Okay, so I'm going to expose my dorkiness to all of you, but I think you might be able to help me. This was partially encouraged by a posting a saw for Butterbeer, from the Harry Potter books. I'm a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, and when I was recently watching Fellowship two scenes got me thinking. In one, during Bilbo's birthday party, Frodo accuses him of drinking too much of the Gaffer's ale, to which Bilbo admits that he has. Later, at the Prancing Pony, the hobbits are delighted when they find they can get beer in pints.
Now my question is, what type of beer would hobbits drink? Would the beer they brew in Hobbiton be different from the beer brewed in Bree, since they are for different clientele, or would they be similar? I know there's not any sort of indication of what their preference in beer might be, but I thought it might be fun to come up with a recipe for either the Gaffer's ale or Bree ale, or both. I'm thinking something like a mild brown ale or bitter for the Gaffer's, and maybe a hearty brown ale or even a porter for Bree, since there are men there and its a bit rougher of an area. Any thoughts/suggestions would be welcome, but please keep comments about my nerdiness to yourselves
In
The Hobbit, the dwarves call for beer, ale, porter & red wine among other things; and Bilbo went to the cellar to fill a pint beer mug. That whole "It comes in pints?!?" this was a nice touch of creative license on Jackson's part. After the incident with the trolls, they got a full barrel of ale from the trolls' cave.
The elves of Mirkwood enjoyed winedescribed as potent enough to make a wood elf drowsy & as being from the great gardens of Dorwinion, which came to them via the men of Lake Town.
In
LOTR, there is mention of a farming area known as the Marish Down, or simply "The Marish." With a wee bit of linguistic creative license, one might imagine this place name being altered over the years to "Maris." There's also a place called "Ossir" that might have later been altered to "otter," though I admit it's a bit of a stretch. The hobbits
DID grow barley though & much of the story
DID use English traditions.
In Tom Bombadil's house the hobbits are served a drink "That seemed to be clear cold water, yet it went to their hearts like wine and set free their voices."
While prisoners of the Uruk Hai, Merry & Pippin are forced to drink "some burning liquid" that caused then to feel "a hot, fierce glow." Treebeard served Merry & Pippin from tall stone jars a drink like water, yet with some scent or savour they could not describe, but reminded them of "The smell of a distant wood, bourne from afar by a cool breeze at night." The effects started inthe toes "and rose steadily through every limb, bringing refreshment & vigour as it coursed upwards, right to the tips of the hair."
Merry & Pippin drank wine after the battle of Isengard, and offered Gimli a choice of wine or beer to drink & salt pork or bacon to eat. I'm almost positive that metheglin is mentioned, but I can't find it at the moment.
It seems that there was a significant enough difference between ale & beer to give them different names, the link posted above would seem to support this. I would think that hobbits would have made & consumed mild ale, brown ale, and maybe barleywine. Porter is mentioned, but it's not clear that it was ever served & the dwarves were the only ones to call for it. I think stouts & Scotch ales would've been more dwarf fare than hobbit. Tolkien is likely to have enjoyed many a pint of bitter whilst writing the story, and may have placed it in middle earth as well. There's certainly no reason the hobbits couldn't have had pale ale or a gruit.
They had orchards as well as vinyards, so it's entirely possible they could've had cider, though it's not mentioned. Cider & perry were made in the real world 800 (or more) years ago, so why not in middle earth too? Then there's the mention of the quality of the 1420 barley & the beer made with it.
I think whatever they made/drank would be cask conditioned. They certainly had bottles, but whether they had the technology to bottle condition a beer is not even alluded to, while pouring a pint, and barrels of ale are clearly stated. Hops are not mentioned, but coffee is & so are pencils, so I suppose we have to take some things on faith, or with a grain of salt; it
IS a work of fiction afterall. I suppose one could brew up a IIPA & call it "Hoppit Ale." Maybe not quite a "proper 1420," but a play on words that allows for a IIPA.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth on a cool, but old thread. Regards, GF.