BBC: Green Dragon’s Breath Ale

“A brew that’s true, of amber hue.”

Middle Earth Recipe:

It was my first trip through the Shire and I needed a place to stay for the night.  I was traveling the Great Road and noticed some lights  down the hill.  I diverted from the road and came upon small little village that goes by the name of Bywater.  The town inn is known as The Green Dragon Inn and I decided to stay for the night.  I quickly dropped my pack  and axe in my room and headed out into the common room.  Barmy Rootknot poured me a cup (they don’t have pints in the Shire, I guess because the little hobbits become a bit of a bother when they’ve had too much) of his amber ale and it was delicious.

Rootknot could not (or perhaps would not) tell me much about the ingredients of this ale, but he did tell me that while it is brewed throughout the year it is the freshest during the mid-summer and early fall and that it only uses local hops.  This led me to believe that the barley must be Spring Barley and the hops were from the Green Hill Country.   All that remained was to get the proper proportions of each ingredient.  The amber color let me know that I would need some of the Spring Barley malted at a high temperature and the sweetness let me know I would need some caramel malted Spring Barely.  Below is the recipe I came up with and it is almost a perfect match.

Converted Recipe:

The ingredient conversion is the easy part.  The hard part is converting Middle Earth amounts to amounts that can be used for a five gallon batch of beer.

Ingredient conversions are explained in more detail on the Ingredients from Middle Earth page.  In place of Spring Barley, American two-row barley malted the same way as in Middle Earth is used.  Pale malt is the base malt and gives the majority of sugars for fermenting.  In order to create the same amber color as the beer from The Green Dragon Inn,  Munich malt gives some of the color needed and adds a more malty flavor while caramel malt gives a sweet buttery flavor as well as a nice amber color.   Amarillo Hops were chosen for two reasons.  They add a nice floral aroma as well as provide a nice balance if bitterness to counter the sweet amber malts.

5 buckets?! Is that to the top? Is that a water pale or a flower bucket? Oh well as long as the proportions are correct I guess.  Handfuls?! Does anyone know how big a dwarfs hand is? Ok, below is what I came up with.

Finished Beer

Appearance:

The ale pours a nice Amber color.  It is not as clear as I’d hoped but this will not affect the flavor.  The head forms fairly well with little help needed and is thick and white an ever so slight reddish color.

Aroma

The aroma is floral with a hint of grapefruit and a slight spice from the yeast. Despite the hoppy aroma, the malt also comes through the hop oils with it’s sweet aroma.

Taste

Front

The first taste is a  sweet caramel with a slight buttery taste quickly followed by the bitter hops coming in to balance out the sweet. Overall I think the sweet/bitter balance is spot on.

Middle

The texture is a thick and chewy malt feel, full body but not to heavy.  Very Drinkable.  I’m pretty sure I could throw back a bunch of these and still enjoy every taste.

Finish

The finish is dominated by the sweet caramel malty flavor with a hint of pineapple that just sits in your mouth while you lick your lips .  There is not very much lasting hop flavor which is nice and just how I bet the Hobbits would like it.

Overall

Overall I think this turned out pretty good and you can almost see yourself sitting in the Green Dragon Inn with many a hobbit and sharing mugs of this Green Dragon’s Breath Ale.  The more you drink it the more you will like it  but I think this can be said of many a brew.   My one regret is that I didn’t make more of this one.  I hope Merry and Pippin would sing the same of this beer as they did about the Green Dragon’s Beer in LOTR: ROTK movie:

“Oh, you can search far and wide
You can drink the whole town dry
But you’ll never find a beer so brown
But you’ll never find a beer so brown
As the one we drink in our hometown
As the one we drink in our hometown
You can drink your fancy ales
You can drink ‘em by the flagon
But the only brew for the brave and true
Comes from That Green Dragon!”

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