Moonshine Still

Moonshine Still

Uncles Bud and Jessie built several 'moonshine stills' over the years. Some were pretty successful and on a couple of memorable occasions they blew up about like a keg of dynamite. A couple of sweet gum trees still have pieces of still embedded in them. All of the other stills were destroyed by revenuers, with the exception of one, which my Uncle Bud has to this day. Occasionally, he will 'run off a batch' for 'medicinal' uses, but by and large it sets in a comer of his barn, covered with one of Grandma Estelle’s homemade quilts. Making 'shine' was not considered a crime by anyone around the Dismal Swamps except the revenuers. Uncles Bud and Jessie would probably have done right well, except for one small problem. Someone has to 'taste test' the shine as it is running off, and they both elected to do the job. 

As things turned out, they became their own best customers, with a resulting plunge in profits. Since the revenuers were 'just a tad' smarter than Bud and Jessie, they got to spend quite a bit of time 'restin up' at the county jail or helping build roads on the chain gang. A typical still would consist of a kettle, a condenser and a worm. I'm not going to give the formula for the corn mash, but it would have things like corn, yeast and sugar in it. Aging, and a little heat would produce a steam that would be run through a copper coil down to waiting 1-gallon containers. By the time the steam got to the end of the copper coil it would be proof (To test proof 100 to 200) you would light it with a match. If it burned it was almost ready. Sometimes the brew would have to be run another 2 or 3 times to remove the impurities that could harm you. And some 'moonshiners' didn't care about that and would even run it off through an old truck radiator they didn't even bother to clean the anti-freeze out of. Drinking home brew can get kind of risky. 

One of the best stills my uncles made was on the back edge of Sheriff Jaspers’s woods. It ran for about a year before it was found. Sheriff Jasper was some embarrassed. You had best not go sneaking around a still. The moonshiners would protect them with whatever it took. I was over to Uncle Buds, visiting one Sunday afternoon and took down his .old 'rabbit eared' double' barreled 12 gauge shotgun to admire it. Aunt Beulah cackled and said "You be kerful of that thang boy. Hit done kilt 2 men" To give you an idea of how much influence a successful 'moonshiner' could have...the most successful in this area was Percy Flowers. He used his profits to buy miles of farmland and opened about the largest store on Hwy 42. When you went into his store and asked for a coke, that is exactly what you got. A Coca-Cola, but if you asked for a Sweet Coke you would get a coke bottle filled with shine and just enough Coca-Cola to color it. The revenuers found out about this and one of them went into the store and asked for a Sweet Coke. When he popped the top and made sure that it was really shine, he flipped out his badge and said, "You are under arrest for selling non tax paid liquor". Percy replied by whipping up his shotgun and forcing him to drink the contents of the bottle. Then he called the Sheriffs Dept and had him arrested for drunk driving. Percy was so well off, that he bought a two-story house, just to keep his hounds in. 

The store is still there, as is the fine brick home he built for his wife. The miles of farmland is still in his family, but now parts of it have been turned into a housing development for rich folks. A big brick wall has been built around it and a guard sits in a little shack to keep track of who goes in and out. Big ole half million-dollar homes sit around picturesque lakes and I would bet that Percy Flowers wouldn’t even be allowed through the gate today.