TRENDING
PUTTING THE ‘SHINE’ IN BLIGHTY
WORLDWIDE, EVERY SINGLE CULTURE THAT DRINKS ALCOHOL, HAS AN ILLEGAL STREAM OF PRODUCERS MAKING HIGH-PROOF BOOZE THAT IS WAY OFF THE RADAR OF AUTHORITIES – AS IF THEY’RE MAKING IT UNDER THE LIGHT ON THE MOON. HOWEVER, IN THE STATES CRAFT AND BIG WHISKEY DISTILLERS ARE JUMPING ON THE LEGAL MOONSHINE BANDWAGON AND MAKING PROFITS BIG ENOUGH TO HAVE BOOTLEGGERS SPINNING IN THEIR GRAVES. VELO MITROVICH REPORTS
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AUTUMN 2022
A
trail that is becoming very
you really want to be surrounded by
well-worn with UK craft
incriminating barrels of your spirit? Aging
whisky distillers is, while
moonshine in an oak cask was about as
the first barrels of whisky
far from a Scottish moonshiner’s mind as
are aging, the distillery
trying to sell it on the high street.
starts making gin to keep the business
According to The Scotsman, by the 1820s,
afloat. But some, along with producing
as many as 14,000 illicit stills were being
gin, are selling new make spirit – whisky
confiscated every year in Scotland. This
that hasn’t been aged.
couldn’t have been making much of a
And, indeed, a few UK distilleries such as
dent, however, for more than half of the
Johnnie Walker, Holyrood, and Cotswold
whisky consumed in Scotland was being
make it as part of the regular line-up. But
enjoyed without the taxman taking his
these are just side project, there doesn’t
cut.
seem to be a huge amount of interest from UK consumers to justify treating
Glenlivet’s founder George Smith was
new make spirits any other way.
among those who start to whisky began with producing illicit whisky at his farm
Across the Pond, however, it’s a different
at Upper Drummin. After the passing of
story. Selling under ‘moonshine’ or white
the Excise Act in 1823, he was the first
whiskey’, it’s huge. How huge? The US
person in Scotland to apply for a licence
distillery which leads all others in visitor
to legally produce spirit. This decision
numbers is one in Tennessee making
was unpopular with other whisky-making
flavoured moonshine.
farmers and Smith was given two pistols
No aging; no storing casks; no worries
to protect his family and his new legal
about greedy angels, it does sound
distillery.
tempting to make. And, if you are already
In Scotland, making illegal whisky gave
making whisky, you already have the
farmers a way of using a surplus grain
equipment and skill. Ingredients? Same
for a product that oftentimes was worth
as whisky; so, what are they doing
much more than they would receive from
different over there to bring in the huge
the actual grain. During periods of major
sales? It boils down to one word: Attitude
Scottish immigration to the American
spelled with a capital ‘A’.
colonies and then to the fledgling United States, these farmers brought with them
So, what exactly is moonshine?
the skill to make whisky along with the tradition of doing it illegally and a distain
Traditionally, moonshine is any spirit
for those who enforce laws against the
made without knowledge of tax
practice.
collectors. In 99 percent of the time, besides being untaxed, it is also unaged.
In looking at ethnic immigration maps
You’re doing something illegal; do
from 1700 to 1800, the Scots mostly
DISTILLERS JOURNAL
