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- Grow and harvest barley
- Build a Malthouse to transform that Barley into Malt
- Malt is turned into Ale by level 2 burgage plots with the Brewery extension selected
- Ale is then sent to your Tavern to meet the Tavern Supply residential requirement
A long day toiling in the fields deserves a strong Ale to soothe the spirits and there naturally comes a point in Manor Lords when sending a steady source of frothy tipple to your Tavern is a must-have. It’s an important resource as valuable as water supply, church access, food, fuel, and clothing chiefly because the commodity is a requirement to upgrade Burgage plots to level 3 and keep them there in Manor Lords Early Access.
While the Construction menu offers a few hints, including the need to grow Barley and transform it into Malt, Manor Lords doesn’t explain all that well the couple of steps and resources needed to transform the crop into Ale. I’ll walk you through how to make Ale in Manor Lords.
Start by constructing a Farmhouse. Captured by VideoGamer.
Lay down Barley fields but check the fertility levels using the overlay beforehand. Captured by VideoGamer.
Construct a Malthouse to process the Barley into Malt. Captured by VideoGamer.
How to turn malt into Ale in Manor Lords
To produce Ale in Manor Lords, you’ll need to first build and staff a Farmhouse then lay down one or several Barley fields. Use the Overlay on the right of the screen and select Barley Fertility to find the optimal spot to get a better yearly yield when harvesting. Turn on Crop Rotation as well and set the second year to fallow to give the field time to regain fertility to boost your harvest the next year. You can speed up sowing, ploughing, and harvesting by getting the Heavy Plow Development then assigning an ox to the farm to help the workers out.
Next, the second building you’ll need is a Malthouse, found under the Industry portion of the build menu, then assign one or two workers. After the harvest time in September, your workers will transport Barley to the Farmhouse then on to the Malthouse to be transformed into Malt. To cut down on transportation time, aim to construct the Malthouse close to your Storehouse and Farmhouse.
Lastly, you’ll need to assign one or several level 2 burgage plots to have a Brewery extension to turn the family living their into artisan brewers. This is done in the same way as you’d choose a vegetable garden, chicken coop, goat shed, or workshop extension. When building a burgage plot, make sure the plot blueprint is large enough for an extension, signalled by the symbol of a little hammer under a small roof. The house symbol appears behind a dashes line behind the actual house on the burgage plot when building a plot.
Click on a burgage plot then on the hammer icon and select Brewery Extension. It costs 5 Regional Wealth and x5 Planks. Levelling up a burgage plot is beyond the scope of this guide, but the general idea is to meet all the requirements (water access, food stall supply, clothing stall supply, church level, and other listed amenities) then tap the upgrade button found by clicking on the burgage plot you want to level up.
Workers will then ferry any available Malt to the burgage plot breweries to make Ale, which will then in turn be sent to a Granary and then on to the Tavern. In Manor Lords, a Tavern supplied with Ale will tick off the Tavern Supply requirement for all nearby burgage plots and allow you to upgrade them level 3 if you meet the other requirements. The Tavern functions a little different to other buildings because as long as you have Ale stocked there, it’ll meet the requirements. There’s no need for an entire family to distribute Ale to every single burgage plot in a large town.
How to import and buy Ale
If this all sounds too complicated, you prefer convenience, and you’ve got deep coffers full of surplus Regional Wealth, you can always use a trading post to buy Ale using Regional Wealth in Manor Lords. Build a Trading Post and staff it with workers. Select the Trade tab then Commodities. Click on establish trade route then change then switch to Import and set the desired surplus (essentially a cap on how much Ale you’ll have stockpiled at any given point).
It’s quite pricey, though, costing 18 Regional Wealth per Ale plus the fee for establishing a permanent trade route. You’re better off producing it at home in very much the same way that gathering herbs or making Clothes is better than importing them. Alternatively, there’s always the option to import either Barley or Malt and only have to deal with the tail end of the Ale production process.
