When Was The Term Moonshine First Used?

In the South, tracking down and drinking moonshine is a rite of passage. Whether it’s the booze’s rebellious history or its dangerous reputation. Moonshine has cemented a place in the culture at large. Moonshine defines as “whiskey or other strong alcoholic drinks made and sold illegally,” With that definition, it may be confusing to walk into liquor stores and find booze labeled as moonshine,

1. Part of the problem lies in the lack of federal requirements for labeling something as moonshine,
2. Unlike whiskey, which you must from grain, distilled and bottled at a certain alcohol content, and aged in oak, ‘shine has no equal,
3. Like vodka, you can make it from anything fermentable: fruit, sugar, grain, or milk.

Like vodka, there’s no upper limit on its alcohol content. Unless you want to describe it as white whiskey on the label, you can make it any way you please. So, despite what you might have read in the OED, legally made hooch labeled “moonshine” is all over the place.

1. Despite its super Southern connotation, hooch isn’t only a Southern drink.
2. The term moonshine has been around since the late 15th century.
3. But, it was first used to refer to liquor in the 18th century in England.
4. The American roots of the practice have their origins in frontier life in Pennsylvania,
5. Also, other grain-producing states.

At the time, farms with grain mills would distill their excess product so that it wouldn’t spoil. Back then, whiskey was even used in some places as currency. In 1791, the federal government imposed a tax on liquor made in the country, known as the “whiskey tax.” For the next three years, distillers held off the tax collectors by less-than-legal means,

1. This brought a U.S.
2. Marshal to Pennsylvania to collect the taxes owed.
3. More than 500 men attacked the area’s tax inspector general’s home.
4. Their commander was then killed, which inspired a protest of nearly 6000 people.
5. The tax repealed in 1801, and the events from the decade prior came to be the Whiskey Rebellion.

A lot of the lore and legend surrounding moonshine is true. Bad batches or certain production techniques (like distilling in car radiators) could result in liquor that could make you go blind—or worse, Some moonshiners claim that these stories were an effort to discredit their work.

Legal producers differ. Either way, the federal government commissioned Louis Armstrong to record radio ads about the dangers of drinking it, You should see all the Moonshine we have in our store, Don’t confuse moonshiners with bootleggers. Moonshiners make the liquor, while bootleggers smuggle it. The term bootlegger refers to the habit of hiding flasks in the boot tops around the 1880s.

But, with the introduction of cars, it came to mean anyone who smuggled booze. Mechanics found ways to soup up engines and modify cars to hide and transport as much moonshine as possible, In running from the law, these whiskey runners acquired some serious driving skills.

• On their off days, they’d race against each other, a pastime that would eventually breed NASCAR.
• The two were so closely linked, in fact, that a moonshiner gave seed money for NASCAR to its founder Bill France.
• Another well-known link is Robert Glenn Johnson, better known as Junior Johnson.
• As the son of a notorious moonshiner, this former driver and NASCAR team owner recently partnered with a North Carolina-based distillery to produce “Midnight Moon,” Whether you call it “shine”, rotgut, white lightning, firewater, skull pop, mountain dew, or moonshine,

Its rebellious history and contentious present make it a helluva drink. If you want to learn more about the History of Moonshine, please follow Tennessee Shine. CO.

When did the term moonshine originate?

Etymology – The earliest known instance of the term “moonshine” being used to refer to illicit alcohol dates to the 1785 edition of Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, which was published in England. Prior to that, “moonshine” referred to anything “illusory” or to literally the light of the moon.

Where did the word moonshine come from?

The History of Moonshine in the United States Inspection of Homemade Moonshine Moonshine has played an important role in American history. In fact, moonshine wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for American history. Mankind has produced alcohol for thousands of years. However, the American government was one of the first major governments in the world to tax and control the alcohol industry.

The moment the government started to tax and control alcohol was also the moment the moonshine industry began. The term “moonshine” comes from the fact that illegal spirits were made under the light of the moon. In every part of America, early moonshiners worked their stills at night to avoid detection from authorities.

The United States started taxing liquors and spirits shortly after the American Revolution. In the years following the Revolution, the United States was struggling to pay the bills of the long war. Taxing liquors and spirits was an effective way to generate revenue for the government.

In the early frontier days of American history, moonshine wasn’t a hobby: it was a part-time job, Many farmers relied on moonshine manufacturing to survive bad years. Low-value corn crops could be turned into high-value whisky. Back in those days, Americans hated paying liquor taxes. They hated taxes so much that revenuers, the government agents who came to collect taxes, were often attacked, tarred, and feathered when they came to visit.

The tension between the government and its citizens eventually boiled over into a conflict called the Whisky Rebellion, which began in 1791 during George Washington’s presidency. Although the Whisky Rebellion was a violent resistance movement, fewer than 15 people were killed throughout the entire conflict. To suppress the rebellion, George Washington led a coalition of 13,000 militia troops into western Pennsylvania – which was the center of the rebellion and America’s frontier country at the time.

Washington successfully suppressed the Whisky Rebellion. This marked an important point in U.S. history because it proved that the newly formed country could suppress violent uprisings within its own territory. But, ultimately, the rebels were successful because in 1801 Thomas Jefferson and his Republican Party repealed the tax to widespread public support.

During the Civil War, the American government once again imposed excise taxes on its citizens to fund the war. Revenuers and IRS officials cracked down harshly on moonshiners, leading to many violent conflicts throughout the country. During the Whisky Rebellion, moonshiners were portrayed as heroes standing against an oppressive government.

After the Civil War, that attitude shifted. Many now saw moonshiners as violent criminals. In 1920, moonshiners across the country rejoiced: Prohibition was passed across the nation. Legal alcohol was no longer available anywhere. Overnight, illegal liquor became one of the most profitable businesses in America.

Organized crime took over the moonshine business and distillers sprung up across the country to keep up with demand. Producers began to sell watered-down moonshine based on sugar instead of corn. Speakeasies – complete with hidden doors, passwords, and secret escape routes – could be found in every city in America.

• The good times couldn’t last forever for moonshiners.
• In 1933, Prohibition was repealed and the moonshine market dwindled to a shadow of its former self.
• Today, moonshine is viewed much differently than it was a few decades ago.
• Only a few developed countries in the world let residents legally produce their own home-brewed spirits.

New Zealand, for example, allows home distillation for personal consumption but not for private sale. Whether producing or running a clandestine distillery, you’re sipping on American history every time you pour yourself a glass of moonshine. : The History of Moonshine in the United States

Is moonshine an American term?

Moonshine is not just an American thing – R Street Institute Growing up in this great country of ours, I got the impression that moonshine was a peculiarly American phenomenon. The Dukes of Hazzard television show (1979-1985) and films like served up a simple story.

1. Moonshiners lived in America’s mountains and back roads.
2. They are honest country folk who make “likker” from cherished family recipes.
3. Moonshiners, this story goes, are poor people whose days are spent trying to outfox the police so as to carry on the traditions of their forebears and earn a living by selling white lightning to their friends and neighbors, and college students looking for a thrill.

Judging by the many on moonshine that have been written in recent years, this “moonshine as an American thing” notion is pretty widespread. Which is understandable, because there are and have been a lot of overall-wearing, tobacco-spitting moonshiners.

But there is way more to moonshine than mason jars and fiddle music. We got a distressing reminder of that truth this past week, when the U.S. State Department about toxic liquor being peddled in Mexico. One of its victims was a 20-year-old woman from Wisconsin. Moonshine has a global history, one that goes back 600 years, and probably even further.

Most certainly, moonshine is not an American invention. Moonshine is most accurately defined as a “distilled spirit made illegally.” Like any liquor, moonshine is made by first producing a fermented beverage (a beer or wine). Thereafter, the distiller heats the beer or wine, captures the alcoholic vapors, and then condenses them into spirit.

• Moonshine was born the moment that government declared that individuals needed a license to produce it.
• That first happened in the 1400s in Europe, although it is entirely possible the date is earlier.
• Government rules on strong drink date to the reign of Hammurabi, and the process of distillation was known in the days of Aristotle.

Contrary to popular myth, the word “moonshine” is not an American term used because moonshine was made under the light of the moon. The term “moonshine” hails from the British Isles. Initially, that is, starting in the 1400s, moonshine referred to the light of the moon.

Over time, the term evolved to mean illusory or deceptive. By the 1780s, moonshine took on alcoholic content. Lexicographer Francis Grose, who prowled the seedier parts of London in search for slang, heard moonshine used to mean unlicensed booze. His Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) includes for moonshine that captures both its earliest and emergent meaning.

Moonshine is: “a trifle, nothing. The white brandy smuggled on the coasts of Kent and Sussex, are also called moonshine.” And contrary to the often-peddled proposition that moonshine is synonymous with corn liquor, moonshine has been made from just about every foodstuff imaginable, and nearly every nation has its own version of moonshine.

Kenya has Changaa’, made from sorghum and corn. Uganda has Waragi, AKA war gin, made from bananas. Myanmar has toddy made from palm tree sap, and Mongolia has Arkhi, a horse-milk-based distilled spirit. In prisons, moonshine has been made from ketchup packets, fruit juices and other things I shall not mention.

These days, all sorts of folks moonshine. Hobbyists and foodies in search of “authentic drink” and learn how to distill from, Some of these newbies eventually open licit craft distilleries. Some indigenous cultures still produce their own spirits for use in ceremonies.

All too often, unfortunately, moonshining is a criminal racket that imperils public health. Rarely a week goes by without the media abroad on people getting sick, going blind or dying from toxic moonshine. Criminals, unsurprisingly, have no reservations about swindling customers and peddling poisonous methyl alcohol (commonly called wood alcohol) and other toxic chemicals.

A century ago, many Western nations enacted prohibition in a religious hissy fit, and criminal gangs rushed in to serve the market. Today, moonshining is rampant in failed states with collapsed currencies and corrupt governments, and in nations where radical Islamic regimes have banned drink or heavily taxed it.

Who named 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.

Did the Scottish invent moonshine?

Moonshine is as much a part of Americana as the drive-in movie or baseball. The very name conjures up images of secret stills hidden deep in the woods and guarded by miserly old-timers. However, the mythology and romance which surrounds moonshine belies it’s importance to American culture over the years.

1. It has played a significant part in American history from the War of Independence to the days of Al Capone and Prohibition.
2. Early Production Methods Despite being a uniquely American venture, the production of moonshine probably has it’s roots in Scotland, England and Ireland.
3. Settlers in areas such as Appalachia sought to create an alcoholic drink such as the illicit whisky and poteen they had enjoyed back in their countries of birth.

They managed to do this by fermenting a mash made from Indian corn and then adding sugar, yeast and water. Early attempts at moonshine resulting in a liquid which was fairly weak, but moonshiners soon found that by distilling the liquid three times they were able to produce a liquor with considerable kick. The Origins of Moonshine Following the American Revolution the newly founded American nation found it’s self struggling financially. The war had left the state with huge debts and in a bid to raise revenue a tax on spirits and liquor was imposed. As most of the population was struggling to make ends meet, and given that much of the War of Independence was a reaction against imperialist taxes imposed by the British, the people reacted angrily with many choosing to distil their own alcohol while refusing to pay the government their taxes.

This soon became a source of considerable income for farmers. The alcohol they produced helped provide for their families while generating the profits required to pay rent on their assets. Needless to say the government wasn’t happy at losing out on their cut of this booming industry and tax collectors were sent out.

These visits often resulted in violence and trouble escalated as the Treasury issued a militia force to curb the conflicts. While this succeeded in halting the violence, it drove the alcohol producers underground and the concept of moonshining was born.

Thomas Jefferson later repealed the whiskey tax and for the next 60 years or so people were free to produce their own liquor, but the costs incurred by the Civil War saw the tax reintroduced and moonshining was once again forced underground. A Booming Industry and Decline The transformation of moonshine from a localised business into a nationwide industry came with the Prohibition Act of 1920.

The ban on alcohol production, sale and consumption meant that people had to turn to alternative suppliers to get a drink. The difficulties of importing alcohol from abroad saw a boom in the production of moonshine. The demand for moonshine was at an all time high with speakeasies often run by gangsters requiring copious amounts of liquor to keep customers happy.

It was a golden age for moonshiners which lasted until the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933. Moonshine production declined sharply after this, but there is still a sizeable community who carry on the work of their forefathers by manufacturing home-made hooch. It is difficult to think of any other ‘hobbies’ which have had as much of an impact on American society.

What started off as a way for people to enjoy a drink and make a little extra money on the side turned into a multi-million dollar industry and gave rise to some of the most notorious criminals the country has ever seen. Even today TV Shows such as Moonshiners and Boardwalk Empire pay tribute to this most American of industries.

Jan 13, 2017 Moonshine Stills Company

What is moonshine called in Mexico?

Cocktails & Consumption – Although it was once outlawed, bacanora is now available to anyone who can find this Sonoran secret. In the state of Sonora, bacanora is consumed mostly neat. It is most popular when the weather cools off and in the winter months.

1. It’s a common staple around the Christmas holidays when it is shared with friends and families.
2. There are a few bacanora cream products produced by various labels.
3. Though several of these delicious beverages are popular among Sonorans, we believe Sunora Cream De Bacanora Mocha is far superior.
4. As the popularity of bacanora grows Mixologists are experimenting with its mixability and are creating some of the most delicious agave drinks in the industry.

Click here to check out some of the latest cocktails using Sunora Bacanora! “Bacanora consumption had become so widespread throughout the state, the intolerant government banned the spirit, and severely punished anyone caught drinking or making it” DR. LUIS NÚÑEZ NORIEGA Federal Commerce Department Delegate, Sonora Mexico & Leading Bacanora Expert Learn about the plant use d to make The Original Outlaw Spirit™

What is moonshine called in Scotland?

Moonshine The Whiskey Still at Lochgilphead, Sir David Wilkie, 1819 “Oh they call it that good ole mountain dew And them that refuse it are few I’ll hush up my mug if you’ll fill up my jug With that good ole mountain dew.” ~ “Good Old Mountain Dew”, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, 1928 Whether you call it shine, rotgut, white lightning, firewater, skullpop, mountain dew, or white whisky (or in Scotland, “peatreek”), the catchall term for illegally made liquor, “moonshine” has been around since the 15th century.

“Moonshine” (unaged spirits illicitly distilled “by the light of the moon”) is thought to be inspired by “moonrakers,” a name for apocryphal brandy smugglers who raked up hidden kegs from ponds. When caught, they pretended to be fools attempting to rake cheese from the reflection of the moon. Unlike traditional whiskies, which must be made from grain, distilled and bottled at a certain alcohol content, moonshine has no equivalent standards and can be made from anything fermentable: fruit, sugar, grain, or milk, with no upper limit on its un-aged alcohol content! The “XXX” on a jug of moonshine means three times through the still, almost pure alcohol! 🌔 The word “moonshine” is believed to be derived from the term ” ” early English smugglers who distilled untaxed spirits by night to avoid discovery.

Moonshine refers to any untaxed liquor. Over time it has also been known as Mountain Dew, White Lightning, Rotgut, Skullpop, and Firewater, with every country having its own special term, such as Scotland, where it is sometimes referred to as “peatreek.” ​ Ulster- brought their recipes with them to the American colonies, and their “white whisky”, which was not aged, became the traditional method of distilling spirits in the Appalachian Mountains.

​ Two of the more popular American spirits during the first century and a half of colonization were peach brandy and applejack (a brandy distilled from cider). ​ The still popular Laird’s Applejack traces its roots to highlander William Laird who settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1698 and set about applying his knowledge of distillation to apples rather than barley malt. As settlers moved west, rye and corn became the preferred grains for the production of American moonshine. ​

Moonshiners have a long history of flouting authority and avoiding the excise men. Since the Revolutionary War, distilled spirits have been taxed at a higher rate, incensing the corn growers who used excess grain for distillation as whisky was also easier to transport.

In 1791, George Washington approved an excise tax on liquor, just four years after Britain had introduced a similar prohibitive tax on Highland stills in Scotland. This was the first tax on a domestic product under the newly formed government leading to the violent Whiskey rebellion of 1794. For more on alleged Scots origins of Appalachian cultural terms such as “hillbilly,” “redneck” and “cracker”, click the photo of The Moonshiner’s Daughter, c.1900-1910, from the Library of Congress.

Or,, : Moonshine

Was mountain dew a moonshine?

Packaging – A 1950s Mountain Dew advertisement sign in Tonto, Arizona, showing the cartoon character “Willie the Hillbilly” “Mountain Dew” was originally Southern and/or slang for (i.e., homemade whiskey or ), as referenced in the Irish folk song “”, dating from 1882.

What is moonshine 1920?

Intro | Dixie Highway Daniel Duesst (pronounced “due east”) with his gun, his dog, and his jug of moonshine Sequatchie County, Tennessee, ca.1900 Looking Back at Tennessee Collection “Moonshine” is a generic term for high-proof distilled spirits that are usually made illegally (often in an attempt to avoid taxation).

Making moonshine was very popular in Tennessee well before prohibition. As state and national prohibition laws forced distilleries to close their doors, however, demand for moonshine dramatically increased, and the Prohibition era is often considered the golden age of moonshining. Moonshiners, also known as bootleggers, were quick to take advantage of the demand Prohibition created for their product.

They shifted their priorities from the quality to the quantity of their liquor, thereby making much more money. Paint thinner, antifreeze, manure, and embalming fluid were just a few of the hazardous ingredients used to make this moonshine. The first run of each batch of moonshine was often poisonous. Charlie Reecer and Dewey Smith sampling a batch of moonshine, Clay County, Tennessee, ca.1920-1925 Looking Back at Tennessee Collection The Moonshining tradition has carried on in Tennessee. Federal laws today allow individuals to make beer and wine for their own use, but not distilled liquor.

There are state and local laws forbidding the manufacture of liquor and a range of taxes on liquor production. Under state laws, moonshining is often only punished as a misdemeanor, but federal laws typically impose much stricter penalties. The state’s first licensed moonshine distillery, the Ole Smoky Distillery in Gatlinburg, opened in 2010.

There are other states that sell legal moonshine as well. Some popular brands include Catdaddy Caroline Moonshine and Tory and Sons 80 Proof, both from North Carolina. Bob Holland, Sheriff J.L. “Fate” Smith, and deputies after a raid on a still, Humphreys County, Tennessee, ca.1920s Looking Back at Tennessee Collection Moonshine has also made an impact culturally in popular films and television shows such as 1973’s “White Lightning,” starring Burt Reynolds, and the “Dukes of Hazard.” One cannot talk about the cultural impact of moonshine without mentioning one of the south’s most famous moonshiners, Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton.

Popcorn was an Appalachian moonshiner who gained notoriety after self-publishing an autobiographical guide to making moonshine and self-producing a home video documenting his moonshining. He was also involved in several documentaries. In 2009, he was raided by the ATF and sentenced to eighteen months in federal prison for illegally distilling spirits and possession of a firearm as a felon.

Rather than serve his jail time, he committed suicide. He was laid to rest in Parrottsville, Tennessee. Top “View of Mountain 0.7 miles from Pikeville,” Pikeville, Tennessee, ca.1918 Dixie Highway Photograph Album, Archives Photograph Collection The Dixie Highway (running from Michigan to Florida) was a major route for the distribution of moonshine. In an effort to deliver their product safely, moonshiners would often modify their cars in order to outrun law enforcement and “revenuers” (agents from the U.S. Moonshine still, Clay County, Tennessee, 1918 Looking Back at Tennessee Collection Two men posing in front of a moonshine still, Claiborne County, Tennessee, 1903 Looking Back at Tennessee Collection Sheriff Mike Boatright and others with confiscated stills, Elizabethton, Tennessee, ca.1940s Looking Back at Tennessee Collection Sheriff and deputies surrounding broken stills beside the Presbyterian Church, Jonesborough, Tennessee, 1920 Looking Back at Tennessee Collection Sheriff Mike Bootright and deputies with a confiscated moonshine still, Elizabethton, Tennessee, ca.1940s Looking Back at Tennessee Collection A moonshine still being “busted,” Grundy County, Tennessee, ca.1900 Looking Back at Tennessee Collection “In the mud near Daus,” Daus, Tennessee, ca.1918 Dixie Highway Photograph Album, Archives Photograph Collection

Did the Scottish invent moonshine?

Moonshine is as much a part of Americana as the drive-in movie or baseball. The very name conjures up images of secret stills hidden deep in the woods and guarded by miserly old-timers. However, the mythology and romance which surrounds moonshine belies it’s importance to American culture over the years.

• It has played a significant part in American history from the War of Independence to the days of Al Capone and Prohibition.
• Early Production Methods Despite being a uniquely American venture, the production of moonshine probably has it’s roots in Scotland, England and Ireland.
• Settlers in areas such as Appalachia sought to create an alcoholic drink such as the illicit whisky and poteen they had enjoyed back in their countries of birth.

They managed to do this by fermenting a mash made from Indian corn and then adding sugar, yeast and water. Early attempts at moonshine resulting in a liquid which was fairly weak, but moonshiners soon found that by distilling the liquid three times they were able to produce a liquor with considerable kick. The Origins of Moonshine Following the American Revolution the newly founded American nation found it’s self struggling financially. The war had left the state with huge debts and in a bid to raise revenue a tax on spirits and liquor was imposed. As most of the population was struggling to make ends meet, and given that much of the War of Independence was a reaction against imperialist taxes imposed by the British, the people reacted angrily with many choosing to distil their own alcohol while refusing to pay the government their taxes.

1. This soon became a source of considerable income for farmers.
2. The alcohol they produced helped provide for their families while generating the profits required to pay rent on their assets.
3. Needless to say the government wasn’t happy at losing out on their cut of this booming industry and tax collectors were sent out.

These visits often resulted in violence and trouble escalated as the Treasury issued a militia force to curb the conflicts. While this succeeded in halting the violence, it drove the alcohol producers underground and the concept of moonshining was born.

Thomas Jefferson later repealed the whiskey tax and for the next 60 years or so people were free to produce their own liquor, but the costs incurred by the Civil War saw the tax reintroduced and moonshining was once again forced underground. A Booming Industry and Decline The transformation of moonshine from a localised business into a nationwide industry came with the Prohibition Act of 1920.

The ban on alcohol production, sale and consumption meant that people had to turn to alternative suppliers to get a drink. The difficulties of importing alcohol from abroad saw a boom in the production of moonshine. The demand for moonshine was at an all time high with speakeasies often run by gangsters requiring copious amounts of liquor to keep customers happy.

1. It was a golden age for moonshiners which lasted until the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933.
2. Moonshine production declined sharply after this, but there is still a sizeable community who carry on the work of their forefathers by manufacturing home-made hooch.
3. It is difficult to think of any other ‘hobbies’ which have had as much of an impact on American society.

What started off as a way for people to enjoy a drink and make a little extra money on the side turned into a multi-million dollar industry and gave rise to some of the most notorious criminals the country has ever seen. Even today TV Shows such as Moonshiners and Boardwalk Empire pay tribute to this most American of industries.

Jan 13, 2017 Moonshine Stills Company