Brewmaster wants to turn you into a virtual real ale enthusiast

Brewmaster, an upcoming brewing sim from Auroch Digital and Sold Out, wants to teach you how to pour the perfect craft beer—without the reward of having a nice pint to enjoy at the end of the day. Bold move.

Arriving in 2022, an early pre-visualised trailer teases at what we can expect from Brewmaster. Setting up shop in the cosiest garage I've ever seen, you'll be given complete control of your own home brewery, managing every step of the brewing process right up until your creation is poured into a crisp clean mug.

While Auroch say most of the hard chemistry is kept behind the scenes, you'll still have a good deal of control over the brewing process. Recipes will teach you the basics of fermentations and ingredients, but you're also free to go absolutely wild with your own freestyle beers. Hey, even if you get it wrong, it's not like you have to taste it.

Once you've refined your brew, you're gotta sell it—finding commercial breweries to ship off batches, raking in sales, and catching the eye of the most discerning, goateed beer critics. Build a name for your brewery, and you'll attract bigger jobs for more experimental brews.

The main problem, really, is that you can't actually drink any of your own creations. If the game's 50-second trailer already has me feeling parched, I'm not sure I can survive a full game of watching refreshing drinks carefully poured into crystal-clear glasses...

Anyone else feeling thirsty?

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.