Going Medieval – Easy Fermentation Guide (Let the Settlers Do the Work)

Easy way to let your settlers manage the fermentation of wine with minimal effort required for the player.

Guide to Easy Fermentation

Introduction

This is a guide for setting up automatic fermentation that requires no real input from the player once it’s set up and fully running.

Fermentation Room

Set up your fermentation room where the wine will automatically ferment with minimal player management.

Dig up a 5×5 room, preferably underground as that works best for insulation purposes. However you can also build one using clay blocks. Whether you are using clay blocks or building it underground, it is best to make both the walls and the roof at least 2 blocks/layers thick, preferably 3.

Once the room has been created/dugout, put 5 torches on the wall. You actually only need 2-3, but sometimes fuel runs out so I like using 5 that way when fuel runs out on some of them you have spares until your settlers come by and refuel.

In this room, put down a “Very High” 5×5 stockpile where everything is unticked except for:

• All fermentation objects.
• Rough wine.

Storage Room

A separate stockpile for long term storage of the alcohol is required, however there is no need to create a specific storage room for wine if you want to use your existing cold storage room that also contains food, seeds etc instead. But I like having a separate storage room for wine just to make it easier for my settlers in terms of pathing.

The alcohol storage room needs to be kept cold. I typically build it as 11×11 underground room with the appropriate beams for support. I put down a 5×5 stockpile for iceblocks in the middle of the room and leave the rest of the room as a stockpile for all stimulants and all fermenting ingredients with the stockpile priority set as “High”.

Optional – Ingredient Storage and Brewing Station

This is really optional, but for maximum time efficiency you can also build your brewing room and your ingredients storage close by. You can see in the screenshot that:

• 1 = Fermentation room
• 2 = Alcohol storage room
• 3 = Brewing room
• 4 = Fermentation room

The ingredient storage is unfortunately not in the screenshot, but is a room with shelves where the shelves only take Barley, Redcurrant, Apples and Honey.

How It Works

The way this setup works is very simple:

1. Your settlers will create fermenting ingredients using the brewing/fermentation stations
2. Your settlers/pets will haul the results initially to the “Very High” priority stockpile in the fermentation room.
3. By keeping two torches permanently on in the fermentation room, the room temperature will be within the ideal temperature zone except for Heat Wave and Cold Snap days. This is not an issue because while the Heat Wave day will cause the freshness to drop, it doesn’t last long enough to turn a fresh barrel into vinegar. With the Cold Snap days while it will pause the fermentation process, it doesn’t actually damage the barrels in any way so you don’t lose anything although it may take a couple extra days to ferment. If you really want to ferment during cold snap days just turn on an extra torch, that is usually enough.
4. As the ingredients in the fermentation room ferments and turns into their new form, your settler/pets will automatically move them to the cold storage room nearby, where they will stop fermenting and maintain their freshness.

The only real issue that might require micromanagement is that if you do not have any settlers on Steward duty, sometimes the torch may run out of fuel. However as long as you have just one settler with the Steward job set to priority 1, this will never happen and you can just let it run on it’s own forever.

The other thing to note is not really an issue, but this method is very effective and you will soon find yourself overflowing with aged fine wine and other alcohols. You may want to start trading them for other goods or create more cold storage rooms.