HLM -Chapter 1431 Brewing Beer

Winter is the off-season for tourism in New Zealand. Wang Bo didn’t have much to do, which gave him a good opportunity to spend time with his family and properly prepare for the wedding banquet.

The food for the wedding day had already been fully arranged. Kobe would serve as the head chef, and he had invited many renowned chefs from New Zealand and Australia to jointly take charge of the wedding cuisine.

With the food settled, the next issue was the drinks. This was something Sunset Town couldn’t handle on its own. Fortunately, with the domineering CEO as his backer, Bartier could help him find channels to purchase large quantities of red wine and liquor.

However, compared to spirits and red wine, the drink in greatest demand at a wedding banquet was beer.

Sunset Town could brew alcohol itself, but only beer. As for red wine and spirits, good-quality ones required time to mature—trying to rush them at the last minute simply wouldn’t work.

Wang Bo wasn’t short on raw materials for making either red wine or spirits. He had plenty of grapes for wine and grains for spirits. The grapes could be supplied by the farms in the small town of Kurow, where he had planted large quantities of fruit, including grapes.

All those fruit seeds had been soaked in Spirit Spring Water. Although they hadn’t undergone variety improvement through the Heart of the Orchard, the fruits produced were still far superior to ordinary market fruit.

Fortunately, it was still possible to brew beer in time—or rather, this was exactly the right time to prepare, since beer needed to be freshly brewed.

July was still deep winter. It was cold, but there hadn’t been any heavy snowfall, and the weather was quite nice. Every day, the sky was a deep sapphire blue that instantly refreshed the spirit.

Wang Bo decided to invest in a small beer workshop in town. It didn’t need enormous production capacity—just enough to supply the town’s residents.

Of course, the primary goal was still to supply the wedding. Adrian estimated that around two thousand liters of beer would be needed on the wedding day.

Wang Bo decided to brew the beer himself. Some people in town had already tried brewing beer with Spirit Spring Water, and the results had been quite good.

Those results gave Wang Bo confidence. He believed that if he brewed it himself, it would definitely taste better than what the townspeople made.

His confidence wasn’t blind. The townspeople used ordinary wheat malt for brewing, whereas Wang Bo had malted barley that he had carefully cultivated himself.

Starting last year, the farm had begun planting brewing barley. The malt had already been prepared and stored, just waiting for him to brew beer before the wedding.

To make good beer, he invited the old guide, Hani, Uncle Bing, and others to study the process together. He also invited Adrian.

After receiving the invitation, Adrian arrived at the newly set up beer-brewing workshop on the farm. One look at the machines inside left him dumbfounded.

“What is this? Is this for brewing beer?” he asked.

Wang Bo laughed. “Yes. I’m planning to brew some beer for the wedding.”

Adrian gave a bitter smile. “I’m very happy to help you, Wang, but I really don’t know much about this. Of course, if you want me to taste the beer, I can definitely give you some suggestions.”

Wang Bo looked at him in surprise. “You don’t know how to brew beer? My God—you’re German! How can a German not know how to brew beer?”

Adrian spread his hands helplessly. “Who says Germans must know how to brew beer? Do all Chinese people know how to cook Chinese food? Do you?”

Wang Bo nodded. “Of course. We Chinese all know how to cook. I certainly do.”

Hani and the others nodded vigorously. “Boss makes amazing Chinese food.”

Adrian froze for a moment, then said, “Alright then—pretend I never said anything.”

Wang Bo was just teasing him. Even if Adrian didn’t know how to brew beer, Wang Bo believed he should at least know some basics. After all, Germany was a beer nation—Germans grew up immersed in that culture and were bound to pick up something related to brewing.

Wang Bo purchased beer-brewing equipment, hired two brewers, and bought a large number of glass bottles to be used later for bottling the beer.

However, before letting the brewers take over, Wang Bo wanted to try a bit of DIY himself. He didn’t know how to brew beer yet, but learning a new skill was always beneficial.

Besides, life was about experiences. If you skipped the labor and the experience and went straight to enjoying the finished product, how boring would that be?

After hearing this, the old guide nodded. “Boss, your thinking is right. Life really is a process of experience.”

Adrian added, “I don’t know how to brew beer, but my grandfather loved it and knew a lot about it. He once told me something: a person who brews beer doesn’t need to understand biology, but must understand life.”

Wang Bo rubbed his hands together. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get started.”

The old guide said, “Who here has brewed beer before? Probably only me. I’ve worked in a brewing workshop.”

“Generally speaking,” he continued, “beer brewing is divided into four stages: malting, mashing, fermentation, and packaging. Among them, fermentation is the most important.”

Hani gave a wry smile. “I think we all know that.”

The old guide pointed at him. “I know you know, Inspector. But do you know what needs to be done during that process?”

“Fermentation?” Hani said blankly.

“You have to pay attention to sterility and disinfection,” the old guide explained seriously. “If any other bacteria contaminate the brew during fermentation, all the effort will be wasted. So every step and every place that comes into contact with the wort must be disinfected. Also, there must be absolutely no grease. Even a tiny bit of oil will destroy all the foam in the beer.”

Beer yeast, hops, and carefully selected brewing-barley malt—these were the basic ingredients.

New Zealanders loved home-brewed beer. Although home-brewed beer was usually slightly higher in alcohol than mass-produced beer, it was more fragrant and mellow. That was why New Zealand supermarkets all sold malt.

Department stores sold it too. The malt came vacuum-packed in plastic bags or wooden barrels, specifically for brewing beer.

Wang Bo prepared a large amount of Spirit Spring Water. Each container held twenty liters. For their first attempt, they planned to brew forty liters of beer.

The old guide, Rex, took out two packets of beer yeast and said, “One packet is enough for twenty liters. These two are just right.”

“How much malt do we use?” someone asked.

“Five kilograms,” Rex replied.

Wang Bo asked, “That’s certain, right? Should we add a bit more malt? Higher alcohol content is fine.”

Rex laughed. “My good lad, using too much malt won’t just make the alcohol content hard to control—it will also ruin the flavor. It’ll end up tasting awful.”

After explaining several key points, they started working.

The equipment was complete: insulation boxes, insulated barrels, a distillation pot, thermometers, as well as one-way air valves, funnels, rubber hoses, and other tools.

Rex picked up several rubber hoses and inspected them one by one, then shook his head. “No good, boss. We need food-grade plastic tubing. I think the supermarket sells them—you should go buy a few.”

“These won’t do?” Wang Bo asked.

“No, they won’t,” the old guide said seriously. “These rubber hoses are used for reflux and siphoning. The liquid will pass directly through them. If we use this kind of hose, the beer will pick up a rubber smell, because alcohol easily dissolves rubber.”