“Some people believe that everything
in moonshining boils down to
the almighty dollar
and who is going to get it -
the government or the moonshiner.
Some question which is the
greedier of the two.”
Sarah Quinn Hambrick
In “The Quinn Clan, 1993”
Moonshine - Blue Ridge Style
Distilling know-how spread throughout Europe long before Columbus saw the New World. By 1620, just 13 years after the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia colonists were distilling corn on the James River. The English, Germans, and Scots-Irish who pushed into western Virginia in the 1700’s all brought distilling traditions. The apples from Blue Ridge orchards could be turned into brandy, field corn into whiskey. Blue ridge settlers came also with farming traditions, foodways, social customs, medical beliefs, business talents and attitudes toward government - all of which were well in place when the Untied States government set its first tax on alcohol in order to help pay the cost of the Revolutionary War.
From the time of early settlement to the industrial boom of the late 1800’s, small farm and community distilleries were a natural marriage to the agricultural character of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Roads were rough, farmers often faced difficulties getting crops to market. Ripe fruit was especially apt to spoil in transit. Thus distilling was one way to condense and preserve grains and fruits. Using a copper turnip-type still and wooden barrels for mixing mash and storing whiskey, a farmer could produce enough liquor to meet family and local community needs. Whiskey had a high cash value and took up less space than the raw ingredients. The “Slop” left in the Still after the process could be feed to livestock. George Washington built just such a stillhouse at Mount Vernon.
continues