PILSWERKE INC.

• Founding Year: 2627
• Founder: Gerhard Lentz — retired hydroponics engineer who swapped nutrient pumps for a copper mash-tun.
• Headquarters: Pilswerk (Pilswerke Brewery), Morningstar
• Original Purpose: “To prove that true beer needs nothing but water, malt, and patience — even on an alien world.”

From a single, hand-riveted kettle sunk into Atrana basalt, Pilswerke Inc. created Lebensfreude Lager, a crisp golden beer brewed under a fiercely purist, Reinheitsgebot. Only 25 kegs rolled out each quarter, and every drop was spoken for before fermentation finished. Tavern owners framed the spent keg badges like holy relics; black-market pints fetched 30 Kourou.

Where Space Drinks Inc.’s ubiquitous Space Beer slaked the frontier’s thirst by the barrel, Lebensfreude became its painstaking antithesis — the brew settlers bragged about tasting rather than drinking by the dozen.

• February 2627 — Gerhard Lentz and three volunteers expanded an abandoned geological-survey shaft in the Atrana Mountains, carving fermentation rooms into naturally chilled basalt. Steady 8 °C mountain drafts created an ideal, energy-free lagering cellar.
• The first crop of hydroponic Atrana barley was malted on site; spring water was gravity-fed from the pristine headwaters of the Arla River — its mineral balance later credited for Lebensfreude’s distinctive snap.

• Demand exploded after a Morningstar tasting; Pilswerke introduced a public lottery: one 50-litre keg per licensed tavern, maximum two wins per year.
• Empty keg collars became status trophies; taverns hosted “keg badge unveilings” to advertise a winning draw.

• Nationalisation swept all private breweries into the state-run Federal Beverages Manufactory.
• The Federal Allotment Agency dismantled the lava-tube brew kit; living yeast culture seized for “nutrient-beverage research.”
• Lentz refused a desk post in Hope and disappeared into the Atrana Mountains — rumoured to be perfecting a bootleg “Freedom Pils.”

• Quarter-Batch Output — 25 kegs (50 L each) per quarter, numbered & wax-stamped.
• Third‑Party Supply – Bottles and drinking glasses procured from Bermuda Inc.
• Tavern Lottery — licensees submitted a 250 K entry fee;
• No Bottles, No Flights — beer served only by the pint under Lentz’s rule: “If you can’t maintain the line, you don’t deserve the lager.”

• Gold-Standard Lager — Brewers still trade legends of Lebensfreude’s perfect malt-to-hop balance; stolen yeast cultures circulate on the underground.
• Lottery Lore — The quarterly keg draw became a folk spectacle; surviving badge plaques are prized décor in Gamma Age speakeasies.

The mystique of Lebensfreude makes a perfect MacGuffin or social lever:

• Keg-Heist Caper — Players hired to intercept the last undelivered keg before nationalisation.
• Lost Brewer — Track Gerhard Lentz in the Atrana wilds; is he planning a comeback or guarding a dangerous still?

• Beta Age
• Free State of Settlers
• Morningstar Settlement
• Pilswerk (Brewery of Pilswerke Inc.)
• Bermuda Inc
• Space Drinks Inc.
• Mikulić Inc.
• Federal Beverages Manufactory (Gamma Age)