The movie Salo was released in 1975. It follows a group of Italian teenagers being tortured by a band of Fascist politicians in the dying days of Mussolini’s regime. A movie so vile and traumatising, it remains banned in many countries to this day. Salo was created to be unwatchable, indigestible even, as part of its message about modern society. It wanted you to look away and be disgusted, it was a film created not to be watched.

I had avoided playing From Software’s Dark Souls since its release in 2011 because I felt it too wanted to be indigestible, although in a very different way to Salo. The videogame has a reputation for being cruelly difficult, famous for its blunt message upon your character dying, displayed in bold, blood-red capital letters: YOU DIED. This is a game that berates you for daring to try and play it.

Despite this, however, Dark Souls, and its successor Bloodborne, failed in its mission to be indigestible. Somehow, millions of gamers found joy in its brutality, leading to two sequels, and subsequent 2022 Game of the Year Elden Ring. It also inspired a whole subgenre of ‘SoulsBorne’ style games, with titles such as Steelrising and The Surge following in its wake.

I felt like I was missing out, having not experienced this part of gaming history so beloved by its rabid fanbase. Knowing that my editor Matthew Curtis is himself a massive Dark Souls fan [indeed, an absolute fanatic—ed], I pitched the idea of recreating the game’s healing potion—the fiery-looking potion, Estus—as a homebrew recipe. If I was going to put myself through the hell of playing this game, I would make sure I was being paid to do so.

Dark Souls at first glance looks like many other video games. It’s a classically dark fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, hack-and-slash affair, complete with a brooding gothic setting, plus hordes of the usual zombies, dragons and demons to dispatch with an arsenal of medieval weapons and esoteric spells.

However, miss one beat in this game and you are punished severely; even the basic enemies can kill you in just a few hits. Precision timing is needed and you can’t let your guard down for a second. The game doesn’t even have a pause function, should you require a breather.

There is no in-game tutorial, you simply have to find your way and figure out complex game mechanics as you go. The only aid is messages left by other players around the map. While these tips can assist you, giving gameplay hints or pointing out hidden areas, some trollish players leave fake tips that could send you walking off a cliff by, say, assuring you that there is an invisible walkway. Even if you see through their sadist ruse, those same players can instead simply ‘invade’ your game and kill you directly—fun times.

There is no in-game map, no quest marker to point you in the right direction, and not even a log to give you a vague hint of what you’re supposed to be doing. Somehow the game reminded me of family road trips from my childhood, in the days before GPS, where my Dad would inevitably miss our turn-off to Scarborough and we’d end up in Pickering.

““Estus was there for every gruelling, unfair challenge that this game threw at me.””

The boss fights are brutal, requiring greater hand-to-eye coordination than is often reasonable to expect of a human being. These titanic monsters’ names sound like Victorian pseudonyms for venereal diseases: Gaping Dragon, Pinwheel, and Ceaseless Discharge.

So why do people actually enjoy this game? Some say they enjoy the lack of a map or quest markers and liked that they could just explore. Now, I like exploring places, I love a city break to somewhere like Berlin with its museums and historical landmarks, fiery currywurst and face-puckeringly sour Berliner Weiss. I did not like exploring Dark Souls’ BlightTown, with its fire-breathing hellhounds, toxic waterways infested with giant mosquitos and the only food on offer being dung pies.

Other players said the challenge gave immense personal fulfilment that actually gave them resilience in their real lives. It left me with severe jitters and a migraine after the 90th time I was pulverised by the Iron Golem.

Despite this, I did manage to finish the game. I managed to make it to Gwyn, Lord of Cinder and after several failed attempts, I heroically got him glitched behind a tree and stabbed him repeatedly as he struggled as helpless as a supine turtle. The sense of pride and accomplishment was indescribable.

I digested the indigestible, and played the unplayable. It was horrific, brutal, confusing and frustrating. But why am I telling you how difficult I found an eleven-year-old game? Because only by explaining this can you understand my love for Estus.

Estus was there for me as I crawled around The Depths after being cursed by what looked like giant chinchillas (my editor assures me they were ‘Basilisks’.) Estus was there for me when I was getting exsanguinated by vampire trees in the Darkroot Garden. Estus was there during each of the 112 attempts it took to take down Ornstein and Smough. Estus was there for every gruelling, unfair challenge that this game threw at me, so I felt especially passionate about getting this recipe right.

The question is what would Estus be if it were a beer? My starting point was the many Germanic references in the game’s setting, such as the Undead Burg and the Zweihander sword. The game’s architecture feels like some lost, ruined Free City in the Holy Roman Empire, so a German style felt right.

The Estus flask is refilled by resting at a crackling bonfire emanating with wispy grey smoke. So I thought a Rauchbier—a smoked German lager—would be the perfect style to bring this in the real world. Complex, and confusing and to some indigestible, but to devotees of its assertive smoked character it is an acutely underrated style.

Mostly I stuck to BJCP guidelines for this style, with a big hit of smoked German malt, a token amount of Hallertau hops and a Bavarian lager yeast. I did, however, go off style a little by adding a little Carared malt to give Estus its distinctive fiery colour.

We always like to hear if you decide to give the brew a try, so please leave us a message with your soapstone if you decide to kindle a bonfire and brew up some Estus for yourself. Please also consider subscribing to Pellicle via Patreon if you’d like to see more homebrew recipes like this one.

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Recipe

Target Original Gravity (OG) — 1.053
Target Final Gravity (FG) — 1.012
Target Alcohol by Volume (ABV) — 5.4%
Target International Bittering Units (IBU) — 17
Batch Size — 20L

Ingredients

4Kg Bestmalz Best Beechwood Smoked Malt
600g Carared

30g Hallertau added start of boil

Wyeast Bavarian Lager Yeast (2206)

30L water total (12L for mash, 18L for sparge)

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Method

Mash Duration — 1 Hour
Mash Liquor Volume — 12L
Total Grist Weight — 4.6Kg
Liquor to Grist Ratio — 2.6 L/Kg
Mash Temperature — 65ºC
Sparge Liquor Volume — 18L
Sparge Liquor Temperature — 75ºC
Boil Duration — 1 Hour
Fermentation Temp — 10ºC