If you’re a regular watcher of HBO’s serial snuff flick Game of Thrones, you’ve become used to seeing what’s inside of the people you like; their blood, their bones, or maybe just the little pieces Ramsay Boldin clips off of them.
Apparently the folks at Ommegang understand that the show has taken a dark turn, and have themed their second Game of Thrones beer appropriately. It’s called “Take the Black Stout.”
According to its label, which just popped up over on BeerPulse.com, Take the Black is a 7% ABV ale brewed with star anise and licorice root, so it should be a rich and spicy little number. The label describes the beer as:
A stout as dark as the winters that once engulfed Westeros, as robust as the men who swear their oaths at the Weirwood Tree. Chocolate and caramel sweetness are balanced by hop bitterness. Roasty, woodsy notes ans an earthy finish.
This type of beer is right in Ommegang’s wheel house, and I’m sure it’ll be excellent. My only complaint is about the ABV. They should know that any Game of Thrones beer should be 10 percent ABV or higher, if only to help ease the pain of watching the future march mercilessly forward.
Click to see the full label
Readers of the book series might feel the need to chime in here and explain just what “Take the Black” means, just like they cheerily filmed their less literate friends freaking out to the festivities of the “Red Wedding.”
To that, as always, we say NO SPOILERS!! Just because you’re impatient and own a Kindle doesn’t mean you have to ruin the chance to watch the story unfold on the screen for the rest of us mouthbreathers.
Take the Black Stout should be out in the fall of this year, just in time to pick it up off the shelf and slowly turn to the shopper next to you, hissing a seasonally-appropriate “winter is coming.” It’s a great way to meet new people!
.
.
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
Looks awesome. I was hoping for something a little more robust after the relatively safe first GoT beer.
When you join the Night’s Watch, you “take the black”, referring to their black cloaks. Hence why the wildlings call them “crows”.
Ah that makes sense. I guess I should listen closer as I
drink imperial stouts from a gobletwatch the show.The last post with the combining of craft beers with exotic and equally well crafted foods made infinite sense, and appears to create some useful synergy. But when it comes to themed, official, or other non culinary associations, I become frightened and confused.
Some associations simply confound me like: the PEZ chopper, Rainforest Cafes outfitted with a jungle décor manufactured from petroleum byproducts, and the opus magnum of inexplicably themed venues with Disney’s California Adventure Park, which is in California. We’ve become so detached and desensitized, that California’s construction of a theme park, based upon California, has entered the lexicon without so much as a sideways glance. What’s next? An airline which features a ‘Flight’ themed journey, or an official beer of NASCAR? Oops, I didn’t realize the last one already existed. But nothing like the association of powerful cars driven fast and alcohol.
So I don’t grasp the association of craft beer with items which don’t interact with my palate. I guess I could enjoy a craft beer in a sensory deprivation chamber, where some other (code for BMC) beverage would still fail me, if I were seated on the PEZ chopper, in a Rainforest café, in California, with Christina Hendricks on the back. OK, the Christina part might make it taste a little better.
Nice comment, and I mostly agree, BUT I like how these beers get new drinkers into the craft beer fold. Besides, Ommegang isn’t going to make a crap beer, so I’m not too worried about their media synergy spoiling the brew.
Also, I was booked on a flight to California last week, and was looking to download some movies to watch on the way. I decided against “Flight” and opted for Zero Dark Thirty instead. Call me superstitious.
Since I don’t get HBO, the media-cultural aspects are lost on me.
But to be truthful, I can’t see me buying a beer just because it has name association w/ a popular TV show. It all smacks too much of the ads on kids’ TV, i.e., Gee hon I just gotta try some of that ale ’cause Gandalf says its really good!
I also see parallels w/ 007 fans flocking to Heinekens, or Trekkies sucking up “Romulan Ale”–if you get my drift.
Now their gonna make Lord of the Rings beers because you mentioned Gandalf! GUH!!! 🙂
Because I’m a giant dork, I thought I’d point out that Ramsay is a northern-born bastard, so his last name is Snow, not Bolton. (Also, not Boldin, as you wrote)
Both very good points. And dorky. Both VERY dorky!
Well done!
LOL @ that closing line. Ironically enough, at the rate with which brewers have been pushing out their seasonal brews theses past few years, “winter is coming” should probably be changed to “winter beers are coming”. But I digress…
I haven’t tried the original Game of Thrones brew but this one looks a bit more intriguing. As you noted, it probably should be at or above 10% ABV but they might simply not want Tyrian Lannister to down a couple bottles and wedge himself into a coble stone crack.
Cheers!
The first one tasted like a decent Ommegang beer, as I’m sure this one will as well. They’re not mind-blowing, but always good, and a fun companion for the show.
but not as fun as rooting for Daeny the dragon mama while drinking a Dragons Milk. 😉
Well winter is certainly coming. Great post guys. What a show! Now excuse me while I scream at my serfs, clean my sword and relax in my iron throne. Now to take the black!