Cheers to jolly cooperation! This spiced variation of gluhbier warms even the coldest of undead hearts.
You’ll need
- 1 bottle (500ml) of Bock or Doppelbock beer
- 1 orange, sliced
- 0.5 tsp grated ginger
- 2 oz (60ml) honey
- 2 cloves
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Dark rum
Add all ingredients except the dark rum to a saucepan. Heat gently until warmed and leave to simmer for at least 20 minutes. Just before serving, add 0.5oz (15ml) of dark rum to a glass and top with the heated beer mixture. Garnish (if you can be bothered) with an orange and a pickled onion. Serve!
“Special brew of Siegward of Catarina. Perfect for travel in its jolly barrel mug.”
– In-game description of Siegbrau
When the slightest mistep loses hours of progress, you’re more likely to have a permanent frown of concentration than a grin of happiness when playing Dark Souls. But even in a world like this, there are some things that can only be described as G R O S S L Y I N C A N D E S C E N T.
Siegmeyer of Catarina, the Big Onion Boye himself, is one such bright spark. With a hefty belly laugh, he’s often found drinking homebrew – and, of course, thrusting one into the players hands as well. It’s a sad man indeed that drinks by himself.
Recreating this drink, “Siegbrau”, or “Victory Brew”, was a challenge. It’s never stated what it is, only that even an Undead can enjoy it, and that it’s probably some kind of German beer, considering its name and the tankard in which it’s served. To do it justice, you have to consider what kind of drink would warm the bones of a corpse. While I used a spiced rum to do that in my take on Estus, for this one I wanted to go with something different—less spice, more literal warmth.
Looking for other beer cocktails to try? Check out the Black & Bronzebeard from World of Warcraft.
After delving into the incredibly complex world of German beer, I came out triumphantly holding aloft a very special recipe for something called Gluhbier. If you’ve had gluhwein before, this is the beer equivalent. If the idea of warm beer makes you shiver and shake, this is the time to turn back – but I hope you’ll give it a try, because it is surprisingly good.
There are as many recipes for gluhbier as there are individual households that indulge. It tends to be a drink for the cold Christmas winters, but honestly you can enjoy this lightly spiced, rummed-up version all the year round. I highly recommend using a proper dark doppelbock or similar for this – you want something that’s closer to bread than beer. But any dark beer will work, even a stout or porter.
The key to making a good Siegbrau, however, isn’t in the ingredients. It’s in the sharing. Ensure that you make a big batch of this stuff and share it around the grossly incandescent people in your life. It’s the way Siegmeyer intended it to be enjoyed, restoring humanity one sip at a time. Cheers!
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