Ekka

The next day, Anastasia sent word through a servant and decided to give the local beer another taste test.

The beer brewed in this world was the top-fermented variety, commonly known as ale.

Ugh, this is gross... It's just way too gross.

Tasting it again like this made it painfully clear that it was barely fit for consumption.

And it wasn't just the taste; the appearance was dreadful too.

Because of the floating yeast, the top was a murky, cloudy white, with tiny grains of barley bobbing around inside. It wasn't clear at all, and its presentation in a glass left a great deal to be desired.

Unfortunately, even at this mediocre level, beer was considered a luxury item fit for nobles in this world.

That meant a beer that met her standards simply did not exist here.

But... if it didn't exist, she would just have to brew it herself.

Anastasia once again resolved to brew a beer that was actually fit to drink.

"First... I'm going to brew some proper beer!"

Anastasia's immediate goal was to brew a bottom-fermented lager—the standard type in her previous life in Japan.

However, making a bottom-fermented lager took significantly more effort than an ale, so she decided her very first step as a brewer would be to improve the quality of this world's ales.

As a duke's daughter, Anastasia received an allowance from her father, Duke Niflheim, that was virtually impossible to spend in its entirety.

She decided to use those funds to hire a craftsman right away.

She threw her money around to summon potential candidates, and after an entire day, she managed to secure someone who seemed barely capable of brewing alcohol.

"Sigh... Beer brewing, huh...?"

The person scratching his head after being summoned out of the blue was a ruggedly handsome young man around Anastasia's age.

He had dark skin and sharp, narrow sanpaku eyes that gave him a cat-like look.

He was lean but muscular—slender yet well-toned.

He had a slightly bad-boy vibe that would drive certain people wild. His name was Ekka.

He was a young man who had spent about two years working as an underling at a place called Elgin Brewery.

"But are you sure someone like me is really okay? Hate to say it, but I only know the basics, so we're going to be pretty much winging it..."

"It's fine. Actually, my terrible reputation has spread so far that you were the only one who showed up, Ekka."

"Ha, hahaha..."

Seeing Ekka's dry laugh, Anastasia wept internally over her complete lack of popularity.

Even after a full day, the only person she had managed to hire was Ekka, the greenest of greenhorns when it came to brewing.

Before regaining her memories, Anastasia had engaged in quite a few villainess-style antics, which had caused her infamous reputation to spread far and wide.

Convinced that they would be subjected to arbitrary faults and blame if they worked for such a woman, not a single brewing professional had come forward.

The only one she had managed to recruit was Ekka, who had worked as an apprentice at a brewery for about two years before being fired before he could be formally hired.

This was her current reality.

But Anastasia wouldn't let that get her down.

For the sake of drinking delicious alcohol, she had no intention of letting any adversity stand in her way.

"Just to be sure, as your employer, you didn't get fired for committing a crime or anything, right?"

"Well, yeah, it was more like an unfortunate accident..."

Digging for details behind Ekka's evasive response, she found that it really was an unfortunate accident, just as he said.

Being a ruggedly handsome guy, Ekka was apparently quite popular, and the only daughter of Elgin Brewery's owner had fallen in love with him at first sight.

However, she wasn't his type, so he had gently turned down her confession. Enraged, she had filled her father's head with lies, leading the master brewer to fire him on the spot.

"I suppose you do have that slightly bad-boy vibe..."

"Please don't side with them... I'm completely the victim here."

Watching the handsome young man, Anastasia could somewhat understand the feelings of the girl who had fallen for him.

"Oops, sorry, we got a bit off track. Anyway, since you're the only one I could hire, Ekka, we'll be working closely as partners from now on. Don't worry, you can just treat this casually, like a duke's daughter playing around with a hobby."

"Huh, is that so...? Well, if you say so, I don't mind."

Ekka's reply was half-hearted; he likely did view this as nothing more than a sudden, self-indulgent hobby of a noble lady.

The only reason he had even come was because he had stumbled upon Anastasia's job posting after getting fired, before he could actively search for a new job.

That was fine for now.

Once he realized how serious Anastasia was, his attitude would naturally change.

"All right, first, let me share what I know about brewing. If there's anything missing, feel free to supplement my knowledge."

"Understood."

She had her own knowledge, but she needed to check for any discrepancies with this world's methods.

Ale had a long history, having been consumed since as far back as ancient Egypt.

The reason it was so ancient was because of how simple it was to produce.

In the case of top-fermentation, it could be brewed at temperatures around fifteen to twenty degrees Celsius, and the fermentation process itself took only about three to four days.

Because it was so easy to make, ale was the standard choice in this country as well.

Upon asking how it was made, she discovered that the concept of yeast did not yet exist in this world.

Indeed, when she thought about it, bacteria weren't discovered and the concept of yeast wasn't clearly understood until the nineteenth century.

It was only natural that they wouldn't know about it here.

"But in that case, how do you actually make the alcohol?"

"Well, you just use the same tubs we always use to brew it."

When Anastasia asked, she received a surprising answer.

Lacking the concept of yeast, people in this world brewed alcohol by preserving the foam from the top or harvesting it directly from the fermenting wort, passing the strain down that way.

Repeating this process allowed yeast to settle into the wooden tubs. The quality of this residue gave rise to "good tubs" and "good fermentation vats," which brewers would reuse to keep brewing their alcohol.

It was incredibly primitive... though in a world without microscopes, this was undoubtedly the norm.

Well, they had mouth-chewed sake in the past too, Anastasia thought, nodding to herself as she recalled a famous film from her previous life.

"What I'm trying to make is a completely new kind of beer... It's called lager, and it is fundamentally different from the beer in this world."

"I see..."

Ekka's response was extremely half-hearted.

He likely didn't believe Anastasia could actually brew proper alcohol.

He probably thought of this as an easy gig where he could just nod along and collect a paycheck.

Heh... How carefree, having no idea how busy he's about to get.

Chuckling inwardly, Anastasia continued.

"But for that, we need yeast... In other words, the agent that ferments the wort. Do you think you could source some of those used brewing tubs?"

"Sure, I guess I could manage that much... though they probably won't be top-of-the-line."

"Yes, that'll do just fine."