I haven't tried making it, but drinking it worked!

I've brewed dozens of batches of all sorts of beers IRL, so now I was able to play the game. Does that count?

引用自 EbonHawk：

I've brewed dozens of batches of all sorts of beers IRL, so now I was able to play the game. Does that count?

Do you think that the game is close enough to reality?
By that I mean, if you followed exatcly the steps show in game, would you make a drinkable beer in real life?

I've only brewed 2 beers in the game, so it's kinda tough to say... but the one thing that really stands out to me right off is there's not real attention to detail on cleaning stuff. Sanitation is a big part of homebrewing, and it's the part that usually trips people up that are just starting out.

I've seen so many books and videos on sterilization techniques, and a whole host of cleaning products.. it's something that you learn by doing, really, and everyone has their method that works (or doesn't) for them.

Other than that, I see a lot of helpful info in the Sim that seems like good info, so far. A lot of variety and attention to detail.

I'd say, based on my limited use of the game, that it definitely would help, yes. But I would still consult some "expert" help on the matter if anyone decides to try it out IRL. You spend all that money on hopefully good quality ingredients, the last thing you'd want is to ruin it by some dumb oversight at the very basic level.

I just recently got back into homebrewing - my son encouraged me to brew an all grain honey pale ale a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing how much I had forgotten about the basics, but almost as amazing was how fast it all came back. Well, most of it. There was still a lot of consulting the internet at various stages.

A really great way to learn homebrewing is to find one of those relatively inexpensive, all-inclusive, homebrewing kits like Mr Beer. Those were extremely popular a while back, although I haven't seen them around lately.

Although very limited, they are a great way to learn the basics of cleanliness and sanitation, and everything you could possibly need should be right there in the kit. So, none of that mid-brew "Oh crap, we gotta run to the store for this or this!!" Or, "Oh well, we're gonna have to hope for the best and pray it doesn't ruin our brew because we forgot to get this!". Or, running out of propane halfway through the boil and wondering if that's gonna be 'good enough'.

But, if you're the adventurous type or just a diehard DYI'er, and have the funds to spare, go for it. There are so many great forums and youtube channels dedicated to the craft, if you've got the time, you should be good.

And as the great Charlie Papazian said, if you're stressing out about homebrewing, you're doing it wrong. Relax, Enjoy it.

Start simple. Only get fancy as time and experience allow. He's considered the zen master of homebrewing, and you can't go wrong reading his books on the subject. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing was probably his most popular, and he has written so many books, but that's the best one to start with, imo.

I've been a Home-brewer (before playing the game) and have also worked in a Brewery.

I agree with EbonHawk; the big difference with the real world is the missing cleaning, disinfection, hygiene practices and the "contamination" game mechanics.

If you play the game through and read all the technical articles, I feel you'll know more than I did when I started Home-brewing in 2005, so my answer would be yes.

But you would still need other sources (books, websites, forums, other brewers) to brew good beer, as the game mechanics are only approximations.

I'd be great to hear if someone actually started brewing after playing this game, and how the first beer tasted. XD

I'm planning to start making beer when the temperature drops a little bit!
Another thing I noticed is missing from the game is the yeast starter, do you guys do it every time you use liquid yeast?
How was working at a Brewery like? Did you enjoy it?

Great Project GEORGEGEORGOUL, you'll see it's fun and very rewarding to taste your own beer ;).

Agreed, starters and liquid yeast management would be great to have in a Brewing simulator XD.

As you specified: No starters for dry yeast.
For liquid yeast, starters are not mandatory. They can help to cut costs, help with high ABV beers and help with old/stressed yeast.

In my home-brewing I never needed a starter due to the low volumes, high quality liquid yeast (wyeast, omega, white labs..) and cost not being the main focus. I did produce 2 starters (one with dry malt extract, one with worth) just to check the differences in fermentation/taste and didn't notice a significant change, so never did them again as it is extra work (but both beers were below 8% ABV).
When I worked in the Brewery we mainly used dry yeast (as we did not brew daily) and never did starters either.

I loved it.
It was in a microbrewery, part-time. We were 3-4 people: the owner full-time and 2-3 part-timers.
Mon/Wed: bottling/labeling, delivery, cleaning
Tue/Thu: brewing mostly 200-600 (100-1000 L), cleaning
Fri: morning what ever is needed (delivery, admin, cleaning. repairs, bottling, tests...), afternoon events
Sat/Sun: events
Events reached from after-work, to stag parties, to brewing classes.
Depending on stock/demand we may switch brewing to testing/scaling new recipes.

Sounds great!

Our suppliers mainly provide dry yeast from Mangrove Jack’s, Lallemand and Fermentis... practice will show which brand is best fit for each style.

There is a possibility to start a microbrewery with some friends (me eventually full-time and 1-3 friends part-time).
I'm planning on focusing on Weiss and Trappist-style, as there seems to be a gap in the Greek craft market on said styles.

We're sure we are going to have fun, but we are a bit worried about the financial survivability of the project.
We've estimated that 500-1000L per batch should be profitable, as long as we find someone to buy our beer, that is.
We're also a bit puzzled if we want to focus on bottles or kegs, I'm leaning however towards kegs beacuse people here tend to consume beer when going outside.

As an experienced brewer, what are your thoughts on this?
Do you think that microbrewery is a profitable business?

As I never was an owner and don't know the Greek market I wont be of a big help. Maybe someone else can help GEORGEGEORGOUL??

From my experience, in Switzerland the market is now slowly getting saturated, every region has several microbreweries and the big companies are pushing into the niche too. It's definitely harder to start a microbrewery now than 20y ago, but it's still feasible and a profitable business in my opinion.

Maybe reach out IRL to breweries in your area/country, go to their events, create contacts with brewers/employees, you'll get a lot a useful information and see how they perform.

引用自 GEORGEGEORGOUL：

Sounds great!

Our suppliers mainly provide dry yeast from Mangrove Jack’s, Lallemand and Fermentis... practice will show which brand is best fit for each style.

There is a possibility to start a microbrewery with some friends (me eventually full-time and 1-3 friends part-time).
I'm planning on focusing on Weiss and Trappist-style, as there seems to be a gap in the Greek craft market on said styles.

We're sure we are going to have fun, but we are a bit worried about the financial survivability of the project.
We've estimated that 500-1000L per batch should be profitable, as long as we find someone to buy our beer, that is.
We're also a bit puzzled if we want to focus on bottles or kegs, I'm leaning however towards kegs beacuse people here tend to consume beer when going outside.

As an experienced brewer, what are your thoughts on this?
Do you think that microbrewery is a profitable business?

It depends if you can find people to supply your product to. That is the hardest part.
Some bars and pubs will buy in kegs but are set up with connectors for different types of kegs normal stainless drum kegs use G-lock, Keykeg (one time use keg) has its own connector. Cornelius and torpedo kegs use the ball lock quick connect. You might need to invest in all of these as different bars will have their own preferences (or what they where tricked to use by their supplier).

But for now, you should start small and learn the basics. Start with the Fermzilla round bottom fermentation tank starter kit (its like 150-200€ depending on what the kit includes). I swear its good and you can transfer your beer without any oxygen getting into it if you do it right.

Watch a lot of youtube videos on the subject! Yes, there will be a lot of bad information and its up to you to disseminate it.

Starsan/Chemsan is your friend! Use it on everything! But at concentration of exactly 2ml/l water. Unless you want to rinse everything or get contaminated beer. Using it in higher concentration 4-5ml/l will give people the feeling of heartburn and can even lead to ulcers if you don't rinse. Use a syringe to measure with.
After sanitation comes water.
Get a Doulton ceramic water filter system it will cost you 150ish € and it usually includes the first filter thats good for like 3000L of water. Each replacement filter is like 50€.
I can't stress this enough, Water is your main ingredient, if you live anywhere south of Oslo, there will be chemical additives (chlorine in most cases) in the water to keep bacteria and other nasty stuff from growing in it. This stuff tastes bad and WILL make your beer taste bad. So the filter is mandatory. It also filters out heavy metals. Heavy beer does not have lead particles as an ingredient only deuterium but thats unavoidable.

When you are confident in your fermentation and have the funds, get a Brewzilla (and an outlet that can handle 2.4-3kw continues output) its the cheapest of the good, easy to use brewing machines and its a good quality product.
Grain is cheap, so it yeast. Expect failures but don't get discouraged by them, learn from them.

Forgot a super important part which is Temperature control. Different beer styles use different yeast which like to be at different temperatures. Making sure your beer ferments at the perfect temperature will ensure the beer doen't ferment too fast or too slow and making it taste bad. Also, ferment in the dark. Better yet, get and old fridge that can fit your fermentation tank and use a temperature controller like Rapt or the inkbird that has its own probes that you stick to the tank, and set it to whatever is needed, it will turn the fridge on when it gets too warm inside and keep the temp nice and even.

引用自 Racheloblade：

I bought a few days ago a starter kit (2 plastic fermenters - nothing too special).
I'll start with the Mangrove Jack's Abbey and Bavarian Wheat kits.
Made sure to buy sufficient amounts of StarSan and PBW.

For water supply I'll stick for now to bottled water (used GPT to find which local water brands fit best to each style I'm going for), most likely will buy filters in the near future.
As you mentioned, Athenian water is full of chlorine. The water in Evia where I'll set up the brewing setup, contains less chlorine but is full of sulfic salts, making it very hard water.

The temperature here is still very high (about 22C at night and 32C at day), so I bought indeed a RAPT temperature controller to use along with an old fridge we had on standby.
Also got RAPT pills to monitor the fermentation temperature and gravity.
It's important to note that I'll set up the brewing setup at my country house and won't be present for most of the days. Hopefully the RAPT devices will give me a good picture on how the fermentaton is progressing.

Been looking for some time at the Brewzillas, but to be honest I'm afraid my family will frown upon me if I walk in the house with a 35L stainless steel mash tun :P

Thank you both for your time, will try to keep you up to date an how the project is going!
Planning on starting the coming weekend.

I bought a few days ago a starter kit (2 plastic fermenters - nothing too special).
I'll start with the Mangrove Jack's Abbey and Bavarian Wheat kits.
Made sure to buy sufficient amounts of StarSan and PBW.

For water supply I'll stick for now to bottled water (used GPT to find which local water brands fit best to each style I'm going for), most likely will buy filters in the near future.
As you mentioned, Athenian water is full of chlorine. The water in Evia where I'll set up the brewing setup, contains less chlorine but is full of sulfic salts, making it very hard water.

The temperature here is still very high (about 22C at night and 32C at day), so I bought indeed a RAPT temperature controller to use along with an old fridge we had on standby.
Also got RAPT pills to monitor the fermentation temperature and gravity.
It's important to note that I'll set up the brewing setup at my country house and won't be present for most of the days. Hopefully the RAPT devices will give me a good picture on how the fermentaton is progressing.

Been looking for some time at the Brewzillas, but to be honest I'm afraid my family will frown upon me if I walk in the house with a 35L stainless steel mash tun :P

Thank you both for your time, will try to keep you up to date an how the project is going!
Planning on starting the coming weekend.

Brewed many beers for a couple years at home while I was working at Adobe as a senior engineer. (everyone there was into it). This was in the late 90s long before this game.

The game is cool, but nothing like RL brewing at all. They skip many of the things needed, and also there is a lot more chemistry if you want to do it right. Example: Local water chemistry, local altitude, time of year you're brewing, do you have a conditioning chamber? etc etc...

The game will teach you the basics... Have fun with the first "boil over" lol