Beers and Beards: A Cozy Dwarf Tale

Book 4, Chapter 58: A Local Specialty

I was practically quivering with anticipation as I crushed a grape and dripped the juices on the refractometer. The beaven, young and old, all leaned in closer to watch what I was doing. The three Digger-turned-Goldstone youngsters did the same, their extra height on the beaven allowing them to sit at the back.

Though not as far back as Mirelda, who towered over everyone present. She was here ostensibly to learn how to make wine, but was really just in it for the beaven petting. I could see her just out of the corner of my eye, desperately trying to hold back from patting the fuzzy little kit standing in front of her.

It was an understandable desire, and one I had to stop myself from doing every time I met with Deathbringer; he didn’t appreciate it.

“What is that tool, Dungeon Masterrr?” One of the kits asked.

I chortled at the nickname, which was far superior to ‘The Forefather of Brewing’! I lowered the penny-whistle-shaped tool down for them to see it better. “It’s a refractometer. It takes light and funnels it through this hole at the top, and then we can read the brix of the grape using this scale etched on here.”

The brix refractometer was one of the many tools I’d had Copperpot and Whistlemop copy back when I still had my [Pete’s Miniature Remembrance] Ability.

I sighed fondly, remembering back in the day when I’d explained the use of it to Aqua and Richter.

“Those little numbers can be used to determine how much sugar is in the grapes. You want around 22 to 26 degrees of Brix for a good red wine, 20 to 24 for a white wine, lower if you’re making a low alcohol sparkling wine, or higher for a stronger red. From our testing, Romero’s elven wine is a higher ABV than most reds, so I suspect that the Spirit Grapes will come out closer to 28 degrees or maybe even 30.” Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel~fire~net

I passed the tool around to all my eager beavers – heh, that joke never got old. They took turns politely looking through the refractometer and eagerly chittered at each other. I noted one of the dwarves in the front of the class paying close attention while they spoke, and wondered if he was learning the language, or had an Ability that translated for him. Val was hard at work teaching some of the Beaven dwarvish, but they really struggled getting their teeth around some of the more gutteral words. Thus far only two of the Beavens had managed. The [Druid] – a white furred beavette by the name of Treetoucher – and one of Deathbringer’s wives. It seemed the beavettes were better able to pronounce the words due to their smaller front teeth.

“Are those the grapes from your dungeon?” Mirelda asked, gesturing at the basket I held under my arm.

“Nah. I wanted ta get a baseline first. They’re just some regular old grapes I got from a South Erden importer.” I pulled out a notepad using [Paper Pusher] and jotted some numbers down. “They’re around 23 degrees Brix, which I expected.”

I pointed at some barrels off to the side of where we were standing. “Those are from the Vineyard. And the crates beside them are Spirit Grapes courtesy of Val and his friends amongst the Tender Sprites.”

We were currently in the beaven encampment, rather than the Vineyard. Eventually we’d move our wine-making into the Thirsty Goat, but I still wanted to keep the beaven and the fact I was making wine a secret. Thankfully, Deathbringer’s ‘Boss Aura’ kept all the lesser monsters away so we could work in peace.

I was momentarily distracted by a *Bing!* and went to check my new notification.