Alcohol brewing

Alcohol Brewing incorporates two distinct stages of production, namely the relatively easy fermentation process and the more complicated distillation process.

Alcohol

It is noteworthy that distilled alcohol does not spoil while still providing saturation; therefore turning excess ingredients into alcohol for storage is a valid strategy. Note that because of the ratios involved, however, a great deal of saturation potential is lost, as is all nutritional value.
Imbibing alcohol also leads to visual impairment - the player character will swerve their head from left to right, which actually affects movement in the game, since it is hard to walk in a straight line without actively counteracting the movement direction chosen by the swerving head.
The amount and type of alcohol imbibed influences the severity and duration of impairment.

Fermented Alcohol

Fermented alcohol provides 160 satiety and a nutrition value in the fruit or grain category depending on the source material. Fermented alcohol will spoil, but fruit based alcohol will spoil slower than the juice it is fermented from.
The game uses a ratio to determine how much alcohol is received for the number of ingredients you put in. Alcohols made from flour and water create 1 litre of alcohol for every 5 flour and 5 litres of water in the barrel. All others give 1 litre of alcohol for 1 litre juice or honey in the barrel.
Each type of alcohol and its creation process is detailed farther down.

Item	Source	Nutrition	Time (days)
Mead	Honey	Fruit	14
Apple Cider	Apple Juice	Fruit	7
Cherry Cider	Cherry Juice	Fruit	7
Peach Cider	Peach Juice	Fruit	7
Orange Cider	Orange Juice	Fruit	7
Mango Cider	Mango Juice	Fruit	7
Lychee Cider	Lychee Juice	Fruit	7
Grenadine	Pomegranate Juice	Fruit	7
Perry	Pear Juice	Fruit	7
Blueberry Wine	Blueberry Juice	Fruit	7
Cranberry Wine	Cranberry Juice	Fruit	7
Red Currant Wine	Red Currant Juice	Fruit	7
White Currant Wine	White Currant Juice	Fruit	7
Black Currant Wine	Black Currant Juice	Fruit	7
Saguaro Wine	Saguaro Juice	Fruit	7
Pineapple Wine	Pineapple Juice	Fruit	7
Spelt Ale	Spelt Flour & Water	Grain	14
Rice Ale	Rice Flour & Water	Grain	14
Rye Ale	Rye Flour & Water	Grain	14
Amaranth Ale	Amaranth Flour & Water	Grain	14
Cassava Ale	Cassava Flour & Water	Grain	14
Breadfruit Ale	Breadfruit Juice	Grain	7

Distilled Alcohol

Compared to merely fermented alcohol, distilled alcohol offers the same overall saturation, no nutritional benefit, 10 times the intoxication when consumed, and does not spoil with time.
Additionally, once distilled alcohol is the first step to acquiring Aqua Vitae - twice distilled alcohol - which can be used to craft alcohol soaked Bandages , and is twice as intoxicating as once distilled alcohol, but only restores 40 satiety.
The ratio mentioned refers to the amount of litres required in comparison to the distilled alcohol received, as well as the modifier on how long it takes to distill. The time refers to the duration in real-world minutes and seconds that the boiler and condenser need to run to produce 1L of distilled alcohol. The time to distill stays the same even if the speed of time changes in game.

Item	Source	Ratio	Time (in real time)
Distilled Mead	Mead	20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
Apple Brandy	Apple Cider	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Cherry Brandy	Cherry Cider	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Peach Brandy	Peach Cider	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Orange Brandy	Orange Cider	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Mango Brandy	Mango Cider	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Lychee Brandy	Lychee Cider	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Pomegranate Brandy	Grenadine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Pear Brandy	Perry	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Blueberry Brandy	Blueberry Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Cranberry Brandy	Cranberry Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Red Currant Brandy	Red Currant Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
White Currant Brandy	White Currant Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Black Currant Brandy	Black Currant Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Saguaro Brandy	Saguaro Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Pineapple Brandy	Pineapple Wine	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Spelt Whiskey	Spelt Ale	20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
Sake	Rice Ale	20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
Rye Whiskey	Rye Ale	20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
Amaranth Whiskey	Amaranth Ale	20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
Cassava Vodka	Cassava Ale	20:1	6 minutes 40 seconds
Breadfruit Vodka	Breadfruit Ale	10:1	3 minutes 20 seconds
Aqua Vitae	Any Distilled Alcohol	2:1	40 seconds

Fermentation

Different kinds of base ingredients can be fermented to alcohol by sealing them in a barrel for a specified amount of time. These different base ingredients will result in different kinds of alcoholic beverages, each with their own type name:

• Mead - made from honey
• Cider and Wine - made from different kinds of fruit and berry juices
• Ale - made from different kinds of flour fermented with water

All fermentation processes require at least a barrel , a bucket or bowl , as well as the above mentioned ingredients. Some of the these are harder to acquire then others, but generally speaking fermentation should not be attempted before entering the metal age - since barrels and buckets require a saw - and establishing a comfortably safe and well outfitted homestead.

Mead

A full barrel of honey ready for fermentation

Apart from the barrel and bucket, the only ingredient required for mead is honey. Honey can be acquired by squeezing honeycomb into a liquid container. To ensure a sufficient supply of honey for both brewing and other usage, it is recommended to follow the Beekeeping guide and build up a well developed beekeeping enclosure.

To ferment honey into mead, it simply needs to be transferred into an empty barrel and sealed. The tooltip inside of the barrels UI will inform about the resulting amount as well as the duration the barrel will need to stay sealed. For mead, the conversion from base ingredient to alcohol is 1:1, meaning even just one litre of honey will turn into 1 litre of mead. The sealing duration however is exactly 14 days regardless of the sealed amount. Since honey doesn't spoil, there is therefore no reason to ferment in small increments, instead the player could wait until gathering a full barrel.

Cider and Wine

A full barrel of lychee juice ready for fermentation

Making cider and wine requires a bit more preparation before the fermentation process can start. Specifically, fruit can not be fermented in its raw state, it needs to be turned into juice first. This however requires a Fruit Press . Each piece of fruit produces 0.3125 litres of juice, rounded to the second decimal, with a minimum of 16 fruit producing 5 litres and a maximum of 32 fruit producing 10 litres in one pressing. Once fruit juice has been procured from the raw fruit, the fermentation process is much like the one for mead.

To ferment fruit juice into cider or wine, it simply needs to be transferred into an empty barrel and sealed. The tooltip inside of the barrels UI will inform about the resulting amount as well as the duration the barrel will need to stay sealed. For cider or wine, the conversion from base ingredient to alcohol is 1:1, meaning even just one litre of juice will turn into 1 litre of cider or wine. The sealing duration however is exactly 7 days regardless of the sealed amount. Raw fruit itself will spoil rather quickly, as does the juice made from it. Cider and Wine will equally spoil at half the rate of juice, however they can both be further processed into distilled alcohol which will not spoil regardless of source material.

Ale

A full barrel of water with spelt flour, ready for fermentation

In order to brew ale you need a barrel, a bucket, jug, or bowl, and any amount of flour up to 50. Only specific types of flour can be used for fermentation, specifically spelt, cassava, rye, rice, and amaranth. Flax and sunflower flour cannot be used to ferment ale. To craft flour, a quern is needed, which in turn requires full stone blocks and therefore a metal pickaxe. Since the quern can be powered by hand, automation is not required.

To ferment flour into ale, a barrel needs to be filled with water and flour in a 1:1 ratio, meaning 1 litre of water requires 1 flour. However, the ratio of ingredients to alcohol is actually 5:1, unlike for mead and cider, meaning it requires 5 litres of water and 5 flour to make 1 litre of ale. The smallest amount you can ferment at a time is 1 litre of water and 1 flour, resulting in 0.2 litres of alcohol. However due to the long shelf life of flour there is no urgent need to turn flour into alcohol immediately.
The fermentation process takes 14 days regardless of the amount of ingredients.

Protip: While breadfruit turns into an alcohol titled 'Ale', it does not actually follow the same mechanics of flour based ales and instead behaves like a fruit wine instead.

Distillation

Requirements

The process of distillation first requires a boiler and condenser. Both of these are made from processed copper, tin and lead or silver - and therefore require the player to have at least reached the copper age, including a finished copper anvil .

Shopping List

For one set of boiler and condenser, the player would need:

• 7 copper plates = 14 copper ingots
• 1 soldering iron = 1 stick and 1 copper chisel (= 1 copper ingot)
• 7 Solder Bars = 2 ingots of either lead or silver solder alloy, as well as a saw with enough remaining durability

Soldering Iron

A soldering iron is a tool used, for the moment, exclusively to craft the boiler and condenser. It requires a stick and a copper chisel - keep in mind that the durability left on the chisel will be carried over to the soldering iron. Given that one crafting process including the soldering iron only takes 3 durability - and only 2 processes are needed for a fully working distillery - it is almost advisable to use an already used chisel with only around 6 durability left over for this.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Copper chisel 1x Stick

Solderbars

Solderbars are, for the moment, exclusively used to craft the boiler and condenser. They require a saw of any metal type, as well as ingots made from one of the two available solder alloys - Lead Solder or Silver Solder Ingots. These ingots can be created through casting , combining tin with either lead or silver in the correct amounts:

• Lead Solder: Lead (45% to 55%) and Tin (45% to 55%)
• Silver Solder: Silver (40% to 50%) and Tin (50% to 60%)

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Saw 1x Solder ingot

Boiler & Condenser

Both of these are made mainly from copper and require a Soldering Iron made from copper as well, as seen above.

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

The distillation setup includes a total of three steps, and should be done in a certain order to avoid placement headaches.

1. The first object that should be placed is the boiler. Arrange it so there is at least one block space to one side of the boiler - this is where the condenser can be placed in the next step. Additionally, there needs to be room to access the boiler itself, since the third step of the setup needs a campfire to be placed below the boiler.
2. The condenser can be placed while targetting one side of the boiler, and will then be put down on the block next to that side. It is technically possible to have more than one condenser attached to the same boiler, however only one condenser will be used at a time, depending on whether it has the type of alcohol being distilled in the bucket.
3. The next step requires a campfire to be set up under the condenser.

Press the sprint button while left clicking first the grass and then the firewood in place under the boiler. The campfire should only be ignited once the condensation process can start!

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  When placing the condenser, make sure the side of the boiler is targeted correctly.

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  The condenser placed down directly in front of the boiler side that was targeted before.

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  One grass needs to be placed directly under the boiler to start a campfire.

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  Just like a regular campfire, it takes 4 firewood on top of the grass pile.

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  Once filled with alcohol and fired, the boiler will constantly display the progress and fuel needs.

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  Once a bucket is placed and the condenser is filled with water, it will constantly update the progress and water needs.

Once the setup is complete, the boiler needs to be filled with an alcoholic beverage - either fermented alcohol or once distilled alcohol - and the condenser needs to be filled with water for maximum efficiency. Before starting the process, a bucket needs to be placed under the condenser snout. The boiler can be filled with up to 30 litres of the a single type of alcohol, and the condenser can hold 10 litres of water at a time. The campfire below the boiler can take up to 4 pieces of firewood each time, which amounts to a burn time of 8 hours. At the moment, it is not possible to directly open the firepit GUI and input more than 4 pieces - however it is possible to restock fuel and alcohol during the process.
A distillation can be started and then left to work on its own. The player only needs to return after 8 hours to restart the fire with new fuel - however, this will waste fuel, as explained below.
Before the condensation process starts, the boiler temperature needs to reach 75°C. Every half a second it will increase the temperature by 1°C until it hits 100°C, so it will take 37.5 seconds in real time off the initial fuel time, which is about 0.3 hours at the default game speed. After the fuel is consumed or the alcohol has been processed, the boiler will show as "cold" and the campfire will be extinguished automatically. However, if firewood or alcohol is restocked fast enough, the campfire will ignite again automatically. The temperature will sink during the time the campfire is out, and will rise up again to reach 100°C.
Once the campfire has been fired through once, it does not require the full 4 pieces of firewood placed down to be started again, and therefore smaller amounts of alcohol can be processed without wasting much fuel. Similarly, the remaining fuel time of a distillation process once all source alcohol is gone remains and can be used towards the next process.

When the boiler is running at 75°C every second that passes adds the ratio listed for the alcohol above as a fraction of distilled over fermented until there is 0.2 accumulation inside the boiler. It will then push 0.01 litres of distilled alcohol to the condenser and remove the opposite ratio of fermented alcohol from the boiler. Meaning, for example, that every 2 seconds it will turn 0.1 litres of mead into 0.01 litres of distilled mead, or that every 4 seconds it will turn 0.2 litres of rice ale into 0.01 litres of sake. Each time it does this there is a 50% chance it will use 0.01 litre of water in the condenser as well. If there is no water in the condenser there is instead a 50% chance it will skip that accumulation and reset without distilling anything.

Below is a table of required source alcohol, approximate water, and fuel to receive a certain amount of fruit based distilled alcohol, as an example. The time needed includes initial heating time from 0°C and the firewood listed is how much is needed after you have already burned through your initial 4. Both are approximated based on default game speed.

Source Alcohol	Water	Firewood	Time needed	Resulting Alcohol*
1L	0.05L	1	0.48h	0.1L
10L	0.5L	1	1.98h	1L
20L	1L	2	3.65h	2L
30L	1.5L	3	5.31h	3L

*Mead and grain-based ales only produce half of this amount and take twice as much time, therefore requiring double the firewood as well.

Video Tutorials

General Brewing Explanation	Full guide from juice to alcohol