re: Moonshiners characters

Josh does tree cutting etc as a regular job. They are open about it.

Mark(hillbilly Mark) along with Jim Tom, and Mark and Digger distill legally through Sugarlands distillery.

Tickle joined Sugarlands as well.

If you notice in background you see "shine time" signs with Josh's face on it at his home when they're building stills oftentimes. So he must've been legal with that years ago.

I live the show. It's fun. But, there's no way they're breaking federal laws on camera.

Fun fact: you can get a fuel alcohol permit pretty easily apparently. This allows you to make up to I think 50 or 100 gallons legally for fuel consumption.
I'd imagine beverage alcohol permit much more difficult to obtain.

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Fun fact: you can get a fuel alcohol permit pretty easily apparently. This allows you to make up to I think 50 or 100 gallons legally for fuel consumption.
I'd imagine beverage alcohol permit much more difficult to obtain.

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Fun fact: Getting that permit requires you to register your name, still, etc. with the feds-you even get your very own Department of Revenue agent assigned to "help" you "help" them get to know you better before you can get that permit. Results will vary.

Problem is, if you're getting that permit you open yourself up to, a) being on a list- a very short list, and b) regular, shall we say, "thorough," inspections at any time when the federal government deems it necessary to do so.

Furthermore, by law you must do very specific things and have very specific equipment (licensed and registered equipment) in order to denature the alcohol; so if you have other "intentions" with your fuel permit and slip up in any shape, form or fashion on one of the irregularly regular scheduled "visits" from your friendly local federal agency then it's time out for you mister.

In short: if you're going to illegally distill small amounts of homemade spirits for consumption then you're waaaay better off to just do it in your garage and risk getting caught and charged with a felony than to go through the time and money consuming process of getting on a government list just so that they can eventually bust your arse anyway. Again, that's if you've intentions other than manufacturing denatured alcohol- them boys know the biznuss, and with gas at under $2 a gallon I might wait to get the permit so as not to raise any eyebrows.

But don't do it at all, because it's illegal AF, just like everything else, and the government says it's bad, plus the sheriff said on the news that it's dangerous, and it is if you're an idiot (and in the year 2020, that's alot of people): If he has his head up his arse and doesn't take it seriously then he along with the rest of his family who resides in the rooms adjacent to the garage where he's stillin' explosive gases could die a horrible death...but common sense will circumvent the dangers, per usual. So I'm told.

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I'd imagine beverage alcohol permit much more difficult to obtain.

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They both are difficult to obtain, but you cannot imagine what it takes to "get legal": It is arguably one of the hardest, oldest industries to break in to, entrepreneurially-speaking. Since prohibition until today, it is nothing short of an illegal racket between the federal government and huge corporate distilleries to keep a monopoly on the market and steady, predictable tax revenue for the feds. Things have gotten a little better, but "the big boys" are terrified when they look at what happened to the beer industry, and in the end the people who desire fine spirits lose out.

PS I realize I came across as a smart arse in reply, but there will be many people this year who'll go to jail for illegally distilling spirits because they went off of not-very-good info and thought they were either legal or doing right by doing things like getting a fuel permit and then being escorted out of their shop in handcuffs after they so graciously (and lawfully) invited the feds into their fuel manufacturing facility.*

*Of course that's assuming they don't blow themselves up before they get caught; because they probably weren't too smart to begin with if they didn't wade through all the information before undertaking such a feat as stillin' spirits, and with an ignition temperature lower than gasoline, there aren't many "re-do's" when a pot full of ethanol gases and liquids goes, "uh-oh."

That's what I was told.