Microbrew
Microbrew Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
- Both players take 2 brewer figures and 2 cash tokens of one colour and 2 cards to form a "Copper".
Keep the brewers near your Copper in a "Ready Area" and put your cash tokens on the "0" spaces of the track at the bottom.
- Place the 48 light, medium and dark malt tokens in the tin and shake it. Both players should now fill the 16 slots of the basic Copper. (You will require the Copper Upgrade to use the right hand "side tank".)
Draw one malt at a time (without looking!) and fill the slots, column by column, starting from the left and then filling bottom up.
-
Place the two brewery cards with 2 in the bottom left corner together in the center of the table to form the brewery and place the Brewmaster disc on the Manage space.
-
Shuffle the customer cards. Deal one face up to each player next to their Copper. This is your first Loyal Customer.
Now reveal two more customers next to the deck. These are Thirsty Customers.
-
Shuffle all three types of recipe cards together. Deal one secretly to each player and then reveal three next to the deck. (You can always look at the backs of your opponent's recipe cards.)
-
Shuffle the 7 reputation cards and deal one face up to the centre of the table and then two secretly to each player.
Lay the remaining reputation cards aside without looking at them. They will not be used during this game.
- Each player must now take a single hop token, replace one of the malts in their Copper and place the replaced malt in the tin. (Beginners should choose one of the 4 malts in the middle.)
Add the remaining hops to the tin.
-
Place the 2 upgrade tokens and the remaining 2 brewers of the colours in play near the Manage space of the Brewery.
-
Randomly choose the first player and place the turn tracker card in front of them. The other player may draw an additional secret recipe, then choose one from their hand to shuffle back into the deck.
Setup Complete!
Gameplay
Goals
When the last card is drawn from the Customer Deck, finish that round then play one final full round and then the game ends.
The game will also end immediately if all 12 Customers are Loyal.
The winner is the player with the most loyal customers (including reputation bonuses). If that is a tie, the player with most money wins. If it still a tie, beer itself is the winner.
At the end, first evaluate the shared reputation card. It is either a regional or a flavour card.
If it is a regional card, the single player who has the most loyal customers with flags shown on the card counts as having one extra loyal customer.
If it is a flavour card, the single player who has collected the most recipe card with the required flavour icon - malty, spicy, or sweet - counts as having one extra loyal customer.
(In this example, the player who managed to collect the most recipes with a "spicy" flavour icon would win the bonus.)
Then each player should reveal one of their secret Reputation cards. If they (and only they) managed to fill its requirements, they will count as having one extra loyal customer. The other is discarded and does not score.
How to Play
In Microbrew, a round consists of two phases: Work and Rest.
In the Work phase, the active player must assign a single brewer from their Ready Area to a job. If they have no ready brewers, they must "pass".
The active player then slides the turn tracker across to the other player and all bottles ferment. The new active player must now assign a brewer to a job or pass, slide the turn tracker back and all bottles ferment, and so on until all players have no unassigned brewers.
In the Rest phase all players retrieve their brewers, new thirsty customers and recipes appear, then the Brewmaster moves and performs a job.
The Work Phase
Jobs for Brewers
During the work phase, players want to Brew beer, Bottle it and then Serve it to either a customer who rates it perfect or the one who will earn them the most cash - but there's only so much space in the Brewery!
Each job is represented by one or two spaces on the brewery cards. Each space can be occupied by one brewer doing that job. If your brewer already occupies a location, you cannot send a brewer to that location.
You cannot replace your own brewer on a space to redo that job but you can always replace your opponent's to do their job. If you do so, return that brewer to your opponent to be used again this turn!
If the Brewmaster already occupies a space, you can send your brewer to that space but your opponent may immediately take a Brew action out of turn, without using a ready Brewer!
The effect and any cost of each job location is listed below:
Brew
Select one token (Malt or Hop) in your Copper. Swap it one or more times with its neighbouring tokens along the marked lines. Swaps must be made according to the following rules:
- A Hop can swap with any token.
- A Malt can only swap upwards by swapping with a Malt that is darker than itself (or a hop).
- A Malt can only swap downwards by swapping with a Malt that is lighter than itself (or a hop).
- Tokens cannot swap with empty locations.
In this example, only the top left swap is legal:
If you swap into a position where the selected token can be swapped again, you can choose to swap again until it cannot move any more.
In the next example, if the top-left Malt is selected, the following chain of swaps may be made:
The Malt could also have swapped "right" after the first swap and ended up in the same place, but with a very different overall arrangement of malts!
Bottle
Select a recipe from your hand or a revealed one from the table.
Select a column of your Copper and collect the tokens. Add them to the four spaces on the bottle in any order. (Try and match them to those marked on the recipe - see Fermenting Beer!)
Serve
You must have bottled and fully fermented a recipe before you can send a brewer here!
Select one customer from the thirsty customers or your loyal customers and one of your fully fermented recipes. That customer will now drink your beer and compare it against their favourite named at the top of their card.
The order of the Malts doesn't matter, just compare the colours on the recipe against those on the customer card and then consult the table that follows:
| Match | Rating |
|---|---|
| All the same | Perfect |
| One different | Smooth |
| Two different | Rough |
| Three+ different | Muddled |
If there is a token in your beer's contaminant area, lower the rating by one more.
The customer will now pay you the amount written on the Recipe card, depending on the final rating.
If the customer did not rate it "Perfect", flip their card over to indicate they are not thirsty.
If they did rate it "Perfect", add them to your loyal customers if they aren't one and pick any one of your brewers in the Brewery to return to your ready area.
Some customers also have a favourite flavour. These customers will pay an extra $2 or $3 if their beer has their preferred flavour icon. This is illustrated at the bottom of the customer card.
In this example, the customer will pay an extra $2 if the beer is the spicy flavour.
Finally, return your recipe to your hand.
Mash
Shake the tin. Without looking, draw from the tin to fill all empty spaces in your Copper. Fill a single column at a time, starting from the left and filling bottom up.
If you empty the tin during a Mash, return all discarded Malts and hops to the tin, shake it and continue until you have filled your Copper.
Flush
Return all discarded Malts and hops to the tin.
You may now swap any or all of the hops in your Copper for Malts in the tin. (Selected from the tin - not drawn blind!).
Advertise
You must have an uncontaminated, fully fermented beer to Advertise.
Pay $4 per loyal customer you have. (E.g. If you have 3 loyal customers, you must pay $12.)
Add a new customer from the Customer Deck to the Thirsty Customers.
Select your ready, uncontaminated beer and a Thirsty Customer. Add that customer to your Loyal Customers and return the recipe to your hand.
(The customer's preference does not need to match the recipe.)
Manage
If you send a brewer to the Manage job, you must pay to select one of the following:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Overtime | $1 |
| Research recipes | $2 |
| Copper upgrade | $3 |
| Hire Staff | $4 |
Overtime Take back one of your other, previously placed brewers.
Research Recipes Take three recipe cards from the recipe deck. Add one to the revealed recipes, add one to your hand and shuffle the last back into the recipe deck.
Copper Upgrade Take the upgrade token. You may now use the "side tank" of the Copper too.
Hire Staff You may add your third brewer to your crew.
Break
Time for a break! You earn $1 from the vending machines in the brewery staffroom.
Any face down customers get flipped face up - they're thirsty again!
Fermenting Beer
After each player uses a brewer to take an action or passes, all beer ferments (even if it's just been bottled):
For every recipe with tokens on them, one token will either be removed or become a contaminant.
If the contaminant area already has a token in it or the selected token is a Malt that matches the one marked on the recipe, discard the selected token.
Otherwise place it in the contaminant area.
If there are no tokens left on the recipe except in the contaminant area, the beer is ready to serve!
The Rest Phase
After all brewers have been used up, perform the following steps before starting a new round:
- Gather Brewers - Each player should move their brewers from the brewery to their Ready Area.
- Flip Customers - Flip any face-down customers face up - they're thirsty again!
- New Customers - Add a new customer from the customer deck to the thirsty customers.
- Add a Recipe - Add a new recipe to the revealed recipes.
- Brewmaster Works - Move the Brewmaster to the next location in the following path:
Flush → Advertise → Manage → Flush → (repeating)
When the Brewmaster arrives at a location, they have one of the following effects:
- Flush: Take all discarded tokens and place them in the tin.
- Manage: Draw an additional revealed recipe.
- Advertise: Draw an additional Thirsty Customers.
Tips
There are two main paths to victory: You can make the perfect beer for each customer, or you can make and sell lots of mediocre beer and spend the money on advertising. You do not have to stick to one path for the whole game though!
Fill a bottle early! Even if it's not going to be perfect, you should be fermenting something.
The Brew "puzzle" is very important. Spend time during your opponent's turn thinking about the different ways to rearrange your Copper.
Although you don't want Hops in your bottles, you can make some "power moves" by moving a hop in a circular path during a Brew action.
If you can predict what your opponent is going to do, you can get extra actions during the round by doing it first.
If you know your opponent is fermenting a perfect beer for a Thirsty Customer, it would be a terrible thing to Advertise to take that customer or even just Serve them a mediocre beer so they're not thirsty when your opponents beer is ready. You monster.
The elephant is free - it isn't for anything. (Unless you want it to be - we're not the boss of you.)
3 & 4 Players
If you have two copies of Microbrew, you can play with more players with the following changes.
Setup
- Mark the brewers with the stickers provided if required.
- Use the 3 / 4 side of the brewery cards. This will add extra spaces to the Serve & Bottle actions for 3 players and a further Manage & Break space for 4 players.
- Shuffle the two customer decks together, then discard 4.
- Shuffle the two recipe decks together, then discard 6.
- During step 6 of setup, shuffle both reputation card decks together, deal two face up and then two to each player.
(If a player is dealt two the same, they may score both at the end of the game if they meet that condition.)
During Play
- If a brewer is sent to the brewmasters location, no-one gets the "free" brew action.
- If a brewer is replaced, do not immediately return them to their owner - place them on a Break space. Their owner earns $1.
- If all Break spaces are occupied, return any brewer from a break space to its owner then place the original replaced as above.
- Note that the prices in the Manage action are different in 3 & 4 player!
- During step 3 & 4 of the Rest phase, reveal two new customers and two new recipes.
Components
Cards: 2 brewery, 4 copper still, 12 customer, 1 reference, 1 master brewer, 16 recipe, 7 reputation, 1 turn tracker.
Tokens: 3 x 4 colour brewers, 2 x 4 colour cash tracker, 16 yellow light malt, 16 orange medium malt, 16 brown dark malt, 6 green hop, 1 white brewmaster, 6 white brewmaster's favour, 2 brown upgrade and an elephant.
1 rulebook, 1 sticker sheet
Extras
Depending on the version of your game, you may also have:
2 "Copper" beer mats, 2 "Brewery" beer mats.
These can be used in place of the Copper and brewery cards in the tin.
Credits
Microbrew - A tiny tabletop game by One Free Elephant.
Design: Nigel Kennington, Sarah Kennington
Refinement: Nigel Kennington, Sarah Kennington, Hector-Xavier de Lastic, Sofia Kaisaridi
Art: Víctor P. Corbella
Graphics: Víctor P. Corbella, Iria Abella