Brewer: Ordinary Hero. Backgrounds For a New Way to Play

While this background is titled brewer, the equipment described as Brewers Supplies includes “a large glass jug, a quantity of hops, a siphon, and several feet of tubing.” (Xanathar’s Guide. P. 79).

Albeit, glass jugs are not modern inventions, the use of tubing and siphons, specifically for beer making, and lack of vats, sieves, and additional spices, seem to point to a more general profession of alcohol maker.

In the spirit of this generalist bent, pun intended, I will also include some tidbits from the 2 other forms of alcoholic beverages: Wine and Spirits

In this post, wine refers to any non-grain based, fermented alcoholic beverage.
This definition helps includes Japanese rice wine (saké), mead (honey-wine), and hard cider (and any other fruit wines).

Brewer: Dependent Industries

• Food
• Medicine
• Luxury goods
• Entertainment

Simple Info: History & Culture of Brewing
(Continued Research Encouraged)

Beer is one of the oldest products of sedimentary communities, so brewer should be recognized in the somewhat conspicuous lists of oldest professions. Then, with the help of yeast from beer vats, the grains that would have otherwise been porridge or animal feed would become the next most successful staple food, bread.

Unfortunately for beer’s reputation, it is alcoholic and therefore a vice. putting it in competition for world’s oldest profession. But, fortunately for beer’s popularity, it is alcoholic, another common link with the more famous “oldest profession”.

In fact, yeast selection is very important to beer production. As it can change the taste, brewing time, and look of the beverage.

Check out this article by John Holl. It goes over some of the differences in lager yeast, ale yeast, and wild yeast.

The process for making beer is simple and complex. However, to the purpose of informing and or flavoring a character as part of a larger story that probably will not have anything to do with making beer, a simple break down of the process, supported by the brewing Wiki and Tasting History YouTube channel.

1. Soak cereal grain (Wheat, Barley, etc.)
2. Germinate then dry the cereal grain to make Malt
3. Mix Malt with hot water to make Mash, or Wort
4. boil Wort with extra sugar (honey, fruit, etc.) and spices (hops, juniper berries, etc.)
5. Cool Wort to temp. that will not outright kill the yeast (promote fermentation)
6. Make and cool-dry a yeast heavy ingredient, like dried sourdough
7. Add yeast heavy ingredient to cooled Wort (fermentation begins)
8. Wait in cool / dark place for fermentation.

Tasting History with Max Miller: Brewing Mesopotamian Beer – 4,000 Years Old
Time Stamps (5:20 – 11:10)

Simple Info: A Source of Yeast

As stated before, most people in olden-times got their leavening agents for bread from the brewer. This would be in the form of fresh Ale-yest or Barm, the foamy yeast cultures harvested off alcohol before it is barreled or otherwise stored.

In the event that you didn’t live near a brewer or could afford fresh Barm, the next best source was Emptins, the dregs from barrels used in fermentation of wines.

Both of these, Barm and Emptins, are the precursors to modern day Bakers/Brewers yeast.

Accordingly, where there was no source of alcoholic fermentation to find yeast, people used “Hop-rising“, and or “Salt-rising” (more suitable in warmer regions regions). which relied on grains and fruit that had wild yeast in.

However, wine makers, and spirit distillers put relatively little investment into yeast as an impact on taste, focusing more on the fermentation qualities.

Simple Info: Brewing vs Distilation

Most spirits, before distillation, are a kind of wine or beer. In isolating the alcohol from the water content of the wine / beer makes a spirit what it is.

Prior to industrialization, distillation in the ancient-times was limited in scale and was mainly supported by alchemy and perfumery.

Simple Info: Brewing For Vinegar

When you fail to properly seal alcohol, over the course of months and years, you run the risk of continued fermentation and spoiling. turning into vinegar.

Simply put, the alcohol in alcoholic liquids, if left exposed to oxygen and acetic acid bacteria, ferments into acetic acid¹.

White vinegar, also known as spirit vinegar, or distilled vinegar is a vinegar fermented from distilled alcohol. With less water in the alcoholic liquids, there is more acetic acid per water solution.

While I cannot find a pre-modern example of it, Glacial acetic acid is an acetic acid that is functionally water free. It is produced by mixing acetic acid salt, Sodium acetate, with sulfuric acid. The latter product shows up in pre-modern alchemy under the study of vitriol by distilling green vitriol, ferrous sulfate to create “oil of vitriol”, or sulfuric acid.

Meanwhile, Sodium acetate is created in the reaction of acetic acid, vinegar, with sodium hydroxide, or lye. So, while both of the ingredients were made in pre-modern times, I could not find a example where they were used to create Glacial acetic acid.

Most of this stuff is more applicable for the Alchemist background, so I will wrap up with some pyrotechnic facts. Glacial acetic acid produces fumes, as most acids do, which burn an ethereal blue at 244° F, 118° C.

1) If you have access to Brewer’s Supplies, you can make fresh yeast.

10 pt of fresh yeast for every barrel (40 gallons) of alcohol produced.

1 pt of yeast = 5cp

2) You are able to detect the slight differences in otherwise identical products.

When making perception checks reliant on smell, roll with advantage. However, when making saving throws reliant on smell (against Troglodyte must), roll with disadvantage.

3) Your beer’s quality is above average.

Each barrel² fetches the next tier’s worth: L = 5gp, M = 8gp, H = 15gp(cheap wine).

2) If you have access to Alchemist’s Supplies, you can make Wine/Spirits.

With access to fruits, yeast, and bottling, you can create 1 pitcher³ of wine in 5 days. This wine is un-aged and undiluted and can be sold/used as either:

• Common Wine
  • Sell for = 2sp
• Alcohol base
  • for healing salves/potables/perfumes

If you also have access to a distillery, you can turn 1 pint of any alcoholic beverage into 4 ounces of spirits in 1 day and 1 gallon into 2 pints in 5 days⁴. These spirits can be sold/used as either:

• Liquor
  • Sell for = 2sp
• Potent Alcohol base
  • For healing salves/potables/perfumes

If you leave either of these products unsealed in a dark, temperate place for 6 months, it will turn into vinegar.

You can reduce the fermentation process to 3 months by adding mother of vinegar at the start.