SHINE IN THE FAMILY"They jest hain't nothin' wrong with makin' a little 'shine.'' When I was a little girl, Daddy made moonshine. I don't remember him doing it, but I've always heard him speak of it. I recently asked him about making moonshine and how it was done. He explained it to me and I even took notes! Making shine is much like my grandmother's quilting... it's an old Southern tradition and I wanted to 'know' the basics. You just never know... times might get bad and I might take up quilting and shine-making :) Anyway, this is what Daddy told me... How to Make Moonshine *the old timey way* INGREDIENTS: (This recipe for one sack pot, or 100 gallons) One nice cold *branch* in a secluded area 100 Gallons of water 1 Sack of bran 10 pounds of yeast 100 pounds of sugar 2 good men and a TASTER Daddy said the first thing you gotta do is find a good, secluded branch. (A branch is a small stream of water). This 'branch' should be a good ways out into the woods and away from people, yet accessible to a vehicle. Next, you need 2 good men and one taster. Now daddy and his friend used Joe. Joe loved shine and took the job for free just to get to do all the tasting. By the time the shine was finished and needed toting, Joe didn't mind that hike back to the truck at the top of the hill, cause he was always more than a jug full. Joe passed on a long time ago, so if you're seriously thinking of making shine, find your own Joe!
Daddy explained to me next how to build the 'still'. But I won't go into that, cause it's a lengthy and complicated endeavor. He did use words like... BIGO pot, airtight, steamline, thumper, condenser and truck radiator. I couldn't decide if daddy was building a 'still' or repairing a car. The end result was 120% pure alcohol! Daddy said they would line up as many jugs as they could find on the bank beside the branch and fill em up. Course this was after 5 or 6 days, depending on the weather and how fast the shine fermented. The jug filling wasn't as simple as pouring it up either. The first jug would be pure alcohol. So what they did was go down the line and fill each jug only half full. Then they'd do what they called a 'turn-back' and start at the other end and finish filling the jugs. The next part was getting all those jugs to the truck. They had to be toted! Usually the chosen branch was down under a hill, which meant toting a good many jugs uphill. I can't imagine they felt too much pain though, since they did a goodly amount of tasting as they filled up the jugs! Daddy didn't say, but I imagine the next step was the 'distributing ' of the shine. All in all... it seems like a lot of hard work to me and one heck of a headache :)
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