Quick Links
- Cellar Upgrade For House
- Crafting Casks
- What Can You Place In Casks?
- How Long Does Aging Take?
- Price For Aged Items
From growing crops to raising animals, there are a lot of different ways to make money in Stardew Valley. In this guide, we are going to look at casks. These simple wooden barrels will allow you to transform an average-priced item into an expensive artisan good.
Related: Stardew Valley: The 9 Best Artisan Goods
You can place several items in casks, and it can be difficult to decide which one you want. Fortunately, we will go over how to get and make casks, as well as the prices for artisan goods processed in a cask.
Cellar Upgrade For House
The ability to use casks will first be unlocked when you upgrade your house to include a cellar. This is the third upgrade your house will receive and it will take a while to get.
To upgrade your house, talk to Robin. Unlike other upgrades, this will not cost any materials. Instead, you will just need to pay 100,000g. It will take three days for Robin to build the cellar, but you can start using it immediately after she is done.
Initially, the cellar will contain 33 casks. You can rearrange these any way you want, and can even add more casks. Alternatively, you can convert the area into a storage room if you aren't that interested in using that many casks.
Crafting Casks
In addition to having the 33 casks from your wine cellar, you can craft more. These crafted casks can be placed in your cellar, but will not function properly anywhere else. For example, in the above image you can see a few casks placed in the children's bedroom. However, in this area, the casks will not work.
To craft a cask you will need the following materials.
- 20x Wood
- 1x Hardwood
As you can see, it's very easy to craft a cask. You will unlock this recipe when you get the cellar upgrade for your house. This means that prior to the upgrade, you cannot age any items.
What Can You Place In Casks?
Casks can hold a variety of items and will give you high-priced artisan goods in return. Let's take a look at all the items you can place in casks.
| Items To Place In Cask | Recipe |
|---|---|
| Wine | Any Fruit |
| Pale Ale | Hops |
| Beer | Wheat |
| Mead | Honey |
| Cheese | Milk (normal or large) |
| Goat Cheese | Goat Milk (normal or large) |
Wine, pale ale, beer, and mead can all be made in a keg. This is a craftable item used for brewing different beverages. To craft a keg, you will need the following materials.
- 30x Wood
- 1x Copper Bar
- 1x Iron bar
- 1x Oak Resin
How Long Does Aging Take?
Overall, aging takes a long time. When you place an item in a cask, a star icon will appear with the quality. For example, if you place gold quality cheese in a cask, then a gold star will appear.
As the item ages, the quality will increase. This will display on the front. Casks that are currently processing an item will also wiggle a little; similar to the action for the cheese press and mayonnaise machine.
For the most profit, you should wait until the star is purple for iridium quality. When this happens, the item will be 'done', and ready for you to collect.
If you want to take an item out of a cask early, just destroy it. The cask and the item will both appear in your inventory. If the item increased in quality, then it will appear in your inventory with higher quality.
Below, let's go over how long it will take for all items to reach iridium quality. These times are based on the lowest quality of each product.
| Artisan Good | Days To Reach Iridium Quality |
|---|---|
| Wine | 56 days |
| Pale Ale | 34 days |
| Beer | 28 days |
| Mead | 28 days |
| Cheese | 14 days |
| Goat Cheese | 14 days |
Price For Aged Items
A cask can greatly increase the price of an item. The majority of the goods you place in casks will sell for a flat rate, however, wine depends on the original fruit used in the keg. First, let's take a look at the prices for the other artisan goods.
| Artisan Good | Base Price | Price At Iridium Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Pale Ale | 300g | 600g |
| Beer | 200g | 400g |
| Mead | 200g | 400g |
| Cheese | 230g | 260g |
| Goat Cheese | 400g | 800g |
As you can see, aging these products doubles their price.
Wine works a bit differently though. The base price of wine is three times the amount of the fruit added. For example, since grapes are 80g, then the base price of grape wine will be 240g. The price of iridium quality wine will be double this, similar to the products above.
Grape wine with the base price of 240g will sell for 480g at iridium quality. Overall, this isn't very profitable. Low-priced items like this aren't the best for turning into wine. Essentially, you will be waiting two full seasons to make 480g.
With all the possible fruits, which one should you choose to make wine with? The most profitable options are starfruit wine selling for 4,500g and ancient fruit wine selling for 3,300g. Be sure to check out our guide on the best fruits to use for wine as well. Try to make wine with high-selling produce to maximize your profit.
That's all there is to know about using casks! Items such as beer and pale ale aren't the most profitable given the time it takes to make them. Overall, you will get the best results from cheese and wine.
Next: Stardew Valley: Complete Guide And Walkthrough
