Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: dmassphoto on June 09, 2010, 05:04:54 pm
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Interesting story...
wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=12618340
Looks like Moonshine is now legal and for sale in East Tennessee. This place in Gatlinburg is selling it out of Mason jars and trying to keep prices low, like the original moonshiners. What do you all think about this? Who wants to bet this will be very popular amongst the tourists and blue bloods from Knoxville?
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It's not real 'shine cause Uncle Sam is going to get his pockets stuffed from tax revenue. I'll keep buying my 'shine from real 'shiners.
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It's not real 'shine cause Uncle Sam is going to get his pockets stuffed from tax revenue. I'll keep buying my 'shine from real 'shiners.
I was thinking the same thing :D I'd say most people who've had moonshine will continue getting it the way they've been getting it.
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This is good news to me. My family has a history in the illegal liquor biz. My grandfather’s older brother used to drive the back roads of Indiana back during the depression avoiding the law, and their father was a speakeasy musician in Indianapolis. My grandfather recalled hanging out in the bars while his dad played gigs. I’ve never of course found out if the kids from his other family went to work with him. :)
Absinth was recently made legal, too. First thing I did when that happened was go out to buy a bottle. I didn’t “see the green fairy,” but the wormwood did affect me. In a good way.
BTW, can someone describe moonshine? How does it taste? Does it make a good mixer? Or is it best served neat?
Dane
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Dane- depends on the quality ;) I've had some in East TN that had no bite at all...
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King Ron knows where the Good Stuff is in Tennessee...that stuff is as Smooth as Makers Mark.....but Then I had some Peach Cobbler Shine....that took the hair off my ............
upper lip....... :P
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I used to make my own for personnal use, not much taste. I mixed it with other things. The hotter you cook off the alcohol the weaker it is. If you cook it off about 170 degrees it is almost pure alcohol. If you boil it off as I did it is around 160 proof I imagine. Hot enough to use in my camp stove. I was a wine maker and just boiled the good stuff off of wine that didn't come out good. I would aslo use it to raise the alcohol level of wine to where I wanted it. My mom made brandy from it. Lots of uses. The only way I drank it straight was to poor a shot and then dip my finger in it and suck it off my finger as I watched TV, More like just absorbing it through your mouth than actually swallowing. Steve
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Hey Mike there was a lot of people in that peachy stuff the first batch was really good until the peaches got washed out. Wonder how many times it was refilled on those peaches.
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BTW, can someone describe moonshine? How does it taste? Does it make a good mixer? Or is it best served neat?
Dane
Like others said, it depends on how it's made and one's tolerance level. A lot of people like the peachy stuff. Some of it tastes like gas. I've got a small bottle that I sniff every now and then to clear my sinuses. :o
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Wasn't really talking about the Liquid...more of the nasty peaches that we all ate after about the third time that Jar was filled...... :-[ :P
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LOL I had a peach! :) Don't really remember what they tasted like though... I had alot to drink that night I believe. ;)
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I agree the best part of shine is getting one over on the "man"
Dane- I bought a bottle of Absinthe in NH. It was the most expensive hangover in a looooong time. No green fairy, just a green faced me. ;)
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My Dad did a little shine, and import whiskey smuggling when he was younger. He had a Harley, and would stuff his saddle bags, and a duffel with straw, and bottles, of imported whiskey, from the runners, at the beach, and deliver them. He also had an old dodge he would load up now and then. He has made a batch now and then. I have had some from Pine mountain Ga., which was not the best, but not too bad, some from elsewhere, and some from a farm in well a state, near Ga. and was owned by a famous race car driver. Now that was the best hands down! Very smooth, but it would set you free, if you were not careful, and got to easy with it. It would knock your....in the dirt. But it actually had a good flavor to it, and well over a hundred proof. Like I said it would not take long to find out if you had more than you should have at one time. I wish I could get some more, but the guy, I got it from, said the guy who worked for him used to get it from his uncle, who was very sick, the last I heard. So I have not gotten any more, and may not get any more. I sure wish I had not given the rest of the jar to my neighbor, who is a lightweight drinker in the first place. But like it was said, it depended on where, and how it was made, and what it was made in! Used to pour a little in glass, and light it, and if it had a green flame, just dump the whole mess! :P If it had a blue flame, ......bottoms up. ;D Personally, I prefer to just drink it straight up, if it is well made. You can mix it with just about anything you want. It's just corn alcohol. Same as gov. approved whiskey. Except gov. approved is aged a bit more...... ;) You used to be able to by grain alcohol in the liqueur stores. My Dad used to use hard maple charcoal sticks, to filter the shine with. I had a cousin who got busted for hauling moonshine. He had a molasses truck, with a fifty gallon tank in the middle of it, and a secret spout. Well someone talked, and he got caught. But good for Tennessee. When the revolution comes...... ::) There should be a lot of it around. Just be careful where it comes from, and how it was made, and in what type of container. I've always thought about trying absinthe, but was just a little leary, since it, like Napoleon Brandy should actually be labeled a poison. I was listening to the radio a while back, and they had a story on Absinthe, and the different manufactures, and who actually followed the old formula, etc. So what does it taste like?
Wayne
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Wayne....Absynthe is a bitter taste all it's own...but mainly You can taste Anice....like Black Licorice.....I think it is best when you do it like the French used to drink it....take a Shot or Two and put it in a Glass...then take an Absythe Spoon.... I just use one of my Wifes slotted Silverware Spoons....and you put a Sugar Cube on it...then slowly pour about six shots of cold water over the Sugar Cube...the Sugar melting into the Absynthe will make it cloud the Water up and make it look all Green and Foamy...this also brings out the Flavors of the Spices in the Absynthe too...or you can do it by pouring the Absynthe into a Glass...Soak the Sugar Cube in Absynthe....the put the Sugar Cube in the Spoon and set it on fire....let it melt into the Absynthe...then dip the Spoon into the absynthe ...add 4-5 shots of cold water to put out the Flame...and mix it all together to blend the Flavors....or Ya can just tip the Bottle and be a Man...and bear it.... ;D
And Wayne...whats wrong with Napoleon Brandy...it's just Cognac....and who don't like double fermented Grapes..... >:D
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I like it. I have drank a lot of Cognac in Italy. Just not the best in chemical health. ;)
I will have to try the Absinthe. If I see visions, I will let you know....... ::)
Wayne
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I'm not really a drinker, but I tried it in Prague and didn't get the big deal. Like drinking brandy, ouzo, etc- its either your thing or not...
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I like it. I have drank a lot of Cognac in Italy. Just not the best in chemical health. ;)
I will have to try the Absinthe. If I see visions, I will let you know....... ::)
Wayne
I had very, very vivid dreams after drinking it. Nothing really weird, though, and not nightmares.
I'm going to invest in an absinthe fountain. It will make louching (sp? dripping water over a sugar cube) easier.
Rick, you may have drank a wee too much. My worst ever hangover involved a breakup with a girlfriend, hanging out with Viking-sized friends and trying to keep up with them in a bar in Harvard Square, a great number of ales, and then an accidentally ordered and not paid for shot of lemon vodka. It ended with sobbing hysterically on the floor of my apartment kitchen after waking up the roommates trying to fit the key in the lock. A wonderful night that was :) Then I unfortunately woke up. One roomie thoughtfully left a bucket by my bed.
Dane
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That peach jar was refilled several times,the first was good,it is still in the fridge in the archery shop.
Some shine is pretty smooth and I have had some that taste like kerosene. King Ron gets some good stuff just don't know where it comes from. I will take a small taste but don't drink,clear,brown or wine,it just hurts me to bad the next several days, :o ant as tough as I use to be. ;) :) :)
Pappy
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What is all the talk of peaches? Are they used in making moonshine? Yeah, an ignorant question maybe, but I've never even seen any in real life, let alone drank any. Sadly, I had to make do with a nice local microbrew bitters last night, alas :) Next to pilsner, my favorite kind of beer.
Oh, btw, I have a bunch of cocktail recipes featuring Absinthe if anyone is interested. It makes a great mixer. Drinking it neat is highly not recommended. That is when the devil steps in.
Dane
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It was some spring water a friend gave me that had some awful peach flavoring in it so I put a can of peaches in heavy syrup in the jar and filled it with the spring water and let sit in my fridge for like three months turned out great at least everyone drank it like is was really good. and then it was refilled and refilled and ..........
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I'm still sippin' the jar of medicine I brought home from Tennessee. ;)
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Eddie it's good for the rhumatiz.
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Anyone can leagally make and sell 'shine...you just gotta pay up to uncle sam.
I may or may not dabble in the art and i do mean art, at lest that's what i've heard, ;)
There are a few really good forums, not unlike PA, totally devoted to it, and I may or may not be a member of those forums as well ;)
A basic pot still can yield a lower alcohol content (~80 proof) product that can taste exceptionally good. if you want to get into the ultra high alcohol content product (pure alcohol) you need a reflux still.
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peaches are used mostly for flavor but will also add sugar content, which influences the acohol centent. different grains/sugars will yeild different products.
- sour mash whiskey is made with corn
- tequila is made with Agave
- rum is made with molassas ( i believe)
- Mead is made with honey
and everything and anything in between.
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I once made about three bLooms of Maple Whiskey...at least that's what it turned into....when the caps started blowing off the Syrup I made.... in my Moms Pantry....man you want to talk about a sticky mess.... >:D
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BTW, can someone describe moonshine? How does it taste? Does it make a good mixer? Or is it best served neat?
Dane
Dane, the commercial liquor that is closest to white corn likker in taste is single-malt highland Scotch. That's good corn likker I'm talking about, not rotgut stuff. And yes, you drink it straight, right out of the jar-you'd be looked at as very strange, deviant, and worthy of suspicion if you mixed anything with it (that would be an insult to the maker, not to mention bringing your manhood into question :) ) or poured it into a glass (bad manners). There's a huge difference in quality in moonshine. Nothing better than good moonshine-smooth, good flavor, and won't give you a hangover. And there's nothing worse than bad white likker. Some of that stuff made in galvanized stills and condensed in old skidder radiators will kill you (if you're lucky.) The old-timers around here that made it the right way for their own consumption made the best stuff, but it's getting really hard to find. Making likker is hard work, and most of the younger generations won't do it. And it's always been legal to make and sell moonshine as long as you pay the gummint their extortion money. There's a brand in the liquor stores here that's been around as long as I can remember called "Georgia Moon." It's sold in pint mason jars with brown paper-bag labels that say "guaranteed to be less than thirty days old." ;D It's decent, but not really good.
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Everclear comes really close too....
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Dane, like Gopher said the peaches are for flavor. For the wussys, and ladies. If it is good well made shine, and smooth, like the stuff I had from North Carolina, on a certain farm......I like to just sip it from the jar. I like it as is, or refrigerated. I am almost tempted to ask my light weight drinker neighbor to give me back what is left of the jar I gave him. ;D But if you get well made shine, it is very good, and has a good taste. Like I said before, this is absolutely hands down the best I ever tasted. I have been trying to get a gallon of it, but like I said, I doubt I will be getting any more. :'( :'( I'm not a big drinker. I have several bottles of whiskey, scotch, rum and gin, etc., and I seldom drink it. Once in a while, I might have a small glass, after, or before dinner. Sometimes when I go out to dinner, I will get a glass of Crown Royal on the rocks. But I do like a good shine now and then also. And it is like giving a raspberry to the cesspool, in the east. Sip, mmmmmm, hey, Washington...... :P PPLLLLBBBBTTTTTZZSSSTT!!!
N'yah, N'yah, N'yah ! I guess that might be what makes it better than store bought, just a freedom to drink what you want, without the elected mafia wanting money for something that they had nothing to do with, sort of their protection money. Like if you find a treasure off the coast of the US, the state and Feds want part of it. I say, if they want part of it, then let them help finance, and look for it! Hey, Washington, :P PPLLLLBBBBBTTTTZZSSTTTT !! Also the universal Italian salute! Anyway Dane, if you like peaches, it is okay, to put them in the shine. I would suggest putting in the pickled peaches, or as they are also known as , spiced peaches. Now that would be good! Some like cherries in it. I just like it straight up. Not that I would refuse an offer of the fru fru, wussy stuff . ::)
Wayne
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Good points I prefer it straight myself that was an attempt to save a jug that was ruined by bad artificial flavoring worked out pretty good made a bunch of my buddies real real happy.
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I don't know how many of you have seen the History channel's show on Moon shine, or not, but it featured a Man in North Carolina, called Pop Corn Sutton, who was a convicted Moonshiner. Well he passed away, the first of this year, Jan 13th . That is a man I would have loved to talk to ! ;)
Wayne
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I don't know how many of you have seen the History channel's show on Moon shine, or not, but it featured a Man in North Carolina, called Pop Corn Sutton, who was a convicted Moonshiner. Well he passed away, the first of this year, Jan 13th . That is a man I would have loved to talk to ! ;)
Wayne
I've lived just a few miles down the road from him most of my life and knew him personally. He was a pretty good old guy, but definitely a bit different.
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Hillybilly, Wayne, thanks for the info. It sounds like fine stuff if well made. Single malts are amazing things. When our friends have children, we get the kids a bottle of a good brand, not to be opened until they are 21. Lucky kids, you ask me.
Reminds me, I dated a women who had really creative ways to use single malts, but I can't say here what they were.
While not a heavy drinker, I do like to drink. You would swear we were alchoholics though if you came by the house. Tons of bar books, too. One of the earliest books I recall my dad had was a vintage Trader Vic's bartender manual from the 40s or 50s. Another book I like features those weird atomic cocktails that were the rage in the 50s and 60s. My latest bar book is called Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. The Aviation is one that is really good:
2.5 oz. gin, 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice, and 2 dashes marachino liqueur. Shake, strain into glass, and garnish with lemon twist.
The Corpse Reviver #2 is worth the price of the book alone, and the Leatherneck Cocktail you'd like, Wayne, as it uses Crown Royal whisky, along with blue curacao and fresh lime juice. Another drink in this book, East India Cocktail, dates back to Victorian England.
Greatest drink of all in the cocktail world is the margarita. Always, always use cointreau, never, never triple sec. One of the staff of a fantastic Mexican restaruant in LA, La Golondrina (the carne asada they prepare here is heaven on earth, and I think the chef would commit suicide rather than not serve fresh pico de galo), on Olvera Street, gave me his recipe, and advised that you can't even find triple sec in Mexico. And it does make a difference. ALWAYS use fresh lime juice, not the mix you find in the supermarket, and never drink the frozen variety.
But, there are many pleasures from just tequila neat. Reposado is what you want to look for, and is very, very nice. Never cheap out on the trequila you buy. Life is too short for the lousy stuff.
Dane
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Tequila always made me wake up in strange places with fresh knife wounds and unique looking women......................
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I heard Popcorn took his own life after the state took his last six acres. Any truth to that?
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Unique Women....yeah....I bet......... :P
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Yeah, Popcorn, committed suicide, rather than go to prison, for his last conviction of selling moonshine. Sad that the government has to be such a$$holes about something like this.
Hillbilly, I would love to have met him, and be able to sit and talk to him. Yeah, I would imagine, he was a bit different, but then you have to take into account, his life growing up, and lifestyle up to his death. But definitely someone I would have wanted to know.
Wayne
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Tequila always made me wake up in strange places with fresh knife wounds and unique looking women......................
;D
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Mmmm....I get that reaction from tequila an awful lot. Wimps. :)
Dane
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Now if you want some homemade liquor that will hold a bead go to Wilkes County NC.
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Grunt that wouldn't be anywhere near a certain race car drivers farm would it? ::)
Wayne
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Stickbender, Wilkes Co was out of white liquor for two months last year. Seems like the runners was stashing the dew in a old broke down house way back in the piney woods. If you wanted some you would go and help yourself and put the $ in a mason jar. When my blacksmith friend arrived to load up there was a crime scene tape all around the house .My friend backed out and hit the ground running. The word got out and everyone stayed away and Wilkes was dry for a spell. It was all for nought though. It seems like the sheriff was notified that there was a place back in the woods that was on the tax roles and the tax hadn't been paid in several years. The sheriff went out, put a tape around the house and never went inside. All that shine went sitting there untouched for two months till someone got brave and went inside the house.
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Popcorn was sick (terminally ill) at the time, too. He had moved to eastern TN, and was about to go to prison for a moonshining conviction. He didn't want to die in jail. It wasn't exactly too smart of him to make a video of himself making likker and posting it on the internet and selling it. He more or less convicted himself, really. I always liked ol' Popcorn, but like I said, he was out there. He used to have a couple of signs in his yard made from sheets of plywood painted white with big red painted letters. One of them said "Anybody tresspassing will get there dam ass blowed off by a 12 ga. shotgun" and one said "This property is protected by a pitt bulldog that has the AIDS."
When I was a young kid, our next-door neighbor was a big-time likker maker and bootlegger. Our houses were about a hundred yards apart. He had caches of likker buried and hidden all over the place around there. Once, he had bought one of those hide-a-bed sofas (they were new then, not many people had seen them or knew that they folded out.) He had it filled full of likker. One night, one of his cousins who was a deputy sheriff called and told him that the law was coming to search his place for likker. Jack told his little daughter who was about five, not to say anything about the likker in the couch. The law searched his whole house and didn't find anything. As they were leaving, one of them told Jack's daughter that she was an awful cute little girl and tussled her hair. She said "Daddy don't have any likker hidden inside the couch." She was really proud of herself for helping her dad out. Of course, they immediately searched the couch, found about ten gallons of likker, and hauled him off to jail. I remember once when I was about five or six, I was out in the yard playing. Jack and his wife got drunk and got in a fight. She was chasing him around the yard shooting at him with a stub-nosed pistol-they were going around and around the house, she was shooting and he was running, cussing, and screaming. I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen until mom came out and dragged me into the house by the scruff of the neck before I got hit by one of the stray bullets that were zinging around everywhere. I wanted to watch the rest of it. ;D
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Steve, you lived a privileged childhood! ;D
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Steve, you lived a privileged childhood! ;D
;D ;D ;D
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Steve that sounds like my wife's family thay all got in a fist fight at the thanksgiving table all of em.
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Ronnie, I saw a knife fight at church once....;D
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Hillbilly, those "Unique" women you woke up with, by Unique, do mean, the kind where when they are asleep, "Unique" out of there? ;D Dang, I think I might have had some of that same stuff! ..... ::) :P
Wayne
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Now that was a Good One ...Wayne...especially coming from You........ ;D
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Thank you El D. Been there, done that. :P And not ashamed of it either! ;D Every one needs a little loving now and then. ::)
Wayne
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Wayne, I can tell you've been there. ;D
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Hillbilly, the biggest problem with having been there, is the older I get, the better "Unique" women look. ::) Even back then, I never tried to chew my arm off! ;D But then I have to refer back to the great sage of wisdom, Ol Ben Franklin, when he was being teased for dating older women, he said, "All mares look grey in the dark." ;) ......Now tell me about this knife fight at church! :o Now that must have been some affair! 8) Must've involved some of Ol Pop corn's spring water...... ;D I bet attendance was up next Sunday. "Hey, man you missed a knife fight at church yesterday! You gonna go this coming Sunday? You betcha! But I shore had planned on fishing, but a knife fight, and at Church, whooeee, I'll be there." :o
Wayne
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Lots of stories about Popcorn. Everybody around here talks about him. Didn't Hank Jr. attend his funeral?
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Wayne, it was just two teenaged boys (pretty rough ol' boys) got in an argument over a girl they were both dating and wound up knife fighting on the church porch during the middle of service. The service kinda came to a halt and everybody had to break them up before they managed to cut each other too bad.
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Dmassphoto, Hank Williams Jr. was there, and said he never met Pop Corn, but he had tried his product. ;)
Dang, Hillbilly, those women just cause all kinds of problems, don't they ?!........ ::)
Wayne
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Dmassphoto, Hank Williams Jr. was there, and said he never met Pop Corn, but he had tried his product. ;)
Dang, Hillbilly, those women just cause all kinds of problems, don't they ?!........ ::)
Wayne
I'd love to see what she looked like to start a knife fight on church steps!
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In those parts of the country; if there's only one woman and two men, and they aren't related, more than likely it's gonna be a knife fight. But then again relation's might have nothing to do with it. 8)
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I'd love to see what she looked like to start a knife fight on church steps!
Nah, she didn't look all that good, she was just really....................friendly................;D
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Must've been ......more friendly to one than the other one...... ;D
Wayne
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Must've been ......more friendly to one than the other one...... ;D
Wayne
And THAT's where she went wrong :o