![]() Since alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, the alcohol evaporates while the water does not. The boiler is filled with mash to within a few inches of the top and set over a low fire. In preparation for the distilling, the copper parts of the still are cleaned with vinegar and salt to remove any rust. After the mash has fermented, the grain will settle to the bottom, and the mixture is said to be “worked off” and is ready for distilling. As it ferments, the mash becomes milky white. The barrel is covered but it is not sealed like the boiler. ![]() It is all mixed in a barrel and left to ferment into corn mash. Once the still is set up, here is the recipe: a bushel of corn or grain 50 pounds of sugar a couple cakes of yeast and 35-50 gallons of water. A small stream of water ran into the tub to cool the coils. The worm was coiled inside the cooling tub, with the end coming out near the bottom. The boiler lid was sealed with flour paste. A worm, which was a long piece of 3/8 inch or 1/2 inch copper tubing, ran from the top of the boiler to the cooling tub. The average still during the early decades of the 20th century was a 14.5-gallon copper wash boiler. It includes a section on moonshining and how it is made.įirst, you need a still, a tub, and a source of running water. Kenny Bray was a Western Maryland coal miner in the early 20th century. With the profits increasing-a quart of moonshine could fetch $16 in Hagerstown ($225 in today’s dollars)-more and more people were willing to risk being arrested and became moonshiners, rumrunners, and bootleggers. However, it wasn’t until the Prohibition era that moonshining took off since the demand for liquor increased. The Western Pennsylvanians, who refused to pay the federal taxes on homemade liquor, were the country’s first moonshiners. ![]() Moonshining (the illegal manufacture or distribution of alcohol) has been around since the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s. Manufacturing moved to stills hidden in the woods or basements. You got in by knowing someone or knowing a password. Underground bars, or speakeasies, weren’t advertised. That didn’t mean that it wasn’t happening. Since a person could get in trouble buying a drink, people who did it, didn’t talk about it. Many law-abiding citizens chose the latter. When the sale, production, and transportation of alcohol was banned in the United States in 1919, citizens had to choose between becoming teetotalers or criminals.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |