Skunkwork Ale

Dateline: Downtime - Skunkwork Brewery - Lowood - Ostiarum

Since they returned, the Brewmaster had been working Wim fairly hard. Winter was coming and the wall of the brewery needed to be repaired before the snow fell. That meant that the two of them would be putting in long hours, making mortar, hauling stones around, and climbing and placing stones. Even in the rain the two of them did this work, they had no choice. They needed to get the brewery operating or they would starve this winter.

Working on the wall was a job that most nobles would ever be caught doing. It was sweaty, dirty, backbreaking hard work. Over the days, Wim started to notice that he was getting a bit stronger in his legs and arms. He also noticed he was getting a bit argumentative and crabby as the rain got colder. He had stopped going drinking and gambling at night. He mostly ate, did some work around his house, and then fell asleep. He needed to do something to change his mindset.

Master Eren Sadir, showing up with his book was a blessing. Being a bit of a jack of all trades and a master of none, papermaking was the one job that he took some pride in. His father hated it because it smelled so bad. The more his father complained the more Wim worked at it. Like many things, Wim did not complete this training, but he had paid attention and access to his book had given him his needed formulas to give it a go. This is why the book is important to him. Many of his abilities, needed help from Masters he did not have now. Even being able to copy the formulas from the book was enough to give the young man some hope.

In Wim's opinion, Master Sadir and the Brewmaster were already teaching many of the things he wished his father would have.

The one thing this town had was sawdust from the mill. Each log cut produced a lot of sawdust. It was drier and warmer than the dirt floor, or mud depending on the rain. Wim had been hauling buckets full of waste sawdust from the mill to his home in the evening to use as flooring. This was a nice change. Many of the joints had been remortared from what was left from the day's work on the wall. That meant the wind and mice did not come through the walls, now only under the front door. The sawdust warmed the place up.

With a bit of his gold, he bought some pots and pans, some cloth, a few larger smooth boards, some leather straps, leatherwork clothes, and a heavy blanket. He also got some lye and bleaching agents to whiten the paper so it was easier to use.

The process of papermaking was fairly straightforward, though it stinks. Wim boiled sawdust three times till it had the consistency of oatmeal then spread it out on the cloth and press it between two boards tied with leather straps that were soaked in water. As the straps dried it pulled the boards together. Water was squeezed out from the paper. When the paper was dry, Wim trimmed the paper and then hand-stitched them into a book.

As the pulp boiled, it get stickier. The stickier it gets, the better the paper. The amount of paper he could produce was not great. He needed bigger kettles to make large amounts of paper. He liked the small batches that were easier to handle. He could also produce oversized sheets that the map makers would use. Right now, he wanted to make smaller books like what the scholars use in the field. These had an advantage. The biggest was he could produce multiple pages at one time and they took less time to stitch.

Wim’s first attempt produced a book about the size of a man’s hand in length and in width. The cover was soft deerskin from the leather workers.

Wim decided to give it to Blackwolf. Scholars liked paper and books and he needed friends that know things. A good word from Blackwolf to the scholars and cartographers, and Wim might make some money to invest.

He also found a name for the brewery, The Skunkworks. It came from the Brewmaster's complaint that it smelled like a skunk when they worked on the wall. So he sketched out a skunk wearing a fancy hat and a jacket that sort of resembled his father. Sire Zane might be the only other person here that might place the reference. It took him about eight or nine tries to make it look nice and get fancy letters that were just right. He would take it to the blacksmith and see if they could have a brand make to mark their barrels and casks. He also wanted to get a sign painted to hang at the front door.

Before Wolf leaves on the mission, Wim will present him with the book as a gift.

ooc: Figuring 1 day to make the pulp, then 2 days to dry enough to be hung on lines to dry the rest of the way. I figure he is experimenting with this. As he does this more he should be able to get the making pulp down to hours rather than a full day. Yes, I know this has little to do with the story, but I did the research and wanted to briefly write about it!