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Thread: BOOZE as currency

  1. #1
    Boolit Bub frodo's Avatar
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    BOOZE as currency

    I am under the belief that if **** a man sitting on a stock pile of booze will be a wealthy man
    I believe that it will be a very valuable trading commodity
    I believe a person who is serious about prepping should make and learn to use a still.
    I saw this one somewhere

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  2. #2
    DOR RED BEAR's Avatar
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    Booze has been used as currency for ages. I hear on tv all the time that you need gold and silver in case the debt causes the government to collapse. What a crock only if you plan on melting it down for bullets. The only things that are going to be worth anything are what people want and need food shelter a means of hunting and fishing shelter and the like. Booze may well be valuable not just to drink but as a disinfectant. You can always drink it after disinfecting. Not to sure i would trade guns or ammo might not want to supply someone with the means to take what you got.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    I'd think lead and tin would be more valuable than gold and silver, if things went badly; Can load with them. Primers and powder as well.

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    Boolit Bub frodo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr_Sheesh View Post
    I'd think lead and tin would be more valuable than gold and silver, if things went badly; Can load with them. Primers and powder as well.
    I agree.. and the need to be proficient with a bow

    I have been practicing with a bolo..it is very amusing to throw it at a tree, miss it but kill a bush 15 feet away
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  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master Bazoo's Avatar
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    Somebody come up with booze trying to trade me for whatever would be disappointed as I don't drink. My only use would be if I got shot and wanted to be more comfortable before sepsis took it's course.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    Read the history books....ever heard of the Whiskey Rebellion in George Washington's time? Whiskey was a major trading item in colonial times.

  7. #7
    DOR RED BEAR's Avatar
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    Whiskey would be a great antiseptic for all kinds of things. Minor to major cuts and burns. In a primitive situation a infected cut or burn is no joke can be life threatening. Especially since most do not have the immune system that people had long ago.

  8. #8
    Boolit Bub
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    I went down the prepping road awhile ago and stockpiled some stuff. One of my stockpiles is several 5 gallon buckets of airline liquor bottles. I have a variety from vodka to yager. If the world doesn't end soon I may have a cook out at the house and break them out.

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master GhostHawk's Avatar
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    Problem with a still is they throw you in jail for using one without the right paperwork, taxes paid, etc.

    And a still has a particular smell to it, you can smell it a ways off.

    Now up here in the north country, if you make a good fruit wine with plenty of sugar and distillers yeast, you can get alcohol up near 20%. Bottle it in reused 2 liter pop bottles, set it out on the porch on a -20 or colder night.

    Next morning take anything that will run out (sugar and alcohol with some water)
    You can leave half or more of the water behind.

    Let it age for a couple of weeks and bottle it again.
    I call it freeze brandy.

    No smell, no hardware to find. You just have to keep quiet.

    But then I'm also sitting on a few cases of very good burbon whiskey and a case of mixed vodka, rum, etc.
    Just in case.

    A shot or small bottle of good whiskey can make a great deal sweetener.

  10. #10
    DOR RED BEAR's Avatar
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    I inherited my step dads liquor collection which consists of roughly 400 mini bottles from all over the world every kind of liquor you can imagine.

  11. #11
    Boolit Bub frodo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RED BEAR View Post
    I inherited my step dads liquor collection which consists of roughly 400 mini bottles from all over the world every kind of liquor you can imagine.
    got any Larceny? smooooooooth with a smokey oaked taste

  12. #12
    Boolit Bub frodo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GhostHawk View Post
    Problem with a still is they throw you in jail for using one without the right paperwork, taxes paid, etc.

    And a still has a particular smell to it, you can smell it a ways off.

    Now up here in the north country, if you make a good fruit wine with plenty of sugar and distillers yeast, you can get alcohol up near 20%. Bottle it in reused 2 liter pop bottles, set it out on the porch on a -20 or colder night.

    Next morning take anything that will run out (sugar and alcohol with some water)
    You can leave half or more of the water behind.

    Let it age for a couple of weeks and bottle it again.
    I call it freeze brandy.

    No smell, no hardware to find. You just have to keep quiet.

    But then I'm also sitting on a few cases of very good burbon whiskey and a case of mixed vodka, rum, etc.
    Just in case.

    A shot or small bottle of good whiskey can make a great deal sweetener.
    15 lb honey, plus 5 gallon water let it ferment for a week
    then add 5 lb strawberries [freeze and thaw, to kill natural yeast]
    ferment again till it stops bubbling
    rack it off
    about the same, 18-20%

  13. #13
    Boolit Master


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    I've heard that making whiskey from what ever crops you grew was easier to transport and sell then the grain itself. Grist mills being few and far away in the 18th Century.
    Supposedly even George Washington did it that way.

    I would have thought flour was more important.

    But what do I know. I don't drink. But I do eat Baked Goods.
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  14. #14
    DOR RED BEAR's Avatar
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    My big problem is some of my meds mess with liver and doc has a fit when he looks at my lab work if i even drink a beer. So i have no idea what any of it taste like.

  15. #15
    Boolit Bub frodo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RED BEAR View Post
    My big problem is some of my meds mess with liver and doc has a fit when he looks at my lab work if i even drink a beer. So i have no idea what any of it taste like.
    lipton makes a right tasty glass of refreshing tea.. I prefer 1 gallon of tea / 1 cup of sugar
    some folks around here like sorgum instead of sugar,,i am not a fan

  16. #16
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    Whiskey rebellion was over taxing a product that many used as a "cash crop" to supplement the general food and animal feed farming. As well as a way to store the value from a crop surplus.

    As a medium of exchange it has some value I'm sure. Making beer, wine, or spirits can provide an interesting hobby. With the technical aspects being similar in nature to those we find in casting and reloading. Basic ideas that one can implement with some success but also can pursue to a greater degree if desired.

    Having tasted mead (fermented honey) I think I will pass on that. Maybe the strawberries added could make it drinkable. Freezing hard cider to filter out the water as ice to leave a form of apple brandy is and has been known in Michigan as making Apple Jack. Goes back to at least the civil war when if memory serves there was a Michigan unit that marched to a song about the "boys that drink apple jack". Ice & strain does work.

    Lot of simple still plans online, best I have seen involve using an old canning pressure cooker. Where the valve is in the lid is threaded, can be replaced with fitting for condenser coil to attach. Low volume I'm sure but as an interesting experiment with garage sale cooker I would think it could be interesting.

    Revenue agents would sometimes spot the boot leg still operators from their livestock. It seems that post distilling the grain mash is an animal feed that is superior to the grain before fermentation and cooking. Bootlegger livestock would be especially fat as a result of eating the mash after alcohol was cooked out. Man who grazed livestock in a field and had it looking as fat as grain fed was probably running a still. One huge argument for doing modern ethanol production local to feed lots. If the wet mash can be delivered for use as livestock feed with low enough transportation cost it is NOT a loss of food to get fuel but a gain of getting fuel from feed. Drying the mash for transport requires energy and processing in order to transport mash as feed over long distances making it less profitable. Trucking the damp mash a few miles down the road to a feedlot is a win.

    Remember distilling was used to store or transport value of "surplus" grain. Given a choice more folks would want corn meal to eat than corn whiskey to drink. Booze does have value added but not to people who don't have enough to eat. Beer can be almost "liquid bread" and have some food value. Not sure where wine fits in as far as food value. As a way to preserve a crop surplus they make sense. As a use of food resources in lean times not so much.

    I refuse to buy piles of "stuff" at premium prices that will only be of value IF there is a societal collapse of some sort. Picking up extra cans of soup, vegetables, and fruit when on special so I have a supply in the pantry is economical. I eat that stuff every week, buying in bulk saves me money. Same for beans and other staples. Flour will keep in a sealed container on a shelf for a long time, stored in the freezer keeps even longer. Buckets with months worth of 10 year preserved meals is a waste of my money, if I eat them as dinner they are overpriced, if I don't eat them they are useless.

    So making a still for amusement seems like a decent idea to me. Making a big one only for post apocalypse "currency" seems like more crud to store in the garage or shed. Kids would probably end up selling it as scrap metal when I die or I will if we moved to a smaller place.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

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  17. #17
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    Got curious and looked into the laws associated with distilling your own. Basically illegal to distill alcohol without permits. In WV if you are caught with a still that distilled alcohol and you have a firearm in house or on you it is a felony in addition to the distilling felony charges. I don't drink anymore but was always curious about making some shine to sip before bed. For what little I would use guess it is not worth it to me. It sounds interesting and fun to do though.

  18. #18
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    Grand paw 's still is right where he left it. The old trail has grown over, but I can get there if needed. Running a still is to much work. Trust me if you haven't done your in for a eye opener and a bad back to boot
    Last edited by SSGOldfart; 06-10-2019 at 02:30 PM. Reason: Small keyboard and large fingers
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  19. #19
    DOR RED BEAR's Avatar
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    Frdo sorry diabetic to so sweetener has to do i used to hate that stuff but must have gotten used to it. I will say if every thing goes to heck i might just have to fortify that tea a bit.

  20. #20
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Dad worked with people from Europe ( Hungary and Poland) who immigrated right after WW2. They all said the same thing gold and silver were not worth hauling until after the war ended. The most valuable useful items were food stocks, shelters, clean safe water, and a means to protect it. understandably most claimed farmers didn't seem hit as hard as people in the city were. These people lived in the country kept big gardens and canned a lot they kept a few animals also. They hunted and fished had the gear for that also. Most also had a cellar separate from the house and a small smoke house. Some used an old refrigerator or metal cabinet for smoking and preserving meats. Every one of these people told Dad the same thing.

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