I decided to combine these two reviews together because both are relatively short. First off we have the latest Game of Thrones beer from ommegang brewing. This one is called Fire and Blood in honor of House Targaryen. My friend got a bottle and invited me over to try a taste so I jumped at the opportunity. The beer claims to be rich and malty while sporting some spicy flavor from Ancho chilies and a bit of rye.

The beer pours a nice amber color and smells sweet like a Belgian beer. It has a good sweet Belgian flavor with fruity malts coming through nicely. The spicy flavor is relatively mild though it has a decent kick. Compared to other beers, this is closer to Green Flash’s Serrano Double Stout and not anywhere near the Habanero Sculpin. I was generally satisfied by the beer as I continued to drink it. Though it doesn’t burn going down, the spicy flavor does work well to balance out the malts.

Widmer Upheaval IPA

For my second beer of the night, I tried the latest IPA from Widmer Brewing. My friend had told me that this was one of his favorite recent IPAs so I was excited to see what they could do. I like to see some of the bigger craft breweries making IPAs widely available now because many of them only ever really shipped their lighter brews nationwide.

Upheaval pours a nice amber color and has a good strong hop flavor. I tasted some prominent cluster hops along with some citrus, pine, and tropical fruit. It has a good amount of bitterness and was overall quite satisfying. The upheaval tasted a lot more fresh than the Rebel I tried recently. The date I saw on the bottle appeared to be a “bottled on” date, which I prefer to see on my beers. If you see this on sale at the grocery store, check the date for freshness and then go for it.