Jeb found that roasting the grains became almost meditative after a few minutes. He was transported back to his first days as a Classholder, trying his hardest to control the new powers he had been given. This time, however, he did not struggle.
His Mana, which had limited how long he could work with Fire before, now seemed almost limitless. His Class, which once rebelled against working with Fire, now accepted using it as easily as any other Magic. Even his body was stronger. Keeping the large barrel of grain rotating had been a strain, however minor, on his body. After growing his Physical Statistics for a year and increasing his Class twice, Jeb was more than up to the task of moving the barrel almost forever.
Jeb smelled the point when the grains were sterilized. The scent suddenly changed from the scent of a field ready to spring to a field freshly harvested. A part of him knew that he could brew with the grain now, but that it would only have the simplest possible flavors. Jeb stopped the flame, pulling out a single kernel.
The small sprout on the kernel had wilted from the rotating drum. It was shrunken, a lot of the water having been driven off. Tasting it, Jeb frowned slightly. It tasted sweet and grassy, but very one dimensional. The sugars had not developed at all from the heat.
Starting the drum spinning again, Jeb once more Created Fire. The drum started heating up again, and the malt once more started letting off its aroma. When the grain was just beginning to let off the scent of caramel, Jeb emptied most of the grain out and started to cool it. He picked a single kernel up, feeling slightly homesick at the familiar taste. As he swallowed, he started spinning the rest of the grain, once more calling on Least Create Fire.
The smell continued to develop as he kept heating it. Richer and darker notes started to grow in, and the sweetness of the smell started to fade. Jeb’s Brewing Skill assured him that he could take the malt all the way to black without picking up off flavors. He had no intention of going that far, however. When the malt was a deep amber color, he pulled it off the heat. Its flavor was far deeper, and Jeb knew that a combination of the two malts would produce something spectacular when combined together.
Jeb quickly ran through the calculations for how much grain he would need to make a barrel of beer. Once he had finished, he waited for the grain to cool before carefully measuring it and beginning to crush it. Jeb felt the husk separate from the kernel, and continued to break each down until his Skill assured him that they were the ideal size. A part of him was hesitant to rely so heavily on his Skill, but Jeb would rather the beer come out well than feel like he had made it completely without the System’s aid.
Once the grain was milled, he looked around for a pot to boil the wort. Not seeing any, he took the barrel he had used for kilning the grains and poured the small amount of crushed malt back inside. Jeb was about to Conjure Water to fill the barrel when he remembered the fact that the Water he Conjured did not have any of the other nutrients that yeast would need to grow healthy. He tried to remember what his aunt had done, before remembering that Quicksilver had shown him where reagents were stored when Jeb had first delivered an Alchemical Plant. In addition to all of the Magical ingredients, the room had a number of more mundane ingredients which could stabilize an Alchemical while Magic set in.
After getting confirmation from Quicksilver that he had permission to take the few ounces of minerals that he would need to Brew, Jeb hurried to the room and picked up all of the reagents that Brewing told him he would need. He rushed back, this time filling the barrel with Conjured Water. Jeb then started carefully adding each nutrient slowly as he stirred the water, trying to gauge exactly how much he needed. He noted down the quantities, making a note to experiment with those values in the future.
Jeb then started heating the water, watching as the liquid started coloring a beautiful color. When the water reached the temperature that his Skill told him was ideal for converting the remainder of starch to sugar, Jeb tried his hardest to maintain the level. Even this was far easier than he remembered from the last time he had Brewed, and part of that was simple practice. Professor Quicksilver had assigned a few Alchemicals which required a stable temperature while the Essences combined.
Once the malt was extracted, Jeb came to his next issue: how was he going to separate the grains from the wort? He once again looked around the room, this time spying a second barrel. Jeb brought it over and tried to use Least Shape Water to move the wort. It was the hardest part of the process so far, because the Glyph seemed to want to leave all the extracted sugars behind. Jeb forced them to stay together, and a few minutes later, the second barrel was filled with an overly sweet mixture.
Jeb carefully added the sprigs of Fireleaf to the pot, once more referring to the Brewing Guide. It recommended boiling the mixture for a full hour, and so Jeb kept the mixture rapidly bubbling. He noticed some Essence start to diffuse from the Fireleaf, seeming to stain the entire mixture with a glowing energy. When he had finished, he cleaned out the first bucket, setting the spent grains to the side, then transferred the bittered liquid to the first barrel, leaving the Fireleaf behind. He tasted the mixture.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
It wasn’t spicy, but Jeb did notice a tingle as he tasted the more complex tasting liquid. He was excited to see how the flavor profiles would change as the beer fermented, knowing that a lot of the fresher flavors would be driven off by the bubbling yeast. Still, the Fireleaf gave the mixture some deep and dark notes that played very nicely with the malt that Jeb had made.
Looking at the barrel, Jeb realized that he was at another predicament. He wasn’t entirely sure how he could cool off the mixture quickly. If he waited too long, there was every chance that something in the air could contaminate the brew. If he didn’t wait for it to cool, though, the yeast would absolutely die before they were able to ferment.
Jeb tried to remember what his aunt had done, but his mind was blank. In the end, he shrugged and Conjured Water along the outside of the barrel, actively focusing on having the Conjured Water come out cold. To his relief, the wort quickly cooled to the point that it was safe to add the yeast.
Jeb pulled out the jar that he had been given, noting that his Brewing Skill said that the yeast inside were still more than ready to start fermenting. He hoped that the yeast Lionheart had given him was ale yeast, because he felt much more comfortable working with it than with lager yeast. Try as he might, Jeb could not get his Skill to tell him which kind of yeast he had. Shrugging, Jeb poured it into the warm wort, stirring it to help the yeast get the air they would need to grow healthy.
Once he was satisfied that the yeast were well dispersed throughout the liquid, Jeb covered the barrel and left. As soon as his plot of land was out of sight, though, Jeb became somewhat antsy. He had forgotten how much of a pain it was to wait the days on end that it took beer to brew. Even though he had gone for a relatively low strength drink, it would still take time for the yeast to multiply and convert the sugar to alcohol.
He idly wondered whether the Druids might have come up with a solution, before immediately discarding the idea. Jeb had not seen any evidence that the Druids did any sort of Brewing. However, Jeb was less willing to immediately dismiss the idea that there might be an Alchemical or Enchanting answer to making beer brew more quickly. The hallway turned sharply, leading Jeb to the Library Stacks.
Margaret was waiting at his desk, and waved as Jeb drew near. She was reading a book, but she tossed it into a moving shelf before Jeb could read what it said.
“How goes Brewing?” she asked.
“I just pitched the yeast!” Jeb said excitedly. “And I was wondering whether there was any way to make the beer ferment more quickly.”
Margaret tsked before running her hands through her hair. “Did neither of the books I gave you help with that?” she asked, tone somewhat concerned.
Jeb paused. “Honestly, I didn’t look,” he said.
She stepped away from the desk, gesturing for Jeb to sit and start reading. He chuckled, but sat down and opened the thinner tome. It mentioned that there were Alchemical Yeast Energizers, but it did not provide the recipe, stating that it was “of intermediate difficulty to produce, and therefore outside the scope of this book.” The theoretical treatise, on the other hand, came with a number of detailed recipes for different Yeast Energizers, each of which had different benefits and drawbacks. Thankfully, the one which seemed easiest to prepare came with the fewest downsides. The only issue with it was how slow it was.
The other Yeast Energizers could completely eliminate the time required to brew and age a beer, reducing the months or years of time into a few seconds. The “Basic Yeast Energizer,” by contrast, only affected the yeast as they fermented, and it would still take a few hours for the yeast to fully ferment Jeb’s wort. As Jeb stifled a yawn, he decided that the Basic Yeast Energizer would be perfect for what he needed. The beer would hopefully be ready when he woke up in the morning.
It did not require too many materials, and Professor Quicksilver once more gave Jeb permission to take the supplies he needed to make a dose of the energizer. Without the Alchemy Skill, Jeb could see where the process could have been somewhat difficult. The tolerances on the different measurements were strict, and it required forcing three or four disparate Essences to interact with each other. He carefully mixed the various white powders together, trying to change them.
The first few attempts failed, each in their own way. His first attempt resulted in no change, leaving a pile of white powder. His second created a brown sludge that bubbled as he watched it, even when removed from heat. After a few attempts, however, Jeb had managed to make the electric blue powder that signified a successful Basic Yeast Energizer. He walked back to his brewing barn and added it to the barrel.
Almost instantly, the entire mixture started to churn as though it was the sea during a storm. Jeb left it and went to sleep. When he woke up, he ate a quick meal and checked to see how the beer was fermenting. He was slightly surprised to find that it had completely finished brewing while he slept.
More than that, though, it somehow managed to trap enough gas to keep the beer bubbly. Jeb hadn’t even considered how difficult it might be to keep yeast for secondary fermentation if they had all fallen out after brewing the beer. Thankfully, the Yeast Energizer was a mature recipe, and whoever had developed it had already accounted for that issue. Jeb put it into a wooden barrel and tapped it.
He considered who he could share it with, knowing that an entire barrel would be too much for him. Jeb poured a small glass, hoping that nothing had gone wrong during the Brewing process. The flavor was exactly what he had hoped for. (The malt flavor was clear and present without being too overwhelming. The small amounts of residual sweetness from the amber malt offset the bitterness from the Fireleaf perfectly. Even the yeast seemed to have produced flavors that complemented the other ingredients.
Jeb breathed out a sigh of relief. He leapt back when he saw that a jet of flame came out with the air.
Jeb watched in horror as a few drops of the liquid splashed out of his glass and onto the floor. To his relief, they just sat there, the same way that any other beer would.
Maybe it was just the first sip, Jeb rationalized, taking another sip and carefully breathing out. Once again, flames rushed out of his mouth. Now that he was expecting it, Jeb noticed that the flames were not hot.