Legal Moonshine.. Any Good?

[karam]

It depends what you mean by moonshine. If you mean backyard white dog, where no care or knowledge was involved, I’d stay away. If you mean non-commercial stuff made in a backyard or cellar by people who’ve been doing it for centuries (like in many places in Greece or my wife’s native Serbia), it can beat commercial stuff by a mile.

 

[Briar Lee]

I am a scotch single malt lover who dabbles into bourbon, rum, brandy and particularly rye. I am looking for tasty and interesting alternatives with an eye on saving a few pounds. I see various 'moonshines' sold in mason jars on line and am wondering if they are any good? The avb/proofs are generally low but the flavours sound interesting. Is it worth having a dabble into this or not? Looking for reccomendations, and being based in Scotland, preferably obtainable here.

No. All moonshine is young, clear whiskey.

Factory moonshine won’t poison you or make you go blind, but it’s not aged in charred oak barrels.

When I was a child over fifty years ago my father and a storyteller named Alva Rains took me to visit the remains of the last local moonshine still.

Cheap legal aged bourbon shut down operations right after WW2.

The only reason it existed was good legal whiskey was either not available or higher priced.

 

[Chasing Embers]

If you mean non-commercial stuff made in a backyard or cellar by people who’ve been doing it for centuries (like in many places in Greece or my wife’s native Serbia), it can beat commercial stuff by a mile.

Absolutely.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No. All moonshine is young, clear whiskey.

Again, showing lack of knowledge. It is all clear due to lack of barrel use, but remains clear after aging. Many of us allow it to age one to five years prior to consuming it, some longer.

Factory moonshine won’t poison you or make you go blind,

Neither will home brew if made in a copper still. That and other myths were handed out to discourage buyers. Health risks come from drinking the higher proof shine exactly like drinking Everclear. You might want to do some reading and stop propagating myths.

5 Moonshine Myths We Hear Everyday — Grandaddy Mimm's Distilling Co.

Let’s debunk the most common moonshine myths and prove to you that anyone can enjoy sippin’ on good shine.

www.google.com

 

[Briar Lee]

Absolutely.

Maybe specialty booze in other nations is good but moonshine whiskey is simply the runs from a still bottled and sold.

If the still master knows his trade it’s not poisonous.

But it’s illegal untaxed, raw and unaged booze, clear as water.

It tastes horrible, and burns all the way down.

Some higher grade moonshine was aged a few months, but not in modern times.

I will not allow anyone at my farm to bring illegal moonshine, although where deer camp is the lights of Bug Tussle are just beyond a fence.

People died or went blind from it, and still could.

 

[canucklehead]

The cause of toxicity and blindness is typically due to the presence of methanol, acetaldehyde, and fusel oils (higher alcohols), not still material (although lead poisoning isn't fun either). This is why the first little bit coming out of the still is supposed to be discarded.

 

[karam]

Maybe specialty booze in other nations is good but moonshine whiskey is simply the runs from a still bottled and sold.

If the still master knows his trade it’s not poisonous.

But it’s illegal untaxed, raw and unaged booze, clear as water.

It tastes horrible, and burns all the way down.

Some higher grade moonshine was aged a few months, but not in modern times.

I will not allow anyone at my farm to bring illegal moonshine, although where deer camp is the lights of Bug Tussle are just beyond a fence.

People died or went blind from it, and still could.

Moonshine whiskey shouldn’t even be called whiskey, it’s just a malt run.
Still, it shouldn’t necessarily burn, or taste bad if the distillation was done properly, but will of course improve dramatically over time even if kept in a simple bottle. Barrel aging is just jow picking up in variations of raki/tsipouro etc in Greece/Turkey/Balkans and it makes a hell of a difference.

As Embers said, backyard distillers who know what they’re doing will use some form of copper to clean up the sulphur. In Greece poor people used copper coins in the past, or copper wool, slightly more affluent people just used copper tubing. And not ditching heads and tails of the run is just asking for blindness/monster headaches respectively.

 

[karam]

The cause of toxicity and blindness is typically due to the presence of methanol, acetaldehyde, and fusel oils (higher alcohols), not still material (although lead poisoning isn't fun either). This is why the first little bit coming out of the still is supposed to be discarded.

The first part of the run, called heads, contains mainly methanol - blinding - while the last bit of the run (tails) contains higher carbon atom alcohols like propanol and butanol, neither of which are as bad as methanol but still toxic. Tails could be rerun with a new batch to clean up some, but for home distillation it’s just not worth it in my opinion.

 

[canucklehead]

Moonshine whiskey shouldn’t even be called whiskey, it’s just a malt run.
Still, it shouldn’t necessarily burn, or taste bad if the distillation was done properly, but will of course improve dramatically over time even if kept in a simple bottle. Barrel aging is just jow picking up in variations of raki/tsipouro etc in Greece/Turkey/Balkans and it makes a hell of a difference.

As Embers said, backyard distillers who know what they’re doing will use some form of copper to clean up the sulphur. In Greece poor people used copper coins in the past, or copper wool, slightly more affluent people just used copper tubing. And not

The first part of the run, called heads, contains mainly methanol - blinding - while the last bit of the run (tails) contains higher carbon atom alcohols like propanol and butanol, neither of which are as bad as methanol but still toxic. Tails could be rerun with a new batch to clean up some, but for home distillation it’s just not worth it in my opinion.

The worst headache/hangover I've ever felt was from drinking freeze-distilled applejack when I was young. Makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

And not ditching heads and tails of the run is just asking for blindness/monster headaches respectively.

I walked a forum member through the process a while back and he was very satisfied with the results.

 

[Chasing Embers]

The worst headache/hangover I've ever felt was from drinking freeze-distilled applejack when I was young. Makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Oh man, cider whiskey will kill an elephant. That stuff's rough.

 

[karam]

The worst headache/hangover I've ever felt was from drinking freeze-distilled applejack when I was young. Makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Haha yeah, freeze “distillation” just removes water and concentrates alcohols, including the bad ones.

 

[craig61a]

“Legal” Moonshine…

I’m not aware of this product, but it would seem to me that it’s just capitalizing on the popularity of “Moonshine” from that TV show.

There are a lot of plants that distill ethanol for all sorts of uses. This just another way of marketing it.

Apple Pie shine is just a mixture of grain alcohol, apple cider and brown sugar around these parts…

I used to brew beer, and I guy I worked with distilled his own ethanol. I went through the process with him one weekend. He had the equipment. It was interesting to watch.

As far as poisoning, going blind, etc… Yeah some alcohols will do that. The main point is that all those alcohols are present in the beer. It’s the temperature that they vaporize or boil off at that sets them apart.

Methanol, or wood alcohol, vaporizes somewhere in the neighborhood of 165 F, Ethanol 173 F, and above 195 F you get off tasting stuff that you don’t want in your product.

There are videos on you tube about distilling at home that go into quite some detail on the process from start to finish, and detail the equipment too. Somewhat involved, but it’s not hard to do. Just have to have some knowledge.

I enjoy watching this guy:

I guess in my mind the term Moonshine invokes something made back in the woods that taxes aren’t paid on, and you have to know a guy who knows a guy that you meet up with on a deserted country road to make the transaction.

 

[karam]

I walked a forum member through the process a while back and he was very satisfied with the results.

I have zero doubt, I managed it myself actually too and collected some very clean hearts.

 

[ssjones]

In June, we spend a week in the Gatlinburg TN area. You can't walk half-a block in any direction in the downtown without stumbling into a moonshine store. "Ole Smokey" is the biggest. My son-in-law and daughter hit everyone. I found the stuff to be garbage - really bad alcohol with a lot of sugary flavoring, incredibly sweet. I stopped even tasting the crap. At one place, when I declined, the attendant said they had a bourbon, would I like to try it. It was even worse. Run, from this pure garbage (which is also sold at my local liquor store ($15 a jar?)

Ole Smoky Moonshine

olesmoky.com

 

[craig61a]

Overpriced ethanol, marketed to suckers…

 

[ssjones]

Overpriced ethanol, marketed to suckers…

Bingo. And every store in Gatlinburg was packed to the hilt with rubes. We still have a jar of Rootbeer in the refridgerator that my wife drug home. I'm sure it will get chucked down the drain eventually.

 

[Egg Shen]

If it's the clear stuff I see in stores, it's not aged in wood, it's right off the still, so I wouldn't pay alot for it. Everclear would probably be cheaper, just dilute it down to a reasonable proof. Depends also what it's made from.
If you tour a distillery, ask if you can have a taste right off the still. We did this on Islay and you could taste the peat, but that's it, no wood. Think of a cheap, minimally aged whiskey you've tried and take it down a few more notches, there you are.
If you like single malts, I think you'll be disappointed in 'moonshine'.

Yeah but Everclear tastes wretched. While not marketed as shine I’d suggest Mellow Corn.

 

[--dante--]

In the 80s in high school we used to make Jungle juice, 151 and Hawaiian Punch

We did that too, but where I grew up we called it "Purple Jesus" lol

 

[Egg Shen]

I had it from numerous sources numerous times. If you want to get shit faced, it's the real deal. But it taste like dog piss to me only worse.

You're not missing much. The only real appeal of it is the fact you're not paying taxes on it. If you've had it enough you might enjoy it because of building an association. Taste is from my experience mostly cheap alcohol made with no thought beyond will mess you up good. As for a buzz it's fine.

It sounds like inferior product you experienced. It should be flavorful and clean and clearer than tap water. Also a lot of folks just have a double pour and that’s it for the day. Not the bunch of hell-raising hillbillies turning over their tractors like you may guess. If it is well made you can over indulge and still walk away pretty unscathed- I drank 2/3 of a jar last time. The following day wasn’t the hell that you might imagine.

To the OP - I advise steering clear of apple pie and flavored stuff - this is generally to mask an inferior product or to dilute a good product. The only exception for me being peach shine I get from this old timer who uses peaches from his orchard as the mash - I.e. the peach sugars are feeding the yeast. This results in a very clean prod with no residual sugars. It is crystal clear. He puts 1 skinned peach in the jar that soaks up a LOT of the alcohol…those are fun to slice up onto a piece of pecan pie. Technically this is a brandy since it’s from fruit but it’s still shine if you get pulled over with a trunk full