"moonshine" news and stories

For years whiskey lovers like me have begged the big bourbon distilleries to bottle their unaged whiskey. Sometimes when taking a tour, the distilleries will allow you to taste the spirit right off the still. This fiery, high-proof liquor destined to be bourbon cannot legally be called bourbon until it hits the new charred oak barrel. Up to that time, you'll hear it called a variety of things: white dog, new make spirit, bourbon distillate. You won't hear the distiller call it moonshine.

The term moonshine supposedly goes back to a time when folks avoiding liquor authorities made their booze by the light of the moon. This illicit spirit has also been called mountain dew (yes, now you understand the soda reference) and white lightning. For some reason, though, the term "moonshine" has a romantic, naughty ring to it that reminds you of two strappin', good lookin' country boys in a souped-up orange car called The General Lee helping out poor ole moonshinin' Uncle Jesse. I guess this sexy outlaw connotation is why so many in the press these days are using the term moonshine incorrectly to refer to legal unaged spirit made by licensed distilleries. Moonshine ain't legal and is often made from granulated sugar and not even grain.

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Matt Edwards, executive director of the tiny Mount Airy Museum of Regional History that's just mounted an exhibit chronicling stock car racing's bootlegging roots, won't say whether there was any moonshine at an opening reception last weekend.

"I'm going to plead the fifth," Edwards says after three long, quiet seconds.

Yet the 1,200-square-foot gallery on Main Street in the town that inspired Mayberry isn't at all sly about the drinking locals used to do. While some NASCAR critics have accused the organization of sanitizing the sport's past, "White Liquor and Dirt Tracks: The Origins of NASCAR" contends millions of fans wouldn't tune their sets to coverage of Bristol and Talladega if it weren't for the thirst of yesterday's mountaineers.

"There's no denying the bootlegging background," Edwards says. "We wanted to show the shift from illicit moonshine to bragging on the tracks."

Tennessee whiskey. Photo: Flickr / jpenglert

Tennessee whiskey, which has long been the exclusive province of Jack Daniels and George Dickel, may soon be welcoming some new faces to the fold.

The Tennessee legislature this month passed a law permitting the distillation of spirits in 44 counties instead of only the three in which it is currently legal. It's a move some legislators say should generate needed tax revenues for the state and new jobs for its residents.

Artisan distillers predict the relaxed restrictions could also spur a Tennessee whiskey renaissance. The term "Tennessee whiskey" denotes whiskey filtered through sugar maple charcoal, a step known as the "Lincoln County Process" in honor of the county where Jack Daniel pioneered it. In addition to Lincoln, Moore and Coffee are the other two counties where distillation has long been legal.

While the new law allows distillers to produce any sort of legal liquor they choose, Andrew Webber, owner of Kentucky's Corsair Artisan Distillery, suspects many of the dozen or so artisanal spirits makers reportedly eyeing the Volunteer State will experiment with Tennessee whiskey.

Moonshine and more after the jump.

The nation's best-known moonshiner has died just days before he was to report to federal prison.

Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, 62, died Monday in Parrottsville, Tenn., of an apparent suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning. His fourth wife, Pamela, told the Associated Press that he was supposed to report Friday to federal prison to serve an 18-month sentence.

Legal or not, Popcorn -- who got his name by destroying a bar's 10-cent popcorn machine with a pool cue -- practiced an artisan's craft producing thousands of gallons of white dog in handmade stills hidden in the hillsides of North Carolina and Tennessee.

"He was one of a kind," documentary filmmaker Neal Hutcheson tells Slashfood. His latest film, "The Last One," featured Popcorn in action.

Read more about Popcorn and see him make a still after the jump.