Moonshine gains popularity as alcohol becomes more expensive

Inflation and the weak krona are affecting Swedes in many ways. Alcoholic beverages, for example, have become much more expensive to buy both in Sweden and abroad – so consumption of home-brewed spirits is increasing instead.

– I can’t afford to go abroad and buy it now, so I’d rather buy the home-brewed stuff, Linda tells Swedish public broadcaster SR.

– It’s wrong and I don’t really want to support those who are criminals, but at the same time you tend to think that the moonshining is a pretty mild crime, she continues.

According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), the number of reports of illegal alcohol production has risen by 50 percent in just a few years, although it is still at historically low levels.

“Home distillation likely to increase”

John Magnus Ros, associate professor and consumer researcher at Borås University, says the trend is to be expected.

– We have seen how Systembolaget’s sales of spirits have decreased in recent years, and when we have a weak krona, imports of alcohol from abroad decrease. Therefore, it is likely that home distillation will increase to the extent that consumers still demand alcohol.

Home distillation has been banned in Sweden since the mid-19th century, and those caught face up to four years in prison.

Despite the ban, distilling alcohol for “home use” was historically very common in Swedish households, but after joining the EU in 1995 it became easier for Swedes to buy cheap alcohol in Germany and other European countries instead, which is why home distillation has also declined sharply in recent decades.