Trade Goods in the Post-Apocalypse: Alcoholic Beverages

One of the most valuable trade items after the apocalypse will be alcoholic beverages. If you can provide consistently high quality wine, beer, and spirits, your livelihood will be assured long after the apocalyptic event fades in memory. But if you want to be ready to go into production at the appropriate time, you need to be prepared well in advance.

The most important lesson to learn as a producer of quality alcoholic beverages in the post-apocalyptic environment, is how to make alcohol out of whatever is convenient and at hand. Some kind of fruit is likely to be available, and anything with sugar (or starch) can be fermented with the appropriate pre-treatment and yeast.

This tutorial for home winemaking with fruit, provides guidelines for the use of a variety of fruit. Here is another short tutorial on making home wines from fruit.

Home Wine from Grapes
Cleanliness is paramount, to prevent contamination with environmental moulds and bacteria.

Once you have learned how to make beer and wine, you will want to learn to distill an alcholic mash or liquid into a distilled spirit or brandy. The following video will provide some information in that regard. Be sure to abide by local laws, at least until such laws are obviated by the apocalypse.

Home Distillation Tutorial w/ Cleavage