The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with a Giant Mug of the Beer that I Brewed Specifically to Drink with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I've never had a harder time writing a blog post. I have no lack of inspiration when it comes to writing about the pairing described in the lengthy title above, but I don't want to write it. I want to play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Those of you who have played the game surely understand, but you're probably not reading this right now, as you have yet another dragon to kill, or another lord to assassinate, or perhaps another mischievous demi-god to have a drinking contest with. These are the joys of Skyrim that I could be experiencing right now if I weren't blogging. But enough whining. As is most obvious by now, I like Skyrim. It is a huge, engrossing game, along the lines of Fallout 3 crossed with Baldur's gate. After about 30 hours of gameplay, I feel like I have only just scratched its surface.

 

I've often said that fantasy games are among the easiest games to find booze pairings for. Any number of British bitters or barleywines would work well enough with Skyrim. Mead would be another very obvious pairing. But I felt compelled to take things a step further. The game is all about letting players tailor their own experience, and I wanted to similarly tailor a booze to pair with it. I wanted something appropriate for Skyrim's fantasy setting, and also mild enough that it would not stop me from playing the game for many, many consecutive hours. I opted to try out a recipe that my brother and I have been working on for our soon-to-be brewpub.

The beer that I brewed for Skyrim was inspired by two classic European styles: The English mild ale and the Belgian Trappist abbey dubbel. You can find the recipe here. Dark caramel malts and dark Belgian candi sugar gave the beer a deep reddish-brown color and a smooth, bittersweet flavor with subtle notes of plum. At about 4% alcohol by volume, it was eminently chuggable, particularly when served in the large tankard shown above. When I sat down to try out this pairing, I had just concluded a long day of brewing (unrelated to video games), and I was very full from eating a large amount of cake. For some reason my blood sugar always seems to plummet when I brew, but this time I was prepared. Fortunately, the lightness of my mild dubbel allowed for me to drink plenty of it, despite having eaten about half of a cake in the preceding hours. Anyway, I had a great time slaying things and smithing things and drinking my ale. I highly recommend this pairing to anyone who is a big enough nerd to brew a beer specifically to drink with a video game.