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[FZE]

I'm always at a shortage for booze in my fortresses because my dwarves are constantly filling every last barrel with food of some kind. I have a stock of nearly 100 barrels and not one to spare for brewing.

If I restrict my food stockpile to a certain number of barrels, then my dwarves will just dump seeds and plants all over the floor (and by all over, I mean one seed occupies an entire square metre of space), so they go crazy trying to find a place to put the food and end up losing it. So, one way or another, they are determined to fill my food stockpile to its very limits.

How can I keep some barrels aside for brewing and booze storage without compromising my food storage? They produce more than they can possibly eat, and hoard every bit of it, then get mad when there's nowhere to put liquor.

[L3TUC3]

Build a kitchen and make meals. They lower the amount of excess food saving barrel space you can use for brewing.

[Leonon]

I think dwarves put prepared meals in barrels despite them not needing to be stored in them. Have a stockpile dedicated solely to prepared meals, forbid barrels in it, forbid prepared meals anywhere else.

[Aravin]

If i remember corretly, you should go to stockpile setting - q - and go to the furniture stockpile, that adjust the number of barrels, that this stockpile must have at least (use keys - e r E R). Then u may switch that number at food stokpile to zero. After that, all produced barrels should be transported to the furniture stockpile. At least it helped me. They tried to use every single barrel my carpenter produced for food, but after i set the number, they began bringing barrels to furn. stockpile - so my brewer could at last do his work

And try to enlarge your stockpiles.

[Sphalerite]

Make multiple food stockpiles.  Make a large stockpile for plants, meat, cheese, prepared meals, and other foodstuffs that don't need barrels.  Set max barrels on that stockpile to zero.   Then make a smaller stockpile that only accepts booze and has maxumum max barrels allowed.  Your dwarves will then pile plants and such in the large stockpile without wasting barrels.

If you don't have enough room to store all the food, dig out larger stockpiles and do something interesting with the stone.  If you're still producing more food than your dwarves will ever eat, reduce the size or activity of your farms.  It's very easy to overproduce food, and fairly hard to actually starve a fortress unless you really mess up.

[Urist McDepravity]

Separate stockpiles for booze, plants and rest of food help with that. And turning off the farms once you got enough.
My current fort did not grow a single plant in 4 years and still has 2500 plants.

[Satarus]

[Deathworks]

Hi!

If I restrict my food stockpile to a certain number of barrels, then my dwarves will just dump seeds and plants all over the floor (and by all over, I mean one seed occupies an entire square metre of space), so they go crazy trying to find a place to put the food and end up losing it. So, one way or another, they are determined to fill my food stockpile to its very limits.

I am just wondering, don't you have bags for the seeds?

Other than that, as was already said, simply stop production. As long as you don't cook the seeds, you can leave them in the stockpiles until you need to start growing crops again.

And if you have some wood on the map, don't hesitate to clear-cut. It will grow back.

Deathworks

[Lord Darkstar]

Seeds will be stored in barrels, but if you provide bags, the dwarves will store the seeds in bags, and then store the bags of seeds in barrels. Bags can be made in the leatherworks out of leather, as well as in clothier workshops out of plant fiber cloth or spider silk.

Set your kitchen(s) to making food. That will reduce the number of raw plants and other bits around in your food stockpiles, and make your dwarves happy.

Trade for wood and barrels. I always negotiate for the highest level or just below of those for all wood and barrel types. I trade away stone mugs for them, and everyone is happy by it. This works well, even on heavily forested lands. Having the sudden influx of wood and empty barrels also helps me to keep down running out of barrels.

Dwarves love barrels more than bins. They use barrels for mass storage of all food types, so you always need an every increasing number of barrels. They will also store non-binnables in barrels (for instance, gysum plaster loaded bags). Having a furniture pile set to only barrels will allow you to see how many "ready" empty barrels you have available, which is handy if you want to schedule more to be made without having to see the "no barrel available" messages.

Have fun and good luck!

[Psieye]

You sound like you have 1 food stockpile for everything. Make lots of food stockpiles, split their functions up, designate a prepared-food-only stockpile that won't accept barrels (I assume you have cats to keep away vermin) and start cooking. All other advice given in above posts apply too - make bags, buy wood/barrels, deforest everything (which is harder in DF2010 as you have underground wood too). Remember to also rip out all the 'weeds' growing with your herbalists so more trees have space to grow back within 2 years-ish.

[Tcei]

create a small stockpile just for seeds and forbid barrels to be put in it, just make sure you have pleanty of bags for them. Ime this has freed up quite a few barrels. Beyond that I'd personally create a separate stockpile just for booze (with max barrels allowed) and furniture pile set to except only barrels(empty), this'll allow you to see how many free barrels you currently have.

[Dave Mongoose]

On the stock[p]ile screen (the one you use to designate new stockpiles), increase the number of 'reserved barrels' to something like 5.

This way once you're down to your last 5 barrels (or whatever you set it to) the dwarves won't use them for storage, but they will still be available for jobs that need barrels (like brewing or building an ashery).

[VerdantSF]

Make lots of food stockpiles, split their functions up, designate a prepared-food-only stockpile that won't accept barrels (I assume you have cats to keep away vermin) and start cooking.

When it comes time to trade, are prepared food stacks picked up together or each one separately?

[Astramancer]

If i remember corretly, you should go to stockpile setting - q - and go to the furniture stockpile, that adjust the number of barrels, that this stockpile must have at least (use keys - e r E R). Then u may switch that number at food stokpile to zero. After that, all produced barrels should be transported to the furniture stockpile. At least it helped me. They tried to use every single barrel my carpenter produced for food, but after i set the number, they began bringing barrels to furn. stockpile - so my brewer could at last do his work

And try to enlarge your stockpiles.

What you're looking for is the "reserve barrel" option from the stockpile menu (not the Q of a specific stockpile, but where you choose which stockpile you want)

The Reserve barrels is the number of barrels that don't get used for storage.  These can ONLY be used for tasks which specifically call for barrels (such as Brew Drink).

You can, of course, still run out of barrels, but only because you made too much alcohol (ha!)

[Sphalerite]

When it comes time to trade, are prepared food stacks picked up together or each one separately?

They'll pick them up a stack at a time.  Large stacks of masterwork prepared roasts are one of the fastest ways to get high-value export goods to the trade depot.