Alcohol brewing

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.20.11.

Alcohol Brewing incorporates two distinct stages of production, simple fermentation and more complicated distillation.

Fermented Alcohol

For information on obtaining fruit juice for fermentation, see Fruitpress .

A full barrel of honey ready for fermentation.

A full barrel of lychee juice ready for fermentation.

A full barrel of water with spelt flour ready for fermentation. Note the 10L output.

Fermentation is the first step in alcohol production. Fermented alcohol provides 80 satiety per liter, regardless of the ingredient, and a nutrition value in the fruit or grain category depending on the source material. While fruit juice has 200 satiety per liter and a 7 day shelf life, fermented alcohol has only 80 satiety per liter, but with a much longer shelf life of 140 days. If stored in a cellar , fermented alcohol will last for years.

Honey and all types of juice ferment at a 1:1 ratio into alcohol, while grain-based ales ferment at a ratio of 5:1. 5L water and 5 flour produces 1L of ale, with a full barrel of 50L water and 50 flour producing 10L ale.

Fruit ciders and breadfruit ale require 7 days of sealing. Mead and grain-based ales require 14 days of sealing.

Fermented alcohols are the least intoxicating type of alcohol. Fermented alcohol is mild enough to allow multiple liters to be consumed without being seriously impaired, but any amount of intoxication can make fine detail work such as smithing and chiseling practically impossible.

Fermented Alcohol	Ingredients	Nutrition
Mead	Honey	Fruit
Apple cider	Apple juice	Fruit
Cherry cider	Cherry juice	Fruit
Peach cider	Peach juice	Fruit
Orange cider	Orange juice	Fruit
Mango cider	Mango juice	Fruit
Lychee cider	Lychee juice	Fruit
Grenadine	Pomegranate juice	Fruit
Perry	Pear juice	Fruit
Blueberry wine	Blueberry juice	Fruit
Cranberry wine	Cranberry juice	Fruit
Red currant wine	Red currant juice	Fruit
White currant wine	White currant juice	Fruit
Black currant wine	Black currant juice	Fruit
Saguaro wine	Saguaro juice	Fruit
Pineapple wine	Pineapple juice	Fruit
Breadfruit ale	Breadfruit juice	Grain
Spelt ale	Spelt flour & Water	Grain
Sake/Rice ale	Rice flour & Water	Grain
Rye ale	Rye flour & Water	Grain
Amaranth ale	Amaranth flour & Water	Grain
Cassava ale	Cassava flour & Water	Grain

Protip: Breadfruit ale production has a 7 day sealing period like other fruit juices, but the resulting ale provides grain nutrition instead of fruit.

Distilled Alcohol

Distilled alcohol is produced by boiling fermented alcohol and condensing it into water. Each liter of distilled alcohol provides 80 satiety per liter and never spoils. While each liter of distilled alcohol provides the same satiety as a liter of fermented alcohol, the ratio of conversion loses 90-95% of the total satiety. The only practical benefit of distilling alcohol is to compress large amounts of fermented alcohol for permanent preservation. An additional downside of distilled alcohol is that it no longer provides any nutrition.

Distilled alcohol is ten times as intoxicating as fermented alcohol.

Distilled Alcohol	Ingredient	Ratio
Distilled mead	Mead	20:1
Apple brandy	Apple cider	10:1
Cherry brandy	Cherry cider	10:1
Peach brandy	Peach cider	10:1
Orange brandy	Orange cider	10:1
Mango brandy	Mango cider	10:1
Lychee brandy	Lychee cider	10:1
Pomegranate brandy	Grenadine	10:1
Pear brandy	Perry	10:1
Blueberry brandy	Blueberry wine	10:1
Cranberry brandy	Cranberry wine	10:1
Red currant brandy	Red currant wine	10:1
White currant brandy	White currant wine	10:1
Black currant brandy	Black currant wine	10:1
Saguaro brandy	Saguaro wine	10:1
Pineapple brandy	Pineapple wine	10:1
Breadfruit vodka	Breadfruit ale	10:1
Spelt whiskey	Spelt ale	20:1
Sake/Rice whiskey	Rice ale	20:1
Rye whiskey	Rye ale	20:1
Amaranth whiskey	Amaranth ale	20:1
Cassava vodka	Cassava ale	20:1

The distilling process takes 20 seconds per liter of input.

Ratio	Time required per liter of output
10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
2:1	40 seconds

Protip: Despite its grain nutrition, breadfruit ale still uses the 10:1 ratio of fruit alcohols.

Aqua Vitae

Aqua Vitae is twice-distilled alcohol. It is produced by distilling any type of distilled alcohol again. It is always produced at a 2:1 ratio.

One liter of aqua vitae provides only 40 satiety and no nutrition. It is twice as intoxicating as distilled alcohol, making it the most intoxicating substance in the game.

0.2L of aqua vitae can be added to a clean bandage to create an alcohol-soaked bandage, increasing the amount of health gained from 3 to 7. The bandage will dry out after 1 hour.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x 0.2L of aqua vitae 1x Clean bandage

Distillation

The process of distillation requires a boiler and condenser. In total, the raw materials required for one distillery are 15 copper ingots and 2 solder ingots, in addition to a saw to create the solder bars and a soldering iron for the boiler and condenser.

Soldering Iron

The soldering iron is a tool used exclusively to craft the boiler and condenser. It requires a stick and a copper chisel. The durability of the chisel will be transferred to the soldering iron, but with an additional 12.5% for the soldering iron due to the stick ingredient lacking a durability stat. A chisel with only 1 durability can be used to create a soldering iron with 56 durability, which is enough to create 14 boilers and 14 condensers.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Chisel 1x Stick

Solder Bars

Solder bars are exclusively used to craft the boiler and condenser. They require a saw of any metal type and a solder alloy ingot composed of tin and either lead or silver.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Saw 1x Solder ingot

Boiler & Condenser

The boiler and condenser require several copper plates , solder bars, and a soldering iron. The boiler costs 3 durability on the soldering iron, and the condenser costs 1 durability. If the soldering iron has less than the necessary amount of durability, the recipe cannot be completed and the crafting output will not appear in the output slot.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Soldering iron 2x Copper plate 1x Solder bar

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Soldering iron 5x Copper plate 5x Solder bar

Process

Setting up a distillery takes 3 steps. First place the boiler. Then, place the condenser on the ground next to the boiler, ensuring that it visually connects with the boiler. Finally, place a bucket beneath the condenser by placing it while looking at the ground beneath the spout or the log on which the condenser is placed. Up to 4 condensers can be placed around a boiler, but only 1 will be used at a time.

• 

  A fully assembled distillery, ready for beginning the distillation process.

Protip: If you neglect to fill the condenser with water, it will lose half of the distilled liquid!

To prepare the boiler for distilling, place a piece of grass underneath it, followed by 4 firewood , as though you were creating a firepit . Then, fill the condenser with water, up to 10L, and fill the boiler with the liquid to be distilled, up to 30L. Finally, light the fire underneath the boiler.

• 

  An active distillery. Note the steam coming off of the condenser and liquid dripping from the spout.

Running the boiler requires fuel. Each piece of firewood lasts for 2 hours. The boiler will heat up at a rate of 2°C per second to 100°C, and start working at 75°C, which will take 37.5 seconds, or 18.75 game minutes. Each liter of input takes 20 seconds, or 10 game minutes. Once the boiler is up to temperature, it will begin distilling the input liquid at a rate of 1L per 20 seconds and slowly consuming the water in the condenser. Once the boiler has been run once, the full firepit creation process does not need to be done again, and firewood can be added individually. When the boiler runs out of fuel, the liquid inside will retain its heat for significantly longer than it takes to get up to heat. Taking advantage of the cooling delay, 24.6L of input can be processed with only a single piece of firewood.

Intoxication

When the player drinks any alcoholic beverage, their intoxication will increase. Higher levels of intoxication result in a more severe screen wobbling effect and more speech errors when typing chat messages.

Alcohol type	Intoxication
Fermented	0.15
Distilled	1.5
Aqua Vitae	3.0

Whenever the player drinks alcohol, the minimum intoxication afterwards is 1.1 + the intoxication amount. For example, if the player is completely sober and drinks a liter of wine, they will have 1.25 intoxication. Detoxification happens naturally over time. 0.005 intoxication is removed each second, or 0.01 each in-game minute with default settings . Detoxification only progresses over real time and does not speed up while sleeping.

Video Tutorials

General Brewing Explanation	Full guide from juice to alcohol

History

• Prior to 1.20, fermented alcohol had 160 satiety per liter and a shelf life of 14 days. 1.20 cut the satiety of fermented alcohol in half to only 80, but increased its shelf life to 140 days to make the difference between juice and alcohol more significant.
• Alcohol was added in 1.16.