Enjoy a short video about Moonshine Culture in Appalachia
The art of distilling spirits from grains dates back 1000's of years. For our country, immigrants sailing to the new world brought their craft and quickly began to distill their own special forms of liquor.
In the wake of the Revolutionary War, the fledgling American nation found itself saddled with debt. To help pay off the country's obligations, a federal tax on liquor was established. Given that much of the point of fighting the revolution in the first place was to escape the imperialist taxes instituted by the British monarchy, the citizens were furious. Most people continued to distill their own whiskey without giving the government it's cut. Moonshine was born.
In response, tax collectors were sent out. These men often received warm welcomes of beatings, tarred and feathered. Within three years there was a riot. Angry farmers destroyed the home of a tax inspector in July 1794, eventually leading to the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. A militia force led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Virginia Governor Henry Lee ( the father of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee ) was forced to stamp out the rebel movement.
They succeeded on the surface, but really only served to drive whiskey distillers further underground. Thomas Jefferson would later repeal the hated whiskey excise tax, and folks were free to make their own whiskey for another 60 years or so. Then, in a classic case of history repeating itself, the massive expense of the Civil War brought back the liquor taxes. Since then, there has been a rich history of moonshiners, distilling by the moonlight, many going back generations.
Moonshine, for all intents and purposes begins in the same fashion as the whiskey you can currently purchase in stores today. The major difference is that whiskey is aged, sometimes for many years, in oak barrels that have been charred on the inside. While un-aged moonshine tastes like a blast of pure alcohol, whiskey has more subtle elements to its flavor. Today both whiskey and moonshine are available in an assortment of flavors.
Distilling moonshine is a remarkably simple process, requiring four main ingredients: corn, sugar, yeast and water. Corn can be substituted with various ingredients, including barley, rye, or fruit. This helps to bring new flavors to the moonshine. Though corn is the most common because it is less expressive and easy to obtain. Basically the corn, sugar and water are combined with the yeast. The yeast turns the mixture into sugars that create alcohol. The resulting "mash" is heated to nearly boiling which hastens the fermentation and releases alcohol steam. The steam is carefully filtered to remove solid ingredients, then diverted into a device called a "worm." The worm is a copper pipe bathed in cold water which causes the alcohol steam to condense into moonshine. You may currently brew your own beer legally in all 50 states but you may not distill moonshine; it is currently not legal in any state to do so.
Obviously the US is not the only country where moonshine is produced. Nearly every country has some sort of homemade alcohol, some more appealing than others. In South Africa, there is un-aged grape brandy called "witblits." The Congo has "lotoko," a whiskey made with corn or cassava. In Russia, "samogon," which can be cheaply produced, is quickly overtaking vodka's place as the preferred liquor.
In about 2010's states began allowing legal distilling of moonshine. While we are not affiliated with any distillery, we are currently baking with the Fire Fly brand of moonshine. You may find further information from their web site, www.fireflymoonshine.com
We wish to thank and credit aspiring novelist Mike Devlin for the above information.
In the wake of the Revolutionary War, the fledgling American nation found itself saddled with debt. To help pay off the country's obligations, a federal tax on liquor was established. Given that much of the point of fighting the revolution in the first place was to escape the imperialist taxes instituted by the British monarchy, the citizens were furious. Most people continued to distill their own whiskey without giving the government it's cut. Moonshine was born.
In response, tax collectors were sent out. These men often received warm welcomes of beatings, tarred and feathered. Within three years there was a riot. Angry farmers destroyed the home of a tax inspector in July 1794, eventually leading to the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. A militia force led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Virginia Governor Henry Lee ( the father of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee ) was forced to stamp out the rebel movement.
They succeeded on the surface, but really only served to drive whiskey distillers further underground. Thomas Jefferson would later repeal the hated whiskey excise tax, and folks were free to make their own whiskey for another 60 years or so. Then, in a classic case of history repeating itself, the massive expense of the Civil War brought back the liquor taxes. Since then, there has been a rich history of moonshiners, distilling by the moonlight, many going back generations.
Moonshine, for all intents and purposes begins in the same fashion as the whiskey you can currently purchase in stores today. The major difference is that whiskey is aged, sometimes for many years, in oak barrels that have been charred on the inside. While un-aged moonshine tastes like a blast of pure alcohol, whiskey has more subtle elements to its flavor. Today both whiskey and moonshine are available in an assortment of flavors.
Distilling moonshine is a remarkably simple process, requiring four main ingredients: corn, sugar, yeast and water. Corn can be substituted with various ingredients, including barley, rye, or fruit. This helps to bring new flavors to the moonshine. Though corn is the most common because it is less expressive and easy to obtain. Basically the corn, sugar and water are combined with the yeast. The yeast turns the mixture into sugars that create alcohol. The resulting "mash" is heated to nearly boiling which hastens the fermentation and releases alcohol steam. The steam is carefully filtered to remove solid ingredients, then diverted into a device called a "worm." The worm is a copper pipe bathed in cold water which causes the alcohol steam to condense into moonshine. You may currently brew your own beer legally in all 50 states but you may not distill moonshine; it is currently not legal in any state to do so.
Obviously the US is not the only country where moonshine is produced. Nearly every country has some sort of homemade alcohol, some more appealing than others. In South Africa, there is un-aged grape brandy called "witblits." The Congo has "lotoko," a whiskey made with corn or cassava. In Russia, "samogon," which can be cheaply produced, is quickly overtaking vodka's place as the preferred liquor.
In about 2010's states began allowing legal distilling of moonshine. While we are not affiliated with any distillery, we are currently baking with the Fire Fly brand of moonshine. You may find further information from their web site, www.fireflymoonshine.com
We wish to thank and credit aspiring novelist Mike Devlin for the above information.