If you’re reading this tome, you must want to be a brewer... and a fine trade it is although not that profitable, but in my opinion the most enjoyable skill in Norrath. Let us get started now. The first step to becoming a brewer is creating a character; I highly recommend a race/class that starts in Freeport as it is with out a doubt the easiest place to start brewing and good beginner’s city. I would start off by investing about 15 practice points into the skill (3 levels worth). After this you must get the book “Brewer’s Limericks”.  For easy reference I have included a transcript of the limericks themselves from the book and have placed them below.  The limericks contain a few good recipes if you can pick them out :)

When Ssra goes to move barley
He meets a girl named Darley
To the cask in the vault
He adds hops and malt
And drinks till her face isn’t gnarly

With hops malt and Yeast
An ogre made mead for a feast
When his cask they did fill
Not a drop did he spill?
So they cheered the ugly beast

My good friend where is my cask?
Is the water too much to ask?
Deliver barley and hops
With the rest of my crops
Or your death will be my next task!

Ogre’s lust for a wench named Sulock
For a date bring a cask and Froglock
Malt and yeast to the barber
Get them near her harbor
And you’ll hear uproar if they dock

To start raising your skill I recommend Short Beer, the ingredients are as follows barley, hops, malt, and a cask. If you started in Freeport you can get these ingredients from a few different sources one such NPC is Kristin Charcoal a merchant in West Freeport, you can get a cask from most taverns for about 3sp them being the most expensive item most of the time.  Now to begin brewing, first find a still to mix your ingredients in, they look something like a barrel with a hose connecting to a white bucket.

To use the still, step up to it and left click on it and a window will pop up with a “Combine” button at the bottom of the window. Put your ingredients in the slots and hit the “Combine” button, if you succeeded you will receive a message something like “You have combined the ingredients to create something new!” and you will receive a bottle of Short Beer. You should keep doing this until it becomes trivial and then move on to a harder brew such as Ale, the ingredients are barley, malt, water, and a cask this should get you to around level 35. Then you can move on to Ol’Tujim’s Fierce Brew, a HARD brew, ingredients are barley, hops, yeast, malt, and a cask this should raise you up to around 60%. No skill is really worth selling to NPC’s and it can be rather hard to sell ale to players. The known effects of alcohol are increased strength and stamina, penalties can include blurred vision, trouble walking, and maybe lowered intelligence. These penalties can be reduced by a high alcohol tolerance skill level. Now you ask, “What is the future of brewing?” and I have a answer . . . sort of, if you go to Freeport and find Gregor’s tavern he will send you on the “Brewer’s Compendium” quest, maybe one of the hardest quests in the game. You must find and return four rare items to Gregor which are as follows, Honey Jum from Rivervale, a Kiola nut from the island of Eollisi, Erud’s Tonic from a merchant in Qeynos, and a Koalindl Fish from the Temple of Life in Qeynos. Since I know of no one who has completed this quest and I haven’t myself, I don’t know what you really get. The hardest item to find is probably the Honey Jum and I suspect you must make it yourself. These attempts below have all failed to produce Honey Jum.

Jum Jum Juice, Honeycomb;  Jum Jum Juice, Honeycomb, Bottle;  Jum Jum Juice, Honeycomb, Cask;  Jum Jum Juice, Honeycomb, Water, Bottle

The only other clue I have is there is a quest in Neriak rogue's guild to assassinate Lil’ Honeybugger because she makes the healing Honey Jum for the halflings, so she would appear to be the one to talk to about Honey Jum. Also you might need to bring honeycombs back to get the Honey Jum. If you go to misty thicket there is another Honeybugger there with a hurt hand. Give him a bandage and he'll tell you how to get honeycombs from the bixies. If someone does complete this quest, you can e-mail me at  julian@patmos-international.com. I hope this guide helps or maybe even inspires new brewers in Norrath!

Mustadio the Traveling Bard