Addiction treatment is essential, and we are here for our patients in this difficult time. When the 18thAmendment went into effect, southerners either paid it nothing more than lip service or continued their whiskey-making operations in earnest (if in secrecy). Since the amendment's repeal in 1933, laws focus on evasion of taxation on any type of spirits or intoxicating liquors. [10] Despite this, distillers will usually collect the foreshots until the temperature of the still reaches 80 °C (176 °F). [27] The cars were ordinary on the outside but modified with souped-up engines, extra interior room, and heavy-duty shock absorbers to support the weight of the illicit alcohol. Further enrichment is only possible by absorbing the remaining water using other means, such as hydrophilic chemicals or azeotropic distillation, or a column of 3A molecular sieves, like 3A zeolite.[4][5]. All Rights Reserved. We’re here to help you start recovery from addiction. Mental Floss explains that moonshine is a cultural heritage among many Southerners, who look at it as an enduring tradition of sticking it to the federal government’s business of regulating alcohol production and consumption. Harm Caused by Binge Drinking: What Happens After a Binge? The liquid is kept heated by an immersion heater at about 50 °C (122 °F), which causes it to slowly evaporate and condense on the inner walls of the outer vessel. However, guides are often written by home brewing enthusiasts published on local brewery forums that explains where cheap equipment can be bought and how to assemble it into a still. The word originated in the British Isles as a result of excise laws, but only became meaningful in the United States after a tax passed during the Civil War outlawing non-registered stills. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR. Learn about Oxford Treatment Center's admissions process. A writer who chronicled his experiences with George Washington’s 200-year old moonshine recipe notes that in the Southern way of looking at the world, there is little difference between the “revenuers” and “the same federal government that defeated [the Southerners’] Confederate ancestors.” To that point, the American Spectator dryly notes that the only thing stronger than the alcohol in Virginia is the government that taxes it. Illegal distilling accelerated during the Prohibition era (1920-1933) which mandated a total ban on alcohol production under the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Using these methods often resulted in blindness or lead poisoning[6] in those who consumed tainted liquor. It was a good investment; today, NASCAR comes behind only the National Football League in terms of television viewers and fans in America. A spiral still is a type of column still with a simple slow air-cooled distillation apparatus, commonly used for bootlegging. A pot still is a type of distillation apparatus or still used to distill flavored liquors such as whisky or cognac, but not rectified spirit because they are bad at separating congeners. Private citizens became registered pharmacists, exploiting another loophole in the law. Moonshine historically referred to "clear, unaged whiskey",[19] once made with barley in Scotland and Ireland or corn mash in the United States,[20] though sugar became just as common in illicit liquor during the last century. [27], "Bootleg liquor" redirects here. Moonshine can be made both more palatable and perhaps less dangerous by discarding the "foreshot" – the first few ounces of alcohol that drip from the condenser. Moonshine distillation was done at night to avoid discovery. Under France’s leadership, NASCAR embraced corporate sponsorship and downplayed its bootlegging past, becoming more associated with Mountain Dew than mountain dew. You deserve to get help. Atlanta, however, did not welcome the moonshiners back, and another top stock car driver named Bill France began to recruit the bootleggers to race in Virginia and the Carolinas. In 1907, the mayor of the city (not ironically, a brewery owner) went to the state capitol to protest the burgeoning local prohibition measure. Prohibition ultimately empowered Americans to become experts in the creation of the alcohol it was supposed to ban. It crippled the service industry, empowered criminals, and made it almost impossible for private citizens to enjoy alcohol in the privacy of their own homes. Addiction Treatment is not one size fits all. A distillery in Madison, North Carolina, points out that while moonshine has a technical definition, it is also a cultural term, “a process more than a legal status.” There is more to moonshine than it being created under cover of darkness, with freezing water fresh out of a mountain spring; moonshine is “an experience of the liquor,” one that should be enjoyed on a standardized, commercial scale. Other toxic components, such as methanol, cannot be detected with a simple burn test, as methanol flames are also blue and difficult to see in daylight. Mental Flossexplains that moonshine is a cultural heritage among many Southerners, who look at it as an enduring tradition of sticking it to the federal government’s business of regulating alcohol production and consumption. (Credit: ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images/Raymond Park Collection), The Georgia bootlegger didn’t have to venture far to find two talented drivers for his racing team. Agents capture a vehicle marked as a taxi loaded with liquor piled high as it got a flat tire, 1922. The moonshine that has been cultivated in the South for generations is about independence and rebellion, say the traditionalists; what is sold by Jim Beam and other companies trying to get in on the market raises revenue by way of local, state and federal taxes, something that would undoubtedly horrify the rum-runners and moonshiners of yore. When Prohibition came into effect, business not only continued, it increased (albeit illegally), turning the city into a “giant warehouse liquor store.”, Louisiana’s marshy geography offered rum-runners perfect cover for their operations, gliding up the Mississippi River into New Orleans, and then using the city as a base to sell their illegal spirits across the South. Unbeknownst to them, Washington had taken the step of asking local governors to form a militia to enforce the tax, if need be. Spirits distilled in pots is commonly 40% ABV, and top out between 60-80% after multiple distillations. You aren't alone. For other uses, see, High-proof distilled spirit, generally produced illicitly, CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, http://www.bryggforum.nu/download/spiralbrannaren.pdf, "Why Your Copper Moonshine Still Needs To Be Lead Free – Whiskey Still Company", "Distillation: Some Purity Considerations", "Distillation Techniques in the Fruit Spirits Production", "Risk of End Stage Renal Disease Associated with Alcohol Consumption", "Application to Include Fomepizole on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines", "Proofing your Moonshine – Shake Test, Gun Powder Test, Hydrometer Test Explained", "Alcoholmeter or Hydrometer: Do You Know the Difference? For that reason, moonshine culture exists today, partly as a celebration of southern culture and partly as a still-active rejection of the role of government. Moonshine existed long before Prohibition, and the argument can be made that without moonshine, even the legal and regu… In December 1947 France assembled the leading stock car drivers, mechanics and owners in Daytona Beach, Florida, to standardize rules, a meeting that ended with the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Traveling for healthcare & essential services is permitted across the US. The Civil War had come to a bloody (and ultimately humiliating) end only 55 years prior, and when the law came down that making, selling, and transporting alcohol was no longer allowed, it was a law that was at best ignored and outright rejected. Moonshine was originally a slang term for high-proof distilled spirits that were and continue to be produced illicitly, without government authorization. The grape industry that kept the churches supplied with kits of juice concentrate, complete with notices that if the concentrate was left for too long, fermentation would occur, which would turn the juice into wine. It was from this pastime that competitive racing emerged, which gave birth to NASCAR. “He worked very quickly in the 1950s to whitewash the connection between the sport and moonshiners.”. The incidence of impure moonshine has been documented to significantly increase the risk of renal disease among those who regularly consume it, primarily from increased lead content. The alcohol laws in the southern states are some of the most restrictive in the country. A moonshine distillery can expect to make $6,000 a week without paying a cent to the government, and the Economist estimated that the state of Virginia loses $20 million a year in untaxed alcohol revenue. If there had been, she said, “the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement would have taken action.” The department said in another statement that their participation in the program was secured under false pretenses, and the Discovery Channel had ignored a request to add a disclaimer to the program. Appalachian moonshining continued to thrive even after Prohibition’s repeal thanks to the persistence of dry counties and a desire to evade hefty federal alcohol taxes. © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The distilleries in East Tennessee (a region where moonshiners have been operating for decades) are selling a “folksy fantasy” to tourists, not genuine moonshine. Since the amendment's repeal in 1933, laws focus on evasion of taxation on any type of spirits or intoxicating liquors. Applicable laws were historically enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the US Department of Justice, but are now usually handled by state agencies. Microbreweries welcomed the change while noting that it stops short of what they wanted. Find out why! The combination of myth and the appearance of illegality is what television viewers want. Enforcement agents were once known colloquially as "revenuers". When the federal government collects $9.6 billion in excise tax revenue from alcoholic beverages in a single year, some moonshiners feel justified in doing things their own way. The final product has approximately twice as much alcohol content as the starting liquid and can be distilled several times if stronger distillate is desired. This site complies with the And just down the road from one of the service stations owned by Parks was the garage of Red Vogt, known as “the bootleggers’ mechanic.”. “It was fast enough to stay one step ahead of the law, rugged enough for the mountain roads and had a big enough trunk and back seat to squeeze in moonshine.”. Worried about your substance use? Radiators used as condensers could also contain lead at the connections to the plumbing. As a study of farmers in Cocke County, Tennessee, observes: "One could transport much more value in corn if it was first converted to whiskey. When stock car racing resumed after World War II in September 1945, a riot nearly ensued at Lakewood Speedway after police banned five racers, including Hall, who had been convicted of liquor-hauling violations. [17], A common folk test for the quality of moonshine was to pour a small quantity of it into a spoon and set it on fire.