Mixology + more spirits?

[Pichu]

The game already has fermentation, distillation, spices, pickling, drinks and drunkenness. A new Mixology skill could connect these systems while giving the Still significantly more use.

Mash and distillation

Add Mash as a liquid made from crushed ingredients and water. It must ferment in a Demijohn before being distilled:

* Barley Mash → New Make Spirit → Whisky
* Wheat Mash → Wheat Spirit or Vodka
* Millet Mash → Millet Spirit
* Potato Mash → Vodka

Existing processes such as Wine → Brandy and Cider → Calvados would remain. Perry could similarly produce Pear Brandy.

Infused spirits

Infusions would begin as crafting recipes using one litre of spirit plus the required ingredients:

* Wheat Spirit + Juniper Berries → Infusing Gin
* Wheat Spirit + Dill or Kvann → Infusing Aquavit
* Brandy + Berries → Infusing Berry Brandy
* Spirit + Herbs → Infusing Bitters

The resulting liquid must be returned to a Demijohn and allowed to infuse before it becomes drinkable.

Mixed drinks

Cocktails should simultaneously work as drinks and foods.

Their spirit, mixer and garnish would determine which food satiations they protect. The base spirit could provide the primary protection, while mixers and garnishes add weaker secondary protections. These effects should be capped around existing drink values.

Cocktails would also provide Hunger and FEPs like food. Each recipe could have a base FEP profile modified by ingredient type and quality. All cocktails could share a Cocktail food satiation to prevent players from endlessly rotating different recipes.

Examples:

* Brodgar Bulldog: Vodka, Carob and Milk
* Eggnog: Brandy, Milk, Egg and Honey
* Mulled Wine: Wine, Honey and Spices
* Miner's Dram: Whisky, Tea and Honey
* Bramble: Gin, Berries and Honey
* Dirty Martini: Gin or Vodka, Pickling Brine and Pickled Olive
* Bartender's Handshake: Bitters + lemon + orange

Glassware

Add several preferred vessels:

* Cocktail Glass
* Old Fashioned Glass
* Highball Glass
* Shot Glass
* Brandy Snifter

Using the correct glass would preserve full effective quality, following the existing preferred-vessel system.

The balancing factor is alcohol. Cocktail intoxication should depend on the amount of spirit used, regardless of dilution. Drinking through a cocktail feast would eventually cause escalating wounds such as The Spins, Hangover, Alcohol Poisoning or Pickled Liver.

Cocktails could therefore be genuinely useful feast foods with interesting satiation combinations, but attempting to live entirely on them would leave your Hearthling completely sloshed and increasingly damaged. This would also give us a reason to build intricate taverns, have staff, etc.

[lordgrunt]

+1 to everything above. while variety is fun, if it is not useful, no need to add it. booze system should be not related to hunger at all, only to crafting buffs. like with cheese, we could have potent brews (like this carob milk honey) that work on some synergy of elements. MAD honey bee mead as top tier liquid. Then any item crafted with this buff on would have, say +15% to durability and hardcap +20% harvesting.
Call it developing memories, the curse MoP on any times could be unraveled to up to 3 buffs. need that OcO right now!