Chương 94: Chapter 91 – Still Spluttering

Alric was just preparing to leave the brewery for the afternoon. He would have liked to do so without ceremony, but his security detail would not allow that. The two adventurers standing outside stretched and checked their weapons. He did not make an excuse, did not pause to give instructions. He simply told Seren he would be out, she nodded. Efficiency, he reflected, had a way of quietly removing its creator from the process. No one stopped him. He'd come to accept he wasn't very relevant to the place anymore.

Unless something big happened, like the gods showed an interest in the brewery. The temple drama had occupied him pretty heavily over the past weeks, but they seemed to have given up now after the big blessing. Even the guilds seemed to be quiet. He stepped out into the street. The recent blessing made the air around the brewery feel cleaner somehow. The city reminded him of where he really lived. He took a deep breath as a reminder and nodded slowly. Dust moved where it pleased.

Voices overlapped without structure. Somewhere nearby, a cart wheel shrieked. Alric walked without hurrying. His security detail fell into step. The way the streets shifted as he moved further from the warehouse district toward the crafters, he noted the change, irregularities that no one had bothered to smooth out. The smell changed gradually to something heavier, touched with charcoal and metal. He turned down the road that lead to Stromni's forge, he could hear it working.

Hammer on metal, steady but not perfectly timed, each strike carrying just enough variation to remind anyone listening that this was work done by a person and not a system. Alric moved through to the side entrance. He turned to his security, "I expect I'll be here a while. Where you boys want to wait?" He asked smiling.

"We'll find a bench and keep out an eye Mister Alric, don't you worry." The one said with a nod. Alric returned the nod before heading inside. Alric had no doubt they would guard him bravely from a comfortable distance. The forge was loud and it was messy. There was a time he would have found this discomforting but after the time at the brewery, this felt refreshing. What it lacked in refinement, it made up for with enthusiasm.

Stromni was inside, the forge was lit albeit cooling, but he was sharpening something, looked like a tool. Alric guessed he'd just finished hammering it. Alric moved over to the nearby still and inspected the changes. Stromni did not look up immediately.

"You're early," he said eventually, without pausing in what he was doing.

"Staff can cover it." Alric replied. Stromni grunted, which covered a wide range of possible interpretations and, in this case, seemed to settle comfortably on acknowledgement. He continued inspecting the still. It had been built better now but this was still very much Stromni's design. Not in the clean, deliberate alignment of parts that suggested predictable outcomes. This was something else.

The lines were more deliberate, the joins more confident, the overall structure suggesting that someone had reworked it often. Alric inspected the pipe joins, he found a new metal there from the standard copper they favoured. Better enough to inspire confidence, but not enough to deserve it. Slightly asymmetrical where it did not matter. Reinforced in places that suggested experience rather than theory. Built to be used, not admired.

"How're the boilers coming?" He asked still looking at the still.

"They're working them now. Bigger forge than mine, but their coal is awful. Don't need fancy for copper, but still, have some pride." He grumbled. Alric had learnt when Stromni was complaining, he was probably happy.

"Run this thing yet?" Alric asked, Stromni lifed the chisel he was working on, inspecting it.

"Didn't have mash lad, you ready though?" He asked. Alric nodded. Setting it up took less time but Stromni did need to lift the correct parts, only he fully understood the design. A funnel was produced from somewhere. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Alric frowned as they set the firebox. There was too much they couldn't control in this method.

"Something caught you lad?" Stromni asked with a grin.

"Just thinking, we can't control the temperature with this. It's going to get too hot." He said maintaining his frown.

"Aye, we can't, not why we here though, we here to see what goes wrong. Like you did with the beer when you started." Stromni said moving away from the still.

"I.." Alric opened his mouth and shut it again, he was about to say he knew what he was trying to do even then. This felt less intentional.

"Aye I thought so, what we drinking?" He asked backing away.

"I have some of the lager but it's the last of it. My own stash you know." Alric said with a grin, moving over to join him.

"If I didn't know you better lad, I'd think you wanted something if you bringing the good booze." He said with a chuckle. It wasn't long before beer was poured and they watched the still from a short distance.

"Got any paper?" Alric asked, Stromni nodded and found some.

"So, if we shape it.." Alric started explaining and trying to draw it.

"We covered this lad, if we make something that big, we committed, this a hobby or other business?" Stromni said with a chuckle.

"Well…" Alric paused.

"Fine. Let's just see if it goes." It wasn't long for a bubble noise to come from the thumper. Regardless they continued talking about designs before the condenser started dripping.

"We got action this time eh?" Stromni cautiously moving close. He looked a bit like he was moving to check if the dragon was in fact dead.

"Well, we aren't drinking it if it works." Alric said with a laugh.

"Eh? Why not? What's the point o this then lad?" Stromni asked rounding on Alric.

"To get it to work at all, it will be full of methanol. You could go blind." Alric explained.

"Then..? Mathonal?" Stomni asked tilting his head.

"So I know this as a stripping run, we're getting the bits we want out of the mash. It gets more dangerous when we do something called a spirit run." Alric explained gesturing to the still.

"I've never owned a still before, but I knew a lot of people that did." Which was true, he had a few friends who he had distilled with, but what he was doing now was coming from mix of online videos and documentaries.

"Eh? Think I heard o that, but explain it to me lad, I want to know it as you know it." Stromni asked giving Alric a sceptical glance.

"Alright, so we run it like this to get the alcohol out, we use the thumper to help, it works as a second distillation as I understand it." He took a breath, pointing at the end, where a slow drip came out the end tube "After we have run it enough to fill the whole still, we run it to make cuts. The first stuff we throw away, the later stuff we throw away or run if we make the same thing again. The stuff in the middle is what we want."

"Aye? Well.. I heard o all this but never knew it like this." Stromni said looking at the end where there was a slow albeit steady drip.

"Well, smell it right now, want to drink that?" Alric said with a grin. Stromni moved over and sniffed the end.

"Ergh.." Stromni said shuddering and recoiling.

"gonna ask anyway, how ya know this?" Alric just shrugged he could smell the distinct burnt rubber smell from here, Stromni scowled.

"Dunno if this blasted thing can do seven runs, and one with full whisky? I'd not trust it." Stromni said crossing his arms looking at the still. Alric couldn't help but notice that he called it blasted almost with fondness, which was how Stromni expressed affection for most things.

"I don't think we should do it with fire at all." Alric explained to which Stromni nodded slowly. He shifted over to the lager, pouring another.

"What you thinking?" Alric asked, he wasn't used to seeing Stromni so quiet.

"It's nothing lad, its just…" He started before he stopped, he gestured to the still vaguely "just dunno how you know the things you do."

"Does it matter?" Alric asked which just got him a shrug.

"Got me own secrets but ya know more bout stills than a dwarf, make better beer than I've had elsewhere en ya so young." He said glancing across at him. Alric noted his accent had thickened a bit, it tended to when he was struggling to say something.

"Would you believe me if I said I was fourty one?" Alric asked probingly.

"In a heart beat, ya half elf or summin?" Stromni asked glancing at his ears.

"It's not that… It's… complicated. If I'm honest, I'm not sure I'd believe myself if I really explained it." Alric said with a sad smile.

"Aye. Starting ta think we're never gonna know each other proper." Stromni said, It was the first time Alric had seen sadness on Stromni's face. He knew the scowls by now. This was something quieter.

"I'm gonna start on ya design for this. This thing's ta honest." He pointed at the still.

"We not allowed to be sad while doing this." Alric said with a chuckle.

"Aye, that's true. I love this thing but…" Stromni paused looking for the words "Its ard ta hear someone less than alf ya age can do it better."

"That's not true, I can't work copper. I can think these things, not make them." Alric glanced before the words clicked "Wait? How old are you?"

"Seventy two, in me prime and I won't hear otherwise." He said with a grin over his shoulder. Alric blinked and nodded slowly.

"Stromni… I'm paying you for the still, the design isn't cheap." Alric said glancing at him. Stromni lifted his hand with a finger up before he stopped.

"Not much ta you is it?" Alric shook his head.

"Well I ain't gonna say no. Moreen's screws kept me going strong but I think I'll be needing more coin." He said with a shrug.

"Thanks." Alric said with a grin.

"Why ya thanking me?" Stromni said raising a brow.

"Doesn't feel right to me otherwise. You do a lot for me, can't put you out of pocket." Alric explained. Stromni nodded accepting that. Which was, unfortunately, accurate enough to be uncomfortable. Stromni shifted his belt and moved to the still and took a sniff before swapping the tankards and backing off again.

"Figured out what you gonna do bout the stone mason?" Stromni asked. Alric shook his head.

"We going to put up cloth as best we can, try keep the dust in. We'll keep the cloth wet too." Stromni nodded.

"Reckon the worst of the dust be in the first days, should be alright after that with the sheets." He peered at the still again with letting out a deep breath "Is a pity, I like this thing."

"I do too, it gave us stories rather than complaints." Alric said grinning at it. Stories, at least, didn't need to be fixed.