hops

by Me with Hero Forge

"And the people rejoiced once Nami's messengers taught them the secret of brewing ale.  But ale must be consumed or it is not fit to drink.
This made those who lived far away from ready sources of malted grain forced to go without ale!
Nami in her compassion and fairness reached out to her brother Korus and together they crafted hops, with this new additive ale was transformed into beer making a good thing even better!"
-@Norab, dwarven Rover on the Wind

Ale is made from crushed fermented malted grain (usually barley), it takes about a day to make and is typically consumed within a few days because it has a low shelf life. It is usually brewed on the family household level though in urban areas, full time brewers are fairly common.
The addition of hops adds time to the brewing process but drastically increases the shelf life of the sale as well as altering the flavor. Hopped ale is what we call beer.

by Me using Nightcafe

In the real world, hops was not widely added to ale until well into the 1200s. But due to the grace of the Nine, especially Nami and Korus. Hops has been widely cultivated throughout most human dominated lands in West Colassia more or less since the dawn of The Feudal Era.

Hops is commonly grown in West Colassia and beer is the main staple drink for nearly every nation on the continent. Beer is very popular with dwarves but the dwarf nations don't have a lot of land capable of growing barley and hops, so they have to import almost all of their beer.
In other lands, hops is grown less frequently and beer is less common, though it is not especially difficult to find in most lands except for Umera where beer has yet to catch on among the populace.