thatBreweryGame.com attempts to simulate the process of brewing beer just as you would either from a home brew
kit in your kitchen or at a small or even a large brewery. Brewing requires a series of well defined steps and all of the key
steps are simulated in the game.
Rather than spelling out the game's beer brewing process step by step in this manual we instead encourage you to get a Home Brew Kit for just $30 in beer
money and try it out at no risk to you. What you need to do in each step is explained as you go. If you don't know what
each piece of equipment does or some of the terminology then we encourage you to go to the links above to learn more about brewing.
There are many classification systems for beer styles and people do not always agree on what constitutes a particular style.
And even better than that... home and small brewers are constantly pushing the envelope on styles and trying new things. In this
game we have chosen 24 well known styles of beer for you to attempt to brew. An important goal of the game is to make decisons
in the brewing process that will produce the classic style, so save your experimentation for your real brewery at home and do your best
to conform to the particular style while playing here... I know it is hard!
One final word of caution about playing the game. This is not a fast paced action game, real brewing takes a slow and careful effort and the
game emulates it. Each brewing step may seem slow with large gaps of time between processes. We have condensed a multi-week process down
to about 15 minutes of action and a 24 hour waiting period. For the home brew kit we have condensed it all down to about an hour of real time. We think you will find it fun.
A word about Beer Quality
If you are working with any brewery larger than a Home Brew Kit then each batch of beer will be given a quality rating from 0 to 1000. There are no
random number generators used in the development of this rating, instead every action you take will be recorded and the
final brew quality will be determined by your actions. Even the time between your actions is taken into consideration. For example, after the boil,
the cooled sterilized wort is vulnerable to contamination... every second it takes prior to introduction of yeast can increase the risk
of batch contamination. Also, the precise moment that you introduce bittering hops into the boil can change the flavor of your beer. Different
beer styles are expected to be more or less hoppy by tradition, your decision to introduce hops early or late in the boil can drastically increase or
decrease the overall quality of the beer you produce depending on what style you are trying to produce... so pay careful attention to your beer
style from beginning to end and make decisions appropriate to that style. Not understanding your style and not paying attention to what you are doing
are the most common reasons for making a low quality batch.
We will not tell you all of the things that are taken into account in the beer quality score, instead we leave you to educate
yourself on the beer style and encourage you to experiment with our equipment until you produce a high quality beer.
Tips, Tricks, and Hints
Do NOT close your browser or navigate away from the brewing process until the fermenting stage or you may lose your batch completely and you certainly
will be subject to a large quality hit. The game will try to restore your batch on your return but there are no guarantees. Just like in the real
world you simply can't walk away from the brew in those critical stages.
Don't brew all your beer the same way, different beer styles require different decisions. Even the decision on when to apply heat to
the mash tun may be different for each style. The acheivable sugar levels in the mash are different for each style and you may have to adjust
when and how often you hit the heat button to get perfect results.
thatBreweryGame.com attempts to simulate the process of brewing beer just as you would either from a home brew kit in your kitchen or at a small or even a large brewery. Brewing requires a series of well defined steps and all of the key steps are simulated in the game.
Rather than spelling out the game's beer brewing process step by step in this manual we instead encourage you to get a Home Brew Kit for just $30 in beer money and try it out at no risk to you. What you need to do in each step is explained as you go. If you don't know what each piece of equipment does or some of the terminology then we encourage you to go to the links above to learn more about brewing.
There are many classification systems for beer styles and people do not always agree on what constitutes a particular style. And even better than that... home and small brewers are constantly pushing the envelope on styles and trying new things. In this game we have chosen 24 well known styles of beer for you to attempt to brew. An important goal of the game is to make decisons in the brewing process that will produce the classic style, so save your experimentation for your real brewery at home and do your best to conform to the particular style while playing here... I know it is hard!
One final word of caution about playing the game. This is not a fast paced action game, real brewing takes a slow and careful effort and the game emulates it. Each brewing step may seem slow with large gaps of time between processes. We have condensed a multi-week process down to about 15 minutes of action and a 24 hour waiting period. For the home brew kit we have condensed it all down to about an hour of real time. We think you will find it fun.
A word about Beer Quality
If you are working with any brewery larger than a Home Brew Kit then each batch of beer will be given a quality rating from 0 to 1000. There are no random number generators used in the development of this rating, instead every action you take will be recorded and the final brew quality will be determined by your actions. Even the time between your actions is taken into consideration. For example, after the boil, the cooled sterilized wort is vulnerable to contamination... every second it takes prior to introduction of yeast can increase the risk of batch contamination. Also, the precise moment that you introduce bittering hops into the boil can change the flavor of your beer. Different beer styles are expected to be more or less hoppy by tradition, your decision to introduce hops early or late in the boil can drastically increase or decrease the overall quality of the beer you produce depending on what style you are trying to produce... so pay careful attention to your beer style from beginning to end and make decisions appropriate to that style. Not understanding your style and not paying attention to what you are doing are the most common reasons for making a low quality batch.
We will not tell you all of the things that are taken into account in the beer quality score, instead we leave you to educate yourself on the beer style and encourage you to experiment with our equipment until you produce a high quality beer.
Tips, Tricks, and Hints
Do NOT close your browser or navigate away from the brewing process until the fermenting stage or you may lose your batch completely and you certainly will be subject to a large quality hit. The game will try to restore your batch on your return but there are no guarantees. Just like in the real world you simply can't walk away from the brew in those critical stages.
Don't brew all your beer the same way, different beer styles require different decisions. Even the decision on when to apply heat to the mash tun may be different for each style. The acheivable sugar levels in the mash are different for each style and you may have to adjust when and how often you hit the heat button to get perfect results.