D&D 5e – Questionable Arcana – Crafting: Brewer’s Supplies

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Although this crafting system leverages many existing mechanics published under the 5e SRD and OGL, the final product is completely home-brewed. The finer details of this system are still being revised, and those changes will slowly be introduced into this document. However, the system as a whole is totally functional and ready to be used in any campaign. Furthermore, the rules and concepts discussed are intended to work in-tandem with the expanded artisan's tools rules found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. If nothing else I hope this document and its siblings can be used as a source of guidance and inspiration for whatever crafting system you decide to go with.

Now that we know how we can use the Glassblower’s Tools to create a variety of liquid containers, the next step in the process is to learn how to fill them. Today we will be covering a very different type of home-brew. Yes the Brewer’s Supplies are up next, and we are going to learn how they can be used to recharge your party and your coin-purse. However, before we dig into the D&D mechanics, it is important we build a functional understanding of how brewing works in both historic and modern times.

Beer is one of the oldest beverages in existence with the earliest recorded instances dating back to 5th millennium BC. Beer is often credited with being one of mankind’s most important discovering along-side bread. This is because the long but reliable process of creating those products enabled and incentivized groups of people to stay in one location. As soon as a reliable source of this warm and soothing liquid became known, people would flock to that location, and eventually form villages, towns, or even cities.

For the most part brewers stuck to making beer for the local populace. The idea of mass-producing and distributing beer did not really pick up steam until the Industrial Revolution. During the revolution improvements in technology allowed the beer to be created at scale, and transported more easily. This resulted in the production of beer shifting from artisanal manufacturing to industrial manufacturing. Today both Artisanal and Industrial beer manufacturers are still very prevalent, but improvements in technology have allowed smaller artisanal brewer’s to utilize industrial style equipment.

Although there is a great deal of nuance to the brewing process, at a high level the process of making beer can actually be broken down into 5 simple steps:

1. Malted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars.
2. The malt sugar solution is boiled with Hops for seasoning.(This step was often skipped in pre-industrial revolution era ales)
3. The solution is cooled and yeast is added to begin fermentation.
4. The yeast ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol.
5. When the main fermentation is complete, the beer is bottled with a little bit of added sugar to provide the carbonation.

This overall process has remained more or less unchanged over the course of history, however it is important to note that medieval ales often skipped the second step where hops were boiled into the malt.

Although there are some styles of beer that can be produced in as little as 4 or 5 days, most brews require around 6 to 8 weeks to complete. Because of this typically do their work in a fixed location where they have consistent access to the ingredients and supplies needed to create, store, and sell their beer.

Last but not least it is worth noting that the process of creating beer is very similar to the process of creating wine and alcohol. At a small scale an individual brewer with knowledge of each process could switch between products fairly easily. However, there are enough key differences between the processes to make it cost-prohibitive to create all 3 at scale. As a result most people looking to create alcohol usually pick one type of booze and stick to it.

Lets Have(Make) A Drink!

Rather than restrict the kit to just ale, I recommend you allow the player to create wine and spirits as well. In this case the only thing that imposing these restrictions would accomplish is to limit the creative potential of the player. Using both the RAW and our home-brewed Questionable Arcana crafting systems there is no material advantage to brewing beer vs wine vs liquor because all three use the same gold-based progression system.

However, the process of creating spirits of any kind is a long and tedious one, often requiring large amounts of bulky equipment. As a result I recommend you require the brewer to operate out of a brewery of some sort, unless they take extreme measures to create a mobile brewing setup. A horse and wagon would potentially allow the brewer to work on the road, but they still need extended amounts of time at an open flame to complete the process. As a result any party with a party member brewing on the road should needs to stop and go frequently, resulting in a slow travel pace. While “travel brewing” the party also does not gain any of the benefits of a slow travel pace because of its hurry up and wait nature.

As far as weapons, armor, and adventuring gear goes; there really isn’t much a brewer can make on their own. However, there is a list of Food, Drink, and Lodging options in the SRD that the brewer can contribute to the creation of. Using either the RAW or Questionable Arcana crafting system, a player can create these spirits.

If you want to expand on the idea of producing ales and wine even more, I created table of the prices of various alcoholic beverages at different sizes.

* NOTE: Marked values are not RAW. These home-brewed values assume that there is some type of bulk pricing discount as the amount sold increases, and are priced accordingly.

I typically try to avoid creating exceptions in our crafting system, however, the length of time it takes to create alcohol cannot be overlooked in this case. As discussed above it typically takes at least a week(or longer) for the ale to properly ferment. Fortunately, the most difficult and restricting portion of the brewing process that involves heating the ingredients over an open flame happens on the first day. This means we can still adhere to the typical crafting requirement of 8 hours in a single day to craft, but once the initial work has been done to the batch, a brewer needs to manage the fermentation process for at least a week. Once the week has passed the ale is considered fermented, and is usable/salable. Wine requires two weeks to ferment.

Magical brews function exactly the same as any other magical item. Once a player has procured a recipe for a special brew, they are able to produce the ale at will as long as they have the ingredients needed. Unfortunately, the brewer’s supplies has a very limited number of RAW magical items that it can create.

However, I would expect that most DMs would throw the player a home-brew recipe or two should a player express interest in using the tool.

The Takeaway: A player with brewer’s supplies proficiency can create beer, wine, and liquor. Usually they are required to brew in a single location unless extreme measures are taken to create a mobile brewing setup. However, if the player does decide to try and brew on the road, it limits the party to a slow movement speed. Other than soap, a player is able to produce ale, common wine, liquor(homebrew), and fine wine using normal crafting rules. However, once the GP value of the alcohol produced is rolled, that batch does not become available until it has fermented(1 week for ale, 2 weeks for wine and liquor). There are no RAW magic items that the brewer’s supplies can create.

Going Sideways – The Art of Brewing

Anybody who has been to a high end spirits merchant knows that some people will pay exorbitant prices for exotic wines and brews. If a player in your group is looking to create some artisan spirits, then I recommend you use our home-brew Artwork System or something similar. For more information on our artwork system you can reference the Questionable Arcana Artwork System article, but for your convenience the basics of the system can be found below:

The rules of brewing artisan spirits are the same as other non-alcoholic forms of artwork, but there is one key exception. Normally when a player fails their Artisan’s Tool Ability Check, nothing happens unless they fail by 5 or more. However, due to the sensitive nature of the brewing process, any mistake made when using the brewer’s supplies results in the batch going bad. As a result should a player using the brewer’s tools fail their artisan’s tool ability check, the artisan spirits they are trying to create are reduced to a value of 5 GP, and can no longer be worked on. This means that your barrel of booze thought to be worth 50 GP may suddenly become only be worth 5 GP of common ale.

While this may seem like a tough bargain for brewer’s kit users, there are some special benefits they gain in the selling process above and beyond many other crafting tools. High end beer and wine tend to attract somewhat different audiences, therefore they are given different benefits during the sales process.

A keg of artisanal beer will have a much wider audience than most “works of art”, so as a result a merchant looking to sell said keg will be able to accomplish that task in 1/3rd the time that a similarly priced item could be sold. Mechanically this means that all “days to find a buyer” rolls on the “Salable Items” table are reduced by 1/3th. Functionally this means that artisanal ale will often sell in a single day. This makes it a very attractive option to craft if you are looking for a quick turnaround.

Artisanal Wine and Liquor on the other hand have a more particular audience. Like other forms for artwork, it may take a fair bit of time to find the right buyer. However, once that buyer is found it is often easier to convince them to pay a higher price. Functionally this means that artisanal wines and liquors gain a +20 bonus to their roll modifier on the “selling an item” table, often resulting in selling at a much higher price.

The Takeaway: A player can create artisanal ale, wine, and liquor. Ale is much easier to sell than virtually all other forms for “artwork”, and wine can often fetch a much higher price relative to the effort put in. However, should an artisan fail their artisan’s tool ability check during the crafting process, any potentially valuable brew they are making is totally ruined.

Conclusion

Although there aren’t many functional items that the brewer’s tool can create, there is still a lot of value they could potentially bring to a player or party. Any party playing in a campaign based around a single location would likely benefit greatly from the the brewer’s tools since ale and wine is always in demand.

When it comes to magic items, there aren’t really any RAW items that the kit can create, however if a player emphasizes using the kit I wouldn’t be surprised to see the DM throw them home-brew recipes or two for them to use. Overall the kit is mostly used to produce and sell alcohol, but it does that job so well that it should be strongly considered by any player looking to make some extra coin between dungeons.

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