How to make Ale in Manor Lords

How to make Ale in Manor Lords
Tom Bardwell Updated on by

Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more

A long day toiling in the fields deserves a strong Ale to soothe the spirits and there naturally comes a point in Manor Lords when sending a steady source of frothy tipple to your tavern is a must-have. This is chiefly because the commodity is a requirement to upgrade Burgage plots to level 3 in Manor Lords. 

While the Construction menu offers a few hints, including the need to grow Barley and transform it into Malt, Manor Lords doesn’t explain all that well how to transform the crop into Ale. We’ll walk you through how to make Ale in Manor Lords.

✓ Quick Answer

How do you make Ale in Manor Lords?

To make Ale in Manor Lords, you’ll need to grow and harvest barley then send it to a Malthouse to produce malt, which is then turned into Ale by level 2 burgage plots with the Brewery extension selected.

How to turn malt into Ale in Manor Lords

To produce Ale in Manor Lords, you’ll need to first build and staff a Farmhouse then lay down one or several Barley fields. Use the Overlay and select Barley Fertility to find the optimal spot to get a better yearly yield when harvesting. Turn on Crop Rotation as well and set the second year to fallow to give the field time to regain fertility to boost your harvest the next year.

Next, construct a Malthouse, found under the Industry portion of the build menu, then assign one or two workers. After the harvest, your workers will transport Barley to the Farmhouse then on to the Malthouse to be transformed into Malt.

Manor Lords Ale: top-down view of a village with an overlay options window with Brewery Extension highlighted.
Once you have Malt, set a level 2 burgage plot to have a Brewery Extension to produce Ale. Captured by VideoGamer.

Lastly, you’ll need to assign one or several level 2 burgage plots to have a Brewery extension. This is done in the same way as you’d choose a vegetable garden, chicken coop, or goat shed extension. Click on a burgage plot then on the hammer icon and select Brewery Extension. It costs 5 Regional Wealth and x5 Planks. Levelling up a burgage plot is beyond the scope of this guide, but the general idea is to meet all the requirements (water access, food stall supply, clothing stall supply, church level, etc.) then tap the upgrade button found by clicking on the burgage plot you want to level up.

Workers will then ferry Malt to the burgage plot breweries to make Ale, which will then in turn be sent to a Granary and then on to the Tavern. In Manor Lords, a Tavern supplied with Ale will tick off the burgage plot Tavern Supply requirement and allow you to upgrade to level 3 if you meet the other requirements.

Manor Lords Ale: a drop-down menu showing trading options with the Ale importing highlighted in yellow.
You can always import Ale if the farming and manufacturing process seems too involved. Captured by VideoGamer.

How to import Ale

If this all sounds too complicated and you’ve got deep coffers, you can always use a trading post to buy Ale using Regional Wealth in Manor Lords. Build a Trading Post and staff it with workers. Select the Trade tab then Commodities. Click on establish trade route then change then switch to Import and set the desired surplus (essentially a cap on how much Ale you’ll have stockpiled at any given point).

It’s quite pricey, though, costing 18 Regional Wealth per Ale plus the fee for establishing a permanent trade route. You’re better off producing it at home in very much the same way that gathering herbs or making Clothes is better than importing them.