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What Is Moonshine?
If it shed any light on the subject at all — and it doesn’t remotely — I might be tempted to elaborate on the actual term “moonshine,” and where it originated (i.e., rural England, circa 1780), when country smugglers hid illicit barrels of French brandy in shallow ponds to avoid the taxman, but were discovered one fated summer night, when the moon shone down so brightly on the surface of the pond that it looked as if a wheel of cheese were floating there. These bootleggers told the taxmen that they were raking the water not for contraband but for a creamy piece of that cheese.
This, however, is all rumor and rodomontade, easily sliced with an investigative blade. It is in any case generally agreed that the term “moonshine” comes from the term “moonraker,” which indeed comes from this legend.
It is also generally agreed that moonshine — or white-lightning, if you prefer, or white-whiskey, or mountain dew — entered America in the early 1800s, when Scots-Irish immigrants, who back home often made their whiskey without aging it, began settling the Appalachian region of America.
Still, the question remains: if many vodkas are essentially white whiskies, and if many whiskies made of corn mash are not moonshine, what, in the final analysis, is the distinguishing characteristic of moonshine?
The answer, it turns out, is this: illegality.
Moonshine, notorious for its high proof — frequently hovering around 190 (yowza!) — is any distilled spirit concocted in an unlicensed still. That includes so-called splo, or bathtub gin, or the harrowing hooch cooked up by your next of kin.
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A family that stayed in their old business in a new country: Bronfman is an Ashkenazic occupational name for a seller of spirits, from Yiddish bronfman or bronfn: alcohol (generally distilled spirits) + man ‘man’.
Compare the English word brandy, from brandywine, from Dutch brandewijn, from Middle Dutch brantwijn, from brant “burnt” (distilled) + wijn wine. The Yiddish cognate is bronfen. Try saying “brantwijn” after you’ve had a few and you’ll get the idea.
I hope that this is CoC compliant, but, since we have more than a few small government, anti-tax folks here, you too can be a moonshiner. Beautiful product, and I assume that the high shipping is because it’s delivered in the trunk of a GTO with a blocker car. Just pay your d*** taxes.
Anyone who’s seen “The Sting” knows that.
Speaking of goniffs, I wonder if “Papa” Joe Kennedy did business with the Bronfmans. Seems likely. Anytime Kennedy’s name came up years ago in connection with the family, I had a relative who would say “That bootlegger!” –to the point where others would mouth it while he spoke.
I had an old coot (60 or so) who used to give me his homemade booze as payment. I’d get about a gallon for a visit and that paint remover was just delightful. I wish I could walk back in time 20 years ago and get another jug as I’m far less refined in my tastes now.
You don’t have to have a good liver to be one was his motto.
Here in Long Beach, CA, Total Wine and More has several shelves of products labeled “moonshine” for sale in the white whiskey section, in mason jars, no less. When I first saw them I held one up to show my wife and jokingly said, “Look, moonshine!” before I noticed that that was what was actually on the label.
I never knew how many hillbillies we had on Ricochet.
Yup. Ricochet: Home of the edicated redneck.
Once upon a time a girlfriend opened up a bottle of “Calvados” which she claimed was produced on a farm in Normandy and had been squirreled away. I looked forward to a brandy-like booze with apple tastes. When it poured clear I should’ve known better. French white lightning is pretty raw.
Chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug…
She has her moments — The Shipping News, Accordion Crimes, and That Old Ace in the Hole not being three of them.
That’s a fascinating comment. I didn’t know any of that.
Thank you for dropping by.
Man, I’ve always loved that song!
God, I hate to even think of it. Probably could strip the paint off a dollhouse, eh?
I took me to bring them out of the woodwork. (I speak fluent hillbilly, don’t you know.)
One of the many things we love about it!
I know. It’s pathetic, isn’t it.
That motto has a certain style, actually.
Click-click!
You remember correctly, my friend!
Thank you for dropping by.
I’d say you dodged a bullet, friend.
Oh, come now!
Moving into allergy season, sign me up for some of that splo.
That’s awesome! How did it go down?
I thought for sure you were going to say “She slept well because they put moonshine in her formula.”
So did I!
To prove my hippie bonafides, Phish’s Bathtub Gin:
Doc Jay – we might be worried about your liver….and you know better!