Whether you’re a warlord or a couch hog, a new Belgian-style beer will soon be on tap to help validate your dedication to your craft.
Game of Thrones, the award-winning HBO series based off the fantasy novels of George R.R. Martin, will collaborate on a line of beers with Brewery Ommegang of Cooperstown, N.Y.
The first release, Iron Throne Blonde Ale, a Golden Blond Ale with noble hops, will be filled in 750mL bottles and hit stores across the country in late March to accompany the show’s Season 3 debut scheduled for March 31.
Allison Capozza, a spokeswoman at Ommegang, said that the Game of Thrones creators and producers have long been fans of Brewery Ommegang, whose team happens to enjoy the TV series. HBO, she said, reached out to the brewery about the idea for a collaboration.
“The producers very much resonated with Ommegang’s blend of ‘old world’ and ‘new world’ elements to create something new and unique,” Capozza said.
Ommegang, a small company with a capacity of about 150,000 hectoliters, could certainly benefit from the exposure linked to an association with such a popular series. The brewery has never before co-branded in this way.
“The show’s most ardent viewers and Ommegang’s most loyal drinkers seem to overlap quite significantly,” Capozza said, “ with mutual fondness and respect for well-crafted, intriguing and nuanced propositions — be it scripted original programming or world-class beer.”
Ommegang brewmaster Phil Leinhart said that the blonde ale is fair in color and soft in appearance, but still holds a complexity and bite.
“With a Lannister currently on the throne, it only made sense to do a delicate, but piercing Golden Blonde Ale with Noble hops,” he said, referring to one of the series’ characters.
Subsequent beers for the collaboration are still being worked on, because the Ommegang team has to wait for the themes and characters to develop in the series’ next season before it can begin crafting the next ale. Capozza said that two additional beers will be released in conjunction with each of the series’ following seasons.