Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Some people's idea of food storage is an expired jar of pickles in the back of the refrigerator. The average household has a three day supply of food. And, that's if you count a half-empty jar of mustard as food.

Me? I like to eat every day. I store enough food (including dog food) so that I don't have to panic and run out and buy toilet paper during the next scamdemic.

I don't have to worry if the grid goes down for a few days or if we get nuked by Russia, China and North Korea. Iran probably wants a piece of us, also.

But, this article isn’t about food. It’s about alcohol. I was alcohol and caffeine free for most of my life but I always kept both on hand for emergencies. Imagine brewing up a nice hot cup of fresh ground coffee while the air raid sirens are going off. What if you broke your leg? A bottle of Jack Daniels would be mighty helpful if that was all you had for the pain.

People think about “preppers” storing food, ammo, etc. but alcohol is an essential part of being prepared. For example, here are 45 Survival Uses for Alcohol. They include medicinal, barter item, stress reliever in difficult times, disinfectant, and many, many more. Check the link for the complete list. You might be surprised.

The history of liquor can be traced back to the earliest stages of human existence. As far back as 9,000 years ago, the early Chinese created wine from a mixture of fruit, rice, and honey. Between the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia and the Zagros Mountains of Iran, natives domesticated grapes and made wine almost 7,400 years ago. In ancient times alcohol was used as a medicine and had great power.

Jesus gave his disciples wine and told them it was his “blood”. He also changed water into wine.

1 Timothy 5:23 - Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 - Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

So, what kind of alcohol is best to store? This link goes into great detail but basically there are several different types of alcohol to have for many different uses. Even some medical alcohol, like isopropyl, which isn’t potable but still has many important uses. You don’t have to store 30 year old scotch. Some cheap alcohol is good enough for most purposes.

Clear alcohol, like vodka or Everclear, is a must have. You can disinfect or start fires with it. For drinking, you may want something more potable like whisky or bourbon. Basically, anything above 60% can be used as surgical alcohol. Anything above 40% can be used to disinfect wounds for first aid purposes. See the table below.

Fermentation generally produces a low alcohol concentration. It has to be distilled to concentrate the alcohol further. Distillation separates the alcohol from the water because they have different boiling points, but once you reach about 95.6% purity the solution becomes what is known as an azeotrope. That is as pure as you can get alcohol by distillation.

The longer the alcohol will last without expiring the better. Just as a heads up, the higher the alcohol percentage and proof, the further away the expiry of the alcohol tends to be. Also, while wines and beers, for instance, need to be closed in order to keep their shelf life, spirits and moonshine/Everclear can be opened and still last indefinitely.

There are many different kinds of alcohol that you could stockpile. When it comes to spirits alone, you can hoard whisky, rum, gin, vodka, tequila, brandy, or all of the above. If you’d just like to stockpile a few, spirits like whiskey, vodka, and rum provide maximum bang-for-buck and potential uses, both medically and otherwise.

Distilled grain spirits like Everclear are the ultimate to have. Strictly and technically speaking, they are also spirits, but the sheer strength (especially of the 95% Everclear!!) puts them in a different league from common spirits. They will last for a very long time. Everclear is probably the biggest bang for the buck in terms of having alcohol for emergencies.

Clear alcohol like vodka (or Everclear) is probably the best to have. This link has a lot of information. Vodka is the perfect prep to have: vodka virtually never expires, it has bartering value, medicinal purpose and a multitude of uses. It is so much more useful than just drinking (although there may be a time for that, as well).

Why not make your own alcohol? It is very easy. Nothing says being prepared like having the ability to make your own homemade liquors and wines. Moonshine takes a little more work and equipment than the average person probably has on hand. It has to be distilled in order to increase the alcohol content. But a still is a great thing to have. It can also be used to purify drinking water. Wine is easier to make. All you need are the fixings.

There are literally thousands of “prepper” articles on the net that tell you how to prep, what to prep, etc. This short missive is merely to remind those who don’t have any stored alcohol for emergencies to think about getting some.

Two Haitian cannibals were sitting in a bar having drinks and munching on a clown. One cannibal says to the other, “Does this taste funny to you?”