The First Tasting and an Unexpected Level Up
I stared at Coriander with a completely lost expression. “What now?” But she looked just as clueless as I did.
“Yeah… I get that the beer you made tastes good. But you’re seriously just gonna show up with it out of nowhere and say you want to sell it?”
“Of course. Don’t you think it’d be a massive loss to human history if only we knew about a national-treasure-level beer like this?”
“Well… I guess that’s one way to look at it. Ugh, I don’t know anymore.”
“Coriander, think about it.” I grabbed both of her shoulders with my hands. “If I make this popular and it blows up…”
“If it blows up?”
“Then we won’t have to keep doing adventurer work just to make money!”
Coriander’s eyes went wide. “No more… working…?”
“Exactly. And that’s not all. We could live in a much nicer place. Or wait—no! We could just buy a house!”
“Buy… a house…?”
Gulp. Coriander swallowed hard, clearly trying to hide the flood of daydreams and drool that the idea had triggered.
“That’s right. And with the money we make selling beer, we can brew even more delicious beer to sell. Can you picture it? Our beer becoming famous all across the country!”
“Ooh…”
“Pretty good idea, right?”
“Nope.”
“Huh?”
The moment she said that, a sharp flick to my forehead landed with perfect precision.
“Ow!”
“You think one beer is gonna make all that happen? Sure, it tastes good, but people have different preferences!”
“But…”
“But what?”
“The beer I can make isn’t limited to just that one…”
“…For real?”
“Of course! I can make a beer that’s three times as bitter!”
“Three times… as bitter?”
“Yup! Ever heard of TIPA?”
Gulp…
Coriander swallowed again, unconsciously imagining the flavor I’d described. Then she looked at me with an expression of pure resignation.
“Fine, I got it. I’ll help. But just for today. One day only!”
“That’s more than enough! You’re the best!”
“Stop talking nonsense and let’s get ready.”
“Yes ma’am.”
And so we started setting up a tasting station in one corner of the tavern.
“Bel! Long time no see.”
“Ah, Mr. Hart. It has been a while. How have you been?”
“I’ve been doing fine. It’s been so long since I last saw your face that I can barely remember the last news I heard about you. What have you been up to lately?”
“Hmm… just working hard as usual.”
“Hahaha! I really like that attitude of yours!”
It had already been a full hour since we set up the tasting station. Yet our little booth was still completely ignored, collecting nothing but dust. Maybe it was because we’d been nervously sipping lager the whole time while preparing the samples, but the station didn’t exactly look inviting.
That was when an unexpected opportunity walked in.
It was Hart, the captain of the town guard. He was a well-respected local celebrity known for being diligent and upright. He also had a wide network of connections—rumor had it he even knew someone in the Empire’s Dragon Knight Order.
If someone like Hart tried our lager and started spreading the word, the news that this beer was delicious would probably spread through town much faster.
With that thought in mind, I brought up the topic of lager with him.
“Oh, right. Mr. Hart, would you like to try this?”
I tapped the lager keg sitting on the table.
“What is this? I’ve never seen anything like it. Looks a bit like an oak barrel…”
“Don’t be surprised. This is the ultimate beer that I personally brewed!”
“What? You brewed beer? You? Hahaha!”
Hart burst out laughing the moment he heard I’d made beer.
“Oh dear, Bel. Did you think brewing beer was that easy? Do you have any idea how expensive it is to rent the brewery in our town?”
Ah. So that’s why he was laughing.
In this world where beer culture hadn’t developed much, only a tiny number of breweries existed, and they never shared their secret recipes. It was like Cold War-era Russia. Renting a brewery was extremely difficult unless you were a millionaire, and even if you paid the exorbitant fee, they wouldn’t give you any recipes. Most people just ended up throwing their money away.
Hart probably assumed I’d rented a brewery, made something vaguely beer-like, and was now bragging about it.
“It really is a masterpiece though…”
“Haha! Of course you’d think so! Your first creation made with your own two hands always feels like a masterpiece!”
“No, I’m serious…”
It wasn’t exactly hard to make, and as for it being my first work… well, by this world’s standards, I guess it was. But it was still undeniably a masterpiece.
“Mr. Hart.”
“Oh! Miss Coriander. It’s been a while for you too. Your face looks so different I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“I’m an elf, though…”
“It’s just a figure of speech! Hahaha!”
As expected of the town’s favorite, he was great at joking around. He had this gentlemanly way of crossing the line without making it unpleasant.
“Anyway… why don’t you give it a try? I’m drinking it right now too.”
“You’re drinking it too?”
Nice timing, Coriander! I cheered internally as she smoothly picked up where I left off and continued persuading Hart.
“Hmm… I apologize in advance if this sounds racially insensitive, but don’t elves tend to be rather picky about things made from plants…?”
“I actually like meat.”
“Oh, is that so? My apologies.”
“If you’re sorry, then take a sip.”
I barely kept myself from laughing as I listened to the perfectly flowing conversation between Hart and Coriander. Is this what it means to be socially adept?
“Well, if you put it that way, I suppose I have no choice… Pour me a glass.”
“Of course!”
Coriander turned to me and held out a glass.
“Want me to pour?”
“You seem better at it. When I pour, the taste always comes out weird.”
That was true. Pouring beer properly required more technique than people realized. I tilted the glass at the perfect angle under the tap and pulled the lever. Golden lager began pouring out in a satisfying rush.
“Hoo…”
Hart’s eyes widened with genuine interest the moment he saw the unfamiliar color. He watched intently as I poured.
-Click.
I closed the tap at just the right moment, leaving the glass perfectly filled with golden beer and a thick, pure-white head of foam in ideal proportion. It was so flawless that I almost felt reluctant to give it away. I handed the glass to Hart.
“Hoo…”
He took the glass in one hand, brought it to his nose, and began sniffing.
“The aroma is unusual. How should I put it… barley? It’s completely different from the beer I usually drink.”
Apparently one sniff wasn’t enough. He took a deep breath through his nose and inhaled the scent again.
“There’s also a slightly bitter note… Is this really beer?”
“It certainly is.”
Almost all the beer in this world was ale. One of ale’s defining traits was its strong aroma—often reminiscent of fruit or flowers—with a relatively rich flavor. However, depending on the brewing method and style, many varieties had a pronounced bitterness that created strong preferences among drinkers. That was exactly why lagers, which had far less polarizing flavors, had become the dominant style in my original world.
“Hmm… I’ll give it a try.”
Hart stopped sniffing, stared at the glass with determination, and brought it to his lips. He began drinking in big, hearty gulps.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. A few drops of beer that didn’t quite make it into his mouth trickled down the sides.
And then, a moment later.
“Haa…”
Hart set the glass—already half empty—down on the table and looked at me.
“You…”
“Yes?”
When I met his gaze, I found him staring at me with an incredibly intense, almost frightening look.
“Are you the son of a brewer?”
“Pardon?”
“No, this is… Just wait a moment.”
Muttering to himself, Hart picked up the glass again and started chugging the rest.
Gulp! Gulp!
He emptied the glass in seconds and fell into deep thought. After a brief pause, he finally spoke.
“Give me another glass.”
He asked for a second serving of lager.
Gulp! Gulp!
Hart kept drinking as if he’d found an oasis in the middle of a desert. Forgetting to even sit down, he continued gulping down the beer. The other patrons in the tavern gradually began to take notice.
“Mr. Hart? What are you drinking so eagerly?”
“…”
“Mr. Hart?”
Another man who appeared to be a town guard greeted him cheerfully, but Hart was too focused on drinking to respond.
“Hm? Ah, sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. But what are you drinking that tastes so good? I thought you hated gulping it down like that?”
“Well… I did. But if you try it yourself, you’ll understand.”
Hart naturally began recommending the lager to the guard who had approached him.
“Hmm… Is this a new menu item?”
“No. This young man here made it. And the taste is absolutely incredible.”
“Beer is beer though, isn’t it?”
“I thought the same thing until a minute ago. But this is completely different.”
It seemed that after only drinking ale their whole lives, the refreshing difference of lager was proving addictive.
“Um… Could I have a glass too?”
“One for me as well!”
“I’ll take one too!”
It looked like everyone nearby had overheard Hart’s loud praise. Before we knew it, our tasting station was completely surrounded by people. And when we handed out the lager to everyone, the reactions were even more explosive than I’d expected.
“Whoa! I don’t know why, but it goes down so smoothly!”
“There’s no bitterness at all!”
“It’s like eating fancy bread.”
Everyone offered their own impressions as they happily drank the lager. Watching them, I felt my own thirst kick in. I picked up a glass and pulled the tap.
-Pssshhhhh…
Ah. It was already empty. I should have brewed more.
“Bel! Another glass please!”
“We’re all out.”
“Damn it!”
Leaving the disappointed customers behind, Coriander and I left the tavern and headed back to our lodging.
“Was that a success?”
“Definitely a success.”
For a first attempt at developing a new beer, the reception had been pretty good. I was thinking that when—
Heavy Drinker trait has leveled up!
You can now brew two different beers simultaneously!
Brewing time has been slightly reduced!
You can now select more beer characteristics!
“Oh.”
“What?”
“I leveled up.”
“Suddenly?”
I hadn’t even drunk that much, yet my trait had leveled up out of nowhere. As I pondered why, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Does my level go up even when other people drink the alcohol I made?
If that was the case, I needed to introduce modern beer to even more people. That way, I’d eventually be able to try making more complex styles like lambics that required picky ingredients and precise characteristics. Or maybe I could build an actual brewery instead of using my skill. Either option was something I genuinely wanted to do.
“Alright. I’ve decided!”
“On what?”
“What beer to make next.”
And because I was a man of action, I decided to put the idea into practice immediately. The next beers I would make were stout and Belgian white.
“Hehehe… I just thought of some really delicious beer…”
I laughed with satisfaction. Coriander stared at me from the side like I was some kind of lunatic.
What? What did I do?