Inheriting a neglected distillery from a distant relative, you resolve to revive the family trade and restore the business to its former glory.

Over seven rounds, gather ingredients, items, and recipes while upgrading your distillery to craft the finest spirits. The player with the most victory points at the end claims the title of Master Distiller.

About the Board Game "Distilled"

This is a deeply thematic game about crafting renowned spirits from around the world. In "Distilled," players compete for the Master Distiller title, aiming to rack up the most points by the game’s end. Points are mainly earned by selling spirits, but you can boost your score by winning awards, upgrading distilleries, meeting distillation goals, and collecting bottles.

Gameplay Overview

At the start, pick one of 8 recipe lists. Each player also selects one of 18 distiller cards, each with unique abilities and signature spirit recipes, takes 3 secret goal cards, and grabs distillery and recipe boards, starting items, listed ingredients, coins, and signature recipes.

"Distilled" unfolds over 7 rounds, each with 4 phases:

1. Market Phase

Taking turns, players can buy distillery upgrade cards, one basic item or ingredient (max 2 per round), one premium item or ingredient, or recipe dice. A recipe die goes on your personal board, unlocking that spirit for distillation.

When all pass, discard the rightmost card from each premium resource market row, shift cards right, and add new cards to the leftmost empty slots. Each row always holds 4 face-up cards.

2. Distillation Phase

Here, place ingredients into your fermenter to distill one spirit. All players can do this simultaneously.

To distill, you must place at least one card in the yeast, sugar, and water slots. Each slot can hold any number of matching cards. After adding ingredients to your fermenter, follow these steps:

1. Add one “Alcohol” card to your fermenter for each card in the central sugar slot.
2. Shuffle all cards in your fermenter into a face-down spirit stack.
3. Reveal the top and bottom cards from this stack and store them in your pantry for later rounds.

Reveal the remaining stack cards. If they match an available recipe, you’ve distilled that spirit. Add all cards to the spirit stack, include a barrel card, and take the distilled spirit’s label.

3. Selling Phase

Sell your freshly distilled spirit or any aged spirits from your cellar. Selling earns coins and victory points.

If a recipe has a crossed-out hourglass, sell it immediately—no aging required—and add a bottle card to the stack. Sum the coins and victory points from each recipe card to tally your gains.

After selling, recipe cards go to the discard (unless specified otherwise), except for a premium market bottle, which stays near your distillery for final scoring. Place the sold spirit’s label in one of your distillery board’s 7 bonus slots and claim that slot’s reward instantly.

4. Aging Phase

To age a freshly distilled spirit, place its face-down stack in an empty cellar slot with a barrel card on top. Draw a flavor card from the deck and, without looking, tuck it face-down under the stack.

For a spirit distilled in a prior round, draw another flavor card (without looking) and place it face-down under its stack.

Round and Game End

Check award conditions. Meeting one earns its victory points. Note: awards are limited to the number of players + 1 per game. The box includes 23 unique awards.

Players who didn’t sell this round can host a tasting, spending up to 4 points to gain that many coins.

After Round 3, discard one distillation goal card to the box, leaving each player with 2 goals.

After Round 7’s award check, the game ends, and scoring begins. The player with the most points wins, earning the Master Distiller title.

We recommend watching the video rules in the “Video” section and, if desired, exploring the illustrated PDF rules in more detail in the “Files” section.

One Last Note

An elegant game with a well-designed, refined organizer and quality components, "Distilled" captures the distillation process without overcomplicating it. Randomness works beautifully, though you can mitigate it. With tons of characters and recipe cards, you’ll play for a while before seeing repeats.

Gallu the Rooster swears it’s a phenomenal game and urges you to try it. Worried about complexity? Don’t be—the rules are clear and engaging, with a step-by-step beginner guide featuring a detailed round example.

For seasoned players seeking a tougher, brain-bending economic game, check out "Brass: Birmingham", where you’ll build an industrial empire, manage logistics, upgrade factories, sell goods, take loans, and scout opportunities.