When you have completed the boil and added all of your bittering and finishing hops you will be presented with the heat exchanger. There is little for you to do at this point except to press the heat exchange button to cool the wort quickly. Do not be fooled into complacency however just because you don't have a lot of buttons to press. In the real world of making beer this is perhaps the time when your beer is most vulnerable. Lots of hungry microbes would love to take a bite out of the sweet sugary wort that you have created and the risk of contamination is high. Stay at your computer and complete every step as quickly as you can, the less time that you waste here the higher quality beer you will produce in the end.
When the wort is cooled completely then press the valve button to move it into the fermentation tanks. You will be given another opportunity to review the batch finances. If you feel that you just have not performed very well on the batch then at any time you can hit the trash can to throw away your batch. You will be given the opportunity to verify your decision because all of your materials and expenses to date will be lost. Your equipment will also be taken out of service for an hour for cleaning and you will not be able to start another batch until the cleaning period is done. It's a very costly decision to throw away an entire batch of beer and you will have to decide if your quality standards warrant the decision.
Now might be a good time to explain that beer quality is represented as number from 0 to 1000 with 1000 being the best possible beer on the planet. Your quality score is based on the decisions you make from the recipe creation through to the fermentation phase of making beer.
There are no random number generators used in the determination of your beer quality, every decision, action, or inaction on your part is taken into account. Your quality score is based in large part on the style of beer that you are making and the generally accepted decisions
for that style… so for example a stout is expected to have some amount of dark roasted malt whereas a light lager should not. Similarly lagers are normally made with bottom fermenting yeast while ales are made from top fermenting yeast.
To achieve the highest quality beers you should try to conform with generally accepted practices for the style you have chosen.
The last two steps for you to take are to set the fermentation tank temperature by pressing the thermometer button and drag and drop the yeast onto the tanks. Your fermentation temperature was established when you created your recipe.
You did make sure to match it to your yeast type, right? You can absolutely destroy all your hard work and your beer quality will plummet here if you increase the temperature on cool loving yeast or chill the fermentation tanks that are filled with warm loving yeast.
If you are new to brewing beer then take it as a homework assignment to learn the difference :)
Fermentation and bottling
Brewing beer in the real world normally takes weeks. But since that is not practical or much fun for a game we have distilled the entire fermentation process down to a 24 hour waiting period. Come back tomorrow to bottle up your brew! Home Brew Kit brewers can bottle up there brew in just one hour.
To bottle your beer simply press on the valve button one last time and your beer will be cased up and packed into cold storage for you to sell.
The last screen that you will see as part of the brewing process is a batch summary. Here you will be given a quality score and see the final alcohol content of your beer as well as the final cost.
If you ran out of money while brewing then you may be assessed costs as described in the bankruptcy thread. Your equipment will be taken out of service for an hour after you bottle your beer for cleaning.
After it is made each batch of beer is not kept separate from previous beer that you have made of the same label. The new bottles are stored together with the old in your cold storage area. If your beer quality or alcohol level has changed then the final quality and alcohol of all of your beer in storage for a particular label will be the prorated value of the combined batches.
Recently we added the option to condition your beer both in a secondary tank and in bottles. The full instructions about conditioning are available in the instructions under Conditioning.
Selling your beer
When you complete a new batch of beer then an announcement will be made to all players online that you have brewed up some new beer. This would be a good opportunity to step into the pub to talk up and sell your beer! You can always buy and drink your own beer but just like in the real world if you drink too much of your own beer then your brewery will quickly go bankrupt… so put on your best shoes and get out there and start selling your beer!
Making & Selling Beer (Part 1)
Making & Selling Beer (Part 2)
Hop back and heat exchange
When you have completed the boil and added all of your bittering and finishing hops you will be presented with the heat exchanger. There is little for you to do at this point except to press the heat exchange button to cool the wort quickly. Do not be fooled into complacency however just because you don't have a lot of buttons to press. In the real world of making beer this is perhaps the time when your beer is most vulnerable. Lots of hungry microbes would love to take a bite out of the sweet sugary wort that you have created and the risk of contamination is high. Stay at your computer and complete every step as quickly as you can, the less time that you waste here the higher quality beer you will produce in the end.
When the wort is cooled completely then press the valve button to move it into the fermentation tanks. You will be given another opportunity to review the batch finances. If you feel that you just have not performed very well on the batch then at any time you can hit the trash can to throw away your batch. You will be given the opportunity to verify your decision because all of your materials and expenses to date will be lost. Your equipment will also be taken out of service for an hour for cleaning and you will not be able to start another batch until the cleaning period is done. It's a very costly decision to throw away an entire batch of beer and you will have to decide if your quality standards warrant the decision.
Now might be a good time to explain that beer quality is represented as number from 0 to 1000 with 1000 being the best possible beer on the planet. Your quality score is based on the decisions you make from the recipe creation through to the fermentation phase of making beer. There are no random number generators used in the determination of your beer quality, every decision, action, or inaction on your part is taken into account. Your quality score is based in large part on the style of beer that you are making and the generally accepted decisions for that style… so for example a stout is expected to have some amount of dark roasted malt whereas a light lager should not. Similarly lagers are normally made with bottom fermenting yeast while ales are made from top fermenting yeast. To achieve the highest quality beers you should try to conform with generally accepted practices for the style you have chosen.
The last two steps for you to take are to set the fermentation tank temperature by pressing the thermometer button and drag and drop the yeast onto the tanks. Your fermentation temperature was established when you created your recipe. You did make sure to match it to your yeast type, right? You can absolutely destroy all your hard work and your beer quality will plummet here if you increase the temperature on cool loving yeast or chill the fermentation tanks that are filled with warm loving yeast. If you are new to brewing beer then take it as a homework assignment to learn the difference :)
Fermentation and bottling
Brewing beer in the real world normally takes weeks. But since that is not practical or much fun for a game we have distilled the entire fermentation process down to a 24 hour waiting period. Come back tomorrow to bottle up your brew! Home Brew Kit brewers can bottle up there brew in just one hour.
To bottle your beer simply press on the valve button one last time and your beer will be cased up and packed into cold storage for you to sell.
The last screen that you will see as part of the brewing process is a batch summary. Here you will be given a quality score and see the final alcohol content of your beer as well as the final cost. If you ran out of money while brewing then you may be assessed costs as described in the bankruptcy thread. Your equipment will be taken out of service for an hour after you bottle your beer for cleaning.
After it is made each batch of beer is not kept separate from previous beer that you have made of the same label. The new bottles are stored together with the old in your cold storage area. If your beer quality or alcohol level has changed then the final quality and alcohol of all of your beer in storage for a particular label will be the prorated value of the combined batches.
Recently we added the option to condition your beer both in a secondary tank and in bottles. The full instructions about conditioning are available in the instructions under Conditioning.
Selling your beer
When you complete a new batch of beer then an announcement will be made to all players online that you have brewed up some new beer. This would be a good opportunity to step into the pub to talk up and sell your beer! You can always buy and drink your own beer but just like in the real world if you drink too much of your own beer then your brewery will quickly go bankrupt… so put on your best shoes and get out there and start selling your beer!
Want to sell more beer, check out the Advertsing Department.
Want to sell more beer, throw a Keg Party!.
Making & Selling Beer (Part 1)
Making & Selling Beer (Part 2)