Bred to be Boozy
When humans first began to domesticate dogs, we bred the ones with the traits we desired - fastest, most obedient - and disposed of the ones we didn't like.
When humans first began to domesticate sheep, we did the same thing - we bred them until the females didn't have horns, and until they were smaller, to require less food and take up less space.
When a culture farms an animal, they will breed it to be easier to farm.
Let's apply this to booze rats.
First and foremost, domestication makes animals (mostly) docile. Farmed booze rats will not attack farmers, similarly to how domestic cats and dogs tend not to attack their owners.
Next, this allows us to get boozier rats! Just as you can breed the sheep with better and more wool, you can breed the rats with larger alcohol-storing organs or better tasting alcohol with each other, and, over time, you will end up with a better stock.
Finally, consider growth hormones. Not necessarily necessary, but we already use them in much of our livestock today - is it a stretch to make bigger booze rats in this way?
Collecting the Booze
Now that we have docile, fat rats with large sacs full of booze, let's collect it.
Skin Vesicles
If you're going by thisthis question's answer, the skin of the rat has multiple pouches filled with booze. After selective breeding, the pouches can be larger, but regardless, you must puncture the animal to collect its alcohol. I see two methods of doing this:
- Freerange passive collection: There are needles poking into these pouches, attached to tubes, which connect to a flat storage container on the rat's stomach or back. The tank can be unscrewed and replaced daily, then the alcohol can be processed.
- Caged passive collection: There are needles poking into the pouches, but the rat is caged and unable to move; slightly less humane but more space-conservative alternative.
- Active collection: The rats are allowed to roam, but alcohol is taken from their sacs in large syringes - each of which can hold the contents of multiple rats' bodies - every few hours. Alternatively, if that's too industrial for you, consider puncturing the glands with metal needles and draining them into buckets - more "farmlike" if that appeals to you.
Spray Glands
If you're going by thisthis question's answer, there is a single sac located somewhere on the body, from which the creature sprays. There are several ways to harvest the booze if this is the case:
- Caged collection: The rats cannot move, and tubes extend both into the glands and wrap around the exterior orifice; all liquid created or released through optional stimuli will be harvested.
- Freerange collection: Farm the rats on a smooth, slanted surface with grating or netting at one end. Feed them from tubes, like guinea pigs, and introduce a worker every few hours to simulate a predator - causing them to spray, and draining the booze into a trough. May need to be filtered from excrement.
Why these methods are better than other suggestions (the competitive side of me shining through)
- You don't need to teach any rats what stimuli should make them produce booze - which, on an industrial or larger scale, is costly
- It's more scalable than drinking from the actual rat
- Does not necessarily require agitating the rats, depending on the method, and they may also be allowed to roam freerange
- Few methods I listed introduce extra gunk (from scraping)