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HC: Handyman | Ch. 119 - Mead
🕑 Added 2024-11-17 09:24:43 +0000 UTCGretchen wiped her hands on her apron and nodded toward the counter. “Uncle Billy, keep an eye on things, will you?”
The old man raised a bushy eyebrow but lumbered over with surprising enthusiasm. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep the mugs flowing. Just don’t blame me if I drink half the profits.”
“You touch the cider barrel, and you’ll have to answer to me,” Gretchen shot back with a smirk. “Come on, Jack. Let’s start with the basics of brewing.”
Jack followed eagerly. Gretchen didn’t seem to be willing to wait to begin her lesson. She started lecturing him right away.
“You know,” Gretchen said as they walked, “brewing isn’t just about making drinks. It’s about creating memories. A good drink can turn strangers into friends, enemies into allies. And if you get it just right, it leaves a mark—a little piece of you—in every bottle. Are you ready to begin?”
“I am!”
Congratulations! You've become a brewer-in-training.
That's easy, Jack thought, eyeing the notification.
“The simplest and oldest recipe in the book is mead. The recipe is simple: water and honey.”
You've unlocked a new recipe: [Mead]
Recipe for [Mead]:
Ingredients:
[Water]
[Honey]
Recipe:
Mix honey and water; let it sit.
Requirements:
Brewer, lvl. 1
Is this even a recipe? Jack thought with some apprehension. It was just the two ingredients. It didn’t take a genius to do it. He couldn’t help but pat himself on the back. He’d found two lazy minors. It's too bad that Master Kevin hadn’t given him these two when he first began. That would have saved him a lot of pain and hassle.
Anyway, it’s interesting. This is the first time I have started training in a minor by receiving a recipe instead of a skill. I wonder why that is.
Jack followed Gretchen around the side of the farmhouse, his curiosity piqued. The path led to a large backyard alive with the hum of bees. Sunlight glinted off neat rows of hives, their wooden boxes painted in soft pastels. They stood among a sea of yellow and purple wildflowers.
“Mead is mead,” Gretchen said as if it were a profound truth. “Water and honey. That’s it. But I want you to understand that although the recipe is simple, many tiny things can influence the result. Great outcomes come from small adjustments.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. Gretchen, the earthy farm owner, suddenly sounded like a philosopher. It was like he was looking at a whole different person.
Gretchen gestured to her hives proudly. “When making mead, the bees are where it all starts. You can’t make good mead with bad honey. Now, I want you to do me a favor,” she said, pointing at the hives. “Taste the honey they make.”
Jack frowned. He had an inventory full of honey. It seemed like a pointless exercise. “OK. Where’s the pot of honey? Or do you have a jar somewhere?”
“What are you talking about? The honey is all there,” Gretchen said with a hint of playfulness, gesturing toward the hives.
She wants me to go to the middle of the hives and take the honey from inside them, Jack realized. He couldn’t help but think of the times when his customers had been assaulted by his hive. He never imagined that the mechanic would be placed here as an obstacle to brewers-in-training.
It seemed that this hurdle was designed to prevent just anyone from learning the minor, but it was no problem at all for Jack. He marched confidently toward the boxes and lifted the lid of a random hive. The bees hovered around him cautiously but didn’t do anything to him.
Gretchen watched the scene, her eyes narrowing. “You’re a natural with them,” she said. “That’s not something you see every day. You might have an easier time as a brewer than most.”
Jack smiled. His passive skill, which made him attractive to bees, had worked its charm. Seeing that no item appeared in his inventory, Jack scraped the combs and then raised his finger to his mouth and licked it.
“What do you taste?” Gretchen asked.
“It’s honey… it’s sweet.”
Gretchen shook her head. He’d said something wrong. “Do you see those trees?”
Jack nodded. Here and there, little patches of woodland separated farms. Most were smaller than the Vulpine Woods, as was the case here, but Jack still saw the trees easily.
“Go there, and you’ll find some hives like these. Taste the honey there and then return. Tell me the difference between the two honeys.”
What is she getting at here? Even though Jack was skeptical, he still obeyed. Jack began his march toward the woodland. The wildflowers in the meadow danced in the gentle breeze. Here and there, he spotted bees visiting the flowers on one last nectar-harvesting trip before nightfall.
He glanced over his shoulder. The farmhouse stood sturdy and well-worn, its wooden beams painted red, darkened by years of sun and weather. Gretchen was using the waiting time to tend to her hives.
Just what does she want me to taste in the honey? Jack grabbed a pot from his own stash, honey collected by his own bees. He put some in his mouth. It tastes exactly the same, he thought. Oh well. Let's just hurry this up.
The “woodland” was little more than a cluster of fifty or so pine trees. As he neared it, the atmosphere shifted. The air grew cooler and heavier, and there was the resinous tang of pine in the air. He found the hives among the trees. These weren’t neat and pastel like the ones by Gretchen’s farmhouse; they were rough-hewn and weathered, their wood darkened by age and exposure with moss clinging to their bases.
Jack approached one and opened it carefully. The bees buzzed around him, but instead of swarming aggressively, they hovered curiously, almost lazily. For a moment, it felt like the bees were welcoming him as if they knew he was here to learn. Jack couldn’t help but grin. His passive skill was proving super useful.
He scraped a bit of honeycomb and tasted it. His eyes widened. Something about this honey felt different. It felt… edgy. He got another taste. There was definitely a difference in flavor. It was still sweet, but there was an unexpected sharpness, almost like a whisper of citrus.
Jack compared it to his own stash and confirmed it. Had Gretchen not pointed it out to him, he might have missed it, but now that he’d detected it, it was undeniable that it was there.
Is it because of the pines here?
Around the hives back at Gretchen’s farm, there were mostly wildflowers. Most of the landscape on this map was like that: meadows filled with wildflowers. His bees had collected nectar from such meadows while traveling through the rural properties, granting honey a sweet, flowery taste. That’s why both his honey and Gretchen’s tasted the same!
But here, surrounded by pines, the bees had produced a different type of honey.
Oh, my goodness. I thought honey was all the same! There’s actually more to it. Does what the bees eat make a difference in the game?
Jack’s mind was racing. In some corner of his mind, he already knew that there were different types of honey out in the real world. But, in New Earth, the [Honey] item always had the same item description, no matter where he harvested it from. It turned out that there was more to it. Gretchen had just helped him discover another hidden layer in the game!
He placed the lid back on the hive and ran back to Gretchen’s farmhouse, his thoughts buzzing as loudly as the bees. If honey could vary so much, what else had he overlooked? He had a million questions. Did this affect what the honey did? Did it affect its price?
He found Gretchen had finished attending to her hives and waited for him with a smug look on her face.
“Hello, there. How was the trip?”
“Good! I got it now. The honey here,” Jack said, gesturing at the hives nearby, “has a sweeter, light taste because of the flowers. In the trees,” he said, pointing at the distant patch of woodland, “it’s sharper because of the pines.”
Gretchen clapped her hands with a pleased expression! “That’s it! You got it! You’re starting to think like a brewer!”
You’ve temporarily learned a new skill: [Brewmaster's insight].
Brewmaster’s Insight (Common)
Skill level: 1
You can see beyond what is obvious and find out more information about things related to the craft of brewing.
Skill effects: Passive. Highlights the ability to discern the essence or hidden nature of honey.
So there was a skill, after all! Jack exclaimed.
This professional tutorial proved to be very different from all the others he’d done so far. He only learned the skill after training his senses to taste the differences in honey. He opened his inventory, and sure enough, the description of his honey had changed. Now, instead of just honey, it read: [Wildflower Honey].
“Thank you for teaching me this,” Jack said wholeheartedly. Even without considering what this would mean to the brewer profession, as a beekeeper, he gained a whole new appreciation for honeymaking.
So far, he’d just been running around with his hive on his back and letting the bees harvest nectar on auto-pilot. But if plants made a difference in the taste of the honey, then perhaps he should be more active in the process. He had a whole new bunch of things to experiment with.
“Every detail matters in brewing—what the bees eat, where they forage, even the time of year,” she said, tapping the side of one of the hives. “But we’ve only begun to scratch the surface. Come with me now.”
Gretchen led Jack into a small shed next to the farmhouse. The inside smelled of wood and dust. Something subtly sweet was also in the air, not quite as overpowering as fresh honey but comforting nonetheless. “It smells nice in here,” Jack said, taking a deep breath.
“I’m glad you like it,” Gretchen replied with a small smile. “This is where I age my batches.”
She gestured toward the rows of barrels lining the walls, each marked with dates and inscriptions. Without missing a beat, she turned to a small barrel with a faucet, grabbed a cup, and poured its contents.
“Here, taste this,” she said, handing the glass to Jack. “What does it taste like?”
Jack accepted the glass. The liquid was a golden, shimmering hue, catching the light in a way that made it look almost unreal. Jack raised the cup to his lips, but before he could drink, a message appeared in front of him.
Warning:
The brewing profession includes the creation of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol should always be enjoyed responsibly and in moderation.
Players under the age of 21 or adults who prefer a non-alcoholic option may activate an alternate mode. In this mode, players will craft non-alcoholic beverages and take on the role of Juicers instead of Brewers.
Would you like to activate the non-alcoholic option?
Jack blinked at the wall of notifications. They pulled him out of the immersion. Someone has probably tried to sue New Earth, he thought, or maybe they’re just playing it safe.
The message raised an interesting ethical consideration: should a game feature alcohol? On the one hand, for those who enjoyed drinking, this was the perfect way to enjoy the drink without worrying about intoxication. On the other hand, he could imagine a recovering alcoholic stumbling on his recovery just by the taste of in-game alcohol.
He shrugged. While he enjoyed the occasional beer, he wasn’t much of a drinker. If the game wanted to keep things safe for kids and adults, he was all for it. However, he left the option to taste the alcohol in the drinks.
You’ve chosen to keep the non-alcoholic mode off.
Warning:
New Earth allows players to brew and consume alcoholic beverages, simulating real-world scenarios. However, there is a daily consumption limit.
Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to:
Impaired decision-making
Reduced coordination
Negative health effects
Addiction risks
Please enjoy responsibly and always drink in moderation.
Once the windows were dismissed, he finally took a sip.
Comments
Coleman
Bwa ha ha ha ha. My premonition has come to pass. Just like the rule of grass effecting the end product the flower variety changes qualities of the bees honey. This should have some interesting consequences.
Ender419
Thanks for the amazing chapter! Hopefully Jack learns some recipes unique to his class that’ll allow him to make both alcoholic and nonalcoholic varieties of the same beverage to give him an edge in the brewers market.
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