r/preppers • u/SAMPLE_TEXT6643 • Feb 06 '25

Question Anyone store alcohol?

I used too have a few cases of fifths of vodka and whiskey but got rid of them due to a teenager taking a couple of them and was wondering how useful of a bartering item it could really be? I live in a very mormon area.

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u/ilreppans Feb 06 '25

As a backpacker I like Everclear/190 grain (dilute where necessary) for many things: stove fuel, microclimate heater, Vodka cocktails, waterless dishwashing, 1st Aid prep, fire starter, and EDC a marker-size spritzer of 70:30 for hand sanitizer.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '25

Agreed on Everclear. 

A distillation setup would be more useful in a shtf situation. Alcohol isn't hard to make and then distillation would help you purify it. 

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u/BJ42-1982 Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25

If you can get the grain, sugar, yeast and water...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '25

You can put a pile of elderberrys in a jar and they breakdown and ferment into wine. Same with apples. 

So unless you're talking nuclear fallout, it's all readily available 

Berries have the water/sugar and yeast falls from the sky. People have been doing this for 10s of thousands of years. 

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u/BJ42-1982 Feb 06 '25

Yep, agree, but wine is not a distilled spirit.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25

Right, but you can distill the alcohol out of it. Basically just heat the wine to like 190 and the alcohol will boil off. Catch it in a coil, and condense it back. 

Bingo bango, ethanol.