Book 3: Chapter 65: The Garden of Graves
The next month was a blur, not because we were busy – we were, but not that busy – no it was a blur because it was so fun. I didn’t even have time to write in my journal with all the fun I was having.
I wrote everything in my beer journal though!
With the floodgates open, we began trying absolutely everything, just to see what stuck to the wall. That included testing every different kind of hops I could get my hands on, and wasn’t our only hop distributor happy about that! I gave some to Joseph to see if he could grow them in the elven kingdoms and help drive down the prices. He’d agreed, and I couldn’t wait to see the results. Right now we were buying up most of the hops in the city and I felt bad for all the craft brewers.
And there were so many craft brewers!! There wasn’t a day that went by that some young and excited dwarf came by the shop and asked for brewing advice. We couldn’t give them our formulas or Ancestral Seed (that was still controlled) but I could point them in the direction of other craft brewers with working yeasts and offer bittering ‘advice’.
They brought beer for me to try too! Most of it was awful, but a few were turning out some great craft Ales! Four different dwarves came rushing in over the course of the month to announce that they’d been Blessed or Titled due to finding their calling in life. They ran the gamut of miners, adventurers, labourers, and minstrels – every walk of life.
And now they could live a life of exploring what they loved.
I couldn’t help but feel that this was how Titling was supposed to work. It wasn’t that you worked hard at something for ages and ages until the Gods rewarded you for your hard work. Instead, you were meant to find something that clicked for you, and the Gods would take notice.
Kirk told me that was closer to the human approach, which was why the short-lived species still had plenty of Titled.
It was a problem for another time and another Chosen – I had my hands full already.