The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-10-04
HOME STILLS
TURN OUT HUGE
BOOZE SUPPLY
Brew and MOonShine Made
in Residences Reported
Increasing Fast.
BY RODNEY BUTCHER
MA Service Writer

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4.IThe
drinking vets Of prohibition Amer
lea are getting on to a home brew
moonshine basis nearly everywhere.
The average drinker, if he is not
consuming home-brewed beer or do
nestle wine, nearly is always drink
ng whisky or gin or beer in which
ne kick is produced by alcohol from
an illicit still.
For some time his chances Of get
ting the real stuff" have been down
to what seems to be a minimum.
These facts one gathers from au-
thorities in the prohibition bureau.
Tighten Up on Alcohol
At one time a tremendous amount
Of industrial alcohol was diverted
INTO the bootlegging business. A
great deal Of this alcohol still finds
its way into the national drink sup
plv. but not nearly so much.
The government has frightened up
in its supervision over industrial al
cohol and it has become harder to
get.
But the smaller the flow Of in
dustrial alcohol into bootleg chan
nels. the greater the production Of
alcohol from moonshine stills. And
the moonshine alcohol is, as pro-
bibition enforcers admit, pure grain
alcohol.
It does not contain the horrible
and more or less poisonous concoc-
tons which the government mas
been putting into industrial alcohol
IN keen it out of cocktail and high
hall glasses. And the consumer
does not have to worry about the
bootlegger's expertnesS In the
process of recoOking.
Most of 1t MOOnshine
The great proportion of booze
seized in the country as a whole
according to government chemists
is moonshine liquor made in StlIls
from corn sugar, molasses ana
only about per cent of the
seized Iiuuor is found to contain
what was once diverted industrial
alcohol. In some locations OF
course, especially in large eastern
states where industrial alcohol Is
more readily available the percent
age Is considerably higher.
throughout the south, the middle
west and the mountain states
virtually all the whisky and all
the alcohol found appears to have
come straight from the still
The best market for straight
alcohol is found in the states where
the law is most nearly enforced.
owing to the greater convenience OF
carrying alcohol 49,,
In comparatively dry agricultural
states. such as Iowa and Kansas
alcohol is used by the ultimate con-
SINNER to spike" near beer.
Gin Easier to Make
The chemists are not surprised
tn observe what appears to be the
generally increased popularity OF
gin for they explain that gin IS
much easier to make than whisky II
the maker only has the alcohol.
"As the supervision Of alcohol
becomes more effective and as our
treatment of it becomes more
difficult to overcome" a prohibition
official told your correspondent tine
Illicit alcohol and whisky stills VIII
do a correspondingly large business
of course, these are much harder
to control. When we get down to
mocnshine proposition it is up to
the local authorities to help
suppress the traffic. The federal
force simply can't be expected to
locate all the concealed stills.
I'VE have to admit that most OF
the moonshine liquor now being
made is pure"