Moonshiners & Spirits

I used to work with a woman who's family made shine.... they made a few different flavors, but I really just enjoyed the straight up corn liquor... it was hot as hell but was really good over a good bit of ice.

After a sale or 2 she gave me a jar of some stuff they had been aging in a small barrel for about 2 years.... amazing!!!

quote:

---

$20 a fifth for shine doesn't seem like such a great deal to me.

---

Move to a dry rural county in Appalachia, where you have to drive an hour+ over winding mountain roads to get to the nearest liquor store, and see if you feel the same way.

quote:

---

I think that's all a ruse. $20 a fifth for shine doesn't seem like such a great deal to me.

---

Well its 165 proof so its like 2.

I mentioned this in another thread today about what do you drink.

I was up in Maggie Valley in the spring of 06 at a motorcycle rally and Popcorn Sutton and a buddy of his stopped by the motel/campgrounds we were using as headquarters and sold a bunch of his product there 2 days in a row. He sold it in pints, quarts and gallons. I went through 2 quarts of it over the 6 days I was there and a buddy of mine opted to buy a gallon.

Crystal clear, smooth as silk going down, but definitely warmed up the gut once there.

I've had some stuff out of Thibodeaux last year that was sweet, fruit based shine and it was OK, but too sweet for my taste in liquor.

Go to Gatlinburg and buy legal Shine.

Anyone would be insane to sell to you over this website.

Then that would make it vodka!

I’m not about wanting to profit from moonshine. However, there has to be some sort of money in this to have a show dedicated to moonshine for over 5 years.

I am more interested to know if homemade shine or any homemade spirits can be of quality that is comparable to what is bought of the shelf at a store. That is more the intrigue for me.

There are lots of mash recipes if you want to make sour mash. Other grain recipes are available also.

The still can be a problem. Be very careful what you buy. Since it is illegal to make a still specifically for making distilled spirits, your still shop might use lead solder in construction, which is legal for a "decoration", but a producer of lead poisoned liquor if used for home distilling

Some people may use glass stills and I have heard that exerts claim the copper adds a flavor to the distilled liquor. I have also heard that a still has a break in period after which it will produce a fairly consistent product.

You can purchase white oak barrels with charred interiors from several companies on the web. To make brown whiskey, you need to age it for a period of time in a charred interior oak barrel, and the preferred wood is white oak. The barrels are expensive and require a place for storage that you don't mind smelling like whiskey, because the aroma and a portion of the whiskey leaches through the oak as the product ages.

Aging varies widely, 2 years to as much time as you like (30-40 years has been done).

You might try purchasing grain alcohol and setting it aside in a charred oak barrel for a couple of years. That will produce grain whiskey. I am unaware of corn alcohol that is not whiskey, but you might find some. Most corn alcohol that is not aged in oak is probably called white lightening.

It is had to buy a used barrel from a distillery, because most of them are sold to use for aging wine, now,

An experiment you might enjoy would be to fill a food safe plastic container with grain alcohol and drop a charred piece (100 percent of the exterior surface of the piece) of white oak into your alcohol, seal the container and come back in 6 months to a year to sample your product. If you use grain alcohol from the liquor store, this will be 100% legal, it just won't be corn whiskey. If I did this, I would not cut the proof away from absolute ethanol until I was finished and ready to drink. I would use distilled water to cut the absolute. Distilled water has no taste, or the least taste.

That's all I have - Good luck.

quote:

---

MD. I’m not interested in buying it, I’m more interested in the process of making it and if homemade spirits can be produced in quality as much as one can buy off the shelf at a store. No different then trying to cook any certain type of food at home and try and replicate the restaurant.

---

start with this UJSSM and progress how you wish, I am on a rum cycle right now, but feel free to ask any questions you wish.

Homedistiller.org has the best info you will ever find.

https://homedistiller.org/

I can answer your questions.

No, you will not make commercial-quality spirits in a home still. Even s setup like https://www.hillbillystills.com/Hillbilly-Flute-6-plate-p/2667.htm will produce a spirit with a very distinct "banana" smell.

You can greatly improve the taste by charcoal filtering, but that only gets you so far.

Essentially, to create truly clean/good vodka it requires ~21-22 distillations. Each plate in a column like that one from Hillbilly Stills is a separate distillation. Major vodka producers are able to achieve great results in a single run through a very tall column. You would have to run your spirit through the 6 plater 4x, each time re-diluting with water as you need to fill the still with ~80 proof. This is neither time nor energy efficient.

Source: A company I founded is on this list: https://www.ttb.gov/foia/xls/frl-spirits-producers-and-bottlers.htm I've personally, legally distilled tens of thousands of gallons of wash into vodka and gin.

Thanks Big_Sur. That’s what I am looking for. So, what makes the difference between having a good quality still and commercial sold products? Is it filtering and the multiple distillations only or other steps? Looking at commercial stills versus home stills seems to be just size and volume.