I thought I posted this yesterday. It either did not take (I am having computer/internet problems) or it was a different thread. Either way, here it is.
My Thoughts On Alcohols For The Prepper:
The subject of both drinking alcohols and other types of alcohols not suitable for drinking come up regularly in prepping discussions. Whether one imbibes, or does not, for whatever reason(s), some decisions about alcohol should probably be made during the early planning stages, and if the decision is to acquire some, the decision on what to acquire should be made early on.
There are far more options that can be listed. So, first, some of the uses of alcohol:
1) Drinking – Only certain kinds (though there are many)
2) Medicinal use – Some pretty specific to medicine, but some also drinkable
3) Fuel – Alcohols used as fuels and/or fuel additives can be of either type, drinkable or non-drinkable. A minor sub-use is as fire accelerant when starting fires, and as a fuel for Zippo and peanut type lighters.
4) Trade goods/bartering – Still for the same reasons of use, but for someone else, just a commodity for you
5) Cash crop – Alcohol can be produced from many things, and if someone has a surplus of a few of them, plus the energy to process them, alcohol of several types, and for the same uses as above can be produced as a saleable item, not just a bit for barter, but to supply as a wholesaler to retailers
6) Retail product – Can be just another item in the trading post for sale to whomever wants to legally buy it. Or, when things settle down (or now, as far as that goes, if one is already in the business) and people again have a bit of discretionary income and are looking for some social time, a bar, lounge, saloon, club, or other place that is suitable to have a bar, can move drinking alcohol on a per drink basis. Might even sell it by the bottle. (Though like now, I would not permit drinking from a private bottle on or near the premises.)
7) There are some other uses, but most that I can think of come under one of the uses listed above.
Unless fuel alcohol becomes a major fuel source, which is unlikely, Drinking will be the biggest use of alcohols, with medicinal use a somewhat distant, but important, second place use. With this being the case, in my opinion, I will get Fuel Alcohol and Medicinal Alcohol out of the way first.
Fuel alcohol, if anything other than an occasional limp home use fuel, requires fairly large, on-going production capability. This means stills, fuel for them, and lots of raw ingredients. Probably far too many to make it viable until and unless things are making a comeback and there is the possibility of excess production of the things needed to make fuel alcohol. If it is a special interest of yours, I would suggest researching it and coming up with a plan.
Medicinal Alcohol will be a very important niche use of both drinkable and non-drinkable alcohol, if both are available. Great care needs to be taken to avoid confusing the two. For this reason, I am of the mind to only use drinkable types for medical use, even though non-drinkable types can be used, and can be cheaper. With the problems of people craving alcohol at times, there is a huge risk of someone getting access to non-drinkable alcohols and poisoning themselves and others with them.
I plan to stick with a Pure Grain Alcohol for all medical uses in the Post Apocalyptic World, after rubbing alcohols and such are no longer available. The easiest I know to acquire is 190 proof Everclear. It is simply pure grain alcohol. It can be cut with distilled water to any necessary proof or percentage for direct use, and to make various medicinal products from herbs, spices, minerals, essential oils, roots, barks, berries, and other items. And if necessary, when cut, and then mixed with something that tastes good, it can be used as a drink for patients that simply must have an alcoholic drink.
That brings me to the drinking alcohols. There are several types. The Fuel and Medicinal ones, for the most part, are distilled spirits. Drinking alcohols include distilled spirits, distilled spirits with additives and treatments, brewed alcohols, wines, mead, and several other niche types.
If you simply want to store items for yourself, get what you want, in the quantities you want. And get the equipment and supplies needed to make them when commercial sources dry-up (so to speak).
People that intend to retail them, like those that want to consume them, can stock up on what they think will sell, and then sell pretty much anything that is available when the commercial supplies are no longer available.
For the prepper interested in having some as part of their barter and trade goods, then things get a bit simpler. Not simple, necessarily, but much simpler. The most important one to have, I believe, is again 190 proof Everclear. Glass bottles are best, as even good plastics for storing alcohol are still a bit porous.
There are several ways to store Everclear. And they do apply to most of the others that will be discussed in a bit. (A very important warning about Everclear: It can kill you if consumed full strength in much quantity, and can make you extremely ill consumed full strength even in small quantities. It must be cut with some type of mixer. Five parts mixer to one part Everclear makes it a just under 40 proof drink.)
(And a note about storing any and all alcohols. Cool and dark is a general caveat. Glass bottles in cases with dividers is best. Some of the plastics will eventually leach and/or the alcohol will evaporate through the plastic. However, in general, as long as bottles are unopened, hard liquors will not go bad. Some flavored ones will start to change taste, and those that have any botanicals in them may go bad over time. The alcohol itself tends to preserve, but some things still have a finite shelf life. Therefore, keep it simple. Basic distilled hard liquors for long term storage.)
1) 50ml ‘Airline’ bottles. These can be much more expensive per ounce compared to large containers. But can often be bought in bulk to help lower the price a bit. And they are pretty much the ‘single serving’ size of hard liquors and such.
2) Standard small bottles of half-pint and one pint sizes (327ml & 473ml respectively) These are a better buy usually than the 50ml, but still more expensive per ounce.
3) The standard ‘Fifth’ or 750ml. These are good buys, especially when on sale. But it is a bit much to barter at a time.
4) Larger sizes of a liter, half-gallon, and gallon size bottles. These are usually the cheapest, though not always, since the 750ml do go on sale sometimes. But when the half-gallon and gallons are on sale, they are the cheapest way to buy. But the hardest to do any barter and trade with.
But if a combination of the sizes are stored, as well as some suitable containers of your own, plus a few signs made up now to be ready then, that state a person must bring their own container and/or pay a deposit, barter and trade can be made much easier, more profitable to the one with the alcohol, and a bit more doable for the one wanting the alcohol.
By keeping the larger bottles hidden away, and using the smaller bottles as the ‘pour from’ supply bottles to transfer into either the half-pint, returned 50ml bottles, or the other parties’ own containers, it will be easier to convince people you have a limited supply. Fill the pints and a few of the 750ml bottles from the larger bottles, and transfer from them into the smaller bottles, never showing more than one partial 750ml of anyone product, nor a couple of the pints. Two or three filled half-pints and no more than half a dozen of the 50ml bottles. Demand deposits on any containers taken away, and enforce it, being ready to return the deposit when the container comes back.
I believe this provides for the best overall lowest cost of stocking the alcohols, with the overall best ability to control the trades to get the best return, without creating a serious problem in the community with over consumption of alcohol by people that could be dangerous to you and the community.
Pretty much the same goes for other types of liquors. Particularly gin, vodka, bourbon, Scotch, Irish whiskey, rum, tequila, and most of the other hard liquors. Other than vodka, as a substitute for Everclear and used much the same way, the rest are, to me, premiums that should command much higher value in return.
I know many people plan to buy really cheap versions of these other hard liquors, assuming people will pay highly for them. But if Everclear and vodka and things to mix them with are available and much cheaper in trade, I am not so sure the flavored hard liquors will trade that well for people with very little to trade for them.
Now people that do have some things to trade for the ‘good stuff’, I think will pay well for it, if it is the ‘good stuff’ and not just something other than Everclear or vodka. Jack Daniels Single Barrel will go at a good price to someone like this, but cheap bourbon not likely. I think it will go across the board. The very basic in quantity, with some premiums for those that can afford them, and then only by the drink.
Since others will undoubtedly be stocking lots of other things, I am not going to try to do so.
Other alcohols, such as beer and wine, can have some serious shelf life problems, especially beer. Some wines improve with age, but they usually start off pretty expensive anyway. I would prefer to stock brewing and wine making equipment and let others mess with trying to store beer and wine for later.
Put away some really good wines and champagnes for myself, family, and friends, yes. But not for barter and trade. The same for things like specialty alcohols. Many do not store nearly as long as hard liquor, due to some of the botanicals in them, and some due to their processing method. But if stored under ideal conditions, I would put some back for my own use.
The only time I would even think about offering any of these types would be if they would get me out of a very serious problem, or help me acquire something extremely important to me. But not for beans and rice, for sure.
A little bit about non-alcoholic beverages. Especially sodas. Diet sodas do not store at all well. Very short shelf life. Even sugar sweetened sodas have a limited shelf life. However, stocking up on the regular fountain syrups and carbon dioxide bottles, along with a high quality water purifier and dispenser, a person can have carbonated drinks for a long time. But not indefinitely, unless preps are made to make syrups and extract and compress carbon dioxide. With a couple of exceptions.
Naturally carbonated root beers, and similar drinks can be made with brewing equipment. Some alcoholic, but some can be made with little to no alcohol content, and still have carbonation. Do some research and you will see what I mean.
To sum things up, my plans for stocking alcohol for barter and trade include:
The primary trading alcohol:
25 or so 50ml bottles of 190 proof Everclear
25 or so 200ml bottles of 190 proof Everclear
10 or so 750ml bottles of 190 proof Everclear
10 or so gallon bottles of 190 proof Everclear
100 50ml empty bottles
100 200ml empty bottles
4 funnels (to refill 50ml and 200ml bottles from the 750ml bottles and750ml bottles from the gallons)
250 extra bottle caps for each size bottle
1,000 corks for each size bottle
Plenty of container deposit slips and barter slips specifically for alcohol that have the requirements and warnings on them.
If I was going to stock premiums for myself, family, and friends for special occasions, I would add the following:
Root Beer:
96 22 ounce flip-top bottles Virgil’s Root Beer
Stout:
96 500ml flip-top bottles Drake’s Imperial Stout
Wine & Champagne:
60 750ml bottles Louis Roederer Cristal 1999 Champagne
96 750ml bottles Viking Blod Mead
96 750ml bottles Rochioli Chardonnay 2007
Liquor/liquors:
12 750ml bottles Amareto DiSarrano
12 750ml bottles Frangelico
12 750ml bottles Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
12 750ml bottles DeKuyber Crème de Menthe, green
12 750ml bottles Yellow Chartreuse VEP
12 750ml bottles Irish Mist
12 750ml bottles Galliano
12 750ml bottles DeKuyber Butterscotch Schnapps
12 750ml bottles Rumpleminz Peppermint Schnapps
12 750ml bottles Barcardi coco rum
12 750ml bottles Jack Daniels Single Barrel Whiskey
12 750ml bottles Hirsch Selection 28 year bourbon
12 750ml bottles Hennessy Paradis Extra Cognac
12 750ml bottles El Dorado 25 year special reserve rum
12 750ml bottles Taylor Porto 40 year Tawny Port
24 750ml bottles Bailey’s Irish Cream
Root beer making kit w/576 spare rings for flip-top Virgil’s Root Beer bottles
Beer/stout making kit w/576 spare rings for flip-top Drake’s Imperial Stout bottles
Mead making kit w/960 corks (refill used mead bottles)
Wine making kit w/960 corks (refill used wine bottles)
ISI seltzer maker w/3600 cartridges
Just my opinion.
