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The literal meaning of moonshine is the light of the moon, but because the activity of distilling whiskey unlawfully was usually done at night with as little light as possible, the word became both a verb, meaning making the liquor, and a noun, meaning the liquor that was made. The reason it is done at night, and usually someplace away from houses and buildings, is that the distillation process requires heat to boil the alcoholic liquor from the "mash," so it produces a fair amount of smoke and steam, which can be visible for a great distance if it is done outdoors in the daytime. The fire can be seen at night if the still is not set up inside a building or someplace where rocks and/or trees block the view, but buildings (and caves) are not considered as safe as outdoor locations, in case of a raid by the authorities (or a competitor).
"Moonshining" means making the whiskey. Selling it, or sellingly legally made alcohol in an illegal manner, is " bootlegging". One person may perform both functions. A U.S. synonym for moonshine is hooch, a word apparently borrowed into English ca. 1867 from from the Hoochinoo tribe of Alaska, noted for its homemade liquor. White lightning, mountain dew, and white mule are also attested.
Revenue men at the site of moonshine stills, Kentucky, 1911 or before
Appalachia, generally the rural region of the Southeastern U.S. in the vicinity of the Appalachian Mountains, has a history of small-scale whiskey production as part of its culture. Some whiskey thus produced is of high quality, while much has a decidedly utilitarian nature.
The production of whiskey in this area predates the federal taxation of alcoholic beverages. For farmers in remote parts of the country, it was a way to turn their corn into cash when grain prices weren't all that high. The imposition of a tax on whiskey was considered an unwanted federal intervention and was largely ignored. The Department of the Treasury sent special agents — "revenuers" — to prosecute unlawful distilling. While some distillers became legitimate, others did not, and many an agent and many a distiller died in the ensuing gun battles.
The grain used to make the mash, which is the mixture of grain, sugarSucrose (CHO) is the chemical name of table sugar . Sucrose is a disaccharide; each molecule consists of two "simple" sugars (a glucose and a fructose), called monosaccharides. sucrose is also the T-formula of glucose, CHO. Composition Sucrose is a disacc, waterDrinking water This article focuses on water as we experience it every day. The water (molecule) article describes water from a scientific and technical perspective. Water is an abundant substance on Earth. It exists in many forms, such as sea, rain, and, and yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae is a yeast used in both baking and brewing. Yeast are a group of unicellular fungi a few species of which are commonly used to leaven bread and ferment alcoholic beverages. Most yeasts belong to the division Ascomycota. A few yeas that ferments to produce the alcohol, is virtually always cornMaize Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Genus Zea Species Zea diploperennis ''Zea luxurians ''Zea mays ssp. huehuetenangensis ''Zea mays ssp. mays ''Zea mays ssp. mexicana '', so the product is "corn liquor" (also known as " corn whiskeyCorn whiskey is an American whiskey made from a mash made up of at least 80 per cent maize, or corn. The whiskey is distilled to not more than 80 per cent alcohol by volume, and aged in used or untreated oak barrels for a short time, primarially to pick u"), sometimes called " mountain dewMountain Dew is a soft drink flavored with citrus, produced by Pepsi. It was first marketed locally in 1948 and across America in 1964. In the U. and New Zealand, Mountain Dew has a higher caffeine content than normal Pepsi or Coca-Cola, but the Mountain" because it appears overnight, or simply "shine". (The clear, potent (i.e. high- proofAlcoholic proof is a measure of how much ethanol, or "grain alcohol," is in an alcoholic beverage. The proof number is twice the percentage of the alcohol content measured by volume, at a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit. Therefore "80 degrees proof" is 40%) liquor is also called "white lightning" because of its effect, or "kick".) Today, commercial hog chow is often used, because it is readily available, buying it does not attract the attention of law enforcement, and it is primarily corn, but other corn-based animal feeds can be used instead, and differences in the other ingredients in the feed impart slightly different flavors to the finished product. Ordinary white sugar is often the chief ingredient of moonshine mash, in which case the spirit distilled is technically a rum rather than a whiskey.
The federal authorities who police moonshining are traditionally termed "revenuers" because they historically worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), which was part of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service until July 1972, when it became a separate bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury. When the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, most of BATF was moved to the new agency, but alcohol enforcement remained in Treasury, handled by the new Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Handling shipments of moonshine is often called "whiskey-running" or simply "running" it, by analogy to "rum-running," which originally meant smuggling rum by ship. The 1958 movie Thunder Road was about running 'shine. During Prohibition cars were "souped up" to create a more manuverable and faster car. Many of the original drivers of NASCAR also "ran 'shine".
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