One of the "craft" trades that might be handy in a SHTF situation is making fairly pure alcohol. It is a good way to store excess grains, handy to drink, can be used as a solvent for medical uses and just as a money maker. We have all seen the old moonshine still and know how easy it would be to make one. The problem is that the "pot still" type which is the usual name for that system, requires quite of a bit of skill to operate and that some outputs from it are poison and other parts smell and perhaps taste like dirty socks. Here is a quick survey of the subject. What are Cuts in Whisky Distillation? The hearts is of course the part that we want, but the head and tails contain the non alcohol parts that give a drink its flavor. The more you reject as heads or tails, the less you have to sell as well. Now the trick is knowing when to start keeping the booze and when to reject it. Not a good idea to taste a boiling and perhaps poisonous liquid to see if it is safe to keep to drink, nor to harm your customers. The skill needed to do it without controlling the temps is kind of like the use of color to judge temps in blacksmithing. Takes some time to learn it and best to have a person that knows how to do it to teach you. Another of those things like foraging for wild foods that can get you in deep trouble or perhaps even dead. Now the more modern and complex way is to use a column still and run in a continuous process or measure the temps of the vapor as it flows into the condensing sections. What’s the Difference Between Pot Stills and Column Stills? Again one of those things that are easy to get now, tools to measure temp, specific gravity, alcohol content, etc. Those items as well as knowledge, will be difficult to find after the SHTF. The best description of gathering resources for use after the SHTF is a Jerry Young story, Resource - The Trades People Resource - Just In Case
The gravity reading is very important, Tells you if its wood grain methanol or the good stuff I think since I've never made anything like that, Probably the 1st gallon will blind you, Throw that out.
What do y'all want to know? My family started making whisky back in Scotland, about 1600 they moved operations to Ulster in northern Ireland, and 150 years later moved to the Colonies. In the last 275 years or so we have made whisky in the mountains of Virginia, the Carolinas, east Tennessee, and north Alabama. In all that time the only constant was some sob from the government with his hand out for taxes (aka our money)! I've made whisky with my Daddy, BIL, and nephew, with my Daddy talking about his uncles that when to prison for making shine, and his Daddy that made a fortune during Prohibition only to lose it in the Great Depression. We've bootlegged and operated a small local chain of legal liquor stores, where we sold some fake moonshine. I say fake because if you have to ask the Yankee government for permission and pay taxes, it ain't shine! So, what do y'all want to know?
Keep that methanol, because with some lye and seed oil you can make bio-diesel. Also, some folks like to drink it. Many years ago, my Daddy asked an old black man to help him set up a pot still and teach him how to run it. The old man asked for only one thing in payment, that first quart.
Spent a lot of my youth helping an old man run a still. I was always first in because I was under 18 and would walk if I was caught. Kept me in spending money for sure.
I have a column reflux still but have not ran it since I sold my old home and relocated four years ago. My main use was for fuel. 190 proof alcohol will run in a carbureted engine with upgrades to all fuel lines, anodized fuel blocks, and jet enlargement. This was my setup on a square body truck with a 383 with stock Vortech heads and a very stout Comp cams grind. I still have the truck, but run E85 currently. With E85, the dyno pull measured was 385hp at the rear wheels with 473ft pounds of torque.
Wildbilly a good old country boy is already half way to being a prepper and the old "hill billy" survived in Scotland and the USA when the whole world was out to get him. Good garden, corn field, hog trap, still, forge, cat fish pond, smoke house, cow or two, good lady and extended family, and a few other things that I can't even think of. Known a few in my life. The rest of the world often thinks of them as being shiftless etc. I have found in my limited travels that often they have found their niche in life and are very comfortable and happy in it. The biggest problems most faced was some idiot that wanted them to fit into his so called better society. Lot reacted like cats. You can put a collar on a cat and lead it around like a dog. Most cats at best allow it and make it very obvious that they don't like it. I think society is afraid of someone who is living in the life style they choose and are comfortable with it. Those outside the group have lost their ability to control it. Thus create laws to both limit them and control them. End up with school boards defining education and laws against stills unless you pay the taxes. As well as all the other things. Property taxes do several things. They collect taxes for the idiots to spend on what they think counts, But they also force you into their world as well. You have to participate in some way to "gain" enough money to pay the taxes. That is why it is impossible to have true self sufficient life style in the US, You can subsist on your homestead but you are going to have to interact with the rest of the world to pay your taxes. Some groups found that they could minimize the effort by supplying the larger society with some object they could produce. While it was often illegal, pot, shine, crack, magic mushrooms, etc, it was also very profitable and minimizes the effort needed to "earn" that money society demands.
Taxes...even thinking about this topic makes my blood pressure rise and my head hurt. I'm not against taxes but how in the hell can they justify some of these taxes. Like taxes on liquor, cigarettes, or marijuana or the huge tax on profit from selling gold (28%, even higher than stocks). I was in Washington State and they tax marijuana 30-45%. Totally unfair, and unjustifiable and we continue to allow them to do it. Freedom. I wonder about their idea of 'freedom' because it surely isn't the same as mine. Sorry...got off topic but yeah, things are getting better under Trump but in all honesty this country needs a true revolution.
At tangent of a different sort is making methane using the organics with no flame. Methane makes great fuel for heating and cooking and driving engines.
I didn't think that was gonna work as well as some folks hoped, since illegal and legal marijuana are the same why would you pay more for the legal?!
Oh we ordered it and used it in a high pressure injection pump up above an orifice in the natural gas flowline. That's right, methanol will keep natural gas from freezing up! You need to know this for winter operations.
No idea. I don't live in Washington (thank goodness!) but suppose it's because you know exactly what you are getting and you're following the law...I really don't know.
Like the users of illicit/illegal drugs suddenly started worrying about following the law and paying taxes. 
Mostly guns, ammo and some tools. Hunter/Gathers usually only have to work a few hours a day to survive. Subsistence and small farmer work longer hours but it's usually seasonal and they often have large blocks of seemly free time between plowing/planting and harvest. Flatlanders (aka Englishmen) see them hunting, fishing, or doing the occasional odd-job and figure that they are lazy It's possible to pay taxes on a small farm and not participate, selling farm produce, fishing, livestock, furs, cutting timber and firewood, doing some repair or handy work, and yes, growing pot and making shine. These will allow you to make money for taxes and not participate. However, most drive trucks, or work in factories and mines, and farm on the side.
Running a pot still requires a lot of skill and attention to details (aka WORK), while a column still is a little more forgiving. I got 2 column stills, one belonged to my Daddy, and the other is mine. I made some plans to modify mine years ago, and I need to make those improvements...someday.
I used to do this when I lived in Franklin county Virginia when I was like 14 years old. According to the ATF currently you can distill alcohol for your own personal use. I don't think the Virgina alcohol beverage control people would agree so proceed accordingly if you live in a state like Virginia with tyrannical alcohol laws.
I got a cheap vevor pot still this year, been making some pretty good "flavored hand sanitizer." I can get 150 proof out of it. I don't sell or give it away, just for me to drink. A 5 gallon batch of mash, once distilled and proofed down gives me lots to drink, ugh, sanitize my hands
I like the flavors that come through in a pot still vs a column still. Column stills turn my aguardiente into vodka.
