A Tasty Brew With A Twist

The Witcher’s third season is now streaming on Netflix. I enjoyed some of it and hated other bits (read my Season 3, Part 1 review here, and why I think episode 5 was an utter disaster here) but one thing I enjoyed very much about this season was the beer.

“Wait, the beer?” I hear you asking. There’s always some form of drinking in The Witcher, but I’m pretty sure this season it was mostly wine. The sorceress Fringilla was captive of Emperor Emhyr of Nilfgaard, forced to drink wine to test it for poison to the point of near-constant drunkenness. It was actually quite disturbing. But I digress.

“Not the beer in the show,” is my reply to your query. “The beer made for the show.”

Specifically, Geralt’s Gold, a new brew from Athletic Brewing made specifically for fans of Geralt of Rivia (and, of course, his companions Yennefer and Ciri and Jaskier and all the rest).

I should note before we go further: Athletic Brewing is known for its excellent non-alcoholic brews. I know for many of you that sounds rather un-fun, and perhaps even a little crazy, especially for a story that takes place in a time period when nobody would have had the faintest inkling of what that even meant. Don’t want alcohol? Drink milk or water!

But for some of us—either because we don’t like alcohol, or because we’re riding on a rather precarious wagon—non-alcoholic beer is the only option, and it’s pretty cool that craft brewing has made such enormous strides in recent years. Big enough leaps and bounds that a licensing deal like this could even happen in the first place.

Geralt’s Gold isn’t the best name for a beer (sort of generic, when there are so many potions and place-names to, er, tap into) but it’s quite tasty, with a very full, slightly maltier-than-expected flavor.

Athletic describes the beer as “medium-bodied and highly aromatic with notes of citrus and florals atop a ripe peach nose. A pleasant malt sweetness rounds out the palate and balances a dynamic combination of Warrior, Chinook, Centennial and Simcoe hops. With a radiant golden pour and beautifully nuanced flavor, it’s as intriguing and smooth as Geralt himself.”

I like beer, but I’m a layman when it comes to describing the notes and flavors (I never noticed a “ripe peach nose” but that’s not to say it isn’t there!). I can’t name hops off the top of my head, but I know what I like.

I will say this: It’s a more balanced taste than Season 3’s plot has been so far! In some ways, I wish this wasn’t directly licensed to Netflix and the show. If only we had a video game Witcher beer (or a fine 1272 Toussaint vintage, perhaps?)

Oh well. You can’t blame the beer for the show’s mistakes anymore than you can blame Henry Cavill, who has truly embodied the role of Geralt. For those of you out there who enjoy spending time on the Continent, hunting striga and tracking down kikimore, but also have made (a potentially very important, difficult) choice to remain sober, this is a delicious golden ale with a fun fantasy twist. I’m glad it exists and I wish I had more, but the sample Athletic Brewing sent me is long gone.

One thing, however: I would have called it Geralt’s Golden Oriole, which would link it to the in-universe potion that neutralizes poisons and increases resistance to poison (by 70% in the game). Alcohol—which is just ethanol—is a poison, after all.

In any case, toss a coin to your Witcher and bottoms up!

What do you think of this season of The Witcher? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.