Cooperstown-based brewery Ommegang has collaborated with HBO and rolled out a new beer to celebrate the third season of Game of Thrones, which premieres tomorrow. Iron Throne, as it's called, is the first in what will be a series of Westeros-themed beers.

Co-branded food and drink stuff tend to be disappointing, but Ommegang is a fine brewery and it's delivered a respectable Belgian-style blonde ale with a bit of body, tasting of warm brown spice and citrus.

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Rogue Ales makes one, and so do Brooklyn Brewery and Harpoon. In fact, it's hard to find a fashion-forward beer factory that hasn't made its own version of chocolate stout recently. Some ramp up the excitement by making double chocolate stouts and black chocolate stouts. But what is it? Chocolate stout is the darkest, most alcoholic form of the dark beer called porter. It often tops out at 8% ABV, and the dark color results from malt or barely roasted an extra long time.

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Brooklyn's Sixpoint Brewery has come up with lots of crazy beer ideas in the past, but this may be the most unusual so far: making beer by fermenting beans. Shane Welch, founder of Sixpoint, notes that beans have been used to brew alcoholic beverages in the Balkans for centuries in the absence of grains. Beans, too, have the requisite sugars necessary for fermentation. But what beans are we talking about here?

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Sundermann

The Chicory Stout

Style: American Stout

Serving style: Bottle poured into glass

Location: My apartment with a cat on my lap

Cost: $15 six-pack

ABV: 5.2%

[See More: Hey Alelitists: Let's All Stop Being Assholes About Beer]

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Sundermann

Blue Point's Hoptical Illusion

Style: IPA

Serving style: Draft poured into a mason jar, which is something I want to make a joke about, but will refrain.

Location: Cyprus Avenue in Park Slope

Cost: $6.50. That's kind of a weird price for a beer, right?

ABV: 6.8 percent

[See More: Hey Alelitists: Let's All Stop Being Assholes About Beer]

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Sundermann

Bernstein signs copies of Brewed Awakening at Brooklyn Pour earlier this year.

To put it simply, Joshua Bernstein loves his beer. Before penning his book Brewed Awakening, last year's insightful examination of the current craft-beer explosion across the country, he wrote about beer and bar culture in New York City for 12 years, contributing to publications like The New York Press and Time Out New York. Through his hard work, the 34-year-old has found himself as one of the major voices for the growing craft beer movement in America. Now, he's made an app for that.

Bernstein paired with Blue Crow Media to create Craft Beer New York, an iPhone application dedicated to meeting every beer head's need. He has curated a list of the best bars, breweries, and bottle shops in NYC. So if you find yourself in an unfamiliar neighborhood needing a Founders fix, just whip out the app and you'll know where to go. This week, Beer UP chats with Bernstein about the intersection of technology and beer, ale-litism, and what beers he's bringing to Thanksgiving dinner.

[See More: Hey, Alelitists: Let's All Stop Being Assholes About Beer | Pumpkin Ale In August Is Stupid: Let's Take Back the Seasonal Beer]

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Sundermann

A surprising choclately delight

Style: American Porter

Serving style: Bottle poured into glass

Location: My apartment during Nor'easter

Cost: $14 for a six-pack from the local bodega

ABV: 4.7 percent

[See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

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Sundermann

Look at that beaut.

Victory's Prima Pils

Style: German Pilsner

Serving style: Draft

Location: Beloved

Cost: $6

ABV: 5.3 percent

[See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

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A candlelit brew

Brooklyn Blast! from Brooklyn Brewery

Style: Double IPA

Serving style: Draft

Location: Beloved

Cost: $6

ABV: 9.0 percent

[See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

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Sundermann

Wolaver's Pumpkin Ale

Style: Pumpkin Ale

Serving style: Draft

Location: The Scratcher

Cost: $5. Happy Hour!

ABV: 5.35 percent

[See More: Getting Drunk in the Rain in the Catskills | Great Lakes Burning River]

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