What does its cutesy title mean? The
Ommegang beers were all pretty good, in fact, some of them were absolutely
outstanding. And those were Game of Thrones beers. I've had various beers that had some kind of rock tie in or heavy metal tie-in, but obviously the reference to Lord of the Rings in this name brought me back to the idea behind the Game of Thrones beers. If Westbrook can match up to what Ommegang has done so far, this is going to be a pleasant evening.
The beer has very little head coming out of the bottle. The medium tan head that it does have goes away almost entirely, and a half moon of minuscule bubbles clings to the sides of the glass. The beer itself is black. Some might argue brown, but I'm not to have this argument again. The aroma is sweet, and it has heavy chocolate syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon. I think there is some coffee coming from the beer, but that might just be my fear. I don't like coffee. If you've read any of my reviews of coffee beers, you will already know this.
First sip definitely has coffee. Fortunately, it isn't the only flavor, but coffee tends to dominate where it is. I'm looking at the bottle again, and I don't see the word coffee anywhere on it. Westbrook, you may have just made yourself an enemy. In either case, the coffee is surrounded by sweet chocolate and vanilla, but that's about all I can taste through the coffee. God almighty do I hate coffee.
Tip-in is coffee with very gentle carbonation tingle and a syrup sweetness. During the middle of the beer, the coffee subsides a bit to allow the cracker, sweet chocolate, and marshmallows come through. The finish is an onslaught of coffee grounds stomping on my tastebuds and yelling, "what you gonna do about it?" I really hate coffee and I really hate that they didn't put coffee on this label.
Bottom Line: Learn to label your damn beer.
0.25/5
