v0.31:Alcohol

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v50.12 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Alcohol is the favored drink of dwarves; a dwarf will drink booze an average of four times per season, and without it they will soon become unhappy. Thoughts imply that dwarves like to have some variety in what they drink. Many dwarves have a favorite drink, selected at first randomly from all possible alcoholic beverages, but this might change once dwarves have been exposed to other beverages. ^[Verify]

Note that setting booze on fire will not cause it to explode (nor has it ever done so) - however, exposing it to high temperatures will cause it to boil away (and the wooden barrels themselves can also be set on fire).

Acquiring alcohol for your dwarves

There are three methods of acquiring alcohol, only two of which are available after embark.

• At embark, alcohol may be purchased with embark points.
• Traders that visit the fortress will often have alcohol of some sort to sell.
• The third and most reliable method requires a brewer, a still, and a working farm plot. Most crops can be brewed into valuable alcohol.
  • In a pinch you can also gather plants and brew them at a still in the same way you would with crops.
  • Mead does not require any plants to be made, though it does require honey which is made through beekeeping.

Variety

He has been tired of drinking the same old booze lately.

Variety in booze keeps away unhappy thoughts.

If a dwarf drinks the same old booze over and over, he will eventually get a bad thought from 'drinking the same old booze lately.', unless that dwarf has a preference for that type of booze. A dwarf who likes a type of booze will never get tired of drinking it.

Lack of variety causes bad thoughts, but will never cause a dwarf to stop drinking. Even after years of drinking a booze they don't like, a dwarf will never prefer water or dying of thirst to drinking the same old booze. You can therefore keep a fortress alive on only one type of booze so long as you have enough good thoughts to offset the bad thought from lack of booze variety.

Consequences of a Sober Fortress

Any creature with the [ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT] token, dwarves included, will suffer performance penalties as a result of being deprived of alcohol. This manifests as a loss of speed in almost every activity, including basic movement. For this reason, a steady supply of alcohol is highly recommended for any attempts at a productive fort (unless you're a cruel overlord).

Dwarves will also wait longer before drinking from a non-alcoholic water source, resulting in negative thoughts from thirst.

Alcohol withdrawal appears in the dwarf's thoughts and preferences as "starting to work slowly due to its scarcity" after 3 months, "really wants a drink" after 6 months, "has gone without a drink for far, far too long" after 9 months, and finally "can't even remember the last time he/she had some" after an entire year.

While dwarves rely on alcohol from the moment they are born, creatures of any race who are exposed to enough combat to become fully hardened ("doesn't really care about anything anymore") will also become alcoholics.

Types of Alcohol

Plant-based

Grown inside

Ingredient	Beverage Produced	Beverage Value
Plump helmet	Dwarven Wine	2
Pig tail	Dwarven Ale	2
Cave wheat	Dwarven Beer	2
Sweet pod	Dwarven Rum	2

Grown Outside

Ingredient	Beverage Produced	Beverage Value
Muck root	Swamp Whiskey	1
Bloated tuber	Tuber Beer	2
Prickle berry	Prickle Berry Wine	1
Wild strawberry	Strawberry Wine	2
Longland grass	Longland Beer	2
Rat weed	Sewer Brew	1
Fisher berry	Fisher Berry Wine	2
Rope reed	River Spirits	2
Sliver barb	Gutter Cruor	1
Sun berry	Sunshine	5
Whip vine	Whip Wine	3

Animal-based

Ingredient	Beverage Produced	Beverage Value
Honey	Mead	1