Game of Thrones Beer

Just got my hands on a bottle of Seven Kingdoms yesterday, so I'm sticking with Ommegang this Sunday night :-)

 

Stone has two i can think of

Grainiac and Your Father Smelt of Elderberries

I dont know much about Graniac but the Elderberries beer was very good and i believe both have a basis off that period of time.

 

what period of time are you referring to?

 

I would go with a really old German or Belgian traditional beer. Or you could get some Gruit, that's a very old beer style.

I tried Seven Kingdoms and didn't like it very much. I did like the Blood of the Dragon or whatever last year's beer was.

 

Fraoch Heather Ale. I think this is likely the most appropriate GOT beer. They have several other traditional/ancient brew styles as well.

 

We have it in MA, so I'd be surprised if you didn't have it.

 

There are a few German breweries that go back over a thousand years- doesn't get a whole lot older than that. But they have typically switched over time to the pale golden pilsner- type beers of more current era's over the older smoky, dark, burnt styles of medieval times (didn't have pale malt back then.)

That being said- go with some honey mead! What's more medieval than that? I love me some Redstone meadery in Boulder, CO- especially their cinnamon vanilla mead around the holidays.

 

What about some of the Dogfish Head ancient ales? Chateau Jiahu, Ta Henket, or Midas Touch.

 

Gruit style beers were common in medieval Europe but it's a very rare beer style today. Gruits use a variety of herbs for bittering and flavoring in lieu of hops. Every region/brewer probably had their own specific blend of herbs for their gruit. As hop farming methods and trade across Europe improved gruits fell out of favor.

The Finnish Sahti beer style could be considered a surviving sub-style of gruit bittered with juniper, specifically. Again, it's not a common beer style to find on store shelves.

It's kind of odd [to me at least] that a single agricultural product, hops, came to be a defining characteristic of all beer in the world, even though other plant products could impart similar flavorings.

 

Honestly I don't always go with beer for GoT. Sometimes I'll do a really robust red wine (like something from Rhone) or maybe a good tawny port (nothing too too sweet). I think some old school European herbal liqueurs like Strega or Becherovka are somehow fitting as well.

And if I'm doing beer I usually go Belgian (mostly Dubbels or something Flanders)

Awesome season so far though, can't wait for Sunday! Cheers

Also, I think Ommegang could've done a lot better but I think it was more of contractual obligation than an actual genuine interest so I get it. I think that Three Eyed Raven was the only one that I've really enjoyed.

 

They might be as ancient as Melisandre.

 

Just keep her collar on and she's plenty perky.

 

We don't want to start objectifying anyone now do we? Breweries do it enough already.