Moonshine experienced a deep lull when the U. In recent years, moonshine seems to have had a resurgence. Now with the trend for higher prices at the liquor store, especially for imported spirits, moonshining has hit the spotlight again. In , a BBC investigation into moonshining in the United States found that as many as a million Americans were breaking the law by making moonshine. In the same year, Tennessee started selling legal hooch in big box stores like Walmart and Sam's Club.
On the internet, several websites offer stills made of all copper for sale, ranging from 1-gallon personal models to gallon commercial outfits.
One seller claimed the demand for his copper stills doubled in recent years and that he had shipped stills to every state in the U. Illegal moonshine remains dangerous because it is mostly brewed in makeshift stills. It can be dangerous on two levels, both during the distilling process and when consuming it. The distilling process itself produces alcohol vapors, which are highly flammable.
The flammable vapors are one major reason why moonshine stills are almost always located outside, although it makes them easier to be spotted by law enforcement. The threat of vaporous explosions is too great if confined inside. In terms of consuming the liquid, if the final product is over proof, the moonshine itself is also extremely flammable and can be very dangerous. While the flammability of the distilling process and the product itself is a danger, more people have died from drinking moonshine than have died by explosions of stills due to the toxins in the brew.
Although many of the stills in operation today are the all-copper variety, there are plenty of the old handmade stills still around. Old stills use vehicle radiators in the distilling process, and they are apt to contain lead soldering, which can contaminate the moonshine. The old radiators could also contain remnants of antifreeze glycol products which could also add toxins to the brew.
In larger batches of distilled moonshine, tainting with methanol can also occur. Because methanol vaporizes at a lower temperature than alcohol, the first liquid produced by the distillation process can contain methanol. The larger the batch, the more methanol. Most moonshine makers today know to pour off those first drippings from the condenser, also known as the foreshot, but not all of them know or do it. Methanol is highly poisonous and can cause blindness and even death.
In a study, Dr. Christopher Holstege, a physician with the University of Virginia Health System, tested 48 samples of moonshine obtained by law enforcement from different stills. The doctor found lead contamination in 43 of the samples. Folklore tells us one way to test the purity of moonshine is to pour some in a metal spoon and set it on fire. But the spoon burning method is not completely reliable.
This test does not detect other toxins that might be in the brew, like methanol, which burns with a light blue flame that is hard to see. With millions of gallons of moonshine being produced each year in the United States, chances are some of it is going to be tainted.
Health officials are concerned that moonshine toxicity in ailing patients might be overlooked because most healthcare providers consider it a tradition of the past. As far as historians can tell, brewing alcohol has been around since the beginning of mankind. Moonshine, specifically, is believed to have been introduced in the southern Appalachian region of the U. According to Appalachian anthropologists, the Scotch-Irish immigrants who migrated to the region in the late s and early s brought with them their tradition of home brewing and their recipe for the high-potency hooch.
Therefore, it can be hidden from the police or thirsty neighbors," according to Jason Sumich, Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University. Defective Products.
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Other Legal Categories. X 1 Enter Zip Code or City this may not be the same place you live. This tension eventually led to the Whiskey Rebellion, in which George Washington lead a crackdown on farmers making money by distilling their grain into moonshine. Fast forward to the Civil War era, and making moonshine without paying taxes was officially deemed illegal. This act officially imposed a tax on alcohol, among other items, which made distilling without a permit even harder to get away with.
One way the government has been able to market this law is by alluding to the idea that moonshine-making at home is unsafe, due to its potential to be tainted by toxic heavy metal particles. These arguably avoidable risks include tainting the spirit with methanol, which is known to cause blindness. Other risks that can come with distilling your own moonshine include amateur-related hazards like stills exploding. In general, alcohol has always been heavily scrutinized by the government.
At this point, you may be wondering whether making your own moonshine is worth the trouble at all.
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