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As mentioned previously, if you think about it, ANY alcohol could be used as barter. Just ensure that it is storable - no cans, nothing that can deteriorate (think thin plastic bottles), and something that you can keep sealed tight (corked with being stored on its side to keep the cork from drying out).

Tobacco is another barter item. Keep sealed (vacuum sealed) and out of the sunlight. ANY kind of tobacco.

As also mentioned, now that it is legal in WA and OR, marijuana. Also kept in vacuum bags and out of the sunlight.

Any of these items are great for those who don't have and WANT.
 
I will wait on anything related to marijuana until such time as it is legal at the federal level.

If I did store it, it would be in the form of a medicinal extract or an infusion - not in the raw form, which would probably dry out anyway. I can't smoke anything due to my throat, and while there is some benefit to smoking it, there is also harm - it is better used as CBD oil or an infusion.
 
I think you're nuts considering alcohol for barter. You are asking for a couple of rounds in the gut. Even tobacco could be a problem. Anything that has a degree of dependency will draw the worst clientele. My opinion, the best thing to stock for barter is any kind of hygiene products. Soap. shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste will have a clientele less likely to blow your brains out. Maybe not the per item profit, but volume will make up for it. It's cheaper to buy and easier to store. If I bartered booze, I would be my best customer.
 
Booze keeps. Bottled booze does not improve with age, that only happens in the barrel. Wine is alive and matures in the bottle. As drink, disinfectant, even painkiller, booze is good to have.

I understand the worry about addicted & desperate customers. Discretion is always in order. Col. Cooper was likely very right when he called .22 ammo "ballistic wampum." But be very careful to whom you trade ammo. Any trading should be done with caution.

I'm not a big drinker, but I have some nice bottles on my shelves. Quality over quantity, those bottles last me a very long time. Aside from its antiseptic & medicinal uses, booze is a luxury item. But when times are hard, that very rare wee dram of fine single malt on special occasions could give a profound psychological boost; it's a connection to "the Before Time."

It may be that brewing or distilling supplies are better barter. But this thread is about barter booze. For that purpose, I think a modestly priced but not objectionable vodka, Scotch (and Irish), Canadian, Bourbon and even brandy would do well. Everclear, if available, should be very negotiable.
 
So alcohol chemistry is actually a fairly important part of keeping your bubblegum alive. Even if you don't drink.

Beer/wine has played a vital role in human survival since about 500BC, This is because the brewing process for beer required boiling the water, killing many pathogens, and wine for it's role in preserving grapes. However there are also secondary products, vinegar being a key one, that is a valuable disinfectant and food preservative.

If you're distilling (yea, it's illegal now, but not hard to do with some tubes and a fire), you can separate out the methanol, ethanol, and the propanols (and heavier alcohols). Methanol can be used to make formaldehyde when passed over a catalyst, which is valuable for the number of chemicals that can be made from it, not the least of which are resins, explosives, and medicines. Ethanol can be used similarly, for direct consumption, further processed into acetic acid by bacteria, or could also be used to synthesize at least one drug... chloral hydrate which can then be used to make DDT when added to chlorobenzine.

I'm not going to say you all need to be chemists, but being able to produce something is orders of magnitude more valuable than being able to buy something now (with the high sin-tax rates in the PNW) in the anticipation of selling it later.
 
I think you're nuts considering alcohol for barter. You are asking for a couple of rounds in the gut. Even tobacco could be a problem. Anything that has a degree of dependency will draw the worst clientele. My opinion, the best thing to stock for barter is any kind of hygiene products. Soap. shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste will have a clientele less likely to blow your brains out. Maybe not the per item profit, but volume will make up for it. It's cheaper to buy and easier to store. If I bartered booze, I would be my best customer.

I would only trade such things with people I know - probably my neighbors.

I am well aware of the problems alcohol causes; my ex-FIL was a mean drunk, among other worse things, and I have seen what drugs (including alcohol) can do to a person.

That said, there are limited medicinal uses, and alcohol is something that is relatively inexpensive and very easy to buy and stock, and if it has high alcohol content it stores well.

I do stock other things like toothpaste and toothbrushes and so on, which doesn't mean I can't stock alcohol too.
 
In a SHTF type of situation, I think the best bet is just having a still. You can legally own one, and even get a permit from the TTB to make "fuel alcohol" so long as you don't drink it. Furthermore, if a bad situation occurs, it's unlikely any law enforcement is going to be concerned with a still. Bonus, it can also be used for distilling nice clean water from practically any source at all. Milk can + copper pipe parts from Homie D's, and a little brazing lesson from youtube, and you are ready to make clean water :)
 
Stir the pot time. Let's say 4 scumbags were coming up your driveway. Stick a rag in a tube of toothpaste, light it and throw it at them. Nothing. I put a rag in a bottle of Everclear, light it and throw it. BBQ time. :eek:
 
Stir the pot time. Let's say 4 scumbags were coming up your driveway. Stick a rag in a tube of toothpaste, light it and throw it at them. Nothing. I put a rag in a bottle of Everclear, light it and throw it. BBQ time. :eek:
Iso alcohol would be a lot cheaper at $10 to $15 per gallon would do the job just as well as using expensive vodka or even grain alcohol for a molotov cocktail. Gasoline is even cheaper and easier to make into napalm.

Better yet, a rifle bullet, at 30 to 50 cents each, is even cheaper and generally more effective.
 
One has to question the wisdom of throwing highly flammable substances down your own driveway, when water and/or some other resource necessary to quench the BBQ'd bad guys may be scarce. If things break down to a point where you need to be chucking your happy juice at bad-guys, there sure ain't gonna be people at the local utility keeping your water on.
Besides, aren't bullets really the best solution to bad-guys?
 
One has to question the wisdom of throwing highly flammable substances down your own driveway, when water and/or some other resource necessary to quench the BBQ'd bad guys may be scarce. If things break down to a point where you need to be chucking your happy juice at bad-guys, there sure ain't gonna be people at the local utility keeping your water on.
Besides, aren't bullets really the best solution to bad-guys?
Yeabut the internet will be down.
Sounds legit.
 
Chemistry wise, ...
• Plastic bottles are terrible barriers - they're PET, and they let air in & alcohol out. Glass and steel are the way to go, just like granny uses for her preserves.
• Any kind of starch can be used to make moonshine, provided you have the amylase needed to break it down into sugars - which yeast can't do by themselves. Amylase is a common chemical, a white crystalline powder, which can be bought easily and stored indefinitely.
• Alternatively, you can chew up & spit out starchy food like potatoes or corn to make use of the amylase in your saliva, allowing those foods to be fermented - google "chicha."
• There are some pretty decent wines that use synthetic corks which don't dry out and are excellent barriers - like Yellowtail. Kept in the cool and in the dark, they should last a long time. Bigger bottles store better, BTW. I've got some reds that are >5 years old that have thrown a deposit, but are otherwise perfect.
• I'd never condone fraud, but you know you can keep your empties of Remy XO and refill them with Jiffy-Still Supermarket Rotgut if that's your thing.
 
Chemistry wise, ...
• Plastic bottles are terrible barriers - they're PET, and they let air in & alcohol out. Glass and steel are the way to go, just like granny uses for her preserves.
• Any kind of starch can be used to make moonshine, provided you have the amylase needed to break it down into sugars - which yeast can't do by themselves. Amylase is a common chemical, a white crystalline powder, which can be bought easily and stored indefinitely.
• Alternatively, you can chew up & spit out starchy food like potatoes or corn to make use of the amylase in your saliva, allowing those foods to be fermented - google "chicha."
• There are some pretty decent wines that use synthetic corks which don't dry out and are excellent barriers - like Yellowtail. Kept in the cool and in the dark, they should last a long time. Bigger bottles store better, BTW. I've got some reds that are >5 years old that have thrown a deposit, but are otherwise perfect.
• I'd never condone fraud, but you know you can keep your empties of Remy XO and refill them with Jiffy-Still Supermarket Rotgut if that's your thing.

For most brewers the standard source of amylase is malt... if you take any kind of seeds and sprout them, then roast (low temp!) and then grind it up and throw it in with your mash (what you're fermenting) that will turn your starches to sugars, probably not as over-all efficient as just having a 50lb sack of amylase, but it'll work when you run out.
 
I regret forgoing all the content here it is very interesting to read.
If you recall I made a post here 2 years back that concerned my observations on a long term storage that was improperly carried out. There was alcohol in that stash, both wine and hard liquor stored for several decades in a dark environment. The wine was in twist cap bottles, it had turned to a water/sugar mix.
The hard liquor fared no better, all that was left was water. Alcohol, unless well sealed in a glass container and kept in a very cool dark environment evaporates. Any distiller will tell you that storing booze in an wooden cask invites the evaporation of alcohol, even in cool dark environment, even in caves. All the substances that the addictive personality craves are perishable, the lower the supply the more desperate the addicted become. Do not become the locus of their addiction.o_O
 
I regret forgoing all the content here it is very interesting to read.
If you recall I made a post here 2 years back that concerned my observations on a long term storage that was improperly carried out. There was alcohol in that stash, both wine and hard liquor stored for several decades in a dark environment. The wine was in twist cap bottles, it had turned to a water/sugar mix.
The hard liquor fared no better, all that was left was water. Alcohol, unless well sealed in a glass container and kept in a very cool dark environment evaporates. Any distiller will tell you that storing booze in an wooden cask invites the evaporation of alcohol, even in cool dark environment, even in caves. All the substances that the addictive personality craves are perishable, the lower the supply the more desperate the addicted become. Do not become the locus of their addiction.o_O
Was the hard stuff in glass bottles with metal tops?

How did the alcohol evaporate in that?

I have iso alcohol - 70% - that is in plastic containers, the kind you buy drug store iso alcohol in - that is at least several years old, and one bottle that has been opened, it still has plenty of alcohol content - as evidenced by the sting when I use it on skin to disinfect it.
 

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