Artisan goods such as Wine, Beer, and Ale are the most profitable items you can get in Stardew Valley. The main reason that makes them so expensive is the fact that you need to first get raw ingredients and then turn them, after many days, into Artisan goods.
This whole process is done using a Keg, a special item that you can only discover later in your playthrough. If you are new to Stardew Valley, you might have seen most of the players on YouTube and the guides online recommending that you use a Keg to become a millionaire.
Recommended Read: How to Get the Greenhouse in Stardew Valley
However, how does a player even get the Keg in Stardew Valley? Do you have to do anything special, is it given as a reward, or do you just have to craft it?
Well, there are two ways you can get a Keg in Stardew Valley: either craft it after reaching level 8 in Farming or get one as a reward by completing the Artisan Bundle in the Community Center’s Pantry.
Table of Contents
- What is the Keg in Stardew Valley
- How to Get a Keg in Stardew Valley
- Keg vs Preserves Jar – Which One Should You Use in Stardew Valley?
What is the Keg in Stardew Valley
The Keg is a special late-game Stardew Valley item that will allow you to triple the value of most of the crops you get to grow.
By placing a crop inside the Keg, you will get a special new item that will usually be much more expensive than the original crop you used.
Most Vegetables will turn into Juice, which will be 2.25 times more expensive than the crop, and Fruits will turn into Wine, which will be 3 times more expensive.
Here are all the items you can produce in the Keg in Stardew Valley, along with the necessary raw ingredients and time it takes for the product to spawn:
| Product | Raw Ingredient | Processing Time | Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beer | Wheat | 1 Day | 200 g (Wheat Price x8) |
| Coffee | Coffee Bean x5 | 2 Hours | 150 g (Coffee Bean Price x10) |
| Green Tea | Tea Leaves | 3 Hours | 100 g (Tea Leaves x2) |
| Juice | Vegetables | 4 Days | Vegetable Price x2.25 |
| Mead | Honey | 10 hours | 200 g (Honey x2) |
| Pale Ale | Hops | 1-2 Days | 300 g (Hops x12) |
| Wine | Fruits | 6.25 Days | Fruit Price x3 |
As you can tell from this table, the best results come from placing Wheat, Hops, and Fruits inside the Keg. If you want to make a lot of profit using this item, these are the crops that you should usually process.
How to Get a Keg in Stardew Valley
There are two ways to get a Keg in Stardew Valley, but only one of them will allow you to get more duplicates:
- Craft it
- Get it as a reward
Reward for Completing the Artisan Bundle
If you are at an earlier point in your playthrough, but you want to make a lot of money from Wine and Pale Ale, then you should try to get a Keg using this method.
After you manage to complete a single Bundle at the Community Center, the Pantry Bundles will appear.
One of these, the Artisan Bundle, will give you a Keg as a reward for completing it. To complete the Artisan Bundle, you will need 6 out of these 12 items:
- Apple
- Apricot
- Cheese
- Cherry
- Cloth
- Goat Cheese
- Honey
- Jelly
- Orange
- Peach
- Pomegranate
- Truffle Oil
Out of all of these, the fruits that you can get from trees are actually the easiest to get if you have already unlocked the Greenhouse.
You can just plant Apple, Apricot, Cherry, Orange, Peach, and Pomegranate Trees inside and get the reward in a month.
However, if you don’t have a Greenhouse at your disposal, then you will have to go through this the hard way and get the other items on the list.
Since you need the Cheese Press to get Goat Cheese and normal Cheese, you might want to make sure you have all the necessary animals on the farm to also complete the Animals Bundle.
Crafting Kegs
The most common way to get a Keg in Stardew Valley is to craft it yourself. The only problem with this is that it can take a while for a normal player to unlock the recipe for this item.
To unlock the recipe for the Keg, you will need to reach level 8 in Farming.
If you aren’t obsessed with min-maxing stats, then you will most likely reach this level after quite a few seasons in-game.
Once you do, you will automatically learn the recipe to craft the Keg. You will need 30 Wood, 1 Copper Bar, 1 Iron Bar, and 1 Oak Resin to craft a single Keg.
The reason why you should generally aim to craft your own Kegs is because, otherwise, you will only have one.
If you craft a lot of Kegs, you can make a lot of Wine or Ale at the same time and make a huge profit when everything is ready.
The best way to make money using Kegs, space-wise, is to fill up your Barns. Since you will have to build Barns for animals, you might as well use the space efficiently and also stick some Kegs inside.
Keg vs Preserves Jar – Which One Should You Use in Stardew Valley?
There are two items in Stardew Valley that do similar things.
The Keg and the Preserves Jar both process raw crops and turn them into much more expensive items. However, which one is better?
The Preserves Jar doubles the base value of a crop and then adds 50 g on top of that. As we’ve just seen, the prices for the items that the Keg processes depend on the crop.
Usually, if an item is more expensive, it will be much more profitable if you process it inside the Keg.
Fruits should almost always be used with the Keg. However, things are different with Vegetables, which have lower prices.
Usually, the general rule in your mind should be Fruits go in the Keg and Vegetables go in the Preserves Jar.
Here is a list of all the Fruits you shouldn’t use with the Keg and that you should process with the Preserves Jar:
- Apricot
- Blackberry
- Blueberry
- Hot Pepper
- Salmonberry
Here is also a list of the Vegetables you should process in the Keg, instead of the Preserves Jar:
- Pumpkin
- Red Cabbage
- Hops
- Wheat
That’s everything you need to know about how to get a Keg in Stardew Valley!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
