Brew Brothers

Brew Brothers: Slot Overview

Well golla gee, chew on the dawg y'all, we headin' up north courtesy of developer Slotmill to catch up with two hillbilly siblings in the online slot Brew Brothers. BTW before anyone gets offended, 'hillbilly siblings' is Slotmill's words there, not ours. The rest will mostly be our words, though, as we put this here slot through its paces and see whether the brothers' 'world of rustic adventures' is 'as wild as it gets'. Okay, there might be a few more words from Slotmill in the review.

Before the adventures begin, we can confirm that Brew Brothers is a rustic-looking slot set way out in the weeds where civilisation is but a faint memory. It's hard not to think of Nolimit City's Ugliest Catch when you see the backwoods aesthetic here, sharing that sense of a world slightly off the beaten path. Brew Brothers sounds rustic, too, with its banjo soundtrack making the ideal accompaniment for sitting on the porch, whittling wood, maybe mixing up a batch of moonshine, swatting flies, or whatever else it is the brothers get up to out here. The good thing for the brothers, perhaps bad for humanity, is that if what they get up to is on the illicit side, there are few prying eyes about the place to spy on them. Few human eyes, that is.

Locked inside a wooden frame is Brew Brothers' 5-reel, 4-row gaming grid, offering up 40 paylines for landing wins along. Slotmill has officially classed the game's math model as 'very high' in regard to volatility, while the default RTP in standard play comes in at 96.09% - return values vary when choosing alternative ways of gambling, feature buys, and so on. For instance, switch the Xtra-Bet on, and the stake increases by 50% whilst also increasing the chance of triggering free spins by 2.5x and dropping the RTP a titch to 96.08%. Players can select base bets of 20 c to $/€60 per base game spin.

Scrolling nearly to the bottom of the info screen is where Brew Brothers' pay symbols are listed. They include J-A card ranks as the low pays, then for the high pays, a bucket of water, corn, a jar of yeast, a bag of sugar, and two character symbols. Seems these brothers are indeed brewing up a batch of moonshine of their own by the looks. Cooking up a low pay 5 OAK win awards 1.4 to 1.6 times the bet, while a line of 5 matching premiums gets you 2.25 to 12.5 times the bet. The wild symbol substitutes for all regular pay symbols and appears on the three middle reels. Wilds may appear with an x2 or x3 multiplier, which applies to the betline the respective wilds are part of. If multiple wilds are part of a betline win, their multipliers are added together.

Brew Brothers: Slot Features

Poured into the Brew Brothers' brew are scatter symbols, Old Betty, free spins with sticky wilds, a Tractor feature, Fast Track, and Burst Mode.

Scatters & Old Betty

Scatters may land on reels 2, 3, and 4. When they do not trigger free spins, scatters convert to single wilds. The Old Betty symbol is also wild, substituting for all symbols except scatters, and may land on the leftmost and rightmost reel. When landing, there is a chance Old Betty activates, adding 1 to 9 wild symbols to reels 2, 3, and 4. If Old Betty adds wild symbols to positions that already have a wild symbol, the multiplier of that wild increases by +1. Only 1 Old Betty may be present per reel. Hitting a five wild betline win pays 25x the bet.

Free Spins with Sticky Wilds

Hitting 3 scatter symbols awards 7 free spins. During free spins, all wild symbols landing on reels 2, 3, or 4 remain in place for the remainder of the round. Scatter symbols are not present during free spins, so the feature cannot be triggered. Landing an Old Betty symbol during free spins or once the round has started upgrades it to a Gold Betty symbol. Gold Betty symbols remain in place for the round's duration and have a chance of activating every free spin.

Tractor Feature

During free spins, fully filling reels 2, 3, and 4 with wild symbols triggers the Tractor feature. The Tractor feature creates a Giant Wild symbol on the middle three reels, counting as a single wild on all locations of the three reels. Existing wild symbol multipliers above x1 are added to the Giant Wild symbol, applying to the wins it is part of. Each extra wild added from a Gold Betty increases the Giant Wild multiplier by +1.

Fast Track

At the Fast Track menu, players can get these:

• Gold Betty Free Spins – 600x the bet buys a game round triggering free spins with 2 Gold Betties. RTP 96.38%.
• Random Gold Better Free Spins – 300x the bet buys a game round triggering free spins with 1 or 2 Gold Betties. RTP 96.29%.
• Free Spins – 90x the bet buys a game round triggering free spins. RTP 96.26%.
• Old Betty – 30x the bet buys a game round triggering Old Betty. RTP 96.19%.
• 2+ Bonus Symbols – 10x the bet buys a game round triggering 2+ scatter symbols. RTP 96.18%.

Burst Mode

Here, players can pick a stake and a number of spins and watch the math model basically spit out numbers.

Brew Brothers: Slot Verdict

If you let it, Brew Brothers might end up being one of those games that's so rootnin' tootnin' it'll have you thinking and/or vocalising in a North American accent, if you don't do so already. It is also a game which felt like Slotmill had a bit of fun making, both on the gameplay side and on the thematic side of things. As for the theme, it's quirkily playful, hinting at a bit of cheek, but Slotmill has kept things pretty clean, at least when you compare it to Nolimit's Ugliest Catch, which, thematically speaking, utilises a similar style.

Slotmill opted for a slightly more mainstream approach, setting up a fun, out the back of beyond location to let the gameplay shine through. This it certainly can do when the stars align, not forgetting that it is 'very highly' volatile, so it won't always do so. The scatter-to-wild feature helps things along, and Old Betty's wild add is appreciated as well. One of the ultimate achievements would be triggering the Tractor feature with its vaguely Royal Potato, Fat Rabbit effect. Bringing things back to earth for a moment, you get 7 free spins max when the bonus round activates and no retriggers, so good luck with that task.

Still, activating the Tractor is theoretically possible, as is achieving Brew Brothers' max win of 12,000x the bet. Like a bad batch of homemade hooch, Brew Brothers is capable of burning the back of your throat, maybe your nostrils too, for good measure, but should it get the mix just so, its sticky multiplying wild concoction might hit just the right spot.