How is Moonshine Made? – The traditional ingredients for moonshine are corn and sugar, and during fermentation, the sugar produces ethanol, which makes hooch or moonshine. During distillation, alcohol separates from the mash. Unlike other liquors such as whiskey or bourbon, moonshine is unaged, which produces a distilled spirit with high alcohol content.
- The stereotype of moonshiners centers around how “country folk” distill and transport their potables in jugs marked “XXX” during the night to avoid being detected.
- But having access to commercially produced all-copper moonshine stills on the internet has made moonshine distillation less risky in the modern era.
But for a great drink, here is the recipe:
Contents
Why is moonshine made of corn?
Classic American Moonshine Mash Recipe – Early American farmers found that the same amount of corn sold for a few dollars at market could easily yield a few hundred dollars after it was mashed, fermented and distilled. Corn also yields more sugar than other grain crops. Thus, mashing corn and turning it into alcohol became the standard method of alcohol production on the early American frontier, and “corn whiskey” was born.
- 6.5 gallons of water
- 8.5 pounds of flaked maize
- 2 pounds of crushed malted barley
- Yeast
Is all moonshine made with corn?
What Is Moonshine Made Of? – The recipe for classic moonshine is simple:
- Cracked corn
- Water
- Malted barley
- Yeast
While alcohol can actually be distilled from almost any kind of grain — the earliest American moonshiners used rye or barley – much of the moonshine made in the United States for the last 150 years has been made with corn. So, what makes moonshine different from the whiskey you find on the shelf at a liquor store? Aside from the obvious differences between something made in a sanitized production facility and something made at night in the woods, the primary difference is aging,
- When whisky comes out of the still, it’s so clear it looks like water.
- Moonshiners bottle it and sell it just like that.
- Commercial alcohols have an amber or golden color to them because they are aged for several years in oak barrels that are sometimes charred.
- The aging process gives them color and mellows the harsh taste.
There’s no such mellowing with moonshine, which is why it has such a kick.
Is Jack Daniel’s made from corn?
The original family recipe – Jack Daniel was known to be a man of refined taste. From his penchant for tailor-made suits, to the way he made his whiskey, the details mattered. And no detail was more important than his mash bill, the delicate mix of grains that help shape our whiskey’s flavor. 
Distillation begins by mixing these grains with the iron-free water from the Hollow. And just like a baker makes sour dough bread, by adding a little bit of starter yeast from a previous batch, we begin distillation by adding a little bit of our own starter mash for consistent, quality whiskey.
- Using a bit of starter is why Jack Daniel’s is called a sour mash.
- The mash ferments for a full six days before being single distilled in a large copper still made to our exact specifications.
- And rather than double or triple-distillation, we vaporize and condense our whiskey only once.
- There’s no doubt Jack selected his mash because of its warm, balanced flavor.
And we distill the way we do to ensure that the whiskey still retains it.
Can you drink corn alcohol?
Corn on the cob may bring barbecues – and butter – to most people’s minds, but there are some exciting things happening with the starchy golden seeds in the world of spirits. In summer 2020, two corn-based spirits arrived on British shores from Mexico: Abasolo whisky and Nixta Licor de Elote liqueur.
- Made using Mexican cacahuazintle corn, these drinks express flavours and aromas that transport you to the hills of Jilotepec de Molina Enríquez, where fields filled with maize happen to surround Abasolo’s distillery just north of Mexico City.
- Using corn is a clever move for distillers.
- Of all the grains used for spirits, it carries the biggest yield, so producers can maximise the amount of alcohol from any given harvest.
But its use is nothing new: bourbon whiskeys must legally use at least 51% corn in their mash bill while Irish whiskey is also known for its high corn content. Indeed, the use of corn is creeping up across more spirits categories – although whiskey is still at the forefront of the trend.
‘I think corn whiskey has seen a slight rise in popularity due to more consumers looking deeper into the American whiskey category,’ says Benji Purslow, European brand educator at Heaven Hill distillery, who adds that corn whiskey ‘is essentially the predecessor to bourbon’. Corn-based spirits have a flavour profile that makes them exceptionally versatile in a cocktail.
Savoury notes and grassy, peppery flavours make them the ideal bedfellow alongside other spirits, too. Most interestingly, though, corn whisky in particular can also be used as a substitute for blanco Tequilas: ‘The grassy and vegetal nature somewhat mirrors that of the agave spirit and a good bartender can use this recipe adaptation to great effect,’ says Richard Ryan, managing director of drink producer and distributor Drinksology Kirker Greer.
Is corn in all whiskey?
What is Whiskey? – Whiskey is a distilled alcoholic beverage made of fermented grains. Different grains are used, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat and all result in a different flavor or kind of whiskey. Whiskey goes through a process of malting, mashing, fermenting, distilling and aging all before it is bottled into the whiskey you buy in the stores.
Does corn have methanol?
A Tale of Chemistry and Poison Photo by Sam Johnson from Pexels During the American Prohibition, moonshine was responsible for over 750 deaths and more than a hundred thousand cases of blindness or paralysis in New York City alone. Over eighty years later, in early 2019, several outbreaks of toxic alcohol poisoning lead to hundreds of deaths and injuries in northeast India.
The culprit in both these cases was methanol contamination. Chemically, the only difference between methanol and ethanol is the number of carbons (two in ethanol and one in methanol). Methanol and ethanol taste about the same and produce about the same initial intoxicating effect. The only difference is that methanol, once ingested, is metabolized by the liver into formaldehyde and formic acid, chemicals that can damage the optic nerve, leading to blindness, and eventually resulting in death.
Methanol is a common contaminant of moonshine, which is typically made from fermenting a “mash” of corn, sugar, and yeast for a few days and then distilling the mixture. During the fermentation process, the enzymes in the yeast convert the sugar into energy for the cell.
- A byproduct of this reaction is ethanol, the main ingredient of alcohol.
- Methanol is not a direct byproduct of fermentation, but instead forms from the breakdown of pectin in corn.
- After fermentation, the slurry is distilled by boiling it and running the gas through a still.
- The first element of the still is a long upward shaft through which the gas rises.
The length of this shaft prevents anything that is not gas from escaping to the next stage. Next, the gas travels downwards through another shaft that’s kept ice cold. On the other side of this shaft, the gas is cool enough to condense into liquid again. Photo by Davide Baraldi from Pexels Methanol is easily removed in regulated alcohol production, and extensive testing is required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that very little methanol makes it into the final batch. In the case of alcohol that is used for industrial or scientific purposes, methanol is often added back into the batch after distillation to make it toxic and thus not subject to alcoholic beverage tax.
- Bootleggers can use this cheaper methanol-tainted alcohol to turn a considerable profit.
- During Prohibition, the government doubled the amount of methanol in industrial alcohol to make it more toxic and discourage bootleggers from stealing and redistributing it.
- Bootleggers put significant effort into overcoming these measures, hiring chemists to distill the toxic chemicals out of their alcohol.
But the government only doubled down their efforts, adding up to 10% methanol and a whole slew of other poisons including chloroform, gasoline, and mercury salts. The only thing these measures accomplished, however, was to poison and kill an estimated 10,000 Americans by the time the Prohibition ended.
These days, epidemics of toxic alcohol poisoning still occur around the world in poor areas, like the tea plantations in India, where unscrupulous bootleggers sell cheap alcohol laced with methanol or lead. Lead can be leached from truck radiators, which are frequently used in crude distillation setups.
Drinkers discern very little difference between clean alcohol and alcohol laced with methanol, and the body’s immediate reaction to the alcohol is the same. It’s only hours later, once the methanol has been digested and converted to formic acid, that the poison presents itself with convulsions, blindness, and death.
Why do they call it moonshine?
England Circa 18th Century – The origin of the word as we know it today comes from England in the 18 th century. It’s meaning derives from the notion of light without heat, or light from the moon. It meant illicit or smuggled liquor. Moonshiner was a term that described any persons doing illegal activities under the cover of darkness. It could mean anything – robbery, burglary, grave robbing.
Is vodka made from corn?
Today, most vodka is made from fermented grains such as sorghum, corn, rice, rye or wheat, though you can also use potatoes, fruits or even just sugar. The fermentation step creates a product with only about 16 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) — too low for spirits.
Why is moonshine clear?
Why Is Moonshine Clear? – Since moonshine is clear a lot of people think that it is made though a different process than legal liquor whiskey. Legal store bought whiskey- jim beam, jack Daniels, Tullamore Dew, any legal whiskey- is clear as moonshine when it comes out of a still. All whiskeys begin as a clear spirit- it isn’t until whiskey is aged in wooden barrels that it takes on darker colors.
Why do moonshiners use sugar?
How is Moonshine Made? – The traditional ingredients for moonshine are corn and sugar, and during fermentation, the sugar produces ethanol, which makes hooch or moonshine. During distillation, alcohol separates from the mash. Unlike other liquors such as whiskey or bourbon, moonshine is unaged, which produces a distilled spirit with high alcohol content.
The stereotype of moonshiners centers around how “country folk” distill and transport their potables in jugs marked “XXX” during the night to avoid being detected. But having access to commercially produced all-copper moonshine stills on the internet has made moonshine distillation less risky in the modern era.
But for a great drink, here is the recipe:
What does old no 7 mean?
Vintage: Non-vintage Aged: No age statement Product of: United States Jack Daniel’s is a Tennessee whiskey and was named No.7 by “Mr Jack” himself in 1887 – no one knows why. Some say Jack was honouring his seven girlfriends, others that it was the 7th recipe but one of the most plausible explanations to the Old No.7 brand is the story of the missing seven barrels.
In 1904, the company shipped seven barrels of Jack Daniel’s whisky to St Louis, Missouri for the World Fair. They were sent via Tullahoma on the railroad but reports were telegraphed back saying the railroad company had lost the seven barrels. So another seven were shipped, but in the meantime the railroad found the first seven, so they marked them ‘Old Number Seven’, so the barrels would not be confused when the new seven barrels arrived.
The strength of Old No.7 used to vary, with bottlings at 40, 43 and 45 alc./vol. according to different markets; with the U.S. mostly at 43% and Europe at 40%. With the onset of globalisation there was a need to consolidate, hence since 2010 the strength has been standardised across all markets at 40% alc./vol.
Why is Jack Daniels not a bourbon?
A bourbon must be distilled at no more than 160 proof, or 80% alcohol by volume. Jack is well under that. It comes over the still at 140 proof, or 70% alcohol.
Does moonshine need corn?
How is Moonshine Made? – The traditional ingredients for moonshine are corn and sugar, and during fermentation, the sugar produces ethanol, which makes hooch or moonshine. During distillation, alcohol separates from the mash. Unlike other liquors such as whiskey or bourbon, moonshine is unaged, which produces a distilled spirit with high alcohol content.
The stereotype of moonshiners centers around how “country folk” distill and transport their potables in jugs marked “XXX” during the night to avoid being detected. But having access to commercially produced all-copper moonshine stills on the internet has made moonshine distillation less risky in the modern era.
But for a great drink, here is the recipe:
How does corn turn into alcohol?
Starch- and Sugar-Based Ethanol Production – Most ethanol in the United States is produced from starch-based crops by dry- or wet-mill processing. Nearly 90% of ethanol plants are dry mills due to lower capital costs. Dry-milling is a process that grinds corn into flour and ferments it into ethanol with co-products of distillers grains and carbon dioxide.
Is vodka made from corn?
Today, most vodka is made from fermented grains such as sorghum, corn, rice, rye or wheat, though you can also use potatoes, fruits or even just sugar. The fermentation step creates a product with only about 16 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) — too low for spirits.