5 Things I Never Knew About Moonshine
1. Moonshine did not originate in the South, but in 18th century England! Source
2. It is thought that the name Moonshine originated from the fact that it was “brewed” beneath the moon. Apparently, there was a lot of smoke and steam involved and making Moonshine at night helped to hide the fact. Source
3. The perfect Christmas gift: your own copper moonshine still… Even if you never intend to fire up one of his products, they are works of art. Prices? The 20-gallon model pictured is $1,200. There is a 16-week waiting list, which means if you order one today, you could plan on a very merry Christmas for everyone on your list this year. Source
4. Moonshine obviously has a lot of different names… sometimes known as Poitín, mooney, moonshizzle, mountain dew, moon, branch or creek water, hooch, squeezings, rot gut, gut rot, corn liquor, Portuguese grape juice, white lightning, and many others) is a common slang term for home-distilled alcohol, or whiskey for the hills, especially in places where this production is illegal. Source
5. 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”. Source
Tags: creek-water, moon-water, Moonshine, moonshizzle, mountain-dew, rot-gut, southern-byways, stills, white-lightningRelated Stories
POSTED IN: 5 Things, History, Moonshine, Southern Byways
2 opinions for 5 Things I Never Knew About Moonshine
Lynn
Aug 27, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Interesting article SP! About some of those names, however, I think they should stick to moonshine! It sounds a lot better than gut rot or rot gut!
Lauren
May 22, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Very helpful, I had to do an assignment on this subject and this helped a lot! :)
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