Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Figure 1, Typical backwoods whiskey still. Smaller copper pot in center is thump keg. Sometimes, other ingredients are included to add flavor or kick. Alcohol can actually be distilled from almost any kind of grain the earliest American moonshiners used rye or barley , but virtually all moonshine made in the United States for the last years has been made with corn.
So what makes moonshine different from the whisky you find on the shelf at a liquor store? Aside from the obvious differences between something made in a sanitized production facility and something made at night in the woods, the primary difference is aging. When whisky comes out of the still, it's so clear it looks like water. Moonshiners bottle it and sell it just like that. Commercial alcohols have an amber or golden color to them -- this is because they are aged for years in charred oak barrels.
The aging process gives them color and mellows the harsh taste. There's no such mellowing with moonshine, which is why it has such "kick. Moonshine made from grain , like corn or rye, is whisky. But alcohol can be made from many different ingredients. During Prohibition, profit-hungry moonshiners started using white sugar instead of corn meal, producing a cheaper product that was technically rum , not whisky. Fruits could also be used instead of grains -- today, moonshiners in Appalachian states still manufacture apple brandy.
Making alcohol revolves around two processes: fermentation and distillation. Fermentation is a chemical reaction that occurs when the yeast breaks down the sugar. One result of that reaction is alcohol. Distillation is the process of evaporating the alcohol which boils at a lower temperature than water and collecting the steam before condensing it back into liquid form.
Although the general process for making moonshine doesn't differ too much from the way they do it in commercial distilleries, there are a few reasons why drinking illegal liquor can be a gamble. The whole point of making moonshine is to escape laws, taxes and regulations.
That means that there aren't any FDA inspectors stopping by the backwoods still to make sure all the moonshiners wear hair nets and wash their hands, and no one is there to ensure that all the ingredients are safe.
Moonshiners are not known for their careful maintenance of sanitary conditions. It is not uncommon for insects or small animals to fall into the mash while it's fermenting. That's pretty gross, but it probably wouldn't kill anyone. You might have heard stories about people drinking moonshine and going blind -- or even dying. These stories aren't urban legends -- they're true. During Prohibition, when moonshine was made and sold in "speakeasies" across the United States, thousands of people died from drinking bad moonshine.
There isn't anything inherently dangerous about moonshine -- at least no more dangerous than any other alcoholic drink. When made properly, it is simply very strong alcohol with a very hard taste, or "kick," because it hasn't been aged. It is usually very potent, as high as proof , which is about 75 percent alcohol. That high alcohol content can be pretty dangerous in itself; but again, the biggest problem is that there aren't any regulations to make sure that it's made properly.
Some distillers realized that part of the appeal of moonshine was that "kick. Many of these ingredients are extremely poisonous , and many people died from drinking it. Besides poisonous ingredients, there are at least two manufacturing mistakes that can lead to a poisonous batch of moonshine. There has to be a good reason to go to all the trouble of making moonshine. Actually, there have been several reasons, but they all boil down to one thing: government control of the alcohol trade.
Moonshining began very early in American history. So, how does a commercial distiller like Ole Smoky make moonshine? They complete the following steps:. Make a mash using grains such as corn or sugar. The specific type of alcohol that commercial distillers seek is called ethyl alcohol. Ethanol is able to be separated from water in a wash because ethanol boils at a lower temperature than water pure ethanol boils at degrees Fahrenheit, while water does not boil until degrees.
In a nutshell, wash is heated up in a still to a temperature above degrees, but below degrees. Ethanol starts to boil and turns into a vapor, separating from the wash water. The vapor is then condensed turned back into a liquid and drips out of the still into a mason jar or some other collection vessel. The overall process of distillation is pretty cut and dry, but it is complicated slightly by the fact that there are several different types of alcohol as well as many additional chemical compounds that will be extracted during the distilling process.
These are known as congeners remember this word, it will come up again and some are desirable in small quantities, while others such as the foreshots are not. Like ethanol and water, these compounds have different boiling temperatures.
How does Absolut make vodka? When making vodka, as many congers are removed as possible because it is supposed to be a very pure, flavorless spirit. When making whiskey, the congeners are desirable because they add flavor and complexity.
However, with the good congeners come some of the bad. One of the reasons that whiskey, like Jack Daniel's, is aged is to smooth out the flavorful, but somewhat harsh congeners present in the final product. Because the various alcohols and chemical compounds in a wash separate at different boiling temperatures, there are several phases of each distillation run: foreshots, heads, hearts, and tails.
During the different phases of a run, a commercial distiller will notice that the taste and smell may vary considerably. Generally, only the "hearts" portion is kept for commercial distribution.
The tails are set aside to be distilled again in the future. The foreshots are the first vapors to boil off during distillation. Distillers usually add spirit tails, low wines, water, or whiskey to their thumper keg to cool the alcohol vapors coming from the potstill. However, you can include other fruits, herbs, or spices to add different flavor combinations to your spirits. The best way to add these flavors is a heavily debated topic.
However, some options to experiment with include:. This will ensure the flavors are impacting the part of the distillation which you actually drink. Related: Beginner Moonshine Stills. If you are looking to buy a thumper keg, there are several options available. One option is to buy a complete thumper keg that is made from copper, stainless steel or timber. There are also complete kits which include main boilers, a thumper, and a condenser.
If you are looking for a cheaper option, you can buy a mason jar jumper kit. This contains a copper tube and seal that can be screwed onto any mason jar. Here are a few of the best options:. This high-quality stainless steel thumper is a wonderful choice for the home distiller. All materials are lead-free, including the silver based solder.
This is a handcrafted copper tube and seal which can be used to convert any wide mouth mason jar into a thumper keg. The beauty of this kit is that it is very affordable, so you can easily create a multi-jar setup, where you triple or quadruple distill your spirit.
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