Specific Drinks

Brews

Bock: Bock beer is heavy on the alcohol content and is typically rather dark in coloration.

Brownstone Ale: A variety of ale having a darker coloration and bolder taste than common ale. Typically has a deep red-brown to brown coloration.

Dwarven Spirits: A drink famous in dozens of lands for its strength, dwarf spirits are, perhaps, the strongest drink around. One drink has been known to knock a man out, and dwarves pride themselves on their superior constitution and distilling capabilities, especially when such distilling is more than capable of showing those 'weaker' races just how pathetic and miserable their drinking endurance is compared to that of the average dwarf. However, where dwarven spirits excel in potency, it lacks in smoothness or flavor. Amongst critics, dwarf spirits has been compared to drinking 'liquid slate rock' mixed with just a bit of brownstone.

Dwarven Stout: While resembling a human variety of stout ale at a glance, one taste of this variety of brew immediately confirms it be dwarven stout. Heavy, dark, and having a particular earthy taste in its finish, dwarven stout is a drink that is perhaps favored only by the dwarves and humans with peculiar tastes. This is a good thing however, as the bite of dwarven stout can be much harder than its bark.

Pilsner: Pilsner is a light, golden colored beer that is easy to drink. Due to its mild body and the fact that several can be consumed during the course of an evening by a single individual without feeling "full," pilsner is starting to become rather popular in many taverns.

Brown Ale: A variety of ale having a darker coloration and bolder taste than common ale. Typically brown ale has a deep red-brown to brown coloration.

Blekkagloop: A hideous pitch black stout formulated by a small group of orcish brewers, Blekkagloop wouldn't be considered worthy of listing on a tavern menu if it wasn't for the fact that the drink was so cheap. Though reasonably nourishing for its consistency, Blekkagloop has an overly bitter burnt taste that is due to the fact that the brewers overroast the grains.

Cream Bock: Somewhere between bold and bitter and mild and creamy there lies the many halfling recipes for cream bock, a beer with a unique taste, coloration, and texture. Due to the special brewing processes and additives that go into this halfling brew the resulting flavor has a rich and creamy flavor that is somewhat similar to coffee.

Doppel Bock: Doppel bock is essentially the same as Bock beer but is even more fortified.

Dunkel: Dunkel is a very dark beer that has a bitter flavor that sometimes reminds one of coffee or chocolate.

Ginglebarney Walnut Stout: A thick dark beer flavored by walnuts. It is produced by the Ginglebarney Brewery, headed by a clan of gnomes known for their ability to drink copious amounts of alcoholic beverages.

Hammermine Porter: This prized dwarven porter is an extremely popular drink that is much sought after by humans, gnome, and dwarven taverns alike. As such the supply and demand of Hammermine is usually thrown off quite a bit, making Hammermine a frequent victim of copycat brewers. Hammermine's flavor is deep but mildly sweet.

Granite Mountain Black: The world-famous Granite Mountain Black is considered to be one of the finest Stout beers one will ever find. This opaque black beer pours with an airy head that diminishes from a dark beige to a tan which holds on the surface. This beer smells of burnt coffee, browntoasted bread, chocolate-toffee, with the appearance of an aroma of raisins and prunes that appears when the drink is not too cold. This thick, big-bodied beer is very sweet and creamy with a taste of roast malt, dark chocolate, and vanilla bean flavoring. Though indeed intoxicating, Black was created to be a highly nourishing brew as well.

Melomash: Melomash is a catfolk brew that is derived from a selection of mild grains and hops that have been mixed with pure mountain water and the pulp and rind of the fume melon. As this melon normally releases compound gases from openings and tears in its pulp upon rotting, the same sort of natural fermentation also occurs when the melomash is stored for aging, requiring the brewer to keep the mixture from exploding under pressure. The result is a foamy, heavily carbonated brew that is a pinkish red in color and very sweet in taste, having a flavor somewhere between a watermelon and cantaloupes. In addition to the normal carbonation, the gases of the melomash contain a trace of nitrous oxide, or "giggle gas" as many an alchemist has called it. This compound addition often causes the drinkers to be especially joyful or amused when intoxicated.

Naghorne: Naghorne is a heavy style of beer that has somewhat of a character similar to that of a human Dunkel. This beer is made by an old brewery that was established by a small clan of goblins, surprisingly. While not popular amongst humans, Naghorne has seen a great deal of success amongst goblinoids, ogres, and even civilized trolls, as well as, ironically, gnomes and dwarves.

Nurseblack Stout: This dark yet creamy flavored stout is a popular choice amongst nursing mothers. Originally created by gnomes in order to give their nursing wives a bit of extra nourishment, Nurseblack has long since gained popularity in gnome and dwarven circles.

Pepper stout: Pepper stout is a heavy ale that comes from wolfen origin. This black, bitter drink contains the ground seeds and concentrated oils of several pepper plants, causing it to be used mostly for daring drinking games.

Slushgrog: This is a yeasty, foamy beverage of orcish origin. While malt, barley, and mugwort make up the dominant additives, a half-rotten apple, some red clover, and the flowerheads of a few dandelions are added to the fermenting batch. The resulting taste is usually too sweet for most beer drinkers, and too much like beer for those who favor wine.

Wheat Beer: Wheat beer is a popular but somewhat unusual brew that has a unique flavor that hints of citrus.

Distillates

Orc's Piss Bourbon: Getting its name from its distinctive yellow coloration and from its orcish origins - to say nothing of its distinctive (and noxious!) scent and flavor - orc's piss is an especially potent corn whiskey that is noted for making those who imbibe it lose their tempers with astonishing rapidity. Too much orc's piss is general cited as the most common cause for bar brawls among bartenders.

Mead

Cidermeade: This differs from normal cider in the fact that is fortified with the addition of fermented honey. Likewise, a collection of various spices or sweet herbs are used to strengthen the flavor of cidermeade, making it more bold and distinctive in taste than common cider.

Goodbutter Meade: A marvelous old mixture that hails from the burrows of the halfling-inhabited hills of Killian, Goodbutter was originally an actual brand of mead that has become a generic reference to the particular halfling-originated drink. A great many years ago, a young brewer named Bushy Hillberry set out to create a new type of mead that would be sweeter and smoother than any other gnomish brew. After many experiments, Bushy discovered that the addition of butter along with an assortment of wildflowers gave ordinary mead a special flavor and body of its own. Brushy Hillbutter named his new drink "Goodbutter Mead" and began selling it to both neighboring halflings and gnomes and nearby human taverns alike. Since then, Goodbutter Mead has had many imitations, but the original, still made by the Hillberry family, is declared to be simply the best.

Rumblestilt Mead: The product of the Rumblestilt Halfling clan that makes their home in Avalon City. The honey for their mead is gathered from the hives of specially trained giant bees, and is known to have a strong, heady taste.

Wines

Avalon Red: This wine comes from Avalon's hilly vineyards. The flavor is complex and rich, with a touch of herbs, and delicately soaking rose petals in table wine. The roses leech out bitterness and some of the alcohol content, but leaves the drink smoother and more aromatic. It couples with a touch of other fruits with a pronounced yet clean and elegant flavor of sweet grapes, producing a mouth-watering finish.

Assassin Grape Wine: This wine is made from the grapelike fruit of the assassin vine. Favored mostly amongst adventurers, this wine is a bit on the expensive side and considered to be quite heady.

Crystal Starsong - This wine comes from deep within the elven homelands, and is actually a generic term for an entire style of winemaking that creates an unusual carbonated wine. By the Crystal Starsong method, the carbon dioxide gas produced as part of the fermentation process (as yeasts devour sugar) is dissolved within the wine in its individual bottle, so that when it is released, the bubbles stream to the surface. The available stocked Crystal Starsong is made from three varieties of grape (white noble, black noble, and black minor noble). Having made a high quality, if acidic, dry white wine, it is placed into special heavyweight bottles and a fresh dose of yeast and sugar is added. The bottles are then capped and placed in the cool chalk cellars of the winery for a minimum of one and a half years. During this time, secondary fermentation takes place. Carbon dioxide is created by the fermentation process and with no means of escape, dissolves into the liquid. The problem with this technique is the deposit of dead yeast cells that collects in the bottle. In still wines these would simply be filtered out, but since that would also remove the bubbles, another method had to be found. Each bottle has its position gradually adjusted so that over the course of a few weeks so that the bottle goes from horizontal to upside-down. The dead yeast cells are captured in the neck of the bottle. Many of the Elven winehouses employ a dedicated and highly skilled Songspinner, who can adjust 40,000 bottles per day, controlling each one precisely. At this stage the inverted bottles are carefully transported to a tank of freezing brine solution. The necks are dipped in, just to the level of the gathered sediment, which freezes into a solid "plug" of dead yeast cells. As stated above, the base wine for Crystal Starsong is thin and very, very acidic, but this is not to say that it is a poor quality wine: only the best grapes and the most gentle pressing will result in fine, pure base wine that will make the finest Starsong. It is after the addition of the second dose of yeast and sugar, as the wines lie in the cool chalk cellars, that Starsong begins to fill-out and transform. This is wine that is kept for a minimum of 18 months in process, gaining weight and complexity from the lees on which it is sitting and adding yeasty, toasty, biscuity flavors. Crystal Starsong is available in three varieties: Dry (which is usually the best quality), Extra Dry (which is, curiously, sweeter than Dry), Medium-Dry (good for parties and Starsong breakfasts), and Sweet (dessert-style), and are of the non-vintage variety, meaning it is a blend of 2 or 3 vintages - key in the consistency in terms of taste and quality, are made for immediate consumption.

Elven Rose - Pink Crystal Starsong, made by blending Avalon Red into Crystal Starsong.

Goat's Milk: This Blackish-purple syrupy wine is cut with an equal amount of water prior to serving. Floating within the drink are the remains of a grated goat's milk cheese. The wine only keeps a short time before being spoiled, but wise bartenders mix a small amount of honey into the wine to cover any appearance of spoiling.

Ichor Wine: Made by kobolds and marketed through Avalon City's Undercity. This wine's unique taste is created by fermenting a breed of underground grape.