Brewin' USA
Brewin' USA Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's in the Box?
- 152 cards: 116 ingredient cards and 36 beer cards
- 12 game tiles (City tiles)
- 110 bottle caps: 5 of each of 5 colors, and 85 Uncolored
- 1 manual
- 1 play marker
Game Object
The object of the game is to score the highest number of total Victory Points. Victory Points can be gained by:
- Launching a Beer Card
- Controlling a City at the end of the game
- Controlling a Region at the end of the game
- Winning a Brewfest
Game Setup
- Each player takes a set of 5 Colored Bottle Caps and 15 Uncolored Bottle Caps. Any extra Bottle Caps remain in the Bottle Caps bag.
- A separate deck is created of Ingredient Cards and Beer Cards. All decks are shuffled.
- City Tiles are arranged by grouping like regions in vertical columns (Pacific, Mountain, Central, Atlantic).
- Players are dealt three Beer Cards and three Organic Ingredient Cards of quality one.
- Players may discard up to two of their Beer Cards and draw new Beer Cards if they wish.
A 2-3 player game should be played with one less City from each Region at random.
Game Phases
The game is played in a series of rounds and each round consists of three phases:
- Ingredient Auction
- Launch a Beer card(s)
- Resolve any Brewfests
After each round is complete, pass the dealer and play another round. Any player that has launched three beers triggers the ending. The game ends by finishing the current round, playing one more round, and tallying final Victory Points.
Startup Currency
Each brewery receives 5 Colored Bottle Caps and 15 Uncolored Bottle Caps at the beginning of the game.
Colored Bottle Caps are used to mark a player's launched beers.
The Uncolored Bottle Caps form the player's bank and will be used to compete in the Ingredient Auction.
Any unused Uncolored Bottle Caps are converted to Victory Points at the end of the game if they are not spent.
Bottle Caps
At the start of the game, Uncolored Bottle Caps represent start-up funds for each Brewery and will be used to bid for Ingredients in the Ingredient Auction Phase. Each player receives 15 caps at the start of the game.
Once an Uncolored Bottle Cap has been used in the Ingredient Auction, it is then converted into Market Demand by the dealer placing it on any unclaimed city. An Uncolored Bottle Cap is turned upside down when it represents Market Demand.
Used in Scoring:
- Cities: Each Market Demand on a City is awarded as one Victory Point to the player that has a Beer Card controlling that City at the end of the game. This number is doubled if the player controls the City with a Beer type that matches the city preference.
- Regions: Each Market Demand contained within a region is awarded as one Victory Point to the player who controls the Region at the end of the game.
- Player Bank: Any unused Uncolored Bottle Caps are converted to Victory Points at the end of the game.
Ingredient Types
Every Beer needs four core ingredients: Grain, Water, Hops, and Yeast.
An "Organic" ingredient can be used in the place of any core ingredient.
One Adjunct (additive) may be added to any beer and contains a unique Action to be executed only when used in Launching a Beer. Adjuncts are: Berry, Citrus, Pumpkin, Coffee.
Each Ingredient Card has a quality value of which a higher value is higher quality.
An ingredient discard pile should also be formed as the game goes on with discarded face-up ingredients. If the ingredient draw pile should run out, shuffle the discard pile.
Ingredient Auction
The Ingredient Auction takes place at the start of every new round. Pass the Dealer to the person to the left so there is a new dealer each round. If it is the first round, the dealer is the person who most recently visited a brewery. The dealer creates the Ingredient Auction.
An Ingredient Batch is created by drawing ingredient cards from the ingredient deck and laying them face up in a column. The dealer continues laying face up cards on the Ingredient Batch until he lays a card down that repeats an Ingredient Type found in that Ingredient Batch.
The max cards on any Ingredient Batch can be 6. In the event that the first two cards match Ingredient Type, then the dealer should place a 3rd card face down on that batch.
The dealer then moves to the next Ingredient Batch and continues this process until forming one Ingredient Batch for each player in the game.
The player to the left of the dealer selects which Ingredient Batch the bidding will start on by marking it with the play marker and stating an opening bid.
Bidding continues clockwise where each player has the option to raise the bid or pass.
Each bid must increase at minimum by one Uncolored Bottle Cap.
Players cannot bid on an Ingredient Batch if they have already passed on it, cannot afford the bid, or have already secured an Ingredient Batch this round.
After all other players have passed, the Ingredient Batch is awarded to the final bidder for the cost of the final bid.
The player to the left of the previous final bidder nominates which Ingredient Batch will be bid on next.
Each player must buy one Ingredient Batch per round and the last Ingredient Batch will always be free.
All Caps paid into the Auction should be collected by the dealer and then distributed (Upside Down) across any number of unclaimed cities at the dealer's choice. These Caps now act as Market Demand and will count as Victory Points at the end of the game. If no unclaimed Cities exist, then Caps are returned to the Bottle Caps bag.
The Ingredient Auction phase is complete after all players have selected one Ingredient Batch. After everything in this phase is complete, then the game progresses to the Launch a Beer Card(s) phase.
Example (Ingredient Batches): The Play Marker shows which Ingredient Batch is currently up for bid. Example (Post Auction): Caps paid are distributed as Market Demand across unclaimed cities (e.g. +1, +4, +2, +2 Market Demand).
Beer Card
A Beer Card shows: the Beer Recipe (Type and Quality requirement), the Beer Quality, the Beer Style (light blue is Pilsners and Lagers), and a Required Adjunct to launch the beer (not all beers have this requirement).
An Adjunct can be played on any beer but only one per beer. Some beers have a required Adjunct that must be present to launch the beer.
Launch a Beer
Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player now has an opportunity to launch up to two Beer Cards. A Beer Card may be launched when you contain enough ingredients to launch it (Grain, Water, Hops, and Yeast). Follow these steps to launch a beer:
- The quality number on the Ingredient Cards must match or exceed the Ingredient quality numbers on the beer recipe. No bonus is given for exceeding the recipe quality.
- The player confirms they have satisfied the beer recipe by laying the Beer Card and the Ingredient Cards on the table in front of them.
- The player places one of their own Colored Bottle Caps on the beer to mark its owner. (Each beer automatically receives one Colored Bottle Cap from the player who launched it.)
- The player now has two options:
- Option A. Select an uncontrolled City and control it. Place your launched beer on the City.
- Option B. Challenge a controlled City and thus the beer and player controlling it to a Brewfest.
- Next the player should discard all ingredients used to the ingredient discard pile. If they added an adjunct, then they should perform the action on the Adjunct.
- Finally the player draws two new Beer Cards and discards any one Beer Card they have to return them to a total of 3 Beer Cards.
Players are encouraged to name their Beer.
After all players have had an opportunity to launch a beer, proceed to the Resolve any Brewfests phase. If no Brewfests exist, then proceed back to the Auction Phase unless the game is over.
Claiming a City
Each City shows a City Flavor Profile. If a Beer's Style matches the Flavor Profile on the city, then any Market Demand on the City is doubled when totaling Victory Points awarded from the City at the end of the game.
Each Beer Card claiming a City becomes a profit machine that generates one Uncolored Bottle Cap per turn to the player's owner paid from the Bottle Caps bag at the end of each round.
Example: a city claimed by Player Orange with a light blue (Pilsner/Lager) beer; the Beer Style does not match the Flavor Profile on the City. The beer's quality (e.g. 7 Quality) is worth that many VP, and the City has 4 Market Demand.
Brewfest
A Brewfest is an event that resolves the conflict when there is competition for a City as a result of the Launch a Beer phase. Challenging a player to a Brewfest does not cost anything. Any number of players may participate.
Steps to a Brewfest:
- Each participating player selects up to four Ingredient cards from their hand.
- Each participating player selects one unrevealed card from one opponent of their choice and discards it permanently.
- All players reveal remaining Ingredient cards entered and scores are summed.
The winner of a Brewfest takes control or retains control of the contested City and is the player with the highest total sum of Beer Quality and Ingredient Quality.
- Beer Quality
- plus Total Ingredient Quality (non-discarded Ingredients)
- = Brewfest Score
A tie is awarded to the player defending the city.
All non-discarded Ingredients used in the Brewfest Scoring will be returned to each player's hand.
Example: 7 Beer Quality + 1 + 2 + 1 quality Ingredient Cards = 10 Total (1 quality discarded at random), versus 10 Beer Quality + 1 quality Ingredient Card = 11 Total (5 quality discarded at random).
The player(s) that lose the Brewfest remove their Beer and Colored Bottle Cap from the City and place it face up in front of them. This is termed a Skunked Beer and will still count towards Victory Points at the end of the game.
It may be relaunched during the Launch a Beer phase at a cost of 5 Uncolored Bottle Caps.
The special action gained from launching a beer with a Citrus Adjunct may also be used to move a Skunked Beer back onto the map or start a Brewfest.
Resolving Brewfests
All Brewfests execute one at a time starting with the Brewfest that contains the first participating player to the left of the dealer. If that player is in two Brewfests, then it is their choice which to execute first.
Brewfest Clean-up
After the brewfest, all Market Demand on that city should be divided into X piles where X was the number of players in the Brewfest. Any remainder is distributed to the winner's pile. Each participating player receives their pile.
The Winner of the Brewfest can perform any combination of:
- Recycle their Winner Pile of Market Demand to their player bank.
- Leave their winner pile of Market Demand on their claimed City hoping to maximize points from it at the end of the game.
The Loser(s) of the Brewfest must recall their beer from the City tile and this is called a Skunked Beer. The loser(s) of the Brewfest must allocate their loser pile of Market Demand to an unclaimed City tile(s) as Market Demand. If no unclaimed Cities exist, then Caps are returned to the Bottle Caps bag.
After the Brewfest Clean-up is over, proceed back to the Auction Phase unless the game is over.
Example (Brewfest Resolution): Winner Market Demand Pile: The winner may leave the Market Demand on the City hoping to maximize victory points, or may convert it to their player bank for bidding or Victory Points. Loser Market Demand Pile: The loser must place Market Demand on an unclaimed city or if no unclaimed cities exist then discarded.
Miscellaneous Transactions Available
- When launching a beer, any one Ingredient Quality may be purchased and used immediately at a cost of 3 Uncolored Bottle Caps from the player's bank.
- A Skunked Beer may be relaunched at the cost of 5 Uncolored Bottle Caps.
All Miscellaneous Transactions return bottle caps to the Bottle Caps bag.
Regional Control
There are four Regions that players may compete for control: Pacific, Mountain, Central, Atlantic.
The player with the most claimed Cities in a Region controls the Region. This is resolved at the end of the game and the Region is worth X Victory Points determined by the total amount of Market Demand on that Region at the end of the game.
A tie for majority control of Cities in the region does not count for points toward any player.
Example (Region Control): Player Orange controls the Central Region in this example.
Example Score:
- Orange: 5 pts for region, 3 pts for controlling the top City, 2 pts for controlling the middle city, 15 pts for Beer Quality launched = 25 pts
- Pink: 0 pts for region, 2 pts for controlling the bottom City, and 10 pts for Beer Quality launched = 12 pts
Game End
Play end is triggered when the first player launches his 3rd beer. After the end of the Launch Beer and Brewfest phase, one final turn with all three phases is played and then scores are totaled.
Game End Scoring
At the end of the game, total score can be calculated by summing up the following.
- For controlling a Region, X pts where X is the total Market Demand found in the Region.
- For controlling a City, X pts where X is the Market Demand on the city. This value is doubled if the Beer Type matches the Beer Preference on the City.
- For Launching a Beer (Controlling a City or Skunked), X pts where X is the Quality of the Beer.
- 1 pt for each Uncolored Bottle Cap left in your bank.
The winner is the player with the most total points.
Special Ingredient Actions
- Coffee: Take 1 Uncolored Bottle Cap from each other player into your Bank.
- Pumpkin: Draw 2 cards from the Ingredient Deck.
- Citrus: Player may move one of their Beer Cards already in play to a new location.
- Berry: Switch any two Market Demand stacks between cities.