Whiskey Business! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Set-Up
• Start the Game with a Barrel Roll!
• How Does a Turn Work?
• What Happens If I Roll a "Sheet to the Wind?"
• How Do I Make Whiskey?
• Here's How a Typical Turn Might Play Out
  • Didn't get all the ingredients you need on your first roll?
  • Did you get all the ingredients needed to make 1 or more barrels of whiskey?
  • Want to press your luck for a chance to get more barrels?
• Once You Place an Ingredient, Can You Move It?
• How Does the Game End?
• Whiskey Flight Around The World!
• When "Last Call" Is Complete, Add Up Your Barrels!
• Tie Breaker
• Advanced "Top Shelf" Rules
  • Take a Shot!
• Sobering Up
• Spoilage
• Optional Drinking Rules

The Set-Up

You can play with 2 to 6 players. To start, if you're over 21, we recommend you pour yourself a few fingers of your favorite whiskey to sip throughout the game. Drinking certainly isn't required to enjoy this game, but we do have optional drinking rules on the last page, if you want to kick it up a notch!

Here's what every player needs:

• A game board – This serves as your "distillery" and shows the recipes for all 4 whiskey varieties.
• A coaster – This serves as your "cellar," where you'll keep score of the barrels you produce.
• 4 barrels – Irish is green, Scotch is blue, Bourbon is white and Rye is red. Start by placing the barrels on the designated spot on the distillery. You'll move them to the cellar once you officially produce a barrel.
• 3 "Sheet to the Wind" tokens – These will indicate your level of inebriation.

Game play also requires 7 dice, and the whiskey tumbler with which to roll them.

Note that there are 6 "ingredient dice":

• Barley
• Corn
• Grain Mash
• Rye
• Water
• Yeast

Whiskeys are also distinguished by where they are created. Thus, the 7th "flag die" has the following:

• Ireland
• Kentucky/USA
• Canada
• Scotland
• "Sheet to the Wind"
• Globe (The globe can be used like a wild card to represent any country.)

Start the Game with a Barrel Roll!

To determine who begins the game, place the tumbler in the middle of the table. Each player rolls one of their barrels toward it with the flick of a finger. The player whose barrel ends up the closest to the tumbler goes first.

How Does a Turn Work?

Each turn, you get a chance to work in your distillery to produce whiskey. Put all 7 dice in the whiskey tumbler and roll them to determine which ingredients you have on hand.

What Happens If I Roll a "Sheet to the Wind?"

Note that the pirate ship represents a "Sheet to the Wind." If you roll this, it means you're sampling too much of your stash and getting precariously tipsy! You can still play your turn, but you'll add a "Sheet to the Wind" token to your distillery.

Once you get "3 Sheets to the Wind," you drunkenly knock over a shelf and immediately lose your entire stock of 1 type of whiskey in your cellar (you must remove your smallest stash). You can still play your turn, but once you're "3 Sheets to the Wind," any subsequent roll of a pirate flag instantly ends your turn, because, dude, you're cut off!

How Do I Make Whiskey?

Once you've rolled, start placing your dice on your distillery based on the different recipes shown for each type of whiskey.

You'll always need 1 water and 1 yeast, and the trick is to get the correct country to align with that country's distinctive grain. Only 1 grain is required to successfully make whiskey. If you roll multiples of the same grain, you can make multiple barrels in 1 turn (up to 4), so long as you have the other key ingredients. NOTE: The max possible barrels are shown on the board, but you only need the first one to successfully produce a barrel.

A successful roll is defined as adding at least 1 die on the distillery toward your stated goal. If you've done that, you can either keep rolling to add more ingredients or, once you've met all the required ingredients for 1 type of whiskey, you can bank the whiskey you've made in your cellar and this completes your turn. If you cannot add a die that fits what you're making, then your turn ends and you lose what you would have made.

Here's How a Typical Turn Might Play Out

Roll the dice & place the ones you want to use on the board.

Didn't get all the ingredients you need on your first roll?

Keep going! As long as you've added at least 1 ingredient to the distillery, you can re-roll with any dice that you don't want to use. In other words, each successive roll in the tumbler should have fewer dice than the roll before. Your turn ends unsuccessfully if/when you can no longer add any ingredients to the board and/or you haven't successfully produced any barrels of whiskey. NO WHISKEY FOR YOU!

Did you get all the ingredients needed to make 1 or more barrels of whiskey?

Congrats! You can move the appropriate barrel to your cellar (coaster) and end your turn.

Want to press your luck for a chance to get more barrels?

You can keep rolling any unused dice in an attempt to get more of the same grain to make more barrels.

CAUTION! If you have at least a barrel and decide to roll again and "get risky with your whiskey," but end up with the wrong ingredients and can't add anything to the board, you spoil the batch and lose all you had in your distillery! NO WHISKEY FOR YOU!

Once You Place an Ingredient, Can You Move It?

For the most part, a die laid is a die played (and can't be removed). However, because water and yeast are universal ingredients, once laid, you can slide them up and down in the distillery to match a different whiskey type if needed, as noted by the arrows on the board.

How Does the Game End?

When a player successfully makes at least 1 barrel of each type of whiskey, this triggers "LAST CALL," meaning each player gets 1 final turn (including the player who initiated it). LAST CALL is a last-ditch effort to make or steal as many barrels as you can. Just like when the bell rings for last call at the bar, everyone is at a different level of desperation and trying to get lucky!

Since the object of the game is to have the most barrels TOTAL (regardless of what kind they are), you'll want to be strategic about initiating LAST CALL, but going last always helps. During this final free-for-all round, you can choose to play it straight, or, if you're on the rocks, you might try the "Last Call Special" — the "Whiskey Flight Around The World" — to try to come from behind and pull off a whiskey-fueled miracle:

Whiskey Flight Around The World!

If, over the course of your final turn in LAST CALL, you're able to cumulatively roll the globe AND 1 of each ingredient, you get to take ALL of 1 type of whiskey from every player and add those barrels to your own cellar. In a 2- or 3-player game, you select the type of whiskey you drain from each player. If you have 4+ players, they select the type of whiskey they give you (so that you can't run away with the game too easily).

In the example above, the player rolled the globe and a few of the ingredients. She put back the rest of the dice, kept rolling, and was able to keep adding something to the board each roll, until she ended up with all the ingredients to make 1 of each whiskey!

When "Last Call" Is Complete, Add Up Your Barrels!

The player with the most TOTAL barrels is deemed MASTER DISTILLER and must celebrate their victory with a grand toast, with a twist of course. The winner will roll the flag die to determine the accent in which they give their toast. If you roll the globe, it's a wild card; pick your favorite accent. If you roll a Sheet to the Wind, talk like a pirate! There's an official Whiskey Business! toast for each accent on the back of your scorecard if you need a little inspiration. Cheers!

Tie Breaker

If 2 or more players have the same high score, determine the winner by:

1. Diversity of Whiskeys – The player with the most different types of whiskey in their cellar wins. If that's also a tie, move on to...
2. Biggest Collector – The player with the most of 1 type of whiskey wins. If that's also a tie, move on to...
3. Sheets to the Wind – The player with the fewest Sheets to the Wind wins.

If that's ALSO a tie... thumb wrestle!

Advanced "Top Shelf" Rules

Once you've developed a "tolerance" for the basic rules, try these ideas to make things more interesting!

Take a Shot!

Almost there but didn't roll what you need? This is where it gets really risky! You can re-roll the remaining dice with the "TAKE A SHOT!" rule. The consequence is you immediately have to add a Sheet to the Wind token to your cellar before you re-roll. A little peer pressure from the group pounding on the table and chanting "Take a shot!" "Take a shot!" may help you summon the courage. You may be able to use this up to 3 times for 3 bonus re-rolls, especially on your final turn if you've managed to stay sober throughout the game. Just remember that as soon as you are "3 Sheets to the Wind," you have to give up all your barrels of 1 type of whiskey, and rolling a 4th sheet ends your turn immediately.

Sobering Up

Have you accumulated a few Sheets to the Wind tokens and are in danger of knocking over a shelf in your distillery? Water is the key to "sobering up!" Any time you roll a water, you'll want to use the first one toward producing whiskey, but if you roll additional water, you can place those water dice on the 3 other open water spaces on the distillery. Each water you place (beyond the first one) removes a Sheet to the Wind token at the end of your turn, if you are also successful in making at least one barrel of whiskey.

Note: "Sobering up" happens in parallel with making whiskey on the same turn. Placing a water counts as successfully adding an ingredient, so you can roll again or choose to end your turn by sobering up, in addition to banking the whiskey you've made after placing a water.

However, if you roll again and are unsuccessful in placing a new ingredient, you lose your whiskey barrels AND your ability to sober up. This rule also may encourage you to employ the "TAKE A SHOT!" rule, by giving you liquid courage to place a water knowing that you may be able to remove a Sheet to the Wind at the end of that turn.

Spoilage

While extra water can help sober you up, extra yeast could lead to spoilage! Spoilage occurs when you're left with extra yeast (beyond the first 1 you placed on your distillery to create a barrel) on your final roll. Each extra yeast you're left with spoils 1 barrel of whiskey you've made during that turn (it doesn't affect anything you've already banked in your cellar). For example, if you've made 1 barrel of bourbon with 1 corn but end up with a yeast die on your last roll, the yeast would negate the barrel you made. This could entice you to roll again to avoid the consequences of spoilage. If you can't roll again (i.e., you didn't add anything to your board), you can always employ the "TAKE A SHOT!" rule to re-roll, but you may lose all you've created if you can't place another ingredient. It's just another opportunity to get risky with your whiskey!

Optional Drinking Rules

Please play and drink responsibly, but if you're looking for a fun way to bring more whiskey drinking into Whiskey Business!, simply take a sip every time you roll a Sheet to the Wind! Players who opt to "TAKE A SHOT" can also take a serious sip or shot before they roll. Remember, winners don't drink and drive.