Well, the Gods have brought great changes to the drinking and brewing folk of Norrath: Those who were brewing beer for profit are weeping into our crude steins, and those who enjoyed brewing exotic drinks are dancing in the streets.   What used to be the cash crop of brewers, Tujim's Fierce Brew, now only generates two casks from the five it yielded before. This means that at no point is brewing beer profitable to sell back to merchants, and becoming a brew master suddenly got a lot more expensive. Now, there are only a few items like Kiola juice and Bog Juice that can be traded to other players who are on quests.  Everything else is cheaper to buy than to make. But there is an up side to what the Gods of Norrath have cast down upon us:  There are at least 3 new brewing books available in Halas.  There are other places that talk about the quest Thadres Thymes will send you on, so I won't bother you about that here.

Now, I am not much of a researcher. I would much rather smash Gnolls, Orcs, and Mintaurs than study the effects of Alcohol Tolerance. But from what I've seen and heard, here is what I can tell you: The higher your alcohol tolerance is, the faster you recover from being drunk, and the less the chance is that you get really stupid with each drink. For the Warrior types,
I have yet to see an advantage to getting righteously tanked that would be worth having in battle. I have heard rumors about faster hit point regeneration, but I am very skeptical.

But all hope for making money in brewing is not lost. I and other masters of this holy trade are searching for the ingredients to vodka. Vodka is listed as an ingredient in the quest books in Halas.  And Ginesh, a combination of a foraged vegetable, water, a shotglass, and a short beer, is a drink that can improve even a master's skill quite a bit.

In a previous tale, I told of how it took only about 7 platinum to become a Master Brewer. Sadly, this can no longer be true since Tujim's will not pay for itself at the mid to higher levels of mastery. But I can give you the methods to brewing beer that will season you enough to become a Brew Master.  Here it is:

It used to be that brewing supplies were quite rare. Now, I am pretty sure that the basics are available in at least Freeport, HighHold, and Qeynos. Anyway, to develop your skills, you want to get a point or two on brewing and start out with Short beer.  Brewing skills are cheap to develop relative to other skills, so don't waste any extra points on it.  And everyone has
the Short Beer recipe, so I won't go into that here.  After that becomes trivial, move on to something a little harder.  Like mead. After that, try making Ale until that becomes trivial. Ale and Tujim's are brews you definitely want to improve your skills on, because they yield 2 drinks on every success, making it less expensive to develop.  Finally, after Tujim's becomes trivial, start on Ginesh. Ginesh is made of:   foraged vegetable+shotglass+flask of water+short beer. Ginesh, like Ale and Tujim's, yield 2 drinks. And don't even try to work on this until Tujim's become's trivial. This is one very tough drink to master.  After Ginesh
becomes trivial, your skill should be at 168.

Anyway, all this talk is making me thirsty. Time to go back for more beer!