Mooiisliiiiing
In line uilli our policy to keep you
informed about various industries
in IN'ortli Carolina, we are publish¬
ing this article which was written
by Mr. Sharpe after a personal in¬
vestigation on his part.
By BILL SHARPE
IF YOU are a conscientious par¬
ent. do not. under any circum¬
stance. advise your child to take
up moonshining as a vocation. It is
hard and hazardous work, and the
returns from it are by no means as
opulent as you may have suspected.
However, if your ambitious little
Johnny is going to turn to block¬
ading in spite of your counsel, by
all means let him read this piece.
It came straight from the horse’s
mouth.
Location Is Vital
Your careful moonshiner, and
only the careful ones stay in busi¬
ness long enough to talk authorita¬
tively about it, locates his little en¬
terprise in a rhododendron or
laurel patch, usually on a remote
hillside, where a casual foot
traveler would be unlikely to go. In
the mountains, travel is usually
along water level routes and
through gaps.
Water is a requisite, and the
ideal stream for a still is a branch
running from a nearby spring, and
then sinking into the ground again,
since waste found downstream
from a distillery is one of the dead
giveaways sought by the “law.”
To further confuse raiders,
moonshiners sometimes run a con¬
cealed hose from the water source
around the shoulder of a ridge,
thence into a dry gulch.
In most North Carolina mountain
communities, a four or six-barrel
still is considered a substantial
and practical operation. Into the
rhododendron hell are packed —
usually afoot - the 55-gallon bar¬
rels. Meantime, at home the
moonshiner has thrown a toesack
of corn or rye into a corner of the
stable, perhaps on a manure pile,
where the grain is allowed to
sprout in the sack. The sack of
grain is drenched with water
every day or so, and within a week
the green shoots arc bursting
through the kernels. This, when
ground — shoots and all — consti¬
tutes the malt.
Now, for each barrel, take about
three-quarters of a bushel of
coarsely ground corn meal, and add
to it 50 pounds of sugar. You might
add a little less sugar and you
might add as much as 100 pounds
per barrel, but "to be rale decent
about it," as my blockading friends
6ut it, 50 pounds is about the limit.
into this mixture you pour scald¬
ing water, a step known as "cook¬
ing the mash.” Ready? Stir this
well, and then add a quarter bushel
of the malt and stir some more. The
resulting mess is quite thick, like
a dough, and must be thinned down
by the addition of more water.
Go on home and stay from two
to six weeks, depending on the
weather. The stuff in the barrel
ferments, and when it stops "work¬
ing.” it is beer ready for distilling
into white lightning.
.Mysterious Thump Keg
If this is a new still site, the
Srccious copper still, costing about
150 to have custom-built, is not
moved to the place until the beer
is ready to run. A fire pit is now
built, and the "pot.” or boiler, is
set upon it. The copper cap is set
on top and sealed with a home¬
made paste, and the beer poured in.
The vaporized liquor goes from
the head of the cap through a cop¬
per tube into a barrel known as the
"thump keg."
No amount of questioning would
elicit from the moonshiners and
satisfactory explanation as to the
role played by the thump keg.
Thev would only look at me help¬
lessly, and then look at each other,
and say: "Well, how would YOU
make licker without a thump keg?
A question I never managed to
answer.
Anyway, the hot steam comes
boiling into the thump keg. into
which has been poured a couple of
gallons of “beer" from the barrels.
It exits via the copper worm, a
twisted copper tubing tapering to a
point, and this worm is variously
subjected to the cooling running
waters of our mountain stream, and
thus is condensed the vapor into
corn whiskey. The fluid sometimes
runs out of the worm in a stream
as large as a lead pencil, and is
caught in a container.
At first, it is so strong that it
must be "cut back" by the addition
of water to make it endurable to
the innards of mankind.
Considerable art is necessary
during distillation, because if the
fire is too hot, and the vapor comes
out too fast, the beer in the thump
keg will back up into the tube, a
THE STATE. January 28. 1950