It's Sunday already - the weekend is flying... Yesterday Kevin and I just hung out and watched movies. We bought a few DVD's at Walmart. We watched Sleepers, which was an excellent movie and The Last Samurai, another excellent movie! Oh and we sipped on a little moonshine throughout. Moonshine is actually pretty darn good, as hard as that might be to believe. This one was made with Strawberries (they use all sorts of fruits). Just one little sip and you can feel it in your belly like you drank a nip of whiskey. I tried to eat a strawberry too but it made me gag - just way too *saturated in alcohol. We live next to the Moonshine capital of the world "Franklin County" so it's not too hard of a thing to find. I think it's actually very healthy for you because it is pure.
*This reminded me of a funny story. Becky and I got an apartment together in our late teens. She made me a rum cake for my birthday (I think it was mine but might have been someone elses) and she used a whole 5th of Rum in the cake. I don't think the recipe called for quite that much rum, but we didn't know any better. Boy was that an intoxicating cake! LOL! The Strawberries last night tasted alot like her cake. Oh and after we decided against finishing the cake, the dog did, and seemed to enjoy it... but he was stumbling all over the place. I bet he had a bad hangover the next day!
I found a few interesting tidbits of "moonshine" trivia while doing a little web searching.
This one is from http://www.answers.com/topic/moonshine
Moonshine is the making of whiskey surreptitiously and illegally. Because the activity of distilling whiskey unlawfully was usually done at night under the light of the moon, the word became both a verb, meaning making the liquor, and a noun, meaning the liquor that was made. The reason it is done at night, and usually somewhere away from houses and buildings, is that the distillation process requires heat to boil the alcoholic liquor from the "mash," so it produces a considerable amount of smoke and steam, which can be visible for a great distance if it is done outdoors in the daytime. The fire can be seen at night if the still is not set up inside a building or somewhere hidden by rocks and/or trees, but buildings (and caves) are not considered as safe as outdoor locations, in case of a raid by the law enforcement authorities (or competition).
Some "shiners", as they were called, made a firebox out of stones or bricks, to keep the flames contained while concealing them, and to keep the still off the ground. Quite often, a dry creek bed was employed, particularly in Florida. Many stills were mainly made of copper, which is considered helpful in maintaining a good taste in distilled liquor. A shiner would often make his own still.
Selling moonshine or legally-made alcohol in an illegal manner is "bootlegging". One person may perform both functions. A U.S. synonym for moonshine is hooch, a word apparently borrowed into English ca. 1867 from the Hoochinoo tribe of Alaska, noted for its homemade liquor. White lightning, mountain dew, stumpholewater, liquid stumpblaster, mule-kick, and white mule are also attested.
History of moonshining in Appalachia
Appalachia, generally the rural region of the United States in the vicinity of the Appalachian Mountains, has a history of small-scale whiskey production as part of its culture.
The production of whiskey in this area predates the federal taxation of alcoholic beverages. For farmers in remote parts of the country, it was a way to turn their corn into quick cash when grain prices were down. The imposition of a tax on whiskey was considered an unwanted federal intervention and was largely ignored. The Department of the Treasury sent special agents — "revenuers" — to prosecute unlawful distilling. Gun battles sometimes occurred when revenuers arrived to enforce the tax. Those battles are often referred to as the Whiskey Rebellion.
The grain used to make the mash, which is the mixture of grain, sugar, water, and yeast that ferments to produce the alcohol, is virtually always corn, so the product is "corn liquor" (also known as "corn whiskey"), sometimes called "mountain dew" because it appears overnight, or simply "shine". (The clear, potent (i.e. high-proof) liquor is also called "white lightning" because of its effect, or "kick".) Today, commercial hog chow is often used, because it is primarily corn and readily available, and more importantly because buying it in the quantities required is a normal part of farming operations and thus does not attract the attention of law enforcement. Other corn-based animal feeds can be used instead, and differences in the other ingredients in the feed impart slightly different flavors to the finished product. Ordinary white sugar is often the chief ingredient of moonshine mash, in which case the spirit distilled is technically a rum rather than a whiskey.
The federal authorities who police moonshining are traditionally termed "revenuers" because they historically worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), which was part of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service until July 1972, when it became a separate bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury. When the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, most of BATF was moved to the new agency, but alcohol enforcement remained in Treasury, handled by the new Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Handling shipments of moonshine is often called "Ridge-Running", "Whiskey-Running", or simply "running" it, by analogy to "rum-running," which originally meant smuggling rum by ship.
Finding old moonshine stills in the backwoods of the mountains and piedmont area of North Carolina is not uncommon. Wilkesboro and Wilkes County in particular were well known for its moonshining operations. The first NASCAR event -- an offshoot of moonshine runners' hopped up cars -- was held at the short track in Wilkesboro. Some towns embrace their moonshine background such as Stokesdale, North Carolina [1] which has a moonshine still on its town seal.
Franklin County, Virginia is known as the Moonshine Capital of the world, although any remote locale in the Appalachian mountains or the US South could probably lay claim to that title.
Moonshine production today
Moonshine continues to be produced in the U.S., mainly in Appalachia and parts of the South. The simplicity of the process, and the easy availability of key ingredients such as a corn and sugar, make enforcement a difficult task. However, the huge price advantage that moonshine once held over its "legitimate" competition legally sold has been reduced. Nevertheless, over half the retail price of a bottle of distilled spirits typically consists of taxes. Many of those who buy moonshine do so for the thrill of obtaining and consuming an illicit product and as a defiance of authority. Also, the number of jurisdictions which ban the sale of alcoholic beverages is steadily decreasing. This means that many of the former consumers of moonshine are much nearer to a legal alcohol sales outlet than was formerly the case. Moonshining is far from totally over, but is certainly far less widespread than was the case decades ago. For individual moonshiners, with purchase of cheap refined white sugar, moonshine can be produced at a small fraction of the price of heavily taxed and legally sold distilled spirits. This alcohol is also used for some for herbal tinctures.
And this... from The story of Moonshine
INGREDIENTS:
(This recipe for one sack pot, or 100 gallons)
One nice cold *branch* in a secluded area
100 Gallons of water
1 Sack of bran
10 pounds of yeast
100 pounds of sugar
2 good men and a TASTER
Daddy said the first thing you gotta do is find a good, secluded branch. (A branch is a small stream of water). This 'branch' should be a good ways out into the woods and away from people, yet accessible to a vehicle. Next, you need 2 good men and one taster. Now daddy and his friend used Leroy. Leroy loved shine and took the job for free just to get to do all the tasting. By the time the shine was finished and needed toting, Leroy didn't mind that hike back to the truck at the top of the hill, cause he was always more than a jug full. Leroy passed on a long time ago, so if you're seriously thinking of making shine, find your own Leroy!
Daddy explained to me next how to build the 'still'. But I won't go into that, cause it's a lengthy and complicated endeavor. He did use words like... BIGO pot, airtight, steamline, thumper, condenser and truck radiator. I couldn't decide if daddy was building a 'still' or repairing a car. The end result was 120% pure alcohol! Daddy said they would line up as many jugs as they could find on the bank beside the branch and fill em up. Course this was after 5 or 6 days, depending on the weather and how fast the shine fermented.
The jug filling wasn't as simple as pouring it up either. The first jug would be pure alcohol. So what they did was go down the line and fill each jug only half full. Then they'd do what they called a 'turn-back' and start at the other end and finish filling the jugs.
The next part was getting all those jugs to the truck. They had to be toted! Usually the chosen branch was down under a hill, which meant toting a good many jugs uphill. I can't imagine they felt too much pain though, since they did a goodly amount of tasting as they filled up the jugs!
Daddy didn't say, but I imagine the next step was the 'distributing ' of the shine. All in all... it seems like a lot of hard work to me and one heck of a headache :)
SO THERE'S YOUR HISTORY LESSON FOR THE DAY!
Posted by chrisseas-corner
at 2:42 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 2 July 2006 3:11 PM EDT