Posted on 01/27/2014 2:03:55 PM PST by Theoria
Within days after each season premiere and season finale of the Discovery Channel's reality show "Moonshiners," they come — a small but perceptible wave of people — to purchase suspiciously large amounts of corn, sugar and hardy strains of fermenting yeast at Austin Homebrew Supply.
"We know what they're up to," says Chris Ellison, the manager of the Texas store.
That is, it's obvious they're planning to ferment the sugars from grain or fruit juice into alcohol, then distill the resulting mid-strength beverage into high-alcohol hooch.
Making spirits at home with plans to drink it is against federal law. Only with the right permits may a person make ethanol, either for use strictly as fuel, or as part of a commercial endeavor — like launching a craft spirits company, of which hundreds have opened nationwide in recent years.
Yet more and more people seem to be making home moonshine, according to sources.
"The interest level is growing rapidly," says Gary Robinson, owner of Moonshine Still Pro, a supplier in Missouri. Robinson sells stills — which are perfectly legal to own — from roughly three gallons in capacity to about 13. He ships to all states, but the core regions of his business are the traditional southeastern moonshine districts and the West Coast.
Mike Haney, owner of Hillbilly Stills in Barlow, Ky., says his sales of ethanol stills have doubled every year for three years since he opened. "Just that someone buys a still doesn't mean they're out to break the law," Haney points out. "A lot of people are making fuel."
Haney also sells miniature oak barrels — the sort used for aging bourbon and brandy.
"But they might be aging wine in them, or just buying everclear from a supermarket and putting that in the barrel," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
How do you remove the poisoning agents from the denatured alky?
We don't "sell" it.
Lol, gosh, that was deep, it changes everything.
I watched that the other day when it was linked here. It was fun :)
I may end up moving there in the next few years. Beautiful state, at least the Western half I’ve seen.
Texas has no state income tax, Arkansas does (except Texarkana, AR has an exemption). The economy is no better here than there so better have your ducks lined up there. But if you do decide to move here let me know what you’re looking for and I can point you in the right direction.
Thats why we fought wars and crossed oceans to get here!
To keep the government out of our lives.
It was nice while it lasted.
That’s not fair, you using facts and such. And then backing it up with actual laws.
Hearing is a physical process. Listening is a mental one. You’ve fallen woefully short at both.
Two silly personal attacks, grow up and lay off the personal stuff.
It’s not an attack if it is true.
Geez, I have a stalker.
Whatever disagreement you have with me about something in your past, and I have to assume there is one, don’t drag it around from thread to thread.
It's poor form to keep giving their same opinion over and over to the same person like Lurker does. Apparently he/she holds grudges.
You can make wine and beer just not distilled liguor. But you can go online and apply for an ethanol license. Mr. GG2 told me its very easy to acquire the ethanol license. He’s going to get one to make ethanol for my car.
“...Then explain your process so I can understand it.”
Perhaps you should stick to whatever it is you do.
“How do you remove the poisoning agents from the denatured alky?”
Fractional distillation, starting with the right formulation of denatured alcohol. Just like making moonshine, but with a little more control.
The legal moonshine I’ve seen has been branded as “Corn Whiskey”. Does anyone know if Tim on Moonshiners ever went legal?
IIRC it was the first really big challenge to the Federal government to show they were in control not just along the coast but into the interior. If George had done nothing the US might have splintered into militia controlled feifdoms.
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