38 comments on “Preferred Seating”

    2. I’m glad you asked this because I’d never seen the word used in this context either.

    3. Lush: a heavy drinker, especially a habitual one (in this context)

        1. Aha, I would have used the word sot in this scenario. Good to have my vocabulary expanded!

  4. I thought moonshine was illegal? Or did I miss a crucial even in history?

    2. The difference between legal moonshine and illegal moonshine is whether or not the taxes have been paid. By paying the taxes, the distiller has agreed to allow BATF, aka revenooers (Yes, I know it’s spelled revenuers.), to inspect the still to verify that distillery requirements are met.

    3. In addition to what Glenn and Mandy said: modern vernacular implies any illegal liquor. However, moonshine originated in the areas of West Virginia, where crop transport was difficult in the mountainous areas. If the corn was mashed and converted to shine you could easily transport much more materials for a higher profit.
      The idea behind ‘legal moonshine’ is that you’re getting the same product once run illegally through those hills, which is basically an unaged, corn whiskey.

  6. IF it is a -legal- distillery, then the product is by definition -not- “moonshine”. 😉

    2. Moonshine went by a number of names (as is the custom with the Scots and Irish who brought the recipe to the mountains) so it basically depends on which definition you use. It was called moonshine because it was liquor that was transported by the light of the moon to avoid detection. It’s still the same kind of liquor: unaged, corn whiskey–it’s just legal to buy.

      So you either have to come up with a new term that basically means “the same stuff as moonshine but it’s OK to buy it”, or you simply recognize that if moonshine is being sold in a store it’s probably legal to do so, and if it’s called moonshine, it’s the same recipe.

      And Everclear isn’t trying to capitalize on romanticizing moonshine. (Even though, as far as I can tell, it’s the same stuff.)

      1. >> Fox: “Moonshine went by a number of names…”

        Names like, “Mountain Dew.” 😉 🙂 🙂

  7. Just curious about that “moonshine,” is it watered to the US commercial standard 40% (80 proof) or is it a proper white lightning?

    1. By ‘proper’ I’m assuming you mean 95% alcohol. The distilleries I’ve seen make a variety of proofs, as with many liquors.

      Unfortunately the stupidity of others in the United States generally elicits lawmakers to ‘need to do something’ about such behavior, so they just outlaw things. (And stupid people find other ways to be stupid) Thus, some states don’t permit the sale of alcohol over a certain proof, so making it in lower proofs makes sense for marketing purposes.

      Our most common proofs are 80, 100 and 160.

  8. Had this great uncle from KY that every Christmas he’d pass out to a few family members a ‘genoowine Mason Jar’ full of his own home made ‘shine that made Everclear 190 proof seem like watered down Gatorade. 😯

    It was actually pretty smooth but it didn’t take much to knock you flat on your butt.

    He’s since gone to that great still in the sky so I miss sitting around the fireplace with the others listening to his stories of the “good ol’ days” and sippin’ his home made hooch from the crockery jug with the ‘regulation’ 3 X’s on it and the big ol’ cork jammed in the neck.

    No Seley, neither you nor Fox would be remotely considered “lushes” by my standards. 😉

    1. “It was actually pretty smooth but it didn’t take much to knock you flat on your butt.”

      Then he did a spectacularly precise job of distilling it! Pure ethanol is pretty smooth. It’s the impurities with similar boiling points that make some liquors harsh. Sounds like your great uncle really knew what he was doing.

      Happy Independence Day!

      1. Yes he did. Uncle Joe came from a long line of moonshiners and bootlegger/shine runners. Bad hooch could either blind or kill you and since this was family he was passin’ it out to, he made double-damn sure it was done right. I have fond memories (albeit a bit blurry) of snowed in nights sittin’ ’round the massive fireplace tellin’ stories and literally passin’ the jug around. More than a few times I either woke up (came to?) in the chair I was in, or over in a darkened corner curled up on the carpet.

        Truly, thems wuz the ‘good ol days’.

        And a Happy Independence Day to you as well.

    2. Nice! Ten(?) years ago a friend of mine moved up near Cherokee, NC. His first Christmas up there he bought a bunch of real moonshine and divided it up into pint Mason jars and gave them out as Christmas presents. Mine is still in the fridge, unopened. Since I don’t drink it’s “just fer lookin’ through”, and bragging about. 🙂 🙂 🙂

  9. although home distilleries are illegal there is always the option to brew your own of other libations

    home beer kits are plentiful, my parents made dandelion wine in their basement, but the real home project is making your own mead. considering its very hard to find any kind of variety with it falling between other regulations (its not a beer, its not distilled, technically its a wine but the wine folks are too snooty to allow it to fall under their laws) and thus a bottle that costs 15 dollars in the store (if they even carry it) could be made for 2 at home

  10. It’s legal to make moonshine in my state, you just can’t sell it and you’re limited to 35 gallons a year? I’m not certain the amount you’re allowed to make. I think in the next few years I’ll have have my own little still

    1. Be careful; even if state law has such a loophole, federal law still makes it illegal. Not, of course, that many people don’t fly under the radar…

  11. Trivia time: The reason whiskey is brown is because it’s stored in lightly-charred oak barrels, and it picks color up from the burned wood. The reason for using charred wooden barrels is because the lighter volatiles that got through the distillation process will seep through the wood and evaporate more quickly than ethanol, while the charcoal absorbs other substances. The longer it ages, the smoother it will taste.
    …Whoever figured that out in the first place, was a very smart person.

    2. wood flavor- a similar effect can be achieved by adding imitation vanilla extract, as one of the main ‘flavors’ of the wood is vanillin, which we use to make imitation vanilla extract cheaply (real vanilla comes from an orchid that grows on the tops of rain forest trees , its amazing we use it as a synonym for ‘plain’). or for purists who dont want to wait- putting chunks of wood into the barrel, and exposing the barrel to shifts in hot/cold temperatures to quickly force the liquid into and out of the wood- moving it from sunlight for a few hours to a cool basement and repeating
      works

  12. “And there was Thunder, thunder over Thunder road. The thunder was his engine, and White Lightning was his load”…. Theme from the movie..and written, ans sung by Robert Mitchum!!!!! WCJwILLI

    1. “And there was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the Devil’s thirst,

      The Law they swore they’d get ‘im but the Devil got ‘im first.”

      GREAT song. Thanks for the memory jog. 🙂

  13. Well, I live in Alabama. So moonshine down here is just that. If it’s legal, it ain’t shine. Seeing how I love the stuff, I went to a craft fair here not too long ago and they were running some (for education) and poring it out. I cried.

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