Beer Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Goal of the Game
• Game Setup
  • A Main Board
  • B Market tiles
  • C Beer type tiles
  • D Reviewer tiles
  • E Award tokens
  • F Resource tiles and marketplace tile
  • G Experience tiles
  • H What should each player receive?
  • I Other game components
• Game Component Description
  • Main board
  • Player boards
  • Phase track, round track and markers
  • Marketplace tile
  • Reviewer tile
  • Beerfest award tokens
  • Beer type tiles
  • Market tile
  • Resource tiles
  • Experience tiles
  • Brewing passion tile
  • Beer characteristic tokens
• Starting the Game
• Preparation Round
  • Placing workers on the work schedule
  • Sending workers to the marketplace
  • End of scheduling work and placing workers on the board
• Game Round
  • Phase I: Brewery Phase
    • Step I: Work in the brewery
    • Step II: Brewing
    • Ending the Brewery Phase
  • Phase II: Beerfest
    • Beer evaluation
    • Assigning awards
    • Trend change
  • Phase III: Market Phase
    • Step I: Market changes
    • Step II: Assigning shares
• Ending the Game
  • Final round
  • Final scoring

Game Contents

• 1x Main board
• 4x Player boards
• 12x Market tiles
• 4x Beer type tiles
• 8x Beer reviewer tiles
• 4x Award tokens
• 3x Passion tiles
• 22x Experience tiles
• 72x Ingredient tiles (46x light and dark malt, 26x hops)
• 20x Fermentation type tiles
• 20x Filling type tiles
• 1x Marketplace tile
• 4x Order tiles
• 15x Aroma tokens
• 15x Taste tokens
• 15x Color tokens
• 80x Bottle cap tokens
• 16x Worker markers in players' colors
• 11x Grey worker markers
• 9x Additional ingredient tokens (light and dark malt, hops)
• 4x Reference cards
• 2x White markers (phase track and round track markers)

Goal of the Game

Players become the owners of small, local breweries and true beer enthusiasts who fiercely fight for their market share and compete for recognition of their craft beers at beerfests. In order to achieve their goals, they create recipes of beers they brew making sure each has proper characteristics. Additionally, they try to adapt their products to market demands. The player who has the most Craft Points at the end of the game wins this beer lovers' contest!

Game Setup

A Main Board

Place the main board on the table within easy reach of all players.

B Market tiles

Shuffle all market tiles. Then, place them on the marked spaces of the main board (the market area). The number of occupied spaces depends on the number of players:

• In a 2-player game, place the tiles on the spaces numbered 1, 2, 4 and 5.
• In a 3- or 4-player game, place the tiles on all available spaces.

Place any remaining market tiles face-up next to the board over the market area (so that players can see the next market tile that will be introduced into the game).

C Beer type tiles

Shuffle all beer type tiles. Then, place them randomly along the trend track, one after another, from the top to the bottom of the track. This way you will create the initial trend.

D Reviewer tiles

Shuffle all reviewer tiles. Then, place 3 tiles face-down on the reviewer spot within the beerfest area. Next, turn the top tile face-up. This is the reviewer who will be evaluating beers during the first beerfest.

Place the starting tokens next to the reviewer tile on the space for beer characteristic tokens. In order to do this, check the market tiles, add all positive characteristics (Aroma, Color, Taste) and subtract any negative characteristics. The result will indicate how many tokens of a given type should be placed on this space. In the example of a 4-player game setup, there are 6 market tiles that affect the number of tokens next to the reviewer. This results in a sum of 1 Color, 2 Aroma and 1 Taste tokens.

If the set of the market tiles, after subtracting any negative effects, will cause the sum of all beer characteristic tokens to equal zero and there will be no token of any of the three beer characteristics next to the beer reviewer, then one positive token should be placed next to each characteristic. This rule is only observed during the game setup.

E Award tokens

Place award tokens face-up on the award spaces of the main board, within the beerfest area.

F Resource tiles and marketplace tile

Organize all resource tiles dividing them into 4 separate piles with each resource type forming its own pile.

Place the marketplace tile below the main board. Here resources will be placed for the players to take in the Supply Phase.

Place one resource tile of each type below the marketplace tile one after another (thus forming the marketplace). Then place a number of additional resource tiles of proper types to the right of the marketplace tile. The number of additional resource tiles in a row depends on the number of players (do not count any tiles placed below the marketplace).

Number of players	Number of resources in a row
2	3
3	4
4	5

G Experience tiles

Shuffle all experience tiles and form them into a pile. Then, turn 6 tiles face-up and place them next to the pile thus forming the pool of available experience tiles (as shown in the setup diagram). The number of available experience tiles is the same no matter the number of players.

H What should each player receive?

• 1 player board.
• 1 reference card.
• 4 wooden worker markers in a color matching a given player's board.
• Starting resources: 1 starting dark malt tile, 1 starting light malt tile and 1 starting hops tile.

Players place their starting resource tokens on the first spaces of their warehouses counting from the top. Each resource tile should be placed in the matching warehouse.

I Other game components

Organize order tiles, bottle cap tokens, beer characteristic tokens, worker markers and brewing passion tiles dividing them into separate piles and place them next to the board so that each player can easily reach them.

Game Component Description

Main board

This is where reviewer tiles, award tokens, beer types and market tiles are placed. The main board features the following:

• A Craft points track
• B Beerfest area:
  • a Competing beer area: For beers submitted by players.
  • b Beer characteristics space: For beer characteristic tokens.
  • c Reviewer spot: For a reviewer tile.
  • d Award spaces: For award tokens.
• C Trend track representing beer types that are in the highest demand:
  • a Beer type spaces: For beer type tiles: Pilsner, Ale, India Pale Ale, Stout.
  • b Trend track: Divided into 2 areas:
    • b1 Off-trend area (the upper part): With the yellow background is an area with beers that will appear in the trend. Brewing them enables a player to move immediately one of his shares (represented by a bottle cap token) between two market tiles.
    • b2 Current trend area (the lower part): With the green background is an area with beers that are in the highest demand. Brewing them brings one experience tile and additional Fest Points (FP) during a beerfest. Additionally, Lager is always considered to be in the current trend because of its popularity (therefore brewing it brings an experience tile, but no additional FP during a beerfest).
• D Market area:
  • a Market spaces: For market tiles. Depending on the number of players, the number of tiles that the market area can accommodate and tile movement rules change.
  • b Market leader space: Featuring bonuses for the leader of a given market.
  • c Space number: Important when gaining shares on the market.
  • d Market maturity limit: Informing when a given market tile is moved down or removed from the main board.

Player boards

Each player receives a board representing his brewery. The board matches the player's color. Each player board features the following:

• A Recipe area: Where resource tiles from warehouses are placed.
• B Brewing results area: Where players place bottle cap tokens and beer characteristic tokens gained when brewing a given recipe.
• C Warehouses: For different resources: light and dark malt, hops, fermentation type (open, closed) and filling type (can, bottle, barrel, keg).
• D Work schedule: Used to manage workers.
• E Marketplace space: Where a worker can be placed to send him to the marketplace. This gives access to additional column of resources during the Supply Phase.
• F Recruitment/CV space: Informs about the opportunity to hire a new worker by spending 4 bottle cap tokens.
• G Experience and passion spaces: Where experience tiles and passion tiles, that will be used when brewing, are placed. Next to each player board, there is room for up to 5 experience and passion tiles.

Phase track, round track and markers

These tracks are used to mark the current phase and the number of already played rounds.

• A Phase track: a Brewery Phase, b Beerfest Phase, c Market Phase, d Supply Phase, e Planning Phase.
• B Round track

There are two markers in the box. Use one to mark the current phase and the other to mark the current round. Every other round a beerfest occurs. It is marked on the round track with a different color.

Marketplace tile

The Market is the area where players supply themselves with resource tiles. The marketplace tile indicates where such tiles are placed. On the right side of the tile there is information about the number of resource tiles that should be added after forming the marketplace (the first column of resources).

Reviewer tile

This tile contains information about personal preferences of a given reviewer i.e. how well he likes certain beer characteristics.

• A Any reviewer gives Fest Points (FP) for the following characteristic tokens: Aroma, Color and Taste.
• B Any reviewer may also give additional FP for the following: the fermentation type and the filling type.

Beerfest award tokens

Participants of a beerfest have a chance to gain 1 out of 4 awards represented by the tokens. Each award is unique i.e. only one player can gain it during the current beerfest. When a given player chooses the award, he turns it face-down to indicate that this award cannot be chosen again.

• A Token front: An available award.
• B Token back: An unavailable award.

Beer type tiles

There are 4 different beer types represented in the game by tiles and 1 type (Lager) printed directly on the main board. Each beer type requires certain ingredients in the recipe in order to brew a given beer so that it matches the type. Each type requires 3 ingredients in various combinations. Additionally, each tile has a space for an additional ingredient token that might appear on a tile when a market tile is pushed off the main board. If this happens, the additional ingredient (light malt, dark malt or hops) must be included in the recipe when brewing a beer in a given type.

• A Required ingredients: An amount and an ingredient type, such as light malt, dark malt or hops.
• B Name.
• C Space for an additional ingredient token.

Market tile

The market tile represents preferences and expectations of clients concerning any beers that players will offer to them during the game. This is the basic game component that brings Craft Points (CP). It is also the main battleground where players will compete for their market share in order to become the leader of a given market and gain additional points for it.

• A Market expectations: Each tile features its unique expectations. The description of all expectations can be found on the reference card.
• B Market leader: This is the space for the player who has the biggest number of his bottle caps on a given market.
• C General market: This is the space for the remaining players.
• D Award: If the beer brewed by a player (i.e. the ingredients you used) matches market expectations from a given market tile, the player gains Craft Points (CP) shown on a given tile. CP are given to the market leader and any players, whose tokens are placed on the general market space as long as their recipes meet the market expectations. The market leader gains bonus CP. The number of bonus CP is shown on the main board inside a blue arrow. Of course, the market leader will only gain points if his beer meets the expectations of a given market.

Resource tiles

There are 4 resource types in the game:

• A Malt: Light and dark.
• B Hops.
• C Fermentation Type: Closed / open.
• D Filling Type: Can / bottle / barrel / keg.

Each resource type has positive and negative effects that affect beer being brewed by a player. A single resource can have up to 2 simultaneous effects.

Effects:

• Aroma/Color/Taste affected in a positive or negative way.
• Increase/Decrease of bottle caps gained by brewing.
• Additional CP.

If a given effect is shown on the red background, it negatively affects the beer being brewed. However, if it is shown on the green background, it positively affects the beer.

Example: Using the light malt tile shown in the manual will result in 1 negative Aroma token, but 2 additional bottle cap tokens.

Experience tiles

They enable players to increase the number of positive effects and decrease the number of negative effects affecting a beer. Each tile contains one or two effects. A crossed-out effect means that a player ignores a negative effect from one chosen resource tile.

If a given experience tile has two effects, both must be considered when a player resolves brewing.

Example: The experience tile shown in the manual provides one taste token and enables a player to ignore one negative color effect from one resource tile.

An experience tile is gained whenever a player brews a beer matching the current trend (the one placed on the green background of the trend track). There is no limit to the number of experience tiles that a given player may have (the only limitation is the number of tiles that a player can use during one brewing as shown on each player board). A given player can have more than one copy of the same experience tile.

Brewing passion tile

A brewing passion tile (also called a passion tile) is one of the awards that can be won during a beerfest. Each tile enables a player to double any effect indicated by arrows i.e. if a player places the tile between two experience tiles, any effects indicated by arrows are counted double. All passion tiles are identical.

There is no limit to the number of passion tiles that a given player may have or play (the only limitation is the number of tiles that a player can use during one brewing as shown on each player board). Two passion tiles placed next to each other do not affect each other.

Beer characteristic tokens

They are used to show positive and negative characteristics of a beer brewed by a player, while the ones placed next to a beer reviewer indicate the maximum number of tokens that bring FP during a beerfest. Tokens have a positive effect side and a negative effect side.

Bottle cap tokens

Each player has his own bottle cap color matching the color of his player board. Each player gains bottle caps whenever he brews beer.

Bottle caps represent players' assets as well as market shares. They are used on market tiles during the competition for CP and the market leader's position.

Order tiles

Each round a new player order is determined and the order tiles are used to indicate this. The tile's front shows a full beer glass while its back an empty one. This way each player may indicate that he has already resolved his turn.

Workers

At the beginning of the game, each player receives 4 workers matching the color of the player board he chose. During the game, players may gain additional workers (represented by grey markers) in two ways: hiring them with bottle caps or receive them as a beerfest award. The number of grey markers is limited and if the markers are depleted, no more workers can be hired until the end of the game.

Craft points markers

Each player has one Craft Points marker that is used to track the current number of points on the Craft Points Track. The order of these markers on the track at the end of a round determines the player order for the next round.

Starting the Game

Before the game starts, players choose the first player. The first player can be the owner of this game or the person who can name the most beer types. Or maybe the person who has brewed the biggest number of different beers in his home brewery? You can use your imagination as long as the first player is chosen.

Next, the player order for the first round is determined going clockwise around the table. All players should receive proper order tiles.

Each player is dealt the starting pool of bottle cap tokens in matching color: the last player gets 3 bottle cap tokens and each of the remaining players 2 bottle cap tokens.

Then players proceed to the preparation round, in which all steps should be performed starting from the last player and going counter-clockwise around the table.

Preparation Round

• A Take experience tile: Each player takes one experience tile in the order of the preparation round. Each time an experience tile is taken, its empty space should be refilled with a new one.
• B Assigning shares: Players assign shares to market tiles as described under "Assigning shares" (Phase III: Market Phase).
• C Take resources: Each player in the preparation round order takes one resource of each type: malt, hops, fermentation type and filling type until everyone has one new resource in each warehouse (4 resources altogether). The order of choosing resources is irrelevant (e.g. you do not have to choose hops first and then fermentation type second - it is up to you to decide).
• D Resolve planning: Finally, all players place their workers on their work schedules according to the rules described below (players do this simultaneously).

Once all the above steps are resolved, the preparation round ends (never to be repeated) and the first regular round starts.

Placing workers on the work schedule

The work schedule is an area where all activities in a player's brewery are planned. By sending workers to their tasks as part of different shifts, the efficiency of different actions performed during the Brewery Phase changes.

At the beginning of the game each player has 4 workers. During this phase, a player may place any number of workers on the work schedule. Workers can perform tasks in the brewery as part of 3 shifts (columns): 8:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM.

The work schedule also features 3 action rows, where workers can be placed. Therefore, there are 9 different spaces where players can place their workers. Position of individual workers determines the effects (crates) of their work. The sooner a worker is sent to work in a given row, the more actions he will generate.

Example: If one worker is placed at 8:00 AM on the first space of the first row (malt and hops warehouse), he will generate 3 yellow crates to spend in the malt warehouse and 3 green crates to spend in the hops warehouse (i.e. at the end of the day, all crates in the spaces are added, including the space with the worker).

Action rows:

1. Malt and hops warehouse. Each space in this row generates 1 yellow crate to spend in the malt warehouse and 1 green crate to spend in the hops warehouse.
2. Market, fermentation and filling plant. The first space in this row enables a player to move his share (i.e. a bottle cap marker placed on a market tile) from one market tile to any other market tile (remember that this share is moved in the Brewery Phase before brewing beer!). The second and the third space in this row generates 1 blue crate to spend on the fermentation and 1 grey crate to spend in the filling type warehouse. Example: If a worker is placed on the first space in this row, he will generate 1 share move on the market, +2 blue crates to spend on the fermentation and +2 grey crates to spend in the filling type warehouse.
3. Playing passion and experience tiles. Each space makes it possible to play one passion tile or one experience tile from a player's hand. It means that the sooner a worker is sent, the more experience/passion tiles can be played.

The crate icon represents the cost of transferring a chosen resource tile from a given warehouse to the recipe area. For example, if 2 yellow crates appear next to a malt tile, 2 yellow crates must be spent to transfer such tile to the recipe area.

Rules of placing workers on the work schedule:

• Workers can be placed only on one space in the same row and column. It means that a worker sent to the first row (malt and hops warehouse) for 8:00 AM precludes placing workers for 8:00 AM in the second and the third row. It also prevents the player from placing any of his workers in the first row at a time later than 8:00 AM.
• At the end of the day, all effects of the spaces of a given row are always summed up, starting from the space with a worker (i.e. sending a worker for 8:00 AM in the second row results both in moving a share on the market and gaining two blue crates and two grey crates).
• One space can be occupied by more than one worker. Placing more than one worker on a given space multiplies work effects in a given row. For example, if two workers are placed on the second space of the first row, it will result in 4 yellow crates to spend in the malt warehouse and 4 green crates to spend in the hops warehouse.

Sending workers to the marketplace

Next to the work schedule, there is the Marketplace space enabling a player to send a worker to the Marketplace. In the Planning Phase one worker can be placed there. This worker does not affect the work schedule in any way.

Placing a worker on this space enables a player to buy resources from the additional resources row below the marketplace tile.

End of scheduling work and placing workers on the board

The Preparation Round ends after each player declares that he has finished his work schedule - players may turn over their order tiles to the empty beer glass side to indicate this.

Game Round

Each round consists of 5 phases. Players perform each phase one after another in the player order. When the last phase ends, a new player order is determined based on the current score (see "Ending the round").

Phase I: Brewery Phase

The Brewery Phase is divided into 3 steps. Each step is performed by all players, one by one in the player order.

Step I: Work in the brewery

During this step, all actions generated by workers on players' work schedules are performed.

• Activities connected with moving resources from warehouses to recipe areas (i.e. spending crates) and playing passion/experience tiles are performed simultaneously by all players.
• Moving shares on markets is performed in the player order - only the players who activated this action on their work schedule participate.

Moving resources from warehouses

A player can move no more resources from the warehouse to the recipe area than there are spaces on the area for a given resource:

• Up to 4 resources of any kind from the malt and hops warehouses (each recipe must contain at least one Hops and at least one Malt of any kind).
• One fermentation type tile.
• One filling type tile.

Tiles can be moved from any space in a warehouse if the cost in crates of a proper color is paid. The tiles need not be taken in order from the top to the bottom.

The cost of moving a given tile is shown next to the tile and is represented by a certain amount of crates of a given color. If more than one tile is moved from the same warehouse to the recipe area, all costs should be added and the moving player should check if his workers generated enough crates on the work schedule to pay these costs.

Example: If a player wants to move the first and the third tile (looking from the top) from the malt warehouse, he needs to spend 4 yellow crates in the malt warehouse (1 for the first tile and + 3 for the last tile). In order to do this, the player should have 2 workers on 12:00 PM in the "Malt and hops warehouse" row as this enables him to generate 4 yellow crates in the malt warehouse and 4 green crates in the hops warehouse. He could also achieve that by placing 2 workers on 8:00 AM row as this would bring him 6 crates in the malt warehouse and 6 in the hops warehouse, but 2 crates would be left unused. Therefore, this would not be the optimal move (unless 12:00 PM was occupied by a worker in a different row). The player could even place 4 workers on 4 PM and get 4 crates in the malt warehouse and 4 in the hops warehouse. That option is very worker-consuming and far from optimal, however, in some cases a player might be forced to resort to it.

After taking a resource tile from the warehouse, all the remaining resource tiles in the warehouse stay in their places until the end of the Brewery Phase. Resource tiles placed on the recipe area stay there until the moment of brewing even if it does not occur in the same round.

Important: If any resource is moved from a warehouse to the recipe area, it cannot be returned to the warehouse. Additionally, tiles already placed on the recipe area cannot be swapped with tiles in warehouses.

Playing experience and passion tiles

During the Brewery Phase, each player can play up to 5 passion and/or experience tiles (there are 5 spaces at the bottom of each brewery board). The number of tiles played depends on the number of actions activated by workers in the third row of the work schedule.

• Experience tiles can be placed next to each other in any order and configuration - a player chooses which set of experience and passion tiles suits him best.
• Experience tiles cannot be freely rotated.
• When a player resolves the brewing he can no longer swap tiles already placed near his player board nor swap them with the tiles available to him (the ones not played yet).
• Effects of experience and passion tiles are resolved when brewing.
• When resolving experience and passion tiles, a player takes into consideration all effects from a given tile.
• Once the brewing is resolved, passion and experience tiles are returned to the owner's pool (the player takes back all passion and experience tiles he played).

Example of playing passion and experience tiles: Playing the passion and experience tiles shown brings the player the following benefits: 2 Aroma tokens, 2 additional bottle cap tokens in his color, 1 Color token as well as an opportunity to cancel 1 negative Aroma effect and 1 negative Color effect from the resources placed currently on the recipe area.

Moving shares on markets

If a player placed a worker on 8:00 AM in the second row, he can move his shares between two market tiles:

• The number of shares a player can move is based on the number of workers placed on 8:00 AM in the second row of the work schedule.
• Only players who place their workers on this space are allowed to move their shares. Shares are moved in the player order.
• A player may move up to as many tokens as he has workers on 8:00 AM in the second row, moving all of them at once. The player can choose not to move his tokens at all or move only some of them (if he placed more than one worker on the space).

Step II: Brewing

The second step of the Brewery Phase is brewing. This step is resolved in the player order. Each player chooses if he wants to brew a beer this round from the resources in the recipe area. If a player chooses not to brew a beer or does not fulfill the requirements regarding the resources, he skips this step.

Brewing Beer: In order to brew a beer, a given player must have at least: one malt (any kind), one hops, one fermentation type and one filling type on his recipe area.

Brewing Resolution: Next, the player checks the effects of his brewing in the following order:

A Beer characteristics check:

The player checks how many positive characteristics he obtained: Aroma, Color and Taste generated by all resource tiles placed on the recipe area. Now all modifiers (such as cancelling any negative effects that affect a beer) and additional positive effects generated by experience and passion tiles should be counted.

Next, the player checks how many negative characteristics his beer has according to the following rule: one negative characteristic cancels one positive characteristic, e.g., if one resource features positive Aroma and another resource - negative one - both effects neutralize each other and should be ignored. Remember: Only characteristics of the same type negate each other!

After all modifiers are accounted for, the player takes the proper number of positive and negative beer characteristic tokens. At the end of the Brewery Phase there is an example showing how to check beer characteristics.

B Additional effects check (CP and bottle cap tokens):

• The player adds any CP from his resource tiles (if a resource tile providing CP is placed on the recipe area).
• The player checks if his recipe brought him any additional bottle cap tokens (remembering about any negative effects).
• When counting CP and bottle cap tokens, the player should consider any additional CP and bottle cap tokens generated by his experience and passion tiles.

Important: No matter how many negative bottle cap tokens a given player has on his resource tiles, he always gains one bottle cap token for brewing beer.

CP should be immediately added to the player's score by sliding the marker on the craft points track. Any unused bottle cap tokens should be placed below the recipe area.

C Beer type check (a beer brewed in one of 4 types):

A beer brewed in a given type is beer that has the exact same amount of malt and hops as shown on the type's tile (plus any additional resource token that can be possibly placed on this tile!). If there is more or less malt/hops tiles on the recipe area than the amount shown on a beer tile, the player cannot benefit from any additional effects featured next to a given type.

• If a player brews beer that is in the highest demand (it is in the green zone), this player may choose and take one experience tile and he will gain additional FP during a beerfest. A new experience tile should be immediately revealed from the pile of experience tiles. Taking an experience tile is optional.
• If a player brews beer that is off-trend (the one in the yellow zone), he may move one share in his color between two market tiles (this must be performed immediately or not at all).

Remember: Lager is a beer type that is always in the current trend and brewing it enables a player to take an experience tile (but it brings no additional FP).

If your beer matches no beer type, nothing happens. You cannot take advantage of any additional options or effects. You should go straight to the next point.

D Market points check:

The player checks if the brewed beer meets expectations of the markets where the player has his shares. Depending on whether the player is the market leader of a given market or not, he gains the following:

• As the market leader: CP shown on the tile + CP for being the market leader.
• As a non-leader: CP shown on the tile.

The player only checks the markets where he has at least one share in his color. It is possible to gain points from different market tiles at once - it all depends on how the player brewed his recipe.

The sum of the points from the market should be modified by any negative beer characteristic tokens of the brewed beer: Every two negative tokens subtract 1 CP from the sum.

Example: A player's beer has 1 negative Aroma token and 1 negative Taste token, so the beer brewed by this player has 2 negative characteristics. As a result the player must lower his final sum of the CP gained from the market by 1 CP.

CP should be immediately added to the player's score by sliding the marker on the craft points track.

E Beerfest submission (optional):

The last activity that a player may perform after he resolves brewing is to submit his beer to a beerfest. If a player chooses to participate in a beerfest, he must perform the following steps:

• The player takes all resource tiles from the recipe area and all characteristic tokens (positive and negative) gained when brewing and places them on the main board, in the beerfest area, on the space matching the player's color.

As beerfests happen every second round, it is possible that the player already submitted beer in the previous round (the one preceding the beerfest). However, submitting the previous beer does not block the possibility of replacing it with a new brew. In this case, the new beer substitutes the previous one. Important: A given player cannot check what beer he submitted in the previous round. If he chooses to substitute previous beer, he cannot change his mind - he should remove all resource and characteristic tiles placed on the beerfest area and replace them with tiles and beer characteristics representing the beer brewed this round.

If a player chooses not to submit his beer to the beerfest during a given round, he simply does the following:

• He places all used resource tiles next to the main board (on the used stock). This stock will be used to refill resources pile when one will be empty.
• He returns all beer characteristic tokens to the proper piles.

If at any time in the game, a player's marker on the craft points track has to be moved onto a space already occupied by that of another player, simply place the former on top of the latter.

Ending the Brewery Phase

Once all players finish resolving effects of their brewing, the Brewery Phase ends. Players then slide all of their resource tokens upwards as shown in the examples in the manual.

Phase II: Beerfest

In the 2nd, 4th and 6th round a beerfest is organized. During a beerfest, a beer reviewer evaluates all submitted brews. Skip this phase in each odd round.

Only the players who submitted their beer participate in a given beerfest. During a beerfest, beer is evaluated by a reviewer who assigns FP for different characteristics of submitted beers. Additionally, each critic has his personal preferences regarding the fermentation or filling type that may bring extra FP. Finally, players may gain even more FP for brewing one of beers currently placed on the green zone of the trend line.

After beerfest points are assigned and the winner is determined, players proceed to choosing their awards.

Remember! Fest Points (FP) are not Craft Points (CP) and they are only important when determining the winner of the current beerfest.

Each beerfest ends with a change of beer trends. Therefore, each event of such magnitude has a strong impact on long-term strategy and future activities of players.

Beer evaluation

Each beer reviewer has his own personal preferences and evaluates particular characteristics of any drinks submitted to a given beerfest differently. The following example features a reviewer who will assign FP as described below:

• 3 FP for each Aroma token generated by the submitted beer.
• 2 FP for each Color token generated by the submitted beer.
• 2 FP for each Taste token generated by the submitted beer.

Importantly, for each of these characteristics, the reviewer will assign a given number of FP for the number of tokens no greater than the number of matching characteristic tokens placed next to his tile. Each excess token will only bring 1 FP. It means that if the submitted beer has 4 Aroma tokens, but the reviewer has only 2 matching Aroma tokens next to his tile, a given player will gain 6 FP for 2 of his tokens and 1 point for each of his two excess tokens (i.e. altogether the player will gain 8 FP: 6 for the basic evaluation and 2 for the excess tokens). If a given characteristic has no matching token next to the reviewer tile, it generates 1 FP for each characteristic token.

Furthermore, each reviewer has additional preferences regarding beers and they may also bring additional FP:

• Fermentation type.
• Filling type.

Finally, a player may gain additional FP (3 or 5) if his submitted beer is currently on the trend area (with the green background) of the trend track.

To sum up, when evaluating a beer the following elements are considered: FP for positive characteristics, FP for additional preferences and FP for a beer from the current trend area of the trend track.

The sum of the FP should be modified by negative FP resulting from negative beer characteristic tokens, similarly to counting CP from the market: every two negative tokens subtract 1 FP from the sum - no reviewer wants the winning beer to be less than perfect, after all!

Assigning awards

The player who gained the most FP gains 2 CP and can choose his award first. The order of choosing awards is based on the number of FP gained by each participant. The number of awarded places depends on the number of players:

• In a 4-player game, the first 3 players gain an award (if 3 or less players chose to submit their beers, all participants gain an award).
• In a 3-player game, the first 2 players gain an award (if 2 or less players chose to submit their beers, all participants gain an award).
• In a 2-player game, the winner chooses 2 awards and the loser one award, however awards are chosen in turns starting from the winner.

In case of a tie:

• The winner is the player who gained more FP for characteristic tokens.
• If there is still a tie, the winner is the player who has less excess negative tokens.
• Still no winner? Whoever has the most positive tokens wins (no matter the number of points they provide).

During a beerfest, the participants can choose their awards from the pool of 4 award types (independently from the number of players), as described below:

• Additional worker - the player takes a new worker for his brewery.
• Passion tile - the player takes one passion tile.
• 2 CP - the player immediately adds 2 CP to his score on the Craft Points Track.
• 3 bottle cap tokens - the player takes 3 bottle cap tokens in his color.

After any award is chosen by a player, its token should be turned over to its inactive side indicating that no other player can choose the same award.

Once all awards are chosen thus ending the current beerfest, the current reviewer tile should be discarded and a new one should be turned face-up. Also, turn all award tokens to their active side - they will be available again during the next beerfest.

Trend change

After each beerfest, trends on the beer market of Beer Empire immediately change. In order to show this, the tile from the bottom of the trend track should be placed at the top of it so that it pushes all remaining tiles down by one space.

Trend changes are resolved only after a beerfest scoring, so in each even round!

Phase III: Market Phase

During this phase, players compete for their share of the markets, in which they are planning to gain CP assigned for many different aspects of beers they brew. Each market represents various characteristics or stages of the brewing process as well as needs of individual clients, so there are lots of different strategies to gain the most CP.

This phase is divided into two steps: Market changes and Assigning shares.

Important: Throughout this section bottle cap tokens used for bidding and assigning on market tiles are called Shares.

Step I: Market changes

First, players should check if any market tile in the first row (counting from the top) and then in the second row has at least as many shares on it as its market maturity limit. This limit depends on the number of players.

Number of players	Number of shares in the first row	Number of shares in the second row
2	4	6
3	5	8
4	7	9

First case: If any tile in the first row reaches the limit shown in the table above (i.e. it has become mature and clients are starting to look for new tastes), perform the following:

• Move the tile downwards along with all the shares.
• Move the tile placed in the second row off the board (even if it has less shares than the limit for the second row) and replace it with the market tile from the first row. Discard all shares from the tile that was pushed off and return them to proper piles (players cannot take these shares back!).
• Turn the pushed-off tile face-down and place it below the main board. Resolve the effect shown on the tile (add a proper Malt or Hops token to the indicated beer tile on the trend track). If the back of the tile is empty, nothing happens.
  • If this space is occupied by another face-down tile, remove the effect it introduced from the proper beer tile on the trend track, place the new tile on the top and resolve its effect (thus replacing the old effect with the new one).

Important: Each beer type tile has enough space for one additional Malt or Hops token. If there are two market tiles below the board that affect the same beer, only the effect of the most recent tile is taken into consideration.

• Refill the empty space in the first row with a new market tile from the pile of market tiles. After a new market tile enters the game, resolve its effect for the next beerfest:
  • If the effect instructs players to add beer characteristic tokens (green background), place them on the proper spaces.
  • If the effect instructs players to subtract tokens (red background), remove any characteristics shown on the market tile.

Second case: If any tile in the second row meets the conditions, perform the following:

• The tile from the second row is pushed off the market. Turn the tile face-down and place it below the main board. Resolve the effect shown on the tile (add a proper Malt or Hops token to the indicated beer tile on the trend track).
  • If this space is occupied by another face-down tile, remove the effect it introduced from the proper beer on the trend track, place the new tile on the top and resolve its effect (thus replacing the old effect with the new one).
• Refill the empty space in the second row by placing there the tile from the first row (even if it has less bottle cap tokens than the market maturity limit for the first row).

Important: Sometimes a tile moved from the first row already meets the market maturity limit of the second row. However, such tile should be left in the new space until the next Market Phase.

• Refill the empty space in the first row by placing there a new market tile from the pile of market tiles. After a new market tile enters the game, resolve its effect for the next beerfest:
  • If the effect instructs players to add beer characteristic tokens (green background), place them on the proper spaces.
  • If the effect instructs players to subtract tokens (red background), remove any characteristics shown on the market tile.

After introducing any market changes, players proceed to assigning their shares.

Step II: Assigning shares

Now, players declare how many shares they want to use when bidding for markets. Any unused shares should be placed under the recipe area for the future rounds (i.e. a player does not have to use all his available shares to bid for markets).

After the declaration, players start expanding to different markets as follows:

• Players start from the market with number 1 and continue based on market numbers:
  • In a 2-player game, the bid is resolved in the following order: 1, 2, 4, 5.
  • In a 3- or 4-player game, the bid is resolved in the following order: from 1 to 6.
• Players hold all of their shares (bottle cap tokens) in one hand.
• The first player supervises the bid by:
  • Informing about the market that players are currently bidding for.
  • Telling players to bid their shares.
  • Telling players to reveal their bids.
• The bid itself is made in secret. Each player considers how many shares he wants to bid for the market being resolved and then places a number of tokens into his hand hidden from other players (e.g. behind his back or under the table). When all players are ready, they close their fists and hold them over the table.
• Next, the supervising player counts to three and all players simultaneously open their fists revealing how many shares they bid.
• Once their bids are revealed, no player can withdraw from the bid or change the number of declared shares. All players place their shares on the market tile and the results are checked (no player can withdraw or decrease the number of shares bid for a given tile):
  • The player with the most shares on the market tile (counting all of the player's shares - both new and already placed ones) becomes the new market leader or keeps his leader status.
  • The remaining players place their shares on the general market space (here the number of shares does not matter).
  • If all players currently have the same number of shares on the market tile, they place them on the general market space. It means that when the scoring is resolved, all players who fulfill the market goal and have their shares on this market will score only for the tile itself (as there will be no market leader to take the leader bonus).

Remember: Do not move market tiles at this point even if - after bidding - the number of shares is equal to or higher than the market maturity limit (it will be done at the beginning of the Market Phase next round).

All the rules described above are used when bidding for each market tile. Players are not obliged to participate in all bids. The Market Phase ends after the bid for the last market tile is resolved or when players do not have any shares left to bid. If players have any shares left after the last bid, they are returned to their brewery board (below the recipe area).

Example of a market bid: Player #4 decided to enter the market aggressively by bidding 5 shares, while the rest chose to play it safe. It resulted in Player #4 becoming the new market leader while the other players had to place their shares on the general market space of the tile.

Advanced Variant: At the beginning of the game, players may choose to play using the following optional rule: the player who has the least shares on a given market tile cannot gain any CP for this market when scoring for brewing!

Phase IV: Supply Phase

Now it is time for players to supply themselves in resources necessary to brew beer! As players already know the preferences of the reviewer for the next beerfest, the beer order on the trend track and their market shares, they can proceed to the key element of the game - choosing the best ingredients for their next recipe.

Depending on the number of players, there are 3, 4 or 5 resource tokens available in each row. Additionally, independently from the number of players, there is also the Marketplace with additional resources. Rules for resolving this phase and gaining resources are as follows:

• This phase is resolved in the player order.
• Each player can take as many resources as he has free spaces in the warehouses on his player board or until all players choose not to take any resources (when a player passes, he can no longer return to taking resources in the current round).
• When it is a player's turn to take a resource tile, he can take 1 resource tile at a time from any row. In order to take another tile, the player must wait until it's his turn again (i.e. until the other players have had a chance to take their first tiles and so on).
• When a player takes a resource tile, its space is left empty (resources are refreshed after the Supply Phase ends). The only exception is the Marketplace - whenever a resource tile is taken from there, a new resource tile of the same type should be placed immediately to refill the empty space.
• The resource tile taken by a player should be placed immediately on the first free space (starting from the top) of the proper warehouse on the player board. It means that each resource tile of the same type placed on a given warehouse will have a higher cost (in crates) when moving it to the recipe area.
• If a player has no free space in his warehouse, he cannot take any more resource tiles of a given type.
• Only the players who placed their workers where the marketplace space is on their player board, may draw resources from the additional column below the marketplace tile (first column).

The Supply Phase ends when all players pass (i.e. choose not to take any resource tiles) or completely fill all of their warehouses. Finally, all empty spaces are refilled with new resource tiles and players proceed to the last phase of the round.

If anytime during play one of resources pile will be empty, create new one with resources from used stock.

Phase V: Planning Phase

The Planning Phase (i.e. placing workers on the work schedule) is described in detail as part of the description of the preparation round. When all players finish placing their workers, the current round ends.

Ending the round

At the end of each round, a new player order is determined based on the current score. The player who has the least CP receives the order token numbered 1 and the process is repeated until the player with the best score gets the last order token (this way he will be the last player). If two or more CP markers are on the same space of the track, order tokens should be assigned starting from the player whose marker is on top.

When a new round begins:

• The phase marker should be moved to indicate the first phase.
• The round marker should be advanced by one space on the round track.

Ending the Game

Final round

The final round lasts shorter than the previous rounds. The game ends immediately after resolving the Beerfest Phase, so the Market Phase, the Supply Phase and the Planning Phase are skipped.

Final scoring

Because players count their scores on the craft points track as the game progresses, their final scores should only be adjusted in the following way:

• +1 CP for each 2 unused bottle cap tokens on the player board.
• +1 CP for each market tile where a player is the market leader.

In case of a tie:

• The winner is the player who has the most shares on market tiles.
• If there is still a tie, the winner is the player who is the market leader on the bigger number of market tiles.
• Still no winner? Compare the number of resource tiles in the players' warehouses - whoever has the least wins!