We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby
By Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer
Published: February, 2004
Whiskey: Part 1
We have in hand a small book purchased in North Carolina a number of years ago while visiting a cousin in Hendersonville. It is the size of a regular piece of typing paper folded over and has 64 pages. Its name is OLD TIMEY RECIPES, put together by one Phyllis O’ Connor, who tells us on the first page that this is a collection of recipes from the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, and Kentucky. She goes on to say, “Some of the contributors of these recipes gave us permission to use their names; others declined because they did not want to take credit for something they considered to be common knowledge.”
Now wouldn’t this grab you: HOG JOWLS AND TURNIP GREENS, HARDTIMES CAKE, LEATHERBRITCHES BEANS (how to string up green beans with a darning needle and thread in order to dry for the winter months), KEEPSAKE BISCUITS, written in 1890, and GOOSBERRY CATSUP.
But what made Dianne plunk down $2.75 was the very last recipe: MOONSHINE.
Dianne grew up with her father’s stories of an illegal whiskey still in Florida in the ‘20s that he had with a man called “The Count.” He was a remittance man from New York. That means the family paid him to stay away. He stands with my father in a photograph looking like Errol Flynn.
Later, when my father came to California and settled in Eureka, he had an upstairs room in a couple’s house. He made bathtub gin, which needs to be rocked, so he would sit in a rocker with the gin and sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The couple told everyone what a nice devout young man they had living with them.
Moonshine is un-aged corn whiskey and could be a dangerous substance. In the past, unscrupulous people were making poisonous products that caused blindness and even death. For example, using old radiators for the distilling process could give you such good toxic ingredients as lead, zinc, and antifreeze. Moonshine was so called because it was made by the light of the moon at night to avoid the tax revenuers.
For those used to waltzing in to a liquor store to pick up a bottle of whiskey, here is how it is done the hard way.
Moonshine
In making “Mountain Dew” or “White Lightnin’,” the first step is to convert the starch of the grain into sugar. (Commercial distillers use malt.) This is done by sprouting the corn. Shelled, whole corn is covered with warm water in a container with a hole in the bottom. Place a hot cloth over it. Add warm water from time to time as it drains. Keep in a warm place for about three days or until corn has two-inch sprouts. Dry it and grind it into meal. Make mush (or mash) with boiling water. Add rye mash that has been made the same way, if you have it.
Yeast, a half pound per 50 gallons of mash may be added to speed up the fermentation if you have it. Without it, tendays or more will be required instead of aboutfour. In either case, it must be kept warm.
When the mash gets through “working” or bubbling up and settles down, it is then ready to run. At this stage, the mash has been converted into carbonic acid and alcohol. It is called “wash” or beer and it is sour.
The cooker consists of two main parts, mainly the top and the bottom. After the mash is put inside, the top is pasted on with “red dog chop” of some other paste. This is so that if the fire is too hot and the pressure builds up, the top will blow off preventing an explosion which might wreck the still.
In the top of the cooker, a copper pipe, or arm projects over to one side and tapers down from a four- to five-inch diameter to the same diameter as the “worm.” To make the worm, a 20-foot copper pipe is filled with sand, the ends are stopped up, and it is wrapped around a fence post. The sand prevents “kinking” of the pipe. The spiral or coil, called the worm, is then cleaned and attached firmly to the end of the arm in such a way that it is down inside a barrel. The barrel will be kept full of cold, running water. If the water runs in the top and out an opening at the bottom, it can circulate better.
A fire under the cooker causes the spirit to rise in vapor along with the steam. It goes into the arm and then the worm where the cold water causes condensation. This is collected at the end in a container.
The first run-off or “singlings” is weak and impure and must be redistilled to rid it of water and rank oils.
For the second run-off, or the “doublings,” the cooker is cleaned out and the singlings, along with some water, is heated and run through again. The first quart will be far too strong (about 200 proof), and toward the last, it will be weak (about 10 proof). The skill is in the mixing to make it 100 proof.
To test for the right proof, a small glass vial is used. When the small bubbles rise properly after the vial is tilted and when they set half above and half below the top of the liquid, then it is the right proof. The liquor is then filtered through charcoal and is ready for consumption.
There are many ways of making moonshine. This is just one way. For other ways, check with your nearest revenuer.
In Part 2, we’ll discuss a modern whiskey that sets itself apart: the premium bourbon whiskey with handmade quality using old-time principles, Maker’s Mark. Thanks to Ed Delman, a Maker’s Mark Ambassador, for all his help on the subject of whiskey.
Dianne Boate is a San Francisco based photojournalist. Her work can be seen on line at www.danielakart.com. Robert Meyer is a consultant to the wine and spirits industry. They have been sipping and sampling together for almost 25 years.
