Stuff You Should Know - How Moonshine Works

Episode Date: January 22, 2009

Moonshiners brew illegal alcohol, usually a liquor from corn. In the United States, this practice led to some surprising outcomes -- including the deveopment of NASCAR. Tune in to learn more about moonshine and racing in this HowStuffWorks podcast. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Where? Right there. Okay. This is Stuff You Should Know. Chuck, put your cool guy hat back down.

There you go. That's right. Chuck is wearing one of those Newsy caps. It's his newest thing. The flat cap. They're in style. And I'm the stylish guy. He's coming on up. Up next is Floralink mink coat. I can totally see it. Right. Foaming. Think. Sure. Yeah, because who wants red paint or blood thrown all over them when they walk down the street? Chuck, I have an anecdote for you. I don't want to know. All right. Well, I need to come up with another segue then. No, go ahead. Okay. So back before we knew each other, years and years ago, I had a whole group of friends, good friends. My dad was there. Both of my brothers-in-law were there. And one of my great all-time friends,

Tom Sheeve, who actually writes for the site. Oh, yeah. I didn't know those for years. Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good friend. He came down from Tennessee. He was living in Johnson City, Tennessee at the time. And Tom brought with him to the party a pint of moonshine. Oh, yeah. Just perfectly crystal clear moonshine. Yeah. Rotgut. And there is a no, no, no, believe me, whoever made this knew exactly what they were doing. There was a peach in the bottom even. Oh, nice. And one of my friends who was probably the youngest one at the party, kind of a little punk at the time. Yeah. Just jokingly, you know, grabbed the moonshine and walked over to my dad. He was in his 60s at the time. Right. And said, Hey, Mal, you want to do some shots?

And my dad grabbed the pint and it just went from there. Those two drank the whole thing. And my dad matched a 21 year old kid shot for shot of moonshine. Man. And it gets better. And then after they were finished, my dad ate the peach. Wow. My dad ate the peach. Yeah. And I imagine that thing really had soaked up quite a bit of booze. Really? My dad has no recollection of this event. But it's kind of become around my family. This is kind of badge of honor. He ate the peach, you know, that kind of thing. So anytime somebody does something like really cool or tough or unexpected, you know, he ate the peach. Sure. So that was my segue into how moonshine works. That's good. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever tasted moonshine? Oh, yeah. Yeah,

I've drank it before. I actually lived in Johnson City for a little while. I knew some people that lived there as well. And I got to tell you, man, it is Appalachia like around. I actually lived outside, kind of up on a mountain around the corner from people who lived in school buses with chimneys coming. I'm not kidding. Wow. On Rhone Mountain. And there are tons of stills still around. Like you can get moonshine from anybody up there. Yeah. And the people, they all know what they're doing. They're not doing it for, you know, profit or anything like that. These are people who, you know, guys who are like into home brewing. Sure. But imagine if, like, you're in home brewing and your grandfather taught you how to do it. You know, that kind of

thing. Like they know exactly what they're doing. They take a bunch of pride in it. And then, you know, you just kind of get it from a friend or something. And it's actually really cheap. It's like 10 bucks for a quart or something like that. Yeah. I've never paid for it. I've had it quite a few times too at various parties. You know, someone, like you said, will just show up out of nowhere with a jar, an amazing jar. And I always kind of befriend that person because I love the taste of moonshine. Yeah. It's really tough to stomach, but there's something about the corn whiskey. Yeah. But I think right now is the point that we should say that it's illegal. Very. And in any form. Yeah. We do not encourage anyone to go out and build their own still,

even though we're going to tell you how to. Yeah. And this is also based on an article you can find on howstuffworks.com in the recipe section. If that doesn't tell you something right there. I don't know what that says about us, but yeah. Well, we have recipes for moonshine on our site. That's what it says. All right. So Chuck, let's talk about moonshine a little bit. Where should we start? Well, I think we should travel back in time a bit to Great Britain, to the UK. Oh, yeah. Hello to our English words. Where does the word come from? Great thinking. Right. The word moonshine actually comes from England. Originally, the term started from a verb, moonshining, which was referred to any job that you did late at night, like the midnight

shift was moonshining. Right. And it eventually just kind of morphed into making illegal booze because they did it at night, you know, undercover of the night. Well, not only did they make it, they also ran it, which is a different word bootlegging. Right. It was smuggled at night. Right. And that, if you want to know the, the idea from the word there is from, they would stick it in their high boots, the bottles and the writing boots. Right. Yeah, they're writing. Yeah. That's how they smuggle. So bootleggers. I really choked that out there. This is a, this is during colonial times. Right. Yeah. Okay. So these are distinct words like a moonshiner and a bootlegger may be one of the same, but it depends on the activity they're

engaged in at any given time. Right. Right. So the moonshiner actually makes the stuff the bootlegger smuggles it. Right. And there's a third one actually too, a rum runner, which is by sea. Correct. It's a bootlegger who, who smuggles by sea. Yeah. It's all very like, it's, it yes, this wonderful hazy past of smuggling ships and riding horses with filled with, you know, with boots filled with whiskey. Right. Yeah. Very cool. Let's try not to romanticize it. Yeah, you're right. I think though I'm going to set you up here because I know this is your favorite part of this whole podcast. In the 1940s and 50s in the United States, they started doing this by car, started filling up their trunk full of moonshine and

bootlegging high speed chases and go. And actually this, this, these people were tinker with their cars. You got these kind of backwards mechanics who learned to take like a Ford V8 and turn it into this supercharged turbo boosted wonderfully suspended car that could outrun any cop in the Georgia mountains or whatever. Think of the Dukes of Hazard, that kind of thing. And that these guys actually kind of became gear heads. Right. And they started challenging one another to races. Yep. And out of that came NASCAR. Yeah. NASCAR is directly descended from bootlegging. Yes. Yep. So, and actually the first guy, I love this. I love this fact that the first guy to win an official NASCAR race, his name was Glenn Dunaway. And he won the first official race on December

12th, 1948 in Daytona, Florida. Right. He won the race, but was disqualified because it's a stock car racing. You're not supposed to have a modified. Right. And he had an illegal wedge for handling. Right. So he was disqualified, but he actually won the first race. The reason he had the wedge was because he'd used that car to smuggle a bunch of whiskey the week earlier. Right. In North Carolina. Same car. Yep. I know that you're fed. You should just end it right now. Yeah. It doesn't get any better than that to you. I'm just going to go to sleep. Can you take the rest of the podcast? Yeah, I'll take it from here. Okay. So yeah, you talked about rum running, which is by sea, and bootlegging, I'm sorry, moonshine is made of corn, generally. In the U.S., it's almost exclusively made of corn, but it can be made of any grain, right? Correct.

Yeah. Or fruit. True. Anything that has starches in it. Right. But it's generally in the U.S. made, you hear it referred to as corn whiskey. So you need corn, meal, sugar, yeast, and water. Every alcoholic beverage I think needs yeast. Is that true? I don't know. I know beer does. You've really put me on the spot here. I know someone's going to write in and tell us. I've got something for you. Part of the process of making whiskey involves the same processes you use to make beer, right? Right. It's fermentation. Exactly. And technically, apparently, among the distilleries, the word that they use for the fermented alcohol before it's distilled is beer. So apparently, any alcohol that goes through a fermentation process is technically called beer.

I did not know that. So wine would technically be beer. Right. Isn't that weird? Yeah. Okay, but that's just step one. And the fermentation process is basically just adding yeast to whatever grain there is. Right. And the yeast goes to town on it. They're very simple plants, actually. They ingest this stuff. And as a byproduct, they put out carbon dioxide and alcohol. Right. And what that stuff is called is mash. Yes. So this fermented stuff is called mash. And you take the mash and now we get into the distilling process. Right. Well, then you heat it up. Yes. To about 172 degrees Fahrenheit. And wood coal, you can use anything. Basically, you can use steam to heat it up. Sure. Now they use propane, I understand. Sure. Because, you know, you figure. And what happens

is from there, the alcohol evaporates. Pressure builds up and the alcohol steam is forced through an arm, which is a cap arm, which is a pipe that leads out of the top of the stove. Right. So you have this evaporation going on. And then it goes into a what they call a thump keg. Right. And it's so named because it catches sometimes some of this mash comes along with the alcohol vapor. And when it comes into this hollow keg and hits the bottom, it makes a thumping sound. Exactly. So this thump keg is intended to further separate the mash from the alcohol vapor. Right. Can you imagine like inhaling alcohol vapor? What would that do to you? I don't know. It's probably not very good. No. Okay. So we're in the thump keg now. Can you hear us? Right. Can you hear us? We are.

Sour mash. Mash. Nice. So, okay, Chuck, what's going on in here? Well, in the thump keg, like you said, there are bits of mash dropping to inside of here where we are. And then it re-evaporates the alcohol and filters out the mash because you don't want the mash. What you want is a clear liquid. All right. So up we go out of the thump keg. And where are we now? Up and out of the thump keg. And now we travel into the worm as steam. Yes. Now this is the most fun part of the ride because the worm is actually basically just a pipe that coils around. Right. So if we were actually able to go through it and probably be kind of like a fun water slide. Yeah. And this worm, actually, this coil pipe actually is just going through cold water,

which cools the alcohol from its gaseous state back into its liquid state. Yep. And guess where that arm comes out? Well, it comes out eventually into a little jar. Yep. Or whatever you want to put it in. That's the spigot and then you bottle it right from there. Right. And I said mason jar because many times it's, I don't know if it's tradition or not, but they put it in mason jar. I've never seen anything but a mason jar. Yeah, me too. Maybe a ball jar. That's about it. Right. And what happens is now you've got a clear liquid and that brings us to the difference between moonshine and regular whiskey that you would get. That's brown or light colored is the aging process. Moonshine is not aged and that's why it remains clear.

Your Jack Daniels that you love, that is the same thing for a little while, but then it's aged for years in oak barrels, charred oak barrels. Yeah. And I looked into the charring part. The reason they char the inside of the oak barrels, they're actually caramelizing the starches, which makes it sweeter. Right. So the bourbon, this is the part of the bourbon making process. The bourbon actually absorbs the sugars more, which gives it a sweeter taste. Right. And mellows it even further. Right. But it also gives it its brown color. Right. Because moonshine is known for the, they call it the kick. Yes. And both of us can attest. It is a very harsh tasting whiskey. Yeah, it really is. It definitely has a kick. And it tastes like nothing

else that you've had. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, talking about walking into the devil's den. The car sales, they just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamar Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for this CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation.

So Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh, no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1968, five black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can. I believe Mt. Meigs was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was

going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy Rice, and in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare, and how those five black girls changed everything. All that on Unreformed. Listen to Unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No, it tastes like God pulling your throat out. You kind of see a white light, and there's just like a sudden blinding flash of pain, and that's the kick. Wow. That's a great way to describe it. Wouldn't have thought of that. It's good. It's also very potent. I think Moonshine usually is in the neighborhood of 120 to 150 proof. Which is a lot. Yeah, that's a lot, because what is it?

80 proof or 90 proof? 150 proof would be 75% alcohol. Right, but your average bottle of bourbon is 90 proof, correct? Yeah, 80 or 90. Yeah. I mean, while turkeys have a special 100, so yeah. True. Yeah, probably 80. Josh, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you imbibe with an alcoholic beverage from time to time. No, I just pay attention. Okay, that's all. Good. So, they make the Moonshine, and one of the problems with Moonshine, I guess we need to talk about the downside, is that it can be dangerous if someone doesn't know what they're doing. Yeah, here's the big problem. This is why all of you shouldn't run out and make your own still, as Chuck said earlier, because... Because it's illegal. That's number one. It is illegal. One

of the reasons it's illegal is because it's so thoroughly unsafe. So, I mean, when you make beer or wine at home, which you can legally, because you're making it in small batches, but number two, it's not nearly as dangerous. Whenever you make any kind of alcohol, you have a risk of there being impurities in your batch, right? Yeah. And these impurities can be dangerous in beer or wine, but it's much less likely when compared to spirits like whiskey. And these impurities are called the congeners, right? And what those are, it's just to catch all name for any impurity that's a complex compound, like a polyphenol or histamine, you know, those things that give you allergic reactions. These can easily end up in your batch

and this is why people often die from drinking moonshine. It's not just from alcohol poisoning or anything like that. It's these impurities get in there and wreak havoc on your body. Yeah, I would say not as much anymore. I mean, not that it's a huge business or anything, but during prohibition, I know there were a lot of people that were dying because they were, it was in such demand because alcohol was illegal, that they were mixing it too fast and the operation sped up. And they actually sometimes purposely put impurities in there to give it that kick, like bleach, was often found in moonshine during prohibition. Right. This always, as funny we mentioned, is called MASH. It always reminds me of the TV show MASH,

one of my favorite shows growing up, because, you know, they had their still in the, what was the name of their, the swamp. Yeah. In their tent. Yeah, they had a gin distillery, didn't they? Well, they called it gin, but it's looking back now. This is before I ever had moonshine when I watched MASH, but it was probably just corn whiskey. I doubt if they were able to make like, nice gin. I always took it as gin. No, I bet it was moonshine. I don't know, man. They were sipping it like it was gin. All right, Alan, all that needs to get in touch with us. Yes, please. Or the guy who played BJ or Trapper, any of them really. Just no radar. No radar. I was about to say the same thing. Do not call us. So Chuck, you know, moonshine has actually a really long history

with the U.S. And it's so much so, it's so ingrained that it has, it's had this kind of symbiotic effect on our cultural legacy. True. When you start looking into moonshine, like NASCAR being, you know, coming out of moonshine, or the term bootlegger that's used world-round, came from the United States and are smuggling, right? But when you really start to look into the history of moonshine and how it helps shape America, we used to be a nation of crazy, gunslinging, nut jobs. I mean, we used to be wild, especially like in the 19th century. The whole reason bootlegging was ever around in the U.S. was because basically right after we formed our nation, our second government, the one we have now, the constitutional government,

they started imposing taxes on liquor. And everybody had just said, well, wait a minute, we just got out from under the thumb of a king who used to tax us. We're not paying any taxes. Yeah, and they didn't. No, they didn't. And actually, they would attack revenuers, yeah, tax collectors. They would tar and feather them, which sounds kind of funny now because we're sort of moved from it. That was actually apparently an extremely excruciating process. Oh, I'm sure. You had hot tar poured on you. Yeah, it's not. And then, you know, the feathers were probably nothing but a relief. Right. But you're walking around and imagine trying to get cooled tar off of your skin. No, thanks. Yeah. So I imagine being tarred and

feather wasn't that much fun. But even beyond that, they actually formed an armed uprising called the Whiskey Rebellion. Yeah, 1794. Yeah. And that was Washington's first big wow. Right. As president. Holy crap. I'm president. Yeah. And they just took over Pittsburgh. And it was like people from a lot of states, there were thousands of them. They were armed and they were mad. They did not want to pay money or taxes on the liquor they were producing. Right. And it was actually the first use of a presidential pardon to overturn conviction was from the Whiskey Rebellion. Did not know that. It is true. So what GW did, which is George Washington, of course, he got together a militia of about 13,000 dudes. And he basically quelled and dispersed the mob,

captured his leaders. And it was, like you said, forever known as a Whiskey Rebellion. But there was nothing. Nothing was actually resolved. Well, right. That's the government and bootleggers. They go side by side and every once in a while, usually when war funding is needed, the government attacks bootlegging. Right. To try to increase its tax revenues. So the basically the federal government went its way and bootleggers went their way. Right. They maintain the status quo, basically. We kept having bootlegging. No one really had a problem with it until the Klan got involved. Right. And any American knows that in the United States, you can do whatever you want. As long as you're not hurting anybody and you're not affiliated with the Klan.

Right. Everybody hates the Klan here. Yeah. That's the Ku Klux Klan. Yeah. The Ku Klux Klan. I think that's something that people, you know, maybe some of our Norwegian or Dutch listeners might not understand. Right. Americans hate the Klan. We do. And this actually kind of led to this outlaw view of bootleggers that we have now. They were getting into shootouts and killing IRS auditors and collectors and intimidating families and, you know, locals even who knew like where it still was. Well, bootleggers joined forces and made the mistake, the big mistake of joining up with the Klan. Right. That's what I mean. So that turned the tide of public opinion. All of a sudden, bootleggers aren't just, you know, so harmless anymore.

They're in with the Klan. Right. So that actually gave the temperance movement even more of a foothold. Yeah. The temperance movement is my worst nightmare. Yeah. It is basically no, there's no alcohol produced or imported into the United States. Imagine the entire country dry. This is the point of the temperance movement. And they weren't just, you know, crackpots. They were actually, they had identified alcohol as an agent of moral decay, social decay. Right. It was a problem. So rather than, and this is before rehab too. Oh yeah. Rather than having alcoholics go dry out or take care of their, their problem, their addiction, they said, we have a social responsibility to not tempt our alcoholics. Right. We have to put

them above the rest of us because the rest of us aren't alcoholics, so we don't need a drink. So let's just get rid of alcohol together so our alcoholics can be good people. Yeah. Bad idea. Yeah. Well, it actually happened. They finally got prohibition pushed through in 1920. The day the earth stood still. And it lasted from 1920 to 1934. And it actually turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to bootlegging. Yeah. Because all of a sudden people, there's one thing that they learned from prohibition is you can try and take away the alcohol, but the people want it and they're going to get it. And I would liken it to the war on drugs. Yeah. Oh, it's the exact same thing. Anytime you prohibit anything, number one, it makes it,

it gives it kind of a forbidden feel, which makes it all the more desirable. Yeah. But I mean, think about how many people wouldn't or don't drink now, just because it's there. Right. How many more would if you simply couldn't? Yeah. And yeah, if prohibition proved anything, it's that if when there's a will, organized crime finds a way. True. So we've got speakeasies. We've got gangland murders. We've got a moonshine that's being put out. It's being overproduced and watered down and right with bleach added. And then all of a sudden prohibition goes away. Yes. And almost, almost at the same time. So does moonshining almost entirely. Well, drastically reduced. Sure. And but it came, made a big, well, I don't know about a big comeback, but it made a comeback

as we talked about later on with the whole NASCAR thing. And then in the 1970s, 60s and 70s, they thought it was sort of a problem again, but they didn't really do a lot about it. Like, there's very few court cases about it. Yeah. Unless it has to do with, I think they'll tie like money laundering. Yeah. Now they go after using money laundering laws, which are way, way worse than, than, you know, moonshining, being convicted of moonshining. Right. And with that, moonshining is becoming a dying art. Right. But they still do it. And then, in the 1970s, they made it legal to make your own wine and beer with homebrew enthusiasts. So it's not the same thing. You can't make your own whiskey. Yeah, you still can't make your own

whiskey. I mean, you can, but it's illegal. Yeah. We'll say it one more time. Check. It's illegal. I'm kind of surprised actually, if they allow homebrewing, it's, it's sort of a, maybe because it's more dangerous is the reason. That's, that's the impression I have. Yeah. It's, it's strictly because it's more dangerous cause I don't think they, they levy taxes any, any higher on beer or wine than they do on liquor, do they? I don't know. I'm sure we'll have someone right in and tell us. I'm quite sure too. Well, uh, you can find out even more about how Moonshine works by typing that in to our handy search bar, howstuffworks.com. It'll bring up a fine, fine article written by our colleague, Ed Grabinowski. The Grabster. Yes, indeed. And Chuck,

I believe you have some listener mail. Yep. Listener mail time. Okay, Josh, uh, I do have an email and I will file this under exceptional fan mail cause it's one of my favorites. Nice. This is from our old friend Molly in Manchester, Connecticut. Hey, Molly. Hey, Molly. And, uh, Molly may not be hearing this right away though. And this is the reason why. Oh yeah. Molly writes in, says she loves the podcast and, uh, she is actually going to West Africa to serve in the Peace Corps for two years, which is a great thing to do. Yes, it is. We're very proud of Molly for that. And she's told that there is a much hope of having a continuous, uh, continuous wireless internet and her mud hut. So, uh, she says she gets a thrill from, uh, listening to our cast and

so she's actually going to save them up and for a period of many months. And so when she gets to Africa in the Peace Corps, she can listen to them, uh, one after the other and, uh, on her little iPod and, uh, we, she says she, I know it seems a little extreme. I don't think so, Molly. I think it's a great idea. Seriously. And, uh, I think that the hours and hours of new stuff I should know to listen to when I'm feeling in the need of intelligent humorous banter might be worth the sacrifice. So, uh, I've actually corresponded with Molly a couple of times by email. Oh yeah. Yeah. Wished her luck and told her, uh, to send us some updates from the Peace Corps and let us know how things are going. Yeah. Good luck, Molly. So that's, uh, exceptional fan mail today. Well,

uh, if you want to send us some fan mail, no matter whether you're in the Peace Corps or just, you know, some working schlub, we don't care. We make no judgments. We love all of you. We're working schlubs. Exactly. You can send that to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Attention, bachelor nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.