The temperance movement , which sought to ban alcohol, gathered steam as the United States headed into the 20th century. In the early s, states began passing laws that banned alcohol sales and consumption. In , nationwide Prohibition went into effect. It was the greatest thing the moonshiners could have asked for. Suddenly, there was no legal alcohol available. The demand for moonshine shot up like a rocket. Moonshiners couldn't keep up with the demand, which led to cheaper, sugar-based moonshine, as well as watered-down moonshine.
The distillers would do anything to increase their profit. Organized crime blossomed as speakeasies opened in every city -- these secret saloons had hidden doors, passwords and escape routes in case the "Feds" ever showed up to conduct a raid. When Prohibition was repealed in , the market for moonshine grew thin. Although moonshine continued to be a problem for federal authorities into the s and '70s, today, very few illegal alcohol cases are heard in the courts.
Large commercial distilleries can buy raw materials on such a large scale that, even with the taxes they must pay, their products aren't too much more expensive than moonshine. While some counties in the south and midwest United States remained "dry" alcohol-free for decades after the end of national Prohibition, even those localized liquor bans have, for the most part, faded away.
That leaves consumers of alcohol little reason to seek out moonshine other than the temptation of buying and drinking something that's "forbidden" and the flouting of government authority. The desire to flout government authority is one of the reasons moonshining exists in the first place. Despite all that has changed about moonshining in the last years, one thing remains the same -- it is illegal. You might be wondering about homebrewed beer and amateur winemaking -- these activities were made legal in the s, but they can only be done in small quantities if you're supplying half the bars in the city with your "homebrew," the government is probably going to get suspicious.
Homebrewing is a different activity from distilling alcohol , and distilling is definitely illegal in any amount. The reason distilling at home is illegal is because it's too easy to make a mistake and create a harmful product. Permits and licenses are required so that the government can make sure the alcohol being produced is safe. Plus, the Feds want to get their tax money. However, moonshiners are rarely arrested or charged with making illegal liquor. The real charges come from tax evasion.
A new federal push to crack down on moonshiners has also started using money laundering charges against moonshiners and their suppliers. A money-laundering conviction can lead to a prison term of 15 years, as opposed to five years for moonshining. Many moonshiners have their property seized by the government when they are caught, because tax evasion and moonshining convictions also result in heavy fines.
The property is seized to make sure the fines can be paid. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Edible Innovations. How Moonshine Works. Photo courtesy NOAA.
Contents What is Moonshine? How is Moonshine Made? What is Moonshine? It's All in the Mash. The corn is ground into meal. Today, some moonshiners use commercial hog feed because it's mostly made of corn and is easy to buy without attracting a lot of attention. The corn meal is soaked in hot water in the still. Sometimes sugar is added or even used instead of grain , but traditional moonshiners added malt to convert the starch in the corn meal into sugar.
Then the yeast is put in, which starts the fermentation process. See How Beer Works for details on the fermentation process. This mixture, called mash , is stirred thoroughly and heated for a set amount of time in the still. The still and all the metal piping used are made of copper, which conducts heat well and doesn't leech into the alcohol.
Distillation separates chemicals by taking advantage of differences in boiling temperatures. Commercial distillers make high proof alcohol by using distillation to separate alcohol from water. Note, distillation does not produce alcohol; it only concentrates the alcohol that is already present. Distillation is actually the last step in the process of making very high proof alcohol.
In the first part of the process, commercial distillers essentially make a low proof beer, which gets distilled later. So, how does a commercial distiller like Ole Smoky make moonshine? They complete the following steps:. Make a mash using grains such as corn or sugar. The specific type of alcohol that commercial distillers seek is called ethyl alcohol. Ethanol is able to be separated from water in a wash because ethanol boils at a lower temperature than water pure ethanol boils at degrees Fahrenheit, while water does not boil until degrees.
In a nutshell, wash is heated up in a still to a temperature above degrees, but below degrees. Ethanol starts to boil and turns into a vapor, separating from the wash water. The vapor is then condensed turned back into a liquid and drips out of the still into a mason jar or some other collection vessel. The overall process of distillation is pretty cut and dry, but it is complicated slightly by the fact that there are several different types of alcohol as well as many additional chemical compounds that will be extracted during the distilling process.
These are known as congeners remember this word, it will come up again and some are desirable in small quantities, while others such as the foreshots are not. Like ethanol and water, these compounds have different boiling temperatures.
How does Absolut make vodka? When making vodka, as many congers are removed as possible because it is supposed to be a very pure, flavorless spirit. When making whiskey, the congeners are desirable because they add flavor and complexity.
However, with the good congeners come some of the bad. One of the reasons that whiskey, like Jack Daniel's, is aged is to smooth out the flavorful, but somewhat harsh congeners present in the final product. Because the various alcohols and chemical compounds in a wash separate at different boiling temperatures, there are several phases of each distillation run: foreshots, heads, hearts, and tails. During the different phases of a run, a commercial distiller will notice that the taste and smell may vary considerably.
Generally, only the "hearts" portion is kept for commercial distribution. The tails are set aside to be distilled again in the future. The foreshots are the first vapors to boil off during distillation. These contain the most volatile alcohols and should not be ingested, as they contain methanol and other undesirables. Commercial distillers always discard the foreshots and never consume them.
For more info on foreshots, read this article on methanol blindness. Next comes the hearts, the high-proof alcohol base. Distillers mix the hearts with small quantities of heads, and the blend is diluted and aged to make spirits. With too high a percentage of cogeners, the drink tastes rough; with too little, it's bland. The last bit, the tails, is a low-proof mix often set aside and redistilled later. The clear liquid emerging from the still is called moonshine, white dog, or white lightning.
It is colorless and harsh. But after a few years in oak barrels, it takes on color, richness, and complexity of flavor. Bourbon whiskey is aged in new but charred oak barrels. Scotch whisky resides in old bourbon barrels, and Irish whiskey ages in used sherry casks. Gin, ideal for impatient distillers, takes on its character once the white dog is redistilled with a botanical blend stirred into the pot. Type keyword s to search.
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