moon shiners

[Peter Drouin]

You guys in the south don't do that no more, do ya? maybe in the old old days but not now, I see this thing on tv today and it can't be real :D :D :D

[sawguy21]

It goes on and not just in the south. I have had home made hootch that kicked like a rented mule yet didn't leave a hangover.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

"Moonshine stills" are wide open down here. One of the stills you see on T.V. is in the next county over from me.
The T.V. show is staged. However, the Old Boys on the show are real mountain people. I have heard some of them just put on a show by the way they talk.
The stills are real but I have heard....for the show......the moonshine is nothing but water OR these are legal stills that are taxed.
Our farm has several old stills,  still visible but are pretty much rotten.

So it still goes on......you can drink to that.

[Rocky_Ranger]

"Shine" is an acquired taste - fortunately, I have acquired it. :D

[T Welsh]

I have been riding my motorcycle in the exact area that the show takes place for over 20 years. I have come across local shine many times,it is there,but not like the show depicts. Remember it is still illegal and you do not flaunt it in the open.My best friend and I stayed overnight at a small motel in the area and we where going out to get beer and the owner said to us no need for that and gave us a small mason jar. Gota love southern hospitality ;D. Tim

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I have been riding my motorcycle in the exact area that the show takes place for over 20 years. I have come across local shine many times,it is there,but not like the show depicts. Remember it is still illegal and you do not flaunt it in the open.My best friend and I stayed overnight at a small motel in the area and we where going out to get beer and the owner said to us no need for that and gave us a small mason jar. Gota love southern hospitality ;D. Tim

I don't drink it but I have cleaned paint brushes in it before.
You can also use it to intensify a fire.....or BLOW up a mailbox.  :D :D :D

[rooster 58]

    Yes, stills are alive and well in Pa. It's a very lucrative operation. 25-30.00 bucks per gallon. Mash is available too ;)

[Qweaver]

It's readily available here in W,Va but it is really costly for good stuff.

[WH_Conley]

The last I heard the good stuff was about $80.00 a gallon.

[JuniperBoss]

Heck yah, they are out there. People even do it in Oregon. A relative of mine found a fairly recent still near his property on the coast. Another found an old one out in the deserted mountains of east oregon. I'm not sure, maybe all that has died down now, but I do believe people do it a lot (maybe a lot is not quite accurate) out east.

[Al_Smith]

My father grew up near Pittsburgh Pa during the depression .Their house was the only one on the road that didn't have a still .My granddad used to laugh about the hens drinking from the drainage ditch and getting snockered .

Granddad had a commercial garage and one of his customers was local boot legger .The old boy had a Packard with steel plate and 1" thick bullit proof glass .It had to have a special suspension system and heavy duty tires to support all that weight .Pretty tough bunch in Pittsburgh those days .Might still be for all I know .

[Mooseherder]

I think some States allow you to make a certain amount for personal use.

[lowpolyjoe]

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit i'm rather addicted to that Moonshiners show.  Although it does often look very staged and some of the good ol boys are dreadful actors  :D  Still entertaining.

What i don't quite understand is why it is so expensive?  Why are people paying so much (ie. WH saying it can go up to $80 and they make similar claims on the show)?   From a lot of accounts it's somewhat nasty to drink straight.  Why not just buy a gallon of cheap vodka? 

Who knows what these guys might be cutting it with (one episode claims some people cut it with water and bleach to stretch production).  And i think if you distill at the wrong temperature you get some toxic stuff? 

Is it just the fact that it's really high proof?  100-150 i think i've heard them mention?  You can get smirnoff 100proof vodka or 151 without any legal risk and less questions about what's in it.

Obviously there is outrageously expensive legit liquor out there too, but typically that's stuff that's been aged for decades or made through exotic process or with rare materials.  How can these shiners demand such high prices for simple corn/barley based liquors?   I'm really curious.

I find the distilling process really interesting.  Would love to try it 

[JuniperBoss]

I think some States allow you to make a certain amount for personal use.

How personal is personal use? :D  :D :D

[LOGDOG]

I like that ole' Jim Tom on Moonshiners. Me and him could hang together and eat baloney and cheese sandwiches any day. Beautiful part of the Country those guys are in.

[NWP]

In MO I heard you can possess 100 gallons for personal use if you're over 21. If there are at least 2 people over 21 in the household you can have a maximum of 200 gallons. I think this also applies to homemade beer and wine. I don't know for sure. I don't make it or drink it.

[lowpolyjoe]

In MO I heard you can possess 100 gallons for personal use if you're over 21. If there are at least 2 people over 21 in the household you can have a maximum of 200 gallons. I think this also applies to homemade beer and wine. I don't know for sure. I don't make it or drink it.

I have heard something similar.  However, i've also heard that federal law restricts that allowance to beer and wine only.  I know you can make your own beer and wine for personal consumption  8).  I make my own beer sometimes and know of  people who make wine.  I think fermentation of beer and wine might fall in a different category from distillation of spirits.  Curious to hear what others say on the subject 

[muddstopper]

First off, you are not allowed to possess any amount of untaxed moonshine. A thimble full will get you arrested. The criminal charges do vary according to the amount of product you have, selling gets bigger charges and heaven forbid you get caught transporting it. That goes for every state and just about every country. Yes, you can manufactor up to 200gal of wine or beer per year, but beer and wine are not distilled.

Second, making moonshine has never stopped in the south and I suspect the same can be said for other parts of the country as well.

Typically, a pot still will produce a 150proof product, thats a + or - number, a lot just depends on how efficient your still is and how careful you are about maintaining proper temperatures. Reflux stills can get you up to the 190proof range, but its very difficult and practicly impossible to get any higher proof than that without a lot of very expensive equipment. Most of the stove top stills will usually incorporate some sort of reflux to get high proof whiskey. A thump keg( some call it a doubler) on a pot still is actually a type of reflux system in that you get a second distillation as the steam is reheated as it passes thru the keg.

Good moonshine wont give the sick hangover you can get from other whiskeys. Bad moonshine can make you go blind and even lead to death. Blindness is caused by the methanol alcohol and acetone that occurs naturally in the fermenting process. Oddly enough, corn whiskey contains very little methanol, fruit whiskeys will contain more methanol and acetone, but produces a smoother moonshine. Any fruit whiskey is actually a brandy and not moonshine, but the fermenting and distilling process is the same, so homemade brandy is still considered moonshine. If you are going to distill fruit mashes, you must core and remove the seeds.the seeds contain cyanide. You can tell if the moonshine has been made with uncored fruit because the whiskey will be bitter. Dont buy or drink any moonshine that has a bitter taste. Whether or not there is enough cyanide in the finished product to really hurt you can be debated, but Cyanide isnt something i really want to injest.

Methanol and Acetone both have lower boiling points than ethanol and is the first liquid that will come out of a still. this is why most people will just toss the first few milliliters before they catch the good stuff. Methanol will start to boil at temps around 152degrees f, Acetone at 158Degrees and ethanol at 172 degrees. With careful watching of the still, you dont need a thermometer to tell when each part is being vented off and just catch the part of the product you want to keep. You will also get fusel oils from the mash once the temperature starts reaching 182 degrees. These oils are what give the moonshine its flavor, but it very easy to get to much of a good thing as these oils can cause a major hangover.

The moonshiners show is just for entertainment and of course if they where making anything illegal it would be pretty hard to keep it hid with all those cameras running around. With that said, I have tried the George Washington Recipe, I know who made it and that person is on the moonshiners show. Whiskey was super smooth with no burn, but probably proofed out under 75proof. I suspect it was cut at least in half with water. I also tried some of their scotch, stuff would gag a maggot. They are now selling tee shirts for $30 a pop

[celliott]

Is it just the fact that it's really high proof?  100-150 i think i've heard them mention?  You can get smirnoff 100proof vodka or 151 without any legal risk and less questions about what's in it.

Obviously there is outrageously expensive legit liquor out there too, but typically that's stuff that's been aged for decades or made through exotic process or with rare materials.  How can these shiners demand such high prices for simple corn/barley based liquors?   I'm really curious.

I think it's largely in part because it's "moonshine", because it's illegal, they aren't supposed to have it, etc. Same idea as kids under 21 binge drinking, it's mostly because they know they're doing something they aren't supposed to, the thrill of that is a big driver.
I see it quite often here in college, unfortunately.

[Ianab]

Muddstopper gave a pretty good rundown on making moonshine. 

Here in NZ it's legal to distill your own, but not legal to sell it (without paying the tax anyway)

The commercial home stills and supplies (you can buy from various stores) set you up to simply make vodka using sugar as your feed stock. I guess technically you could call it white rum, but the idea is to get as pure an alcohol as possible, with the least amount of methanol, acetone and other by products. Then they sell you little bottles of flavour to get what you want. You can just leave it unflavoured and call it vodka of course. Or throw some fruit in to make a fruit vodka (lemon, chilli etc)

Because the sugar and special yeasts give a very "clean" wash, with nice pure alcohol coming out of the still (once you dump those first few mil of "paint thinner" anyway) you get safe booze, that's pretty easy on the head next day. You would normally water it down to a normal 40% strength, otherwise your buddies drink it like normal booze, and tend to fall over  :D

Making proper Whisky (or Whiskey) is trickier. Because you are relying on the flavour from the mash to flavour your end product, if you get it wrong at any stage, it's terrible. :'(

We had a weird legal situation here a few years back where it was legal to sell a still, own a still, and posses alcohol from one. The only actually illegal part was actually running the still, unless you paid the excise tax. But there was no mechanism to pay the tax, even if your were that honest that you wanted to.  ??? So a the police and tax dept just turned a blind eye to home stills, unless you started selling it, then you could get in the deep do-do.

Eventually they just changed the law so you could run a still for "personal use". It's still illegal to sell your product, but making a few gallons for you and your friends is no worries.

Ian

[thecfarm]

Thank you muddstopper. Not many stills or grits around here.  ;D  I have heard of hard cider around here,years ago.

[lowpolyjoe]

Great info, thanks muddstopper

Those two guys who dug the whole to make the underground still looked like they were using rough sawn beams so i was wondering if they might be lurking around this forum  :D  Or maybe a buddy of theirs.

[SPIKER]

I like the show mostly for Tickle and Jim-Tom.   recently they have been putting Tickle (acting plastered) giving hints and quotes for life or some sort of sayings.   Usually between show breaks in the commercial sections.

I've had some (ok a good bit) of home made wines, brandy and even REAL shine & apple pie.   (I'm not a drinker mind ya) but just for fun and or to taste stuff to see what I like.    smiley_alcoholic_01
I got a bit of clear stuff in the fridge now that made it's way from KY.

When I was a kid 14 or so me & my cousin ran (full time in summer part time in winter during school) landscaping (mowing and trimming trees building retaining walls, clearing land et all)   One of our regular customers was a retired doctor who made the BEST homemade wine  ;D smiley_alcoholic_01 part of the payment was free samples.   Seeing as we didnt drive trucks yet they served lunch with 2 or 3 open bottles of different wines (they were from one of the OLD countries.)   I was particularly attracted to the strawberry he made 8) which I used in chile and steak simmering  ;)   The Blackberry & Plum were also very good!   We worked at his place for about 3 or 4 weeks straight 12 hrs a day putting in Rail Road tie retaining wall around the dam in a 12 acre lake.   His lawn was manicured I we had to hand carry the ties about 200~400 yards from the street.   At the time we were NOT all that big but worked hard at that job.   The Dam was ~150 yards long and 4 or 5 ties high each tie was put in with 3ea 36" 1/2 S.S. rods.   We had to HAND DRILL the ties at first out at the dam using old timber framers seat drill.   We convinced him to let us power auger them out at the street as long as we cleaned up all the savings each night... :

 
Mark

[WDH]

Spiker,

That story about the ties and the dam on the lake could drive a man to drink  :D.

[SPIKER]

WDH we did that in Late July into mid to late Aug.   Most days it was in the upper 80's lower 90's.   Kind of like one of Jerry Clower's stories  (It was HOT WHOOO boy it was DAANG HOT lemme tellsya)  hehehe :D

I dont think they were FULL PENETRATE ties as I don't remember them being all that heavy but we would take about 5 of them then start hammering em in as a break.   The front had trees but NONE all along the dam so NO SHADE we had to do it then as all the neighbors (RICH BIG HOMES) all watered out of the lake and drew it down 3 or 4 feet by that time.   The top 2 were just above water level the rest were below water when the pond/lake came back up the next spring.   the homes around the lake were on I think 3~5 acres that were pretty wooded by homes & street but little to nothing around the lake other than paddle boats & docks.   He had a pretty nice boardwalk & dock & was the owner that mowed the dam (ok we mowed the dam.) 

the neighbor was my brother-n-laws boss & owned "Standard Welding & Supply" in Medina.   they had maybe 40 employees there.   His place only had about 3/4 acre to mow but also had part of the dam his was the last home in the culldesac with heated pool fancy (shop made) iron gate/fence.   We put in a BIG stone retaining wall dry stacked flower bed for him though we were OK to use a Skid Steer for that one  8) but some of those rocks were 4 or 5' around.  We were back in school by the time that was done.   We went from those jobs to winter clear cut for Kenny Cleveland Builders for the North East side of town condos/development.    The area was pretty much all pine plantation & we cut 1000's of 8~10" pine into 8' logs.   most were going to a fence post place I guess as they wanted square cut ends and exactly 8'6".   We Bucked, De-limbed and loaded them into piles about 100 yards long & as high as we could pitch em.   I think we had 5 piles like that prior to the log trucks showing up & stared loading out.   We used bulldozer & skids to get them over to the piles.   That was a total mud pit it rained most of the days froze up at night and warmed up & rained more...   12~14hrs a day over thanksgiving & x-mas break.   JR and I did most of the grunt work while my uncle and brother-n-law ran dozer/chainsaws.   The dumb part was they went back in and planted more pines around all the homes once they were build  :   We DID get to run 4x4 trucks plowing the developments KC had going.   That was some fun...

Mark

[muddstopper]

Great info, thanks muddstopper

Those two guys who dug the whole to make the underground still looked like they were using rough sawn beams so i was wondering if they might be lurking around this forum  :D  Or maybe a buddy of theirs.

Actually one of them is supposed to be in my town either this wk or next, along with some of the Robbinsville bunch. I have got to talk to that guy because they come off looking like a bunch of, well I wont say it.

My wife and I make wine and have 10 or 12 gal under the kitchen sink at any given time. We do make ours a little different than the "Proper" methods. We use as much fruit and as little sugar as possible, we find that doing so helps retain more of the fruit taste in the finished product. Some people will use a gal of fruit juice and 4 gal of sugar water to produce 5 gal of wine. I find the juice with water actually produces better moonshine, (once distilled),than wine.

[Delawhere Jack]

I'm curious what sort of yeast they use. Beer yeasts will die off in the fermenter when the alcohol content gets over 10-12%, wine and champagne yeasts will tolerate higher alcohol contents, but they are selected for converting specifically fruit sugars. Grain based sugars are slightly different. If they really get 100 gallons from a 300-500 gallon pot, they must have a really alkie-haul tolerant strain of yeast.

BTW, the show is nonsense, like 99.9% of the stuff on the Tee-Vee... :

[Delawhere Jack]

My mother grew up in Philadelphia, born in 1926 of Irish immigrants. She told me years ago when I was into homebrewing about how her father used to make "linament" in the basement, and one day one of the bottles exploded....... :D She actually still believed the cover story her dad told the kids 65 years later. :D :D

The next door neighbors were Italian, and the mother spoke no English. My grandmother spoke English with a heavy Irish accent. They got along fine using limited vocabulary and "sign language". The Italian family used to get crates of grapes delivered on a regular basis, and they would share samples of their "juice".. :D :D

[Ianab]

The strains of yeast you can buy now will ferment up to 23% alcohol, although they are a bit fussy to use. The normal one I use will go to 18% and isn't as critical about temperature.

http://stillspirits.com/nz/turbo-yeasts.html

Ian

[SPIKER]

The strains of yeast you can buy now will ferment up to 23% alcohol, although they are a bit fussy to use. The normal one I use will go to 18% and isn't as critical about temperature.

http://stillspirits.com/nz/turbo-yeasts.html


Ian

The yeast my Niece's hubby & his dad used would go to the 23% that stuff for most part could float an ice cube 3/4 out of the wine heeheh 8)  we did a bunch of sampling one night few years ago popped open about 8 different bottles and none was wasted but everyone else was  :D smiley_alcoholic_01   Luckily I had me a driver that night, think I had more that night than I usually have in a year.  :  Never had any hangover from it as there was a big thing of Cinnamon Apple cider (not hard) that we had a lot of too.   
Mark

[Sonofman]

When I was younger, I had a friend whose older brother tried his hand at making some wine. He had it sitting on a cabinet on the back porch. One of the bottles popped its cork, and everywhere the wine went, the paint came off. I refused to try the wine. They never could get paint to stick to those places again.

[Dan_Shade]

that's the good stuff!

[muddstopper]

The yeast most moonshiners use is just the stuff you can buy at the grocery store. The mash is around 10-12% alcohol before it is distilled. The way they increase the yield is that they will referment the mash after distilling. They can do this 3 or 4 times before they are just running sugar mash.

The yeast (Turbo Yeast) that gets alcohol percentage up to 20+% doesnt make good moonshine. It will make a high proof mash, and will increase the yield, but its mostly a sugar mash, again, it will taste like crap.

Some moonshiners wont add any additional yeast to the mash. Corn, fruit, grains, will contain some natually occuring wild yeast and they will just let the mash ferment natually. Alcohol levels aint as high, but the finish product will contain more flavor.

I prefer to use a wine yeast and will use Premeir Cuvee for a whiskey mash using apple juice. This yeast will get alcohol levels up to around 18% without destroying the apple flavor. The 18% alcohol levels are only achieved with close attention to the fermenting process, since I usually just pitch it and forget it, I get around a 14% wine mash.

[Peter Drouin]

Well I guess a lot if guys make moon shine, :D :D 8)

[Ianab]

The yeast (Turbo Yeast) that gets alcohol percentage up to 20+% doesnt make good moonshine. It will make a high proof mash, and will increase the yield, but its mostly a sugar mash, again, it will taste like crap.

Normally it's used with a sugar only "mash". The idea is to get alcohol that's a pure as possible, you aren't trying to bring any flavours across from the mash at all. So it's not "moonshine" in the true sense. If all goes according to plan you have good vodka, which has little flavour. It shouldn't taste like crap, because it has practically no taste....

Now making true whisky (Schnapps, brandy, rum etc) where you do rely on the flavours from the mash, then you are 100% correct about using the wine yeasts and keeping the % down to a more sensible 14% is going to give you a much better result.

"Wild" yeasts will certainly ferment, but the problem is they are random and difficult to predict the exact effects it will have. It might work fine, or it might not...  At least adding a scoop of known good yeast gives predictable results.

Ian

[Chris Burchfield]

The amount of up in sugar in the mash ups the alcohol.  When the sugar is eaten up by the yeast.  The yeast dies.  She'll run 170 - 190 proof by the alcohol hydrometer.

[muddstopper]

Normally it's used with a sugar only "mash". The idea is to get alcohol that's a pure as possible, you aren't trying to bring any flavours across from the mash at all. So it's not "moonshine" in the true sense. If all goes according to plan you have good vodka, which has little flavour. It shouldn't taste like crap, because it has practically no taste....

Now making true whisky (Schnapps, brandy, rum etc) where you do rely on the flavours from the mash, then you are 100% correct about using the wine yeasts and keeping the % down to a more sensible 14% is going to give you a much better result.

"Wild" yeasts will certainly ferment, but the problem is they are random and difficult to predict the exact effects it will have. It might work fine, or it might not...  At least adding a scoop of known good yeast gives predictable results.

Ian

I have a hard time wrapping my head around drinking pure alcohol. In NC we can only buy 151proof stuff, but I can go into Georgia and get the 191 Everclear. I've tried it, straight and mixed, and it does have a taste I just dont like. High proof alcohol will also absorb directly into you system. Even straight run moonshine has to much alcohol for my taste. My sweet spot for brandies seems to be around 160-170 proof off the still. Any purer than that and you have stripped off all the flavors. I will cut that down to around 80 proof. Since sugar mashes dont have any flavor to start with, I guess going for the maximum alcohol percentage makes sense. Its just not for me.

Watching the Moonshiner show, Tim Smith was using the bakers yeast in his mash. Jeff and Mark relied more on wild yeast. I never saw what kind of yeast those SC boys put in their mash. All of those moonshiners where proofing their moonshine with water to get the alcohol levels down. This is probably one reason that they could claim such high yields from their stills. You can take 10 gal of 150 proof whiskey, add 5 gal of water and still have 75proof moonshine, and  you have increased your yield to 15 gal. If you use distilled water, the moonshine will stay crystal clear and wont effect the flavor. Spring or well water does contain impurities and can make the moonshine cloudy if used to proof with. How much it effects the taste just depends on your own water quality.

The motorcycle bootlegger was cutting pure shine with apple juice. Some call this apple pie, He calls it apple cinnamon. Same thing really, Apple juice just doesnt contain as much apple pulp as apple cider because it has been filtered. Apple pie will only be around 20-25 proof if you follow the recipies  you can find on the internet. I Make apple pie two ways. Some folks like it very sweet with lots of cinnamon and some like it with higher alcohol levels. Around 50 proof seems to be about the right alcohol content. Drop your alcohol hydrometer in apple pie and it wont read any alcohol, but drink to much and it will let you know its there.

[WDH]

Moonshinestopper Muddstopper,

I am impressed with your moonshine knowledge  ;D.  I am learning a lot here!

[Ianab]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around drinking pure alcohol.

Oh you water it down to sensible 80 proof vodka first. Otherwise you tend to fall over really fast.  :D

If you want something different you add the flavour you want, or mix it into a liqueur etc.

A lot of the cheaper commercial spirits and pre-mix drinks are made this way. The main dairy company produces "wheysky", which is fermented out of the lactose left after the butter / cheese production. It's distilled and filtered into "food grade ethanol" and sold to the drink companies. They flavour it up, bottle it and it's sold.

Basically we just do the same thing at home. Not true moonshine, but it's safe and tastes pretty good, well as good as the cheap spirits at the bottle shop anyway.

Ian

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Pour Kool-Aid in it.   

[muddstopper]

Just opened up this months Mother Earth News. Low and behold, they have a article on making eau de vie. This is pretty much what I  would have been doing, if I was making such a product, just didnt know that its proper name is Calvados. Calvados is a brandy made from apple cider. The cider is fermented to 5 or 6 percent alcohol content and then slowy distilled to preserve the flavors and smells. No extra sugar is added, only the naturally occurring sugars already in the apple.

I doubt my grandfather ever read this article or knew that he was making eau de vie Calvados!!

[Ianab]

Here we would call that Schnapps, which is the German name for fruit brandy. More Germans and Dutch emigrated to NZ than French I guess.

Ian

[lowpolyjoe]

Just watching the first episode *after* the season finale.  Like a round-table with all the shiners and the producer.

They're pushing the fact that it's legit and not scripted.  anyone see this episode yet? 

Either way, it's an entertaining series - and i typically hate reality type shows.

[Phorester]

Watched it last night.  I watch most of their episodes.  Unlike Ax Men, it doesn't appear to be staged much, very little cussing, very little anger shown.  I liked Jeff's answer to how it felt to be struck by lightning: "It'd knock the out of Superman."  "My skin was smoking when they put me in the pickup and hauled me home."

I noticed that Jim Tom had on a brand new pair of coveralls (Liberty, I think) and had his teeth in for this show.

[JuniperBoss]

Jim Tom is crazy. We make fun of him all the time when we watch the show. He's really cool though ;D. My favorite one on the show.

[clww]

I'd like to spend a week with Jim Tom. What stories he has!

[muddstopper]

Wait until you hear about the flairup between Jimtom and Jeff. Lets see if that makes it onto the show. These woods aint always paradise

[lowpolyjoe]

I will definitely stay tuned for the second half of their post-season speacial. 

Did you get to meet any of them muddstopper?  I remember you mentioning somebody might be coming to your town or something but don't recall if you said any more.

To support their sponsors i bought some jim beam devil's cut today after seeing the comercial the other night.  I don't have high hopes for it, but i've been trying different burbons this past year and after we saw it on tv my wife asked why there was no jim beam in the house.  There is now   :D

[muddstopper]

Naw, havent met any of them. My sisterinlaw is related to one of them tho. My son has also made deliveries to one of their homes. And no, before you ask, it wasnt sugar or grain.

[Peter Drouin]

I know I started this thread, and I only watched the thing one time, but some of you like it and thats good , but Ill pass :D :D
cheers to you all :D :D ;D

[lowpolyjoe]

And no, before you ask, it wasnt sugar or grain.

:D



this devil's cut - definitely not for me.  glad it was pretty cheap

[breederman]

I know nothing about how to make the stuff but one of my new son in laws brother in law is keeping me supplied with some real good pa. Made apple pie. Don't tell anyone but he is my favorite son in law!

[muddstopper]

I have been told that I make the best applepie around. And its really good if you make it with apple brandy.
Strange in a way I guess because I hardly drink any form of alcohol. My wife and I make wine, mostly mucadine and apple, and most of that we give away. Every now and then we will have a batch of apple that doesnt turn out the way we want it and we just take it to a fellow that has one of those stove top reflux stills. We'll run about 3 or 4 gal and save about a quart of the hearts for sipping, the rest we just dump. It takes about 4 hours to run that quart. Cold and slow will yield about 170proof, cut that to 2 quarts and you have some very, very fine sipping whiskey. No burn or after taste, just a warm sensation as it hits your gut. Sneaks up on you pretty fast also.