The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-07
nAND-MADE WHISKY
BEST PRODUCT OF ALL is SOUR
MASH DISTILLED IN
WOOD
FREE OF REVENUE faint

The Views of East Tennessee
Man Familiar With the Processes
Practiced by the sMocnshlners of
the Mountain UnapprOachabIe
Nectar Produced In Some of the
Stills In the Back Woods.
The best whisky in the world is gem
ufne handmade sour mash, distilled in
wood, and never allowed to touch more
metal than the gooseneck and the worm,
man who should know said the other
day. Il know, because / was raised In a
distillery. Not one of your flaming COM
mercial whisky trust affairs, but one
that had individuality and a pride in it's
brands. My father owned 1t; first and
last he owned something like a dozen
distilleiies. The one that made me WIS
ky wise was big log affair set down in
a wooded fiat beside a picturesque tuIn-
bling little creek and a spring of the finest
clear water In the world.
That meant something, let me tell you
The water that goes into the beer leaves
Its mark the subsequent whisky We
had fairish-szed steam engine for
grinding, pumping, and so on. 1t also
heated water for the mash, and later
did the distilling. We had fifty odd mash
tubs and three beer watts whose capacity |
was 1850 gallons. A bushel and a half of
coarsely ground meal went into each of
the tubs, was wet thoroughly with scald-
Ing water, then mixed and kneaded and
pounded with the mash stick, wooden
wit ctr 10Th md q
square, open-slotted blade. The mixing
took both knowledge and muscle After
1t was done the tubs were left until the
next day. The mash IN them crusted over
SO hard that l sometimes amused myself
by stepping nimbly from one tub to an
other without breaking through The crust.
THE next morning the mash was
broken up in cold water to form a sort
of thin Cruel. Then the tubs were emp
tied into the vat and the Cruel dosed
literally with yeast and ground malt.
We made our own malt from corn, let-in
1t sprout, then drying and grinding II.
Sometimes we put in also few handouts
of ground rye. Very occasionally We had
some of the malt of commerce For the
most part, though, our whisky was as
! strictly homemade as handmade.
THE beer stood two days in the vat
before dstilling. Right there comes In
the thing which makes sour mash so
much of commercial inipossibility 70
sweet-mash distilling the meal is mixed
in the vat by machinery and goes to me
still very shortly after. Thus 1t Is pos
sble to keep filling the watts as fast as
| they are emptied, and to make continuous
| runs from the stills. The same th'ns
might be done with sour mash, but II
| would take an awful lot OF space anu
| watts and things to do It,
INV father had had copper stills ana
| all sorts of boughten ones, WORD without
| end. He had used them to good purposS,
too, and ought to have been satisiieu
| with the result-his whisky always heio
the top Of the market-but somehow ne
wasn't So when an Old feiloW' nan
vagrant, let him into the moohs sl II,
| secret. he posted straight off to East len
nessee to find out If the vagrant NAG
! spoken the truth.
DISTILLED IN LOGS
| The old fellow had said that the noun
| tain men had a way OF d1stililns III nv
| low logs The art had come down u .nOii
| from the very earliest days, Wheh tiiele
were only trails across the mountains
and M Feasibility Of bringing In anything
ILL., regular still Then the settlers
| nod contriyed these timber Stills using
.,o barrels for the worms, ana ihdhihs
| roosenecks from shreds ana scraps -,
| tinware He added that the timber s-In
go ,,o+ tho moonshiner's reliance II
was not only easily hidden, but was also
rsadilv replaced when destroyed. any
| lively fellow could scoot OH with lhe
worm and gooseneck II the reVehuers
came down. and they were reahy 'ho
only things essential to such an ou.n,.
"wen. sir. we found that the nan Hau
| not haen told u.s. Father took me ai.Hs.
| We both thought we knew WHISKY Wnen
| n5a tasted It, To this day l nave heNei
drunk the match to what was given US
| In q log house high upon one OF the palus;
| .fIit never chen smelt er reVenueF, sat'
| the man who sat 1t out, lean' iahN,
| erizzIed old fellow, shrewd-eyeu' ye.
| kindly. He was Mason; so was my
| father. Otherwise, fancy, we shouia
not have found out so much. AS IL wa,
| wa saw everything. The still was not III
cave al some moonshine establish
| nents were, but in a peacelui-ioo
Loo cabin. right on the bank of the creek.
| There were no hogs about az pul ~
| Vulnerable pig paths down the wooden
hills showed that there were plenty or
razor backs within sound of the horn. III
| u,ae the fashion to call hogs there upon
| lo,,o wooden trumpet Trumpet notes,
however hoarse. did not, you see, sug'
| pest ANYTHING but hogs TO the reVenuers.
| Neither did the cabin itself wear an Illicit
| asnect Indeed, it was picturesGuely
| commonplace, with little ragged lean
| to at one end and a wild vine spraWilng
| over the front door 1t was about twenty
| feet square, with the logs only skelped.
| But we soon found out that the master
/ of II was also q master of timber work
| ing "'I heWed and aided EN- pfctty