Guides/Beer

Yeast Attributes

Click here for yeast atribute results.

Overview

The national beverage of Egypt. Beer is brewed in Beer Kettles using various combinations of malt and honey, stored in small barrels, and served at Ceremonial Tasting Tables. Aside from being drunk to increase Beer Tasting skill, beer may be made into ambrosia for festivals, or distilled into spirits using an Alembic.

Individual beers can vary across many characteristics, depending on the ingredients and yeasts used in their brewing:

• Potency, or alcohol content: no special potency, Potent, or Very Potent.
• Color: no color, Brown, or Black.
• Sweetness: Dry, Sweet, or neither.
• Special Properties: Fruity and/or Spicy.
• Flavors: up to two of Barley, Honey, Banana, Cherry, Date, Orange, Nutmeg, or Cinnamon. Such flavors can be "bold", "noticeable", or merely a "hint".

Beer is stored in small barrels. A barrel of beer is very heavy, with weight 100 and bulk 1. There is no way to empty a full barrel of beer other than by using it (by unkegging it at a tasting table, or by distilling it or making it into ambrosia).

Spoilage: Unlike wine, beer will spoil over time, rendering it unfit for drinking. (Beer will only begin to go bad once it has been kegged; until then, you can leave it in the kettle indefinitely.) The more potent a beer, the longer it will last in the keg. A Very Potent beer will last over a week, a Potent beer seems to last one Teppy day, while a non-potent beer lasts only one Teppy hour. You will not be told whether a beer has gone bad until you attempt to drink it. Beer will also spoil on the tasting table if left out long enough. Although spoiled beer may not be drunk, it may still be used to make ambrosia or distilled spirits, and may be used to donate for tech research.

How to make Beer

Beer is made from malted barley and honey brewed in a Beer Kettle. You must have the Beer Brewing skill (available at a University of the Human Body) to make beer.

It takes 60 wood and 25 water to start a kettle of beer. Once started, the beer making process goes through two phases:

brewing (in which malt and honey are added to the brew) and fermentation (in which local microbes enter the kettle and convert the brew's sugars into -- ideally -- alcohol). Brewing takes 20 minutes (1200 seconds). Any time during the brewing stage, you may add malt and/or honey. The time you add it makes a big difference in the effects it has.

Fermenting takes 40 minutes (2400 seconds). Any time during the fermenting stage, you may seal the kettle. Sealing the kettle prevents any (more) microbes from entering. While you can get drinkable beers from an unsealed kettle, most of the time you will want to seal the kettle after the yeast microbe has entered, and before bad microbes enter. (See below, How to Find and Isolate Yeast.)

Once the fermenting is done, you may leave the beer in the kettle indefinitely. With an empty small barrel in your inventory, you may Take the beer (kegging it). You are given a display showing the statistics of your beer. If the beer is undrinkable, it will automatically be thrown out, and your barrel is left empty. If it is drinkable, you are given an opportunity to name the barrel (naming the contents), for later use. (Once you use the beer, your barrel is returned.)

We should be grateful to our grandparents, who initially labored for 3 hours to make beer. Today, it takes but 20 minutes of brewing, and 40 of fermenting.

Figuring out what will result in good beer takes three steps:

• finding and isolating a yeast,
• finding out what the yeast does,
• and then using that information to make beer.

However, almost nothing seems to have changed from T1, so you can probably just look your yeast up in the old tables and then use the calculator if it's a good yeast.

The Details of Beer, or the Brewing Phase

The brewing phase lasts for 1200 seconds, or 20 minutes. At any time during this phase, you may add ingredients (honey and malt) to the kettle. The type and amount of these ingredients will determine some of the attributes of your beer. These attributes are further modified by the time at which the ingredient is added.

• Glucose is a sugar, and is created by malt and honey. Honey adds 10 glucose per unit. Light, medium, and dark roasted malt add 2 glucose per unit. Raw malt adds 1 glucose per unit. Burnt malt adds no glucose.
• Maltose is a sugar created by malt. Light, medium, and dark roasted malt add 10 maltose per unit. Raw malt adds 5 maltose per unit. Burnt malt adds 2 maltose per unit.
• Barley flavor is created by malt. The earlier in the brewing phase you add the malt, the stronger the barley flavor. Raw malt gives twice as much barley flavor as light, medium, and dark roasted malt. Burnt malt has no barley flavor at all.
• Honey flavor is created by honey. It works the opposite of barley flavor: the later in the brewing phase you add the honey, the stronger the honey flavor.
• Color is created by malt. The earlier in the brewing phase you add the malt, the darker the color. Also, the darker the roast of the malt, the darker the color. Burnt malt is mainly used to create color.
• Tannin, a bitter flavor, is created by malt. The earlier in the brewing phase you add the malt, the greater the effect on tannin. Also, the darker the roast of the malt, the less tannin it creates.
• Vitamins, which are consumed by microbes during fermentation, are created by malt and honey. The later in the brewing phase you add the ingredient, the more vitamins are created. The darker the roast of the malt, the fewer vitamins it creates; honey creates fewer vitamins than dark roasted malt, and burnt malt creates no vitamins at all. Raw malt is mainly used for vitamins.
• Grassy flavor is created by raw and light roasted malt. (Grassy flavor can also be created by yeast during fermentation.) The earlier in the brewing phase you add the malt, the greater its effect on grassy flavor. Raw malt adds significantly more grassy flavor than light roasted malt. If grassy flavor goes above 100, your beer will be undrinkable.

Note that Banana, Cherry, Date, Orange, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Nasty flavors are determined entirely by the yeast being used. They are not created by the ingredients.

Beer attributes, and the fermentation process

Yeast converts sugar into alcohol on a 1:1 basis. Yeast always converts the glucose first, then the maltose. A yeast will always leave a minimum amount of glucose and maltose unconverted; these amounts are called the "glucose floor" and "maltose floor" and are different for each yeast.

In addition, each yeast has a different "alcohol ceiling" -- a maximum # of sugar which it can convert into alcohol.

Example: Yeast-17 has a glucose floor of 13, maltose floor of 37, and alcohol ceiling of 992. A brewer is using Y-17 to make a beer, using 50 honey and 50 medium malt. Total sugars in the brew: 600 glucose, 500 maltose. During fermentation, Y-17 will first convert 587 glucose into 587 alcohol (leaving 13 glucose). It will then work on the maltose, converting 405 maltose into 405 alcohol (leaving 95 maltose), where it stops because it has now created 992 alcohol.

Finally, a yeast consumes vitamins as it works. If the vitamin level reaches a certain floor (which, again, varies by yeast), the yeast will stop converting sugar into alcohol, no matter how much sugar it has to work with.

To summarize, each yeast has the following attributes:

• Glucose floor

The yeast will only convert glucose to alcohol if the glucose remaining is above this level.

• Maltose floor

The yeast will only convert maltose to alcohol if the maltose remaining is above this level.

• Alcohol ceiling

The yeast will never produce more than this amount of alcohol.

• Vitamin consumption

The yeast will consume this many vitamins for each unit of alcohol produced.

• Vitamin floor

The yeast will only produce alcohol if the vitamins remaining is above this level.

• Flavor production

The yeast will produce roughly a certain amount of each flavor for each unit of alcohol produced.

A sealed kettle which contains a single yeast may be modelled as follows:

• 1. Start with 10 yeast
• 2. If the vitamins remaining is less than the vitamin floor, stop.
• 3. If the alcohol produced is greater or equal to the alcohol ceiling, stop.
• 4. Consume 1 glucose per yeast, up to the limit set by the glucose floor.
• 5. If the previous step left any yeasts unfed, consume 1 maltose per unfed yeast up to the maltose floor limit.
• 6. Produce 1 alcohol and proportional flavours per sugar consumed.
• 7. Yeasts reproduce (typically 10-40%)
• 8. If any yeasts were left unfed, stop. Otherwise continue from step 2.

In other words, the yeast will produce alcohol until one of three things happens: It runs out of sugars, it runs out of vitamins, or it produces as much alcohol as its alcohol ceiling. Yeasts will always convert glucose in preference to maltose.

Output

You can collect your finished brew anytime after the end of the fermentation phase. You must be carrying a small barrel to do this. When you keg your brew, you will receive data on its attributes -- you will never know for sure how your brew turned out until you try to keg it. If your brew is undrinkable for some reason, it will automatically be thrown out. If your beer was successful, it will be stored in the barrel and you will have the option to name your beer.

When you keg a beer, you will be shown the levels of the various attributes as well as the final flavor. The attributes are:

• Alcohol

The higher the alcohol value, the more potent the beer.

• Color

The higher the color value, the darker the beer.

• Mold

Produced if there was mold among the microbes that worked on your brew. If there is too much mold, you get undrinkable Moldy Beer.

• Vitamins

Vitamins remaining; no effect on the taste of the beer.

• Glucose

A sugar; the more sugars, the sweeter the beer.

• Maltose

A sugar; the more sugars, the sweeter the beer. Not as sweet as glucose.

• Lactose

A sugar. Despite being displayed, there is no way to get lactose in a beer.

• Citric Acid

Despite being displayed, there is no way to get citric acid in a beer.

• Lactic Acid

Produced by lactobacteria, too much will produce undrinkable Sour Beer.

• Acetic Acid

Produced by acetobacteria, too much will produce undrinkable Vinegar Beer.

• Barley

A flavor produced by malt.

• Bread

A flavor produced by wheat.

• Orange

A fruity flavor produced by yeasts.

• Banana

A fruity flavor produced by yeasts.

• Cherry

A fruity flavor produced by yeasts.

• Date

A fruity flavor produced by yeasts.

• Honey

A fruity flavor, produced by yeasts or by adding honey.

• Nutmeg

A bitter, spicy flavor produced by yeasts.

• Cinnamon

A bitter, spicy flavor produced by yeasts.

• Tannin

A very bitter flavor produced by malt and wheat.

• Herbal

An unpleasent flavor produced by raw and light wheat.

• Grassy

An unpleasant flavor, produced by yeasts or by raw or light malt. Too much grassy flavor will produce undrinkable Grassy Beer.

• Nasty

An unpleasant flavor produced by yeasts. Too much nasty flavor will produce undrinkable Nasty Beer.

• Microorganisms

A list of the microorganisms that entered your brew during the fermentation phase, listed in order of when they entered. You can control the list of microorganisms, to an extent, by choosing when to seal your kettle.

A beer may have the following qualities:

Property name	Condition to be met
Very Potent	Alcohol >= 1200
Potent	Alcohol >= 800
(no name)	Alcohol < 800
Dry	(Glucose * 2) + Maltose < 150
Sweet	(Glucose * 2) + Maltose > 300
(no name)	150 < (Glucose * 2) + Maltose < 300
Black	Color > 500
Brown	Color > 200
(no name)	Color < 200
Fruity	Orange + Banana + Cherry + Date + Honey > 500
Spicy	Cinnamon + Nutmeg > 300
Bold flavor	Flavor > 1000
Noticeable flavor	Flavor > 400
Hint of flavor	Flavor > 200
(no description)	Flavor < 200

Each flavor in the beer (cherry, nutmeg, etc.) may be "bold", "noticeable", or just a "hint". A flavor that is very strong can drown out a weaker flavor; if you have 1000 honey flavor and 200 barley flavor, the barley will not appear. A flavor is drowned out if it is less than 50% of the most powerful flavor in the beer.

If two or more other flavors are greater than 50% of the strongest flavour it will have "muddled flavor", and none of the flavors will apply.

Unsuccessful Brews

Not all brews become drinkable beer. There are many situations which will cause a brew to fail:

• Nonalcoholic Soup (undrinkable)

Alcohol < 100

• Cloying Beer (undrinkable)

Glucose + (Maltose/2) > Tannin + Cinnamon + Nutmeg + Lactic

• Bitter Beer (undrinkable)

(Glucose * 2) + Maltose < Tannin + (Cinnamon + Nutmeg)/5

• Caustic Beer (undrinkable)

(Glucose * 6) + (Maltose * 3) < Cinnamon + Nutmeg (very high fruity flavours can also produce Caustic Beer)

• Grassy Beer (undrinkable)

Grassy > 100

• Moldy Beer (undrinkable)

Mold > 100

• Nasty Beer (undrinkable)

Nasty > 100

• Sour Beer (undrinkable)

Not well understood, but may be (Lactic + Acetic) > (Glucose + Maltose)

• Vinegar Beer (undrinkable)

Acetic > 100 (my first attempt yielded Acetic = 73 and an undrinkable Vinegar Beer: Temm)

• Vinegar Soup (undrinkable)

Rare, might be Alcohol < 100 and Acetic > Alcohol

The exact effect of Lactic is still uncertain, but I have had several beers that should have been Cloying, but were drinkable, and had some lactic acid. Simply adding lactic to tannin in that formula fits all my results.

Multiple Yeast Beers

Beers can have as many microbes in them as you care to let get in. Mold, Acetobacterium, and Lactobacillus may be hard to work around, because they add factors both harmful and little-studied.

Generally, you see the largest effects on the resulting beer from the first few yeasts in the kettle. While computing each yeast independently may get you a rough approximation of the flavors and alcohol resulting, the results are not really cumulative or averaged.

Vigorous yeasts (with high alco max or low floor values) can have a big effect even if they enter late. One example from the last Telling was of a particular yeast added at the very end of the list of microbes. Its presence or absence made a 300 alcohol difference in the maximum alcohol generated.

Another example:

I tested two spots: 1) Y3 Y59 A6 M63 Y24 M87 L61 Y65 A62 Y49 L44 M47 Y67 L52 Y64 Y90 Y2 M71 M55 Y82 2) Y3 Y59 A6 L61 L52 M63 Y24 M71 L44 M47 Y65 Y67 Y90 Y49 M31 L85 Y64 M87 L69 Y91 A22 A62 Y2

1 gave 1421 alc and 20 cinnamon, 2 gave 1250 alc and 379 cinnamon. In 1 nearly all of the effect was done by Y3 but in 2 Y59 was able to act more, perhaps something to do with entry times?

More research in this field needs to be done.

I have had great success with predicting multi yeast recipes. Stats seem to be location/seal time dependent. Exact seal times are important. Just run your yeast tests using teh exact seal time and this will give stats that can be plugged into beercalc to predict recipes. This strategy has worked very well for me for several locations.

How to Find and Isolate a Yeast

There are 100 possible microbes, some of which are yeasts and some of which are Lactobacilii, Molds, and Acetobacteria. There is no guarantee that all of the yeasts will make drinkable beer, or that we will be able to find a spot where each one is available. Things that aren't yeasts will make beer undrinkable if they are high enough on the microbe list. Thus, it is necessary in many spots, and useful in others, to isolate a yeast before you try to make beer.

• Yeast

A desirable microbe which converts sugars to alcohol and flavors.

• Mold

An undesirable microbe which converts sugars to mold.

• Acetobacterium

An undesirable microbe which converts sugars to acetic acid (vinegar).

• Lactobacillus

An undesirable microbe which converts sugars to lactic acid.

Very little detailed study has been done on molds, acetobacteria, and lactobacteria. These microbes all produce undesirable flavors which will ruin the beer if too strong. It is never desirable to have anything except yeasts in your kettle. In the fermentation phase, your job is to seal your kettle at the proper time to keep out the "bad" microbes and allow only the yeasts.

You isolate a yeast by running a Yeast Test. This kettle option is a shortcut that eliminates the brewing phase, thus taking only 40 minutes to complete. At the end of the test, you take the 'beer' (you need your small barrel!) and get a display of the results. At the bottom is a list of the microbes that are in the kettle, in the order they entered (first to last).

• Run a yeast test (The Yeast option, which takes 25 water, 60 wood, 2400 Teppy seconds), leaving the lid open until the end. If the first microbe in the list is not a yeast, start over in another spot. Don't forget to have a small barrel with you so you can get the results of the yeast test!
• Once you find somewhere where at least the first microbe is a yeast, run a yeast test, closing the lid at 1200 seconds.
• If the results show no microbes, run a yeast test and close the lid at 600 seconds (remaining). If the results show more than one microbe, run another yeast test and close the lid at 1800 seconds to see if you have isolated the time when the first yeast enters the kettle.
• Keep running yeast tests, dividing the times when the yeast might have entered in half, until you get only the first yeast. This tells you your sealing time when making beer -- close the lid at the same time as you did in this successful test so that only this first yeast will be active in your beer.
• If you are in a spot where the second (or more) microbes are also yeasts, you may also want to try making multiyeast beer by finding the seal time that gets you only 2 yeasts (or 3, etc, up to however many you have). While the results of multiple-yeast brews are hard to predict, some people have successfully used the beerCalc tool to do this. Moreover, many beers made without sealing the lid are effectively multi-yeast beers and you can find many such recipes and locations on the Wiki (do a search for your yeast -- e.g., search for Y3 to find pages with recipes for that yeast).

Microbe Map - please report the locations of the microbes you find in the map above!

Microbe Transition Lines

Hellinar - Inspired by Jaby's work on large scale microbe distribution, I've been testing the changes in microbe distribution on small scales. These tests demonstrate that the microbe population shifts as your kettle crosses coordinate lines. The degree of shift is dependent on the degree to which the coordinate is divisible by two. Thus if the coordinate you cross is divisible by 128, most of the upper microbes will change. On the other hand if the coordinate can only be divided by 8, or 4 or 2, the shift in order is likely to be small. This shift occurs very sharply within a small fraction of a coordinate. So avoid placing kettles on such a high power of two coordinate. On the other hand, if you are searching for new microbes, place four kettles on odd numbered coordinates around the point where two lines divisible by 128 cross. This will give you four sets of well shuffled microbes.

How to Find Out What a Yeast Does, or the Fermentation Phase

Once you have isolated a yeast, if it has not already been analyzed, run a couple of test beers. Making beer is just like doing a yeast test, except that a brewing period, 1200 Teppy seconds long, is added BEFORE the fermentation period. During brewing you can add honey and the various malts at any time, though it calculates results in 12-second "ticks". Once you've finished brewing, it immediately goes into fermentation, and you should close the lid at a time that will catch the yeast(s) you want but no other microbes.

You should try:

• One test with low amounts of sugars and vitamins, which should get you at least one of the floor values for your yeast
• One test with lots of sugars and vitamins, which should get you the max alcohol for your yeast and reveal any flavors it produces

Don't expect these beers to be drinkable! These are just to get the yeast values which will allow you to make good beers.

Warning

This information provided courtesy of the Tale 3 wiki, and was converted by cory0210 . Some information might have changed.