Moonshining as a Fine Art: The Foxfire Americana Library (1) Read online

  Catch the remainder of the second run in another container. These are the new backings for the third run.

  Another way to tell whether or not the whiskey is still strong enough to catch in the container of good stuff is by taking some of the alcohol, dashing it on the hot still cap, and holding a match to the resulting steam. If it burns, keep it running.

  14. From the second running, you should have two or three gallons of good whiskey and seven or eight gallons of backings.

  Drain the faints out of the thumper and “let them hit the ground and run away.” They are no good for anything. Add the new backings to the thumper.

  Drain the still, fill it again with fresh beer, and run it the third time. This time, since there are fewer backings, you’ll get less liquor, but more backings for the fourth run. On the fourth run, you’ll get more liquor because you have more backings, but you’ll also get fewer backings for the fifth run; and so on. The yield will vary up and down with each stillful.

  Keep running until all the beer has been used up.

  Without a thumper, all the backings would have been saved, and all run through the still together on the last run.

  15. After about seven runs, the net result will be seven to ten gallons of pure corn (unsugared) whiskey, for an average of about a gallon to a gallon and a half per bushel of corn. (With sugar, the result should be about six gallons to the bushel.)

  These are called the “high shots.” They are about 200 proof and must be cut to be drinkable. To cut, either add about one-third backings from the last run, or water. Many prefer water. Add the liquid you are cutting the alcohol with until it holds a good steady bead in the proof vial. If the bead will hold steady after three good thumps in the palm of your hand, then it will stand any amount of jolting and bumping in shipment. From nine gallons of high shots, you should get about twelve gallons of fine whiskey.

  Other hints:

  1. If a wood fuel is being used, ash is the best of all. It gives a good, steady heat, and little smoke. Also good are hickory and mountain oak.

  2. Always use copper. Beer doesn’t stick to it so badly, and there is less chance of any kind of metal poisoning.

  3. Never let the whiskey run too fast. Always keep it cold while it’s running. If it is kept as cold as the water it is being condensed by, it will remain smooth and mild and not harsh to the taste. About sixty degrees is normal.

  4. Use the best water available (many prefer streams running west off the north side of a hill). The water can make a difference of several gallons in the final yield.

  5. Everything must be kept spotless. The copper inside the still should shine like gold. Barrels (or boxes) too must be kept clean. Smoke them out after each use with several handfuls of corn meal bran set afire.

  6. Add three or four drops of rye flavoring to each gallon of whiskey to give it a yellow tint and a distinct rye flavor.

  7. The place to make the whiskey is in the boxes. If it’s not right there, no amount of boiling and cooking can save it.

  HOW GOOD WHISKEY IS BEING RUINED

  1. Stills are often made of sheet iron or valley tin instead of copper. These metals often burn the beer and give it a strange taste.

  2. The beer is often run too early before it has a chance to sour properly.

  3. The whiskey is sometimes condensed in a straight worm which does not let it slow down enough to cool off properly. This gives it a harsh, hot taste.

  4. Often whiskey is scorched because it is not watched properly, not stirred while heating, or because the fire under the still is too hot.

  5. If whiskey is not strained properly, it will contain elements that can make one violently ill.

  6. Radiators used as condensers are extremely dangerous. They can never be cleaned out completely, and the end result is sometimes whiskey that can cause lead poisoning.

  7. Potash is sometimes used to “fake” a high bead. This is the same material soap is made out of, and it can be poisonous.

  8. Sometimes potash and ground up Irish potatoes are added to the malt to make it work off quicker and yield more.

  9. Often vessels are left dirty, and produce “popskull” liquor.

  10. Instead of pure corn malt, some use yeast.

  11. Instead of pure corn meal, some use “wheat shorts” so it won’t stick to the still.

  12. Many cut the final product to 60–70 proof and add beading oil to fake quality and high proof.

  13. It is rumored that some people set batteries down in the mash boxes to make it work more quickly; but another we talked to hinted that that might just have been a rumor put out by federal agents to hurt the sale of whiskey. We could get nothing concrete on this one way or another.

  14. One of our contacts knows a man who uses a groundhog still which he fills two-thirds full of water which he then heats. Then he adds fifty pounds of wheat bran, four 100-pound sacks of sugar, and two cans of yeast. That’s it. No souring—nothing. Apparently it makes “pretty” whiskey which holds a good bead, but has a funny “whang” flavor.

  The biggest problem, of course, is as we have hinted several times before—the desire for quantity rather than quality. One retired moonshiner said, “When I was working for th’ forest service and saw th’ filth and th’ nature of most of th’ stills in th’ woods today, th’ prouder I was that I quit drinkin’ th’ stuff. I don’t see how more people don’t get killed.”

  Another claimed that he had often had people who make whiskey themselves come to him to buy the liquor they were going to drink. They were afraid to drink their own.

  It apparently is not that difficult to get away with making bad whiskey, because most of it is sold through bootleggers who themselves don’t know where it came from. In addition, much of it is shipped to the poorer districts of some of the bigger cities, and the people who buy it there have no means of finding out who made it. Thus the operator of the still is reasonably safe, rarely having to pay for his sloppiness.

  He earns little respect among his neighbors, however. As one said, “A man ought to be put in a chain gang with a ball tied to him if he uses potash to make whiskey. ’Bout all you can call that is low-down meanness. He ain’t makin’ it t’drink himself, and he ain’t makin’ it fit for anyone else to drink neither.”

  HOW TO GET RID OF THE FINAL PRODUCT

  In the early days of moonshining, it was a relatively easy matter to dispose of the whiskey. In the first place, there wasn’t that much of it. Also, most of the neighbors knew who in the area was busy in that pursuit, and so they knew where to go when they needed to make a purchase. The moonshiner knew his neighbors, usually knew who could be trusted, and so everything worked out well. There were no big business overtones, no high pressure sales, just quiet, behind-the-scenes, low-key transactions during which no one asked unnecessary questions.

  Things began to change, however, during Prohibition. One man we talked to could remember huge trailer trucks coming down off his mountain loaded with thousands of gallons of whiskey and headed north. The operation has remained the realm of the relatively big operators.

  The great majority of the whiskey produced is distributed through bootleggers who buy it directly from the makers. They usually hire their own haulers so that they don’t have to pay the owner of the still for moving it for them. The bootlegger usually gets it from his haulers, waters it down, puts it in jars, and then distributes it to his regular customers, making deliveries to regular customers on a regular schedule. Sometimes these customers are store owners who sell it again to their customers.

  It is a tight, shadowy operation, sometimes run by men who are among the most highly respected citizens in the community. For these men, their double life also pays off in a handsome double income.

  Sometimes bootleggers have ingenious ways of hiding their wares while waiting for them to be disposed of. One we heard of has a clothesline strung across a lake in his backyard. The line is circular, and runs on a pulley system. The bottom half of the line co
ntains clips which are, in turn, hooked to the tops of fruit jars that are full of whiskey. These jars remain submerged under the lake all the time. As customers show up, the correct number of jars is pulled up and sold. Another operator, this one relatively small, kept the product he was selling in the sleeves of the clothing which hung in his closet.

  The men who run the real risks, however, are the haulers, who have perfected hundreds of ways of moving whiskey. Some of these:

  1. One man hauled only on Sundays. On these days, he would have eight cases concealed in the trunk, two under the hood, and his wife and little girl in the car with him. The car was “shocked up” so that no excess weight showed, and he rode around enough so that no one suspected that he was in a hurry to get anywhere. He was never caught.

  2. Another filled the bed of his pickup truck two cases high, and then put a black plywood form on top so that at night it looked empty. The truck held twenty cases.

  3. Others have big trucks with false beds in which they can fit a single layer of cases.

  4. Some haul, even today, in dump trucks or cabbage trucks which have such high sides that they can’t be seen into from the road. If they are afraid of getting caught, they sometimes stack all the cases of moonshine in the center of the bed and cover it completely top and sides with ears of corn.

  5. Some remove the back seats from their cars and load them full from the front seat all the way through to the taillights. We heard about one man who even took out the front seat and rode sitting on a case, with several more beside him.

  6. Still another method is to hire a “hot” lead car. The car containing the whiskey follows this lead car at a leisurely pace. When the lead car spots an officer, it takes off at a great rate of speed, obviously driving recklessly. The officer gives chase, and the driver in the car containing the whiskey proceeds unhindered to its destination.

  7. Others steal several cars, repaint them, switch their motors, and have three license tags for each car—North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The tags have hooks, and are interchanged according to which state the hauler is working.

  IN CONCLUSION

  By any standards, moonshining has to be counted as one of the most fascinating mountain endeavors. Few occupations can lay claim to funnier stories—or sadder stories—than this.

  Despite the glamour of it all, however, it remains one of the most difficult activities around. Officers are getting more concerned and more proficient daily and are pressing harder for more crippling penalties. In addition, the cash outlay required to get into business, the logistics of moving vast amounts of sugar and grain around, the difficulty of hiding the operation, the impossibility of protection against informers, the long hours required of hot, dirty work—it all adds up to a rather unattractive way to spend an afternoon. And as any moonshiner will tell you, there is no burn on earth like the burn one gets from coming in contact with boiling hot meal. It sticks to the skin and removes it surgically in one neat piece.

  The sheer fact of its ceaseless and unrelenting difficulty perhaps adds to the glamour rather than detracts. This difficulty, however, coupled with the fact that there really are easier jobs to be had nowadays, may also be the most successful element in destroying the practice as it exists today. It at least did a textbook job of demolishing the craft as a fine art. Perhaps we have succeeded in preserving some particle of that art for history. We hope so.

  APPLE BEER

  Peel your apples and dry the peelings in the sun or by the stove. Put them in a crock and add enough boiling water to cover them. Cover the crock and let it sit for one or two days, until all the flavor comes out of the peelings. Yon may add some sugar if you want.

  MUSCADINE WINE

  ½ bushel muscadine grapes

  12½ pounds sugar

  Mash the grapes with your hands, put them in a large churn, and add 2½ pounds sugar. Let it work (ferment) for about a week, until it quits.

  Strain the mixture to get out the grape skins and impurities. Put back in the churn, add 10 pounds more of sugar. Let it work about eight to ten days until it quits. Makes about 4 gallons.

  JAKE WALDROOP’S RECIPE FOR BLACKBERRY WINE

  Gather six to eight gallons of wild blackberries, wash them well, and put them in a big container. Mix in five pounds of sugar, and then cover the top of the churn or container with a cloth, tied down so air can get in but insects can’t. Let the mixture work for eight to ten days.

  Then strain the mixture through a clean cloth, squeezing the pulp so that all the juice is removed. Measure how many gallons of juice you have. For every gallon of juice, add one and a half pounds of sugar. Let it work off. When it stops (when the foaming and bubbling has stopped on top), strain it again, measure the juice, and again add one and a half pounds of sugar to each gallon of juice. When it finished working this time, it is done and can be bottled. Jake keeps his in an earthenware jug with a corn cob stopper. He makes grape wine the same way.