ok, so we've made moves. we put some deep thought into this one. I was almost going to go off and try to do that bunglers bane barley wine, but i would have had to substitute bunglers bane for a real life shelf mushroom, and then dilute it a bit becuase i only have 5 months to let it sit.
so my fellow skyrim friends sat down with me last night and we talked it out. Where is skyrim? it has all types of lands, but there are huge, mountainous peaks. who inhabits skyrim? it is highly dense with dwarves and nords. (so i read).
Dwarven Ale. of course. the dwarves are a dying society, in the grand scheme of things, but they have also reached genius levels of mechanical engineering, understanding the land, and brewing a great beer.
In thier frosty, dark climate, they were surviving on root vegetables. clearly. like the russians do. I'm sure there is some potato in Dwarven Ale, to add sugars, but it wouldn't just be a plain potato. it would be a purple potato. A group of people who drink beer instead of water, because it's cleaner at the time, were also smart enough to use root veggies that not only added sugars, but nutrients to their day. This is why i also believe they made and used Beet sugar. And who knows, something about this tells me they took that even further, purchance even mashed with purple carrots. i don't know. maybe that's a step too far. somebody stop me...
oh and they clearly imported a bunch of 2-row barley from England.
But damn, they did not have hops! what did they do to preserve!!!
we put our heads together and though...ok...preservatives... lets go:
-juniper berries
-milk thistle
-heather
-spruce
There is definitely going to be milk thistle, heather, and spruce in skyrim. they all fit the land. though spruce probably won't be an actual item you can pick. juniper berries might be to strong of a flavor. milk thistle or heather. then i googled, and found this forum post in a different forum...
"I was just playing Morrowind and in one of the earlier Mage's Guild quests you get to read up about flowers. Apparently it isn't known where Heather comes from but it is rumored to be in Skyrim. I just hope the lore is accurate, it'd be neat considering all the hints."
i don't know why someone thought that was worthy of starting a thread on a gaming website, but damn i'm glad they did. because thats the final ingredient. Dwarven Ale is a heather ale!
so any suggestions on a yeast?