Skyrim Mead?

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TheBrewingPariah

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Any fellow gamers know what could be in the Black Briar Mead from Skyrim?

I know that Skyrim is probably based on a Scandinavian country and when you enquire about the mead, they state that the mead is made from a "special blend of spices" and put in aging casks.

Any guesses?:confused:
 
Ground up dragon bone, soul gem, and nirn root. Seriously, it's a game. Who knows what they put in it :p
 
I wish you the best of luck finding out... I'm familiar with the desire to recreate fictional drinks, or at least how they may taste/look.
 
thgirtruoc_nairb said:
It's probably a strong sweet mead that was aged with mulling spices in oak barrels.
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Probably nothing of the sort ! It's a game etc, so just an idea of fantasy that the writer/developer "thought" might sound mystical....

desert_druid said:
I wish you the best of luck finding out... I'm familiar with the desire to recreate fictional drinks, or at least how they may taste/look.
Click to expand...
Well done for the more realistic approach/idea.

Lets face it, when you consider something like "butter beer" from the HP stories, it's just a pair of words that wouldn't normally be used together, but project a slightly fantastic, mystical/magical idea in the readers head.

The "appearance" in the filmed versions is pure hollywood - though that certainly wouldn't stop the geeky/nerdy types trying to invent a "recreation" of it (and no, I realise it's impossible to invent a recreation.....)
 
You could make a Juniper-mead. At the beggining of the game, in Helgen, a character mentions an old friend of his making Mead with juniper berries. If you go back to Helgen later on a few bottles can be found on the top floor of the burnt up Inn. Figured that was one confirmed Mead varient in the game. Do with it what you will.
 
fatbloke said:
Lets face it, when you consider something like "butter beer" from the HP stories, it's just a pair of words that wouldn't normally be used together, but project a slightly fantastic, mystical/magical idea in the readers head.

The "appearance" in the filmed versions is pure hollywood - though that certainly wouldn't stop the geeky/nerdy types trying to invent a "recreation" of it (and no, I realise it's impossible to invent a recreation.....)
Click to expand...
Actually, they did invent it for the Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter. You can buy it and drink it, and people are trying to recreate it.
 
What if the recipe does exist in the game and one of the ingredients is "spider eggs", "rat meat", or even "mort flesh"? Would you still want to make it?
 
But seriously, if you are truly interested in remaking this make believe drink, I suggest you play the game and look for clues.

Go to Black Briar Meadery and look for possible ingredients lying around. Anything hanging, in drawers, in barrels, or on tables could be an ingredient. Make a list of foods and spices found in the meadery and maybe you can come up with a recipe. I would think that salmon steaks and tomatoes should be rules out, but apples, flowers, berries, etc. could be used. Use your judgment and figure out a recipe that you think would work.

Many of the ingredients might be non-existent (like elves ear), but inspect the herb/ingredient and find a close substitute. As an example, elves ear resembles sage leaves or Irish moss instead of hanging moss.
 
I wont be homebrewing or even brewing (current project) if not for skyrim's MEAD piquing my interest. Never even heard of mead till skyrim.
Cant wait to taste it.
 
From looking at alchemical ingredients, food tables, and conversations, I've gathered the following list of useable ingredients for mead from Skyrim:

Lavender
Juniper
Apples, oranges, and many other fruits
Snowberries - aka Ghostberry from honeysuckle family
Hops - implied from a beer reference
Various roots could be ginger, Angelica, or Borage.
There are also various flowers that could include elderflowers( Elder Scrolls Elderflower mead anyone?)

I think that is plenty of ingredient to make a good mead.
Let the unique recipe formulations fly!
 
Given the level of detail Bethesda put into Skyrim, asking them wouldn't actually be a bad idea.

The blacksmithing setup, for instance, is based on a real-world smithy; they visited various heritage places to get it right; I fail to see why they wouldn't have done the same for the Meadery; more so given a fairly major quest-chain revolves around it. Send them an email asking if they used a real-world meadery recipe for the basis, and if so, can you have it. Stress you are not in any way going to make, market or sell a mead as being based on their game, but you're merely a fan who wants to re-create that "look" (but NOT the name, otherwise legal will shut you down). Bethesda are a pretty fan-friendly company so you never know...
 
I'm looking around Honningbrew Boilery and already see some problems, the mead is in coppers with a direct flame under it, since honey is aseptic it doesn't require boiling, but then again...it could be their water source. Assuming there are 4 coppers of water and 1 "honey pot", which would give a 4:1 ratio(or 3:1 if you don't count the one that's not burning). Honey being roughly 12 lbs. per gal.(depending on moisture %) in 4 gal. water would give you an o.g. of 1.085 or an o.g. of 1.106 in 3 gal water per 12lbs. of honey. I think that the 4th copper is a back-up for "water treatment", I would go for 12lbs honey in 3 gal. of water

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For the people saying "it's just a video game":
Bethesda started the Elder Scrolls series from a D&D campaign they wrote. If any of you have played D&D, you'd know that every single detail, including what went into a fictional mead, is up for consideration. The depth that Skyrim has is definitely enough to provide the player with clues as to what it might be made from.
My vote is for calling Bethesda; I bet they'd get a kick out of it.
You've got six months, so here you go:
http://bethsoft.com/en-us/contact
 
First.. anyone who is talking trash about this post, it's a fantasy game! We know its not real. However Bethesda IS all about reality in their games.
Second, how cool would it be if they did hide an actual real life recipe in the game? Anyone know a game programer? They could make it a regular thing. Elder Scrolls Mead! Grand Theft Auto Lager! Ghost Recon Ale! Who wouldn't love a nice Red Dead Redemption Wine?
Just the thoughts of a drunk on a friday night.
Have fun and good drinking!
 
Sooo I gave Bethesda an email, asking them to help me out. They sent me a reply that, although useless, brought a smile to my face

"I went over and had a talk with Ingun Black-Briar and she wouldn't spill the bean, but as you know she doesn't really get along with Maven very well, but I wasn't going to go to Maven herself, you know what kind of woman she can be. I decided then to risk contacting Hemming, he pulled a dagger on me but was too drunk to strike straight, let alone tell me anything about the recipe. So, that was everyone I was willing to ask, or risk asking.

I wasn't able to locate the recipe when I explored the Meadery either, but I managed to grab a few bottles, and I'd be willing to sit by the lake and share them with you, but I have no recipe to share.

I hope you make mead anyway ;-)

Peter M.
Customer Support
Bethesda Softworks

Guess I'm back to hunting for clues :/
 
TheBrewingPariah said:
Sooo I gave Bethesda an email, asking them to help me out. They sent me a reply that, although useless, brought a smile to my face

"I went over and had a talk with Ingun Black-Briar and she wouldn't spill the bean, but as you know she doesn't really get along with Maven very well, but I wasn't going to go to Maven herself, you know what kind of woman she can be. I decided then to risk contacting Hemming, he pulled a dagger on me but was too drunk to strike straight, let alone tell me anything about the recipe. So, that was everyone I was willing to ask, or risk asking.

I wasn't able to locate the recipe when I explored the Meadery either, but I managed to grab a few bottles, and I'd be willing to sit by the lake and share them with you, but I have no recipe to share.

I hope you make mead anyway ;-)

Peter M.
Customer Support
Bethesda Softworks

Guess I'm back to hunting for clues :/
Click to expand...

Go to the mage's library and the one with the suspended orcs and read EVERY book. There actually are quite a few interesting ones!
 
TheBrewingPariah said:
Sooo I gave Bethesda an email, asking them to help me out. They sent me a reply that, although useless, brought a smile to my face

"I went over and had a talk with Ingun Black-Briar and she wouldn't spill the bean, but as you know she doesn't really get along with Maven very well, but I wasn't going to go to Maven herself, you know what kind of woman she can be. I decided then to risk contacting Hemming, he pulled a dagger on me but was too drunk to strike straight, let alone tell me anything about the recipe. So, that was everyone I was willing to ask, or risk asking.

I wasn't able to locate the recipe when I explored the Meadery either, but I managed to grab a few bottles, and I'd be willing to sit by the lake and share them with you, but I have no recipe to share.

I hope you make mead anyway ;-)

Peter M.
Customer Support
Bethesda Softworks

Guess I'm back to hunting for clues :/
Click to expand...

It looks like they didn't have anything ready for this question. But I bet you got the wheels turning on this one. They might have something figured out by the time they come up with the next game. I wish they had researched mead before finishing Skyrim, but it looks like they didn't.

I think we will have to come up with a recipe of our own...

I will take a look myself when I get a chance.
 
Look for Norse/Scandinavian recipes to get the closest approximation, IMO. That's where most of the research for Skyrim comes, anyways.
 
Alas, the Norse weren't well known for their brewing, and honey wasn't used very often as it was too valuable as a sweetener to be used for making alcohol.
You do get some references to mead in the Saga's I think, but really the German tribes were more well known for it, and in any case due to the expense of honey, it's never been a hugely popular beverage. Beer is made from hops & malt precisely because they're easy to come by ingredients, in fact, malt is a by-product...
I will ask a Norse-re-enactment group I know of if they have any insights though...
 

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