GOIN’ COUNTRY! Bloomberg Pursuits March 23, 2020
Heritage Distilling Co. The United
States of ③
Moonshine Outlaw ① Distillery They say it can cure what ails you—or make you go blind. Whatever its mischief, bartenders and distillers alike are fired up about firewater By Mark Ellwood ②
Thank the Great Recession for the newfound boom in moonshine, that illicit liquor cooked up in backyard stills 64 across America for centuries. Usually fermented from corn mash, it’s like bourbon without a high school diploma. A slew of Southern states loosened restrictions on dis- tilleries by 2010, and some makers jumped right into the moonshine business. It was a smart move: High-proof, unfil- tered firewater is bottled and sold straight from the still; dark liquors must be aged for months, or even years, before yielding a profit. It didn’t take long for the hooch to become a mainstay of craft distilling across the country. (Some, of course, was likely already being made long before 2010.) 1. SONOMA SHINE paradise owned by beets, and Rocky Josh Kopel, who stocks almost 100 different types of Prohibition Spirits, Yuseff Cherney, who Mountain water; this moonshine at his Deep South-tinged restaurant Preux & Sonoma, Calif. left a career in law to gives their moonshine Proper in Los Angeles, is a passionate advocate. “It really At their distillery start up his own still. a slightly sweeter tucked into Northern Compare the unaged kick, with a hint speaks to people in a world where everything vintage is California wine country, version—sweet, fiery, of butterscotch. new again. It connects with American heritage and lineage Amy Groth and her and floral—with the in a pure and authentic way,” he says. “And it’s the devil.” husband, Fred, first same whiskey after it’s 4. ARCHER’S BLEND earned accolades for aged in heavily charred MOONSHINE He suggests using it as a stand-in for vodka in any recipe, their limoncello. Now American oak barrels, Moonshine Ridge or subbing it for tequila in a margarita. Moonshine will they’ve branched out adding cinnamon and Distillery, Johnson City, add a musky kick, with a slightly sweet finish like boozy and offer two small- caramel notes. Texas batch moonshines: Tom and Jason Hicks kettle corn. One is made from corn; 3. MILK CAN are third-generation We asked a panel of moonshine-chugging experts to weigh the other repurposes MOONSHINE moonshiners who in with their recommendations, including Kopel; chef Kenny leftover wine, a local Backwards Distilling Co., spent their childhood in spin on the tradition of Casper, Wyo. Kentucky surrounded Gilbert of Cut & Gather in Raleigh, N.C., which focuses on relying on whatever’s In cowboy times, by an uncle who was a moonshine behind the bar; and Otello Tiano, from Lazy available as a base. distillers here stashed bootleg runner and a Bear bar in San Francisco, a lifelong aficionado who grew up bootleg booze in milk grandfather who had 2. DEVIL’S SHARE cans and transported his own recipe. They around moonshiners in his native Italy. MOONSHINE it in dairy wagons— use that as a basis for Fair warning: Hooch has come a long way, but it still Cutwater Spirits, hence the name and the 105-proof Archer’s tastes like it can strip paint. Consider sampling these in San Diego quirky packaging. Blend, named in their Try the 98.6-proof white The Pollock family granddad’s honor. moderation—or storing them in case of an emergency, when dog or unaged whiskey uses a recipe relying The pair tweaked it
another, more civilized liquor may not be enough.
Bully Boy Distillers Black Hills Dakota Distilling ③ 11
⑩ ⑥ Copper Run Distillery ⑦ ⑨ ⑤ ⑧
Whiskey Hollow
65 ④
1-11: Recommended moonshines ● Other moonshine distilleries
wildflower honey for visit. “They make one 7. POPCORN SUTTON Troy Ball cooked up her Hall of Famer, who uses corn, rye, and sugar and using locally of the most balanced MOONSHINE recipe after researching spent time in jail for barley malt. “It’s great grown corn. The warm, moonshines of all,” Popcorn Sutton old moonshine cheat running moonshine for for sipping, as it’s so bready finish is due to Tiano says. Distilling, Newport, sheets. The key to the his famous bootlegger clean—to me, it drinks the baker’s yeast used Tenn. whiskey and moonshine father. Triple-distilled like Tito’s vodka, with a in production. 6. DEVIL JOHN “They spike this with made here is Crooked in copper, it’s extra slight kick,” Gilbert says. MOONSHINE sweet tea to smooth Creek corn, a forgotten smooth—try one of 5. OLE SMOKY & DARK ’SHINE out the flavor, so you heirloom variety that fell the fruity flavors, made 11. KINGS COUNTY MOONSHINE Barrel House Distilling could drink it straight from favor in the 1960s. simply by steeping MOONSHINE Ole Smoky Distillery, Co., Lexington, Ky. from the bottle,” says It has a high-fat content strawberries or cherries Kings County Distillery, Nashville, Gatlinburg, For the main product Kopel of this white that confers layers of in the bottle, then use Brooklyn, N.Y. and Pigeon Forge, in his line, founder Pete spirit. It’s named after flavor. “The depth you’ll the potent fruit as a Ten years ago, Colin Tenn. Wright took the recipe a banjo-playing hooch find is amazing: hints of cocktail garnish. Spoelman, a Kentuckian This is the biggest and of his great-uncle, army merchant who commit- vanilla and a little oak, in New York, started this arguably best-known vet “Devil” John Wright, ted suicide rather than which is fascinating 10. TIM SMITH’S distillery focused on moonshine maker who moonlighted as a go to prison after being for something that CLIMAX MOONSHINE whiskey and bourbon in today, with multiple moonshiner despite a busted with 850 gallons hasn’t lived in a barrel,” Belmont Farm Distillery, a 300-square-foot room sites across Tennessee. career as a lawman. He of firewater. As Sutton Kopel raves. Culpeper, Va. in East Williamsburg There’s usually live also offers an unusual said in his self-published Over the past decade, with a friend. Although music during pours second version: His memoir, Me and My 9. JUNIOR Smith has earned the operation has since to entertain the more Dark ’Shine, aged for Likker: “Jesus turned JOHNSON’S notoriety on the expanded, production than 4 million visitors 10 months in small, the water into wine, I MIDNIGHT MOON Discovery show remains boutique. “This who pass through once-used, charred turned it into likker.” Piedmont Distillers, Moonshiners, which moonshine is hard to get each year. Try one of oak bourbon barrels, Madison, N.C. charted his supposed your hands on,” Kopel the kooky, limited- is one step closer to 8. TROY & SONS This legal operation illegal booze-running. says, “But they use New edition flavors like Kentucky’s classic Asheville Distilling Co., relies on the family But he’s gone legit: This York corn and Scottish
KINGSCOUNTY: PHOTOGRAPH BY BOBBY DOUGHERTY. ALL OTHER IMAGES: COURTESY DISTILLERIES. DISTILLERIES. COURTESY IMAGES: OTHER ALL DOUGHERTY. BOBBY BY PHOTOGRAPH KINGSCOUNTY: 731 BY ILLUSTRATIONS pumpkin pie when you brown liquor. Asheville, N.C. recipe of the late Nascar law-abiding launch barley, and it’s a classic.”