'Star Trek' Suds: Canadian Company Boldly Brews a Klingon Ale

Klingon Ale
Klingons come out to Halifax, Nova Scotia's Garrison Brewing after the launch of Klingon Warnog Roggen Dunkel Ale in November 2014. (Image credit: Garrison Brewing)

A new "Star Trek"-themed beer warped into stores in Canada in November, and it's making a splash.

A Klingon ale concept made it big last month after a Canadian brewery heard that it had approval from "Star Trek" creators to make the beer. A company in Vulcan, Alberta, collaborated with Nova Scotia's Garrison Brewing to create the Klingon Warnog Roggen Dunkel Ale in time for a comic convention in Halifax in November.

"We’re beer geeks and a lot of us are sci-fi geeks, so it was a pretty logical fit," said Brian Titus, the president and co-founder of Garrison. "We just love the idea of doing it. The neat thing about 'Star Trek' is over the years, there have been so many variations of it. It's gone on in some different form for decades, and everyone can relate to it." [Poll: ;Star Trek' vs. 'Star Wars': Who Wins?]

And the response to the Warnog ale was far more than what Titus, who created his craft-beer brewery in 1997, ever expected. In fact, it led to a brief Klingon invasion of his Halifax-based location.

Klingon Warnog: A warrior's ale

When Federation approached Garrison in hopes that a Canadian brewery would make a beer with them, Titus said he jumped at the opportunity. It was up to his brewery to create the recipe, so he decided to go for the unexpected.

The base was a dark German weissbeer, which is usually light and hazy, but Garrison added chocolate, dark malts and spices to change things up. "There's a lot of neat things going on in this brew," Titus told Space.com.

Warnog is a Klingon alcoholic beverage that is not quite as popular as bloodwine, according to "Star Trek"-themed site Memory Beta, but it was mentioned on television in shows like "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Klingon Warnog Roggen Dunkel Ale on the shelves after Garrison Brewing's launch of the Star Trek-themed beer. (Image credit: Garrison Brewing)

A beer with honor

In this case, a healthy contingent of Klingons showed up in association with Hal-Con (a comic convention held Nov. 7-9). The local Klingon Assault Group, which does a number of charity events, not only drank the beer but helped serve it to other willing clients, Titus said.

"We knew it would tap a nerve, but we didn't realize it was quite as big a nerve as we saw," he said. "We had long-time customers – we've never exchanged the words 'Star Trek' before – come in wearing some T-shirt from back in the day and picking up a four-pack."

Even after paying Paramount a licensing fee, the brewery still turned a healthy profit and is looking to get the ale on the shelves in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. More "Star Trek" brew is coming in the future, Titus added.

"We'll definitely be doing this beer again," Titus said. "Then there's also the Vulcan ale in the lineup as a potential brew for us to do here, and there are a couple of other ideas that could stew around."

You can learn more about the Klingon Warnog brew at the Federation of Beer website: http://www.federationofbeer.com/

Editor's note: This story was updated on Dec. 13 to correct the term weissbeer, not vice beer.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace