Liquor for barter
 

I mentioned in a thread the other day about stockpiling liquor for barter purposes if it ever got to the point..

...liquor as a potential barter tool if it ever gets HTF. It's still relatively cheap, ain't gonna get any cheaper as grain prices continue to go up , it's easy to buy and store and transport, lasts forever , desired by many- especially in hard times as you said, could have medicinal uses, maybe fuel uses, hasn't been overly regulated (yet) and almost nobody else seems to stockpile it. Plus - it's always there if ya need it :D. Sounds like a safe insurance plan for some FRN's anyway...

I think it makes sense ( at least nobody flamed me anyway :bear_tongue:), so I'm going to stock up on a big bunch this week, cleared a space in the basement already.
Barter type stuff (stuff outside the immediate needs for me and mine) is one of the few things I haven't started to stockpile more of lately.
I do have some other items in big bulk , such as plastic garbage bags and some hygiene products.
I have the ability to make some stuff , soap etc. , candles , CS , - the wife sews, knits and crochets, and we buy fabric and some non perishable soaping stuff (especially EO's ) in bulk . I made a little flier cut-and-paste job from writeups I found on the internet regarding colloidal Silver and it's myriad benefits and uses, and have printed up hundreds of them to accompany whatever I make, as I'm certain many people will be like "colloidal what now?" , so it makes sense to be able to educate them and show them the value of it. Can't hurt, and it's a simple 2 page flier so I have hundreds of copies and it takes up no room.
But the recent posts about Paul Craig Roberts mentioning worldwide barter , and the post by kikatsa have got me thinkng there's no time like the present to consider storing more tradeable stockpiles as well.
I think just stockpiling liquor may even make more sense than trying to build a still or something. It's easier, safer, less visible/risky , supplies need to be stored for shining anyway, and name brands will surely command more from the masses than home made.
So what do we think are the best types of liquor, and even what brands of liquor will have the most value in terms of acceptance , possible secondary uses, all around barter value. TIA all input. You all rock!

Re: Liquor for barter
 

My wife's family made good money running moonshine whiskey in the South during Prohibition.

:coolbeer:

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Nothing like Bourbon, specifically Rebel Yell...:D

Re: Liquor for barter
 

It is one of the many reasons I home brew.

Mead is the easiest to make and I have yet to have anyone sneer at my mead. It is made from stuff readily available locally here, and has HAC. (High alcohol content.)

People always have money for booze. Doesn't matter how broke they are.

I'll be prepared in this regard if anyone needs any in the future. :rolleyes_m:

Blorp

Re: Liquor for barter
 

im a beekeeper so i will also stick to home brew mead with maybee some bacardi 151 put aside for that special trade
and for the aussies on this board bundy rum

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Stockpile coper pipe 2'' and smaller, SS beer kegs, propane torches and gas, solder, flux, tubing cutters, gasket material, temp gauges, copper scrub pads, etc.
Selling stills for water purification:wink: will be real handy.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

That's no fun -- when the SHTF I want to be drunk immediately! and before, and during, and after, and four years later, and three years before, and...

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Thanks Blorp. I homebrew beer a bit as well. Just started relatively recently, and make a fine Ale if i do say so myself! But brewing beer is time intensive (not the actual making of course , but the total time period involved), much more bulky to store and requires refrigeration, at least as I make it now , and also has shelf life issues and ingredient issues that make it less desirable than liquor imo.
I don't think I've ever tried mead, just googling around a little it sounds good. I love honey and have a buddy to keeps bees. Is it harder than beer? Easier to store? Shelf life? Access to ingredients? Refigeration needed? I'll do some more research myself but would appreciate your insights.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

What about stockpiling sterilized cotton? You could put it somewhere and never touch it. There's likely to be a need for it. Its cheap now and easy to store but would be valuable to those that need it later.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Use this recipe. It scales to 6G batches linearly and tastes great. It is my favorite to make and one of the easiest.

My wife loves it and I'm (as I type) in the process of making 6G for our friends' upcoming wedding.

http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=6114

Blorp

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Oh, it ages as well or better than big red wines. I like to drink it cold but it doesn't require refrigeration. Just time aging. I like to let the recipe above sit for six months before bottling, even though the recipe doesn't say so.

Blorp

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Bunch of drunks....

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Antiseptic mouthwash is another item with long shelf life and high usability.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

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http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21252...-h/21252-h.htm

Re: Liquor for barter
 

It's a bit like storing ammo for trade. Sure, it seems like a great idea at first glance but the particulars make it less appealing in real life.

With ammo you're giving a desperate, unprepared person a means to fire their gun and the knowledge that you likely have other stuff they want. Not worth the risk.

With booze, well, have you ever seen an alchoholic? It's a hard core addiction. Achoholics will get violent and do very nutty things to get even a sip. You don't want all the local alchoholics knowing you are the guy with the stash.

It's good to store ammo. Have plenty, sure, that's fine.

It's really great to be able to brew alchohol, and it's fine to have plenty stored. If you're going to trade it be very very careful to who you trade it and keep it quiet.

Why risk these dangerous trades when there are safer trades that are at least as lucrative? If you want to feed addictions how about sugar, tobacco and coffee? Those are very strong addictions, most people don't even realize they're addicted because we have such ready access to them. Shut that access off and people will part with serious money to feed the need but it isn't nearly as dangerous as alchoholism. Oh, people will get cranky but a smoker won't blow your brains out for a cigarette unless they're just the type of person who would anyway. You can grow heirloom tobacco, coffee and sugar beets or sorghum. You can store all kinds of sugary foods, sugar itself, freeze dried coffee, tobacco is harder to store but up to a point there is a certain ammount of acceptance of stale product.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Mead! I drank a lot of mead once, it tastes quite good. I was hung over for the next 3 months, too!:smokin:

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Odd, I don't get hang overs from it at all, I get a real buzz when I drink it too (pardon the honey pun). I must admit that I'm not a binge or even a heavy drinker either, but compared to
beer or spirits, mead is downright tasty with very few bad after-effects.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Great points REV and I've considered that. But in reality the bottom line is that if you have things in bulk quantity , in a world where bartering has become necessary, the bad guys will find out about it.
Personally I don't foresee the teotwaki shtf scenarios that many envision , rather just a slow erosion of life quality. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to prepare for the alternative.
I think it will be more important how you go about bartering your stores , than what you have stored - assuming the items are desirable.
Obviously you don't put a sign out front the house advertising "Ammo and Liquor for sale or trade". But likewise , if you put out a sign noting "Coffee and Cigarrettes for sale and Barter" , you'll likely be getting visits from all the alcoholics and meth-heads anyway.
There's no way to know how it will play out under the many possible scenarios , and I think there's little else to do in this regard other than to plan to rely on your own common sense, judgement, instincts and ingenuity.
I gues there are some things you can do in advance , just in case. Maybe can you get friendly enough with the owners of the local liquor stores to learn their names , figure out where they live, and in a situation , perhaps contact them anonymously and offer to sell/trade back their liquor to them. Obviously they will have many people knowing their previous profession , and will be easily able to move your stores. Pass off the individual risk unto them. Just a thought.
Little things like that , that you will have to think of.
This is all assuming there has been an "event".
In a world where bartering has come back because of necessity , you may need to rely more on your survival instincts than you survival preps.
But there is also the possibilty of barter coming back simply due to shortages, or rationing , or prohibition , or whatever.
It would pay to have things stored beyond bullets beans and bandaids and emergency items.
I think the coffee is a good candidate too.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

rev is right, its a dangerous trade good, but if you got the muscle then it's good. this is no trade for a long wolf, you got to have a gang to support it just like the bootleggers did, always had a team.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Sheeesh guys. Let's step back a minute here. I've no interest in opening a bootlegging operation or storing pallets of liquor in a heavily guarded warehouse operation somewhere, or becoming some liquor-king warlord in a brave new world.
Let's think about a half dozen or dozen cases of booze stored in a basement for possible trading in an uncertain future. In addition to other preperations and stores.
What do you think is better to have , bourbon , vodka , gin , what? I'm leaning toward low end stuff naturally as top shelf won't make any difference I guess.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Let me help you all out here.

You will NOT get the chance to barter anything. The government (who's here to help you) will just swoop down, kick you OUT of whatever place you have, confiscate your stores and you will be left on the outside, looking in.

That HAS HAPPENED many, many times. And when I say GOVERNMENT, I mean right down to the little tiny hamlet you live outside of. SOMEONE besides YOU is going to know that 'old what's his name' is way more prepared than most of us are. Why don't we all go over to his place and make ourselves comfortable.

They will call it 'for the greater good'. So unless you are willing to kill every man, woman and child that attempts to 'storm' your home, fortress or whatever, you WILL be outside, looking in.

----

Ant and the Grasshopper


OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, CNN, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green." <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Tom Daschle , Dick Gephart, Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean stage an interview with Peter Jennings claiming that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act," retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary Clinton gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of Federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

--------

Actually, if SHTF, you can skip all the media attention, lawsuits, etc. YOU will be faced with an armed mob, tearing your place to pieces, looking for that 'little something' you so wisely stashed away for a rainy day.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

anyhow one can hardly have too much hooch in storage. its a great thing since its not perishable.

I keep a few bottles of scotch, whiskey, vodka, tequila. some other apertifs. good gifts. how much is too much?

how much ammo is too much? LOL

how much silver & gold is too much? I guess I will know when I see it.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Don't think "booze" then. Think "high quality alcohol of known proof and manufacturing standards". In a SHTF situation, as long as some sort of authority higher than local level is operating, you aren't going to see moonshine stills breaking out everywhere. In a TEOTWAKI, though, when it all breaks down, then your cases of liquor will be useful.

First, even 100 years ago a lot of medicines and tonics were ethanol-based, because alcohol is a good solvent for extracting the medicinal chemicals from plants and herbs. Eventually there will be a distiller in your area who produces good, high-proof ethanol that doesn't kill the consumers, and you'll be able to switch to that. But if the crops fail or there's a nuclear winter or whatnot, and food is scarce, very little of it will be diverted to making booze, and you'll have a case of the necessary solvent.

Second is the transaction value. I'm not talking about bartering, where X number of ounces of hooch is worth so many pounds of venison. Without a universal monetary system, transactions will become personal, and personable, again. We'll haggle, we'll bluff, and we'll talk; and maybe a mason jar of corn squeezins will do, but if you really want to show your esteem for your guest, or to seal a deal of lasting importance, you'll do so with a drink that was made in the Old Days--a good brandy, or a shot of Jack Daniels, or a Jamaican cigar--items which are valued even more for their rarity than their quality. It says, "I value this deal/transaction/betrothal more than I do this item which is irreplaceable. I give up something from that Golden Time to celebrate this in the now". Maybe that sounds hokey now, but many of the things which we take for granted will have value far in excess to their worth--never underestimate the power of sentimentality! Maybe the whisky you share will be in one of those little airline bottles, barely enough for a taste; all the more valuable.

If you think it through there will be a lot of similar items like that which will store forever. Perfume. We'll make our own fragrances, yes, but think of a tiny little bottle of Chanel No. 5. Go to Macy's, and you'll find little bottles of toilet water for around $8. Heck, anything that says "Macy's" or "Bloomingdales" will have value. Jack Daniels, Chanel, Macy's--these names will pass into legend.

Of course, I'm not suggesting you prepare for TEOTWAKI with perfume instead of superpails of wheat or lots of ammo (you can never have too much ammo). What I am saying is, look at everything around you from a perspective of "This may be irreplaceable in 40 years".

And think of the laugh value as the teens who scavenged an intact case of "Old Milwaukee Light" tip that back!! :puke: :D

Re: Liquor for barter
 

"never underestimate the power of sentimentality!" Ecspecially to the drinking crowd.

I can picture the future. Some traveling dignitary stops at ur door and u break out ur last 16oz Old Milwaukee Light. A tear travels down ur cheek, like the lone Indian at the landfill, as u hear that final pssssstttt...as u pass that can to ur most distinguished guest.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.. Truely a touching moment.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Get something with high alcohol content. It has many uses, including medicinal. Bacardi 151 or Everclear, for example. Another nice thing is that you can mix drinks without using much.

I am with blorp as well... fledgeling meadmaker here.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

I have a couple of cases each of blended Canadian and vodka just for trade stored away a couple of cases of Jameson for my self as for trade items other than liquor I've been hitting yard sales and buying cheep hand tools axe's picks,shovels and the like normally I can pick them up for under 5 bucks each also hammers along with hammers I have about 50lbs of galvanized nails in ammo cans (look for old hand tools draw knifes,hand drills, planes, food grinders, good knifes) we have a store up here called liquidation world that has cheep deals on cast iron cook wear every so often so I buy that when they get it in, also five gallon buckets with lids (if you stack them they don't take up much room at all) beans will last forever if stored correctly and there cheep at Costco. stop buy a surplus store and see if they've got cheep wool blankets I've been picking up British ones locally for about 10.00 bucks each also while your there see if they have the wool watch caps 5.00 bucks each and wool glove liners 1.00 each and wool sweaters for 5.00 ( most of the wool stuff is made great and is starting to get rare since the army doesn't use it any more so buy all you can when you find it) I've also been known to cruse the local thrift stores and buy every wool sweater they have on sale days. thats what I'm storing best of luck

Re: Liquor for barter
 

funny image

Did that Indian guy pose for the gold buffalo or what?

Re: Liquor for barter
 

No, that was one of his ancestors.

Had an ojibiwa indian freind who's father was treasurer for the reservation. His dad would carry the cash out the back door of the casino and called it, "white man paying taxes on america." His son always had plenty of 'buckskins' to trade for the firewater.

Good people, but don't show ur scalp to them when their drunk.. I'd sometimes get the same look on the reservation that I'd get in the muslim part of the philippines. To the racist indiginous, we are the white wankers who trashed their sacred planet.

Re: Liquor for barter
 

Here is Rev. He thinks everybody is going to kill him for a round of ammunition or a bottle of whiskey.

Rev must not have much experience dealing with people.
Pretty doubtful you would trade stuff to bums, criminals, or drunks.

Maybe Rev thinks the way to use trade goods is to set up a sidewalk stand, like kids selling lemonade? If you know your neighbors, you have a pretty good group for barter and trade. You will get to know the others they know if you do much transacting with others. Better to be looking to acquire than looking to sell. Need to be giving up some stuff once in a while, rather than always being a hard-bargainer. Neighbors will watch out for those who help and watch out for them.

Those of you who think your marketing skills will make you rich if the system fails are clueless.


There are some valuable forms of alcoholic beverages worth storing:
100 Proof Vodka is used to make herbal tinctures.
190 Proof Everclear has medicinal uses.
You can't drink de-natured alcohol, but it is better than isoprophyl alcohol for sterilization and skin disinfectant.