robbing a bank on your own in Payday 2. 

In order to successfully rob a bank there are a couple rules you need to follow.

Rule #1: Dead men tell no tales

This man is telling tales.

Now he is no longer telling tales.

Rule #2: The "Man" must die, sorry

This is the man.

This is the dead man.

Now that you know the 2 main rules it's time to get to work.  First you need to lure the 3 pathing guards outside or out of the sight of civilians.  If you feel any reservations about killing the guards just remember they are terrible people and want to prevent you from having all of that delightful money.  Also, why aren't you worried about killing all the civilians? you psychopath!

Oh look, here's one! Now to answer his pager so very convincingly.

Here is 2!  Now where could 3 be...

Ah ha! in the stairwell what a clever guard.

After the 3 pathing guards are taken care of its time to take over the bank's camera system.

Oh look another guard.  Silly guards.

Now I own the cameras!

I guess now it's time to get to work.  So make sure you take out any bank employees (they're stealing from the company so it's ok) and locate the vault.

Here it is! now it's time to drill it!

Ok now you have about 6 minutes while this drills, what to do...

I know, mess up some paper work and shoot some computers! Hey what's that over there?

Another safe! so drill that one too.

The safe is open, time to get to work.

Well that was fun, I guess it's time to go.  Just one thing left to do...

Display the corpses of your enemies in the street!

And then it's time to leave and count your booty.

So that's basically how you rob a bank in PayDay 2.  Any questions?

[blindninjastudios]

Visit Original Link

The Daily Anthem helped out again and just chatted about what they've been listening to lately.

[blindninjastudios]

MTG

One of the things i periodically spend my meager disposable income on are Magic the Gathering cards. Magic the Gathering as some of you may not know is a collectable card game where you fight your opponent by playing cards of various types from your hand in an effort to beat your opponent.  This game has been around since 1993 and is still going, with an ongoing backstory and impressive artwork.

Now i only play a couple times a month, and then only with close friends and not at Friday Night Magic nights or tournaments or anything like that.  My decks would do well in such situations since they are things I throw together for my own entertainment purposes, such as a red elemental shaman deck i threw together for three dollars or the dredge deck i threw grave pact in.  Granted i am not the most versed in magic minutiae or even know what is going on in the latest block of cards but playing just for fun has worked in my favor so far.

But this is one of those games I enjoy sitting down to and trying to beat my friends with my superior strategy or as is more often the case:  luck.  Altogether it is kind of funny that i will still get into good natured arguments over rules.  Often it is on minute details that are generally unimportant except for the fact that the game may or may not hinge on whatever the ruling leads to; which will be debated back and forth until no one has any idea what state we left the game at.  I actually enjoy such situations, even when it turns out i was wrong the whole time.

Magic the Gathering is a fun card game if you can find some one to play with and are willing to learn the sometimes confusing rules that can arise while playing.  With fantastic artwork, enjoyable flavor text and giving you the ability to match wits and luck with another player it has been well worth the money i have spent on it and i would recommend it for others.