{"id":7500,"date":"2017-12-29T11:41:56","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T17:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=7500"},"modified":"2018-01-15T16:27:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T22:27:42","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-2017-6-ommegang-winter-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/7500\/12-beers-of-christmas-2017-6-ommegang-winter-is-here","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 2017 \u2013 6: Ommegang Winter Is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"\"O<\/a>\n

This was sort of a no-brainer pick for the winter solstice, which arrived Thursday afternoon on the 21st. Here in southern Vermont we didn\u2019t need a calendar, or a beer, to know that winter had arrived. We had about ten inches of snow the week preceding, another major dump a day after the solstice, and more predicted for the days ahead along with a wicked cold snap. All a little extra punctuation to the longest day of the year.<\/p>\n

All good, of course, since it means the days are beginning to lengthen again. What was really needed was someone to explain \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d to me, and who was the devious looking character on the label of this latest collaboration between Brewery Ommegang and HBO Global Licensing, HBO being the producers of the continuing fantasy tale based on the novels of George R. R. Martin.<\/p>\n

I may as well confess that I\u2019ve read not a single word of Martin\u2019s work, nor seen a second of the television series, not that I have anything against either; we just don\u2019t get HBO. I am fairly well-versed in Shakespeare, and I brought the bottle along to our more or less monthly get-together of the group that meets to read the Bard\u2019s plays, and has been doing so for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

\"O<\/a>Only a few of the regulars showed up that night and only one of those, Vince Panella, had ever seen \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d Vince, an author in his own right<\/a>, admitted he was mostly taken in by attractive women riding around on dragons.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he was able to tell me that the Night King was the master and the first of the White Walkers, some kind of half frozen undead who were busily doing something to somebody, or threatening to, and at the end of Season 7 having turned one of Daenerys Targaryen\u2019s dragons into an undead ice dragon. Or something. You can tell by the arctic blue eyes:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/TosG_fnfsx4<\/p>\n

Well, no more confusing to me than \u201cMeasure for Measure\u201d might be to someone who has never read Shakespeare. We speculated for a bit whether more people have seen \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d than have ever viewed Shakespeare\u2019s plays.<\/p>\n

\"O<\/a>Given the reach of modern TV, it seemed plausible, for a moment. But then I reasoned that Shakespeare has had his own pretty good run in film and television, and his influence seems unlikely to wane.<\/p>\n

Of Martin, who can tell? Certainly Ommegang has, so far, made more \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d beers (nine) than Martin has written books in the series (five), with plans for more special edition brews in 2018, even as the show winds to a conclusion.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had one or two of the others in the beer series along the way (don\u2019t quiz me on it), since I like pretty much everything out of the Cooperstown, New York brewery (by way of Belgium). In any case, it\u2019s nice to be able to say you don\u2019t need to know a whit about \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d to enjoy Winter Is Here, and it would surely be just as drinkable in warmer climes as in Vermont\u2019s current deep chill.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot going into the brewpot for this one, Pilsner and wheat malts, red wheat flakes, Saaz hops and a number of extras–white pepper, sea salt, coriander and sweet orange peel. Sounds like a Wit, all right, except that it emerges at 8.3% ABV, putting it into a category\u2014Double White\u2014that despite a few examples over the years, doesn\u2019t even exist on most beer style charts.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>

Tim Shafer, in favor<\/p><\/div>\n

So how does it taste? Pretty damn good. Vince doesn\u2019t even drink beer often, but Tim Shafer does and he said of the beer, \u201cI am in favor.\u201d Later the Belgian quality of the brew began to wear on him, though, and he seemed to be falling a little out of favor.<\/p>\n

I was in all the way. There was indeed a spicy, peppery quality to the beer that, added to its lively effervescence, made it roundly refreshing. If light and clear, a rogue boozy note was apparent, along with floral and fruity impressions of pear and peach. The more I drank it the more 1) I liked it and 2) it reminded me of Duvel, the parent company\u2019s flagship strong blonde ale, as opposed to a stronger version of a witbier.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s the house yeast, after all, and being reminded of a Duvel can never really be considered a drawback. Sorry about the dragon, though.<\/p>\n

Name: Winter Is Here
\nBrewer: Ommegang, Cooperstown, New York
\nStyle: Double White Ale
\nABV: 8.3%
\nAvailability: Now, until it runs out, in 42 states and Washington, D.C.
\nFor More Information: www.ommegang.com<\/p>\n

[Dec. 30, 2017]<\/em><\/p>\n

< 12 Beers of Christmas 5: Au Baron Saison Saint Menard Cuv\u00e9e de No\u00ebl<\/a>
\n12 Beers of Christmas 7: Birra del Borgo 25 Dodici<\/a> ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was sort of a no-brainer pick for the winter solstice, which arrived Thursday afternoon on the 21st. Here in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":7503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[939,627,18],"tags":[969905,1193,1016632,6575,992113,1006656,1016625,1016626,6056,1016628,1016629,750,1016630,817],"class_list":["post-7500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-tap-beer-of-the-week","category-lifestyle","tag-daenerys-targaryen","tag-cooperstown","tag-night-king","tag-shakespeare","tag-brewery-ommegang","tag-duvel-moortgat","tag-games-of-thrones","tag-george-r-r-martin","tag-hbo","tag-vince-panella","tag-tim-shafer","tag-duvel","tag-dragons","tag-new-york"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/O-GoT-label-640.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7500"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7523,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7500\/revisions\/7523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}