THE END OF THE WORLD FILES volume 4. homebrew.

The end of the world is going to be rough, and we will need to find a way to cope with the stress once in a while. Even nowadays stress is a big part of our lives. There’s nothing quite like a cold beer at the end of the day, a shot of whiskey at the end of a really hard day, or a glass of wine to wind done in the evening. Now, whatcha gonna do when the liquor stores are long empty and you have to fight zombies, robots, or your fellow humans-become-enemies? How are you going to cope with that stress if you can’t even sell insurance all day without needing a drink?
Unless you become a monk(which I’m not knocking because it is a perfectly acceptable end-of-the-world sort of vocation), you’re going to want a regular supply of alcohol. I know that I will not be able to handle the end of the world without it. So what do you do? You make it yourself, that’s what you do.
People have been making their own booze for thousands of years. Every culture has a preference because of the availability of supplies(which will become an issue again when import shops are history) and every area has their own variant. Distilling (to make liquor) is dangerous and time consuming, so I recommend fermentation.
There are many fermented beverages. Beer and wine are both fermented beverages that you can make yourself. I prefer hard cider and mead. Hard cider is made from fresh-pressed apple juice and mead is made from raw honey and water. There are books and pamphlets and web-sites that can explain all this easily. All you need to buy is some fermentation locks(you can also make your own) and a carboy (big glass jug). If you keep everything as clean as possible, you can ferment your cider or mead to 5% without adding sugar. If you have sugar(or lots more honey) you can add as much as you want and ferment it all the way to 14%. I live up north so apple trees abound. You can build a bee hive to attract bees for honey.
Careful, this stuff can give you a powerful hangover. But hey, a hangover is not the end of the world--and it’s nice to know that the end of the world is not the end of the hangover.