ALE Agents Bust Moonshine Operation In Johnston County, North Carolina

WRAL.com ^ | July 26, 2002 | Scott Mason

[jern]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Authorities busted a moonshine operation in Johnston County Friday.

Agents with the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) division busted a moonshine operation in Johnston County on Friday.

Agents with the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) division found 45 gallons of moonshine valued at about $1,100 along Jada Allen Road. They said the moonshine was mostly found in 40 plastic barrels.

[TommyDale]

Well, they can't blame it on Percy Flowers, 'cuz he's done dead 'n' buried!

[Overtaxed]

Wow! A still in Johnston County. Who'd a thunk it? :)

[jern]

Is it me, or is Johnston county the center of NC. Redistricting case, someone wants to blow up the court house, moonshine, and last but not least MULE DAYS

[Overtaxed]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes....it's a happenin' place!

[gcraig]

What's wrong with this?

[per loin]

Nice to live in a free country.

[TommyDale]

Of course, ol' Percy's money is still around...

[Orangedog]

Asside from the waste of tax dollars in busting someone with a still...?

[Overtaxed]

Hehehe

[dwilli]

Percy and Jimmy Flowers (his brother) were two
of the finest people ever if they knew and trusted
you.

[cajun-jack]

i'll tell u what wrong with this...shine is sposed to be in white oak barrells.....plastic barrels is at most an "iffy"' quality.....not that i am really familiar with shine4 or have any first hand experience lol

[southernnorthcarolina]

'Shine is still very much a fact of life in my beloved native state. Stills are more often found in the mountains in the western part of the state (stock car racing traces its origin, some say, to hyped-up cars designed to elude the "revenuers"), but it's not a shock to learn there is (or was) a still in Johnston County (which is rapidly transitioning from rural and Democratic to suburban and Republican, the Raleigh area counterpart to my Union County near Charlotte).

Reminds me of a story... My father was in the construction business in Charlotte. His company was building a 5-story suburban office building. Concrete was being poured to form the second floor, but the formwork was improperly shored, and a substantial section of the newly-poured floor (about 30 feet by 40 feet, as I recall) collapsed. No injuries, fortunately, as the men saw the shoring about to fail, and scrambled out of the way, but several tons of wet concrete had been dumped onto the floor below. The first priority was to prevent the wet concrete from solidifying while efforts to shovel it out were ongoing.

What retards the setting of concrete? Sugar. The foreman dispatched several men to buy all the sugar available at a supermarket a block away. And what's the primary ingredient in the manufacture of moonshine? Yep, sugar. The men arrived back at the job site with the sugar, and the crew was ripping open the bags and slinging sugar onto the wet concrete when a BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms [intriguing combination, BTW]) roared up. "Where's the still?" asked the agents. Fortunately, the crew was able to demonstrate the legitimacy of the sugar purchase. Interesting, though, that grocery stores are required to notify BATF of unusually large sugar purchases.

[thatsnotnice]

Um, it was not too long ago that I was hearing from the Liber-teens about the necessity of legalizing pot because it would take the illegal element out of it.

[I shouldn’t have stepped in that messy little pile, I admit…]

The mashing process usually is a multi-stage process in which barley/wheat/rice/corn/potato or some other starchy grain/root is steeped at varying temperatures to allow enzymes to develop which process starch chains into alcohol and carbon dioxide. I can’t really see seizing mash as a de-facto illegal alcohol manufacturing seizure – OK, actually I can - I suppose in context with seizing a “still” they could make the case.

You cannot “brew” something that is 80 or 100(+) proof. It has to be distilled, usually.

Do not mistake home brewing for home distilling – one is legal, the other is not…

Or, at a minimum, is not legal without federal licensing and oversight… Your mileage may vary.

[thatsnotnice]

Oh jeez... I guess it's actually the malting process that initiates the enzyme production of your grain mix... I'm no chemist, as you can tell. I know the process, just not how it actually works, evidently....

[Congressman Billybob]

What strikes this Good Ol' Boy as sad izza decline ov our culture ta the point where the ratter's got ta splain ta the readers what "mash" is. This nation is finished.

P.S. I has the ruins ov a Civil War still on ma property, jes a stone's throw from where I's sittin ta type this.

Congressman Billybob

P.P.S. I won't give y'all a click link ta ma latest Report ta the Folks Back Home ("Memo to Li't Tommy Daschle: 'You're Busted.'") on account ov it's already posted on FreeRepublic.

[SandfleaCSC]

Some of the finest grain, grape, and peach sipping liquor of mine comes from some of your state's finest citizens. It's only an hour drive from Greenville, SC where I'm at now. The moonshine I get, well the potency is only surpassed by the quality. You'd be shocked at the number of my preppie friends who bypass the Maker's Mark and Grey Goose in the cabinent and go straight for the "medicinal" stuff. If I'm not mistaken, some of what I get is legal under some sort of ethanol permit that the home distillers can get in NC. I have run a weedeater all day from half a mason jar of the corn liquor. It's the handiest darn stuff to have around.

[dwilli]

My father used to make a concoction called "cornmeal beer"
in a wooden keg from meal, yeast,sugar etc.
The old stills ran the mash off after boiling thru
pure copper "worms". good moonshine.
The cheaper way to so it was thru car radiators, hence
came the rash of monshine poisoning in the south in the
sixties. bad moonshine
You haven't lived until you have tasted moonshine
peach brandy. About the color of really weak tea with
the whole peach, pit and all, still in the mason jar.

[supercat]

Do not mistake home brewing for home distilling – one is legal, the other is not

Unlicensed home brewing is legal if and only if the material is produced in quantity consistent with personal (or probably family) consumption. I believe the same is true of distilling. Of course, someone who is distilling 45 gallons of booze is probably not planning on drinking it all himself.

[wafflehouse]

I have run a weedeater all day from half a mason jar of the corn liquor. It's the handiest darn stuff to have around.

ROFL.. i had no idea..