Main Page

Becoming a Shire Brewmaster

Category Quest

One of the features that make The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar similar to City of Heroes is the use of titles (or in CoH parlance, “Badges”). If you’re a newcomer to LOTRO, then you may have noticed fellow adventurers having suffixes attached to their first names. Some may be called Leeroy Jenkins of Mirkwood, or Grunewald of Gondor.

Gameplay-wise, titles have no impact on how your character (if you’re looking for enhancements, you should look into Traits). Titles are merely bragging rights that you place beside your name, but that doesn’t stop the people of Middle-earth from pursing quests that will give them a name different from the next.

All characters start out with one title, but you’ll have to “assign” it first. The first you get is from your Nationality. If you decided that your Elf came from Lindon, then you get “of Lindon” after the Elf’s name. As you travel Middle-earth and gain more experience, you will earn a whole gamut of titles. You’ll get titles from slaying enemies, crafting, and even Monster Play.

Shire Brewmaster

The focus of this guide is in getting the Shire Brewmaster title. This makes you an expert in the beers and ales of the Shire. After all, any self-respecting Hobbit washes down his food with good ale. This title isn’t common as say, The Wary, so getting it would be a great idea. If you’re bored of pursuing Bane of the Barrows and killing Wights for a living, what are you waiting for? This uncommon title comes at a price—you’ll have to scour the Shire because it’s not that easy to get.

And how do you get this “kinda” rare title? You have to complete the five bartender quests that are available in the Shire’s five taverns.

The Bird and Baby

This pub is located in Michel Delving, one of the Shire’s subzones. Michel Delving is located in the southwest corner of the Shire. Just enter the pub and look for Carlo Blagrove the innkeeper. Blagrove will ask you to look for a recipe in the Great Smials, the ancestral home of the Took family in Tuckborough. Just where is Tuckborough? It’s on the east of Michel Delving.

The recipe you’re looking for is placed on a shelf in the library of the Great Smials. Once you’ve found the recipe, run back to Michel Delving and talk to Carlo Blagrove once more. You’ll get 90cp and Blagrove’s Brown, a type of beer. Get used to the liquor—you’ll get more as you finish the rest of the quests. After all, you are working towards the Shire Brewmaster title.

The Green Dragon

If you’re pursuing the Shire Brewmaster title seriously, then you should also run to The Green Dragon pub in Bywater. To get to Bywater, just go down the road that heads south in Hobbiton. Head inside the watering hole and look for Barmy Rootknot, the assistant innkeeper. Rootknot will send you on a quest to look for a lost brandy barrel (they call it the Dwarf-Barrel).

Where can it be found? It’s quite a trip, so begin traveling north through Hobbiton. The barrel is found in Lob’s Grove, which is northwest of Overhill and beyond Bindbole Wood. Yes, it’s that far. Just be careful of arachnids (like Bindbole Spinners and Weavers) and bears (like Big Black Bear and Foraging Wood Bear) that you’ll likely run into in Bindbole Wood. Enemy levels in this area range from 8-10.

The barrel is at the base of a pillar in Lob’s Grove, so keep your eyes peeled. After getting the barrel, head back to Bywater and end the quest by speaking to Barmy Rootknot. You’ll get 90cp and Green Dragon’s Breath Ale for your time.

The Floating Log

Frogmorton is a town located between Bywater and Budgeford. If you want to find The Floating Log, you have to travel to Frogmorton. When you do end up in Frogmorton, enter The Floating Log and look for Ponto Hopsbloom, its innkeeper. You see, Hopsbloom is entering the Four Farthings Brewing-moot, that contest that every innkeeper in the Shire seems to be joining. Hopsbloom will ask you to pick a dozen Frog Hops for his brew.

What are Frog Hops? They’re white flowers that grow in the marsh just north of Frogmorton. The travel involved is very light compared to the other quests, but beware of some level 9 Angry Hill Toads that could make life more difficult for you as you pick flowers. Run back to Hopsbloom when you have all 12 Frog Hops and you’ll be rewarded with 90cp and Toad’s Tongue Ale.

The Plough and Stars

So you’re more than halfway through the finished quests necessary to get the Brewmaster title. It’s time to run to Brockenborings, the town north of Frogmorton and west of Scary, an oddly-named town. Brockenborings is home to The Plough and Stars, one of the five taverns in the Shire. Your contact? Halson Tubwort, the innkeeper behind the bar.

Tubwort uses powdered gypsum as the secret ingredient of his ale, but his order hasn’t arrived. He wants you to run to Scary and look for Wilcome Tunnely to find out what happened. When you do get to Scary and find Tunnely, you’ll discover that the gypsum shipment was ambushed by goblins from north of Brockenborings.

So run to the north you must, and all the way into Greenfields. You’ll eventually find a goblin camp that you can choose to fight individually, or you can just look for the cart and get the gypsum. Either way, run back to Brockenborings when you’re done. You’ll be rewarded with 90cp and Wooly-Foot Stout, a strange type of beer that you can eat with a knife and fork.

The Golden Perch

Finally, the last of the five quests. You’ll have to visit Stock and find The Lotro gold Perch to earn the Brewmaster title. Stock is at the southeastern part of the Shire. Enter the last tavern and look for Gunderic Grubb. The quest is perhaps the toughest of the five, so make sure you’re well above level 10 when you attempt to finish it.

Grubb is waiting for a package of yeast being transported via a wagon, but it never arrived. Brigands from west of the Marish hijacked the wagon and you have to get it back. The brigand camp is named Narrowcleeve, and it’s in the hills south of Woodhall. To get a better idea of where it’s located, look at the Shire map and find the name “Green Hill Country.” The yeast package is somewhere under the letters “UN” in the word “Country.”

Narrowcleeve is the second brigand camp, and it’s up by the waterfall. You’ll probably run into Half-Orc Trappers so be careful. Things won’t be so easy because spawning is pretty fast within the camp—you must move fast. The Old Yeast is next to a level-11 brigand boss, so unless you’re a Burglar who can hide from foes, you’ll be in for a fight.

When you’ve taken the package, head back to Grubb for your reward. You’ll receive 90cp and Old Withywindle, another type of ale. Once you’ve finished all the quests, you gain the Shire Brewmaster title! Take note that you can finish the quests in any order. I just listed them out from west to east of the Shire. Enjoy your beer.