So, Ukraine has conducted several drone strikes against distilleries that are purportedly involved in producing alcohol used in military fuel production. Okay, that’s a fairly direct approach to warfare, akin to the allies bombing oil fields near Ploesti or ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt. Knock those out and military vehicles don’t have fuel to operate, nor ball bearings make new ones.
But here’s a hypothetical: what if Ukraine had the capability to knock out, say, 90% of Russia’s consumer alcohol production? Only wealthy people could afford to buy vodka. How long before the Russian public would revolt? Quite a few historians have argued that (lack of) vodka has played a significant role in Russia’s revolutionary history, so the idea isn’t totally coming from left field.
I don’t know. Does either China or North Korea (and I suppose we should throw Iran in there as well) produce enough vodka to fulfill Russia’s domestic demands? I somehow doubt it.
Cheap vodka is probably one of the easiest alcohols to make. I can’t imagine it would take too long to ramp up production, if you had an opportunity to corner the Russian market.
How long would it take to switch to making vodka? If you’re fermenting and distilling almost anything, you already have everything you really need, and cheap vodka doesn’t really need any long-term aging like other, fancier booze does. If they really want vodka specifically, you could be making it within weeks, I expect.
Probably almost as long as it would take Russia to resume production, but I’m no expert. Besides, China just isn’t a large exporter of spirits, so I don’t see where the extra capacity is coming from.
But there’s a difference between rebuilding something that’s been blown up, and just re-purposing one type of distillery to produce a different product.
And while China may not export much now, they do still produce for a domestic market of over a billion people. If there’s serious money on the line, I can’t see it taking that long to divert at least some of their capacity to capture this suddenly available market share, while also working to expand their capacity to keep it long-term.
China can’t just repurpose, they have to increase capacity. Which I admit is simpler then rebuilding or building from scratch. But would you bother for what is unlikely to be no more than a 6-12 month demand?
Most Russian vodka seems to be made in the St. Petersburg region, but there are other distilleries spread throughout Russian, they could expand production and repurpose. Nevermind, I was wrong here.
But then you’re fighting the hypothetical. The OP’s premise is 90% of production is destroyed (Zelenskiy’s Zeroes Strike Again!), so there’s little left to re-purpose.
When I was there in the 80’s a lot of the vodka drunk by normal people was moonshine distilled in a shed. The commercial stuff was all going to export to raise hard currency, so very little was available for domestic consumption.
That stuff was ‘interesting’ and sure carried a kick. It was usually thick and oily and best taken with some water. I doubt it would be good for the liver or eyesight if drunk often.
35+ years later I’m not sure if the skills or stills to produce this are still abundant. But maybe there’s a babushka or two that knows the ancient methods.
I’m sure. They still (heh) know how to do it, and do. Small scale distillation is amazingly easy to do. Malted grain, yeast, and a still. Witness the still they ran in the Swamp on MASH. Look in the lab core at any American high school.
An anecdote I heard is that during one of the Chechen Wars, the Chechen troops and the Russian troops tacitly agreed to leave the local vodka factory alone: that was neutral ground and everybody had access to it. It worked great until their commanders caught wind that their men were drinking rather than fighting and put the kibosh on it.