page_title: Moonshine by country
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Moonshine by country / Countries / United States
caption_attribution_description: Moonshine: People once believed (incorrectly) that a blue flame meant it was safe to drink.
context_page_description: Moonshine is a generic term for distilled alcoholic beverages made throughout the globe from indigenous ingredients reflecting the customs, tastes, and raw materials for fermentation available in each region. The term commonly applies to small-scale production, which is often illegal or tightly regulated in many countries.
context_section_description: While home distillation is illegal in the United States, it continues to be practiced, mainly in Appalachia.  The product is sometimes called white lightning, because it is not aged and is generally sold at high alcohol proof, often bottled in Mason jars. A typical moonshine still may produce 1000 gallons per week and net $6000 per week for its owner.  The simplicity of the process, and the easy availability of key ingredients such as corn and sugar, make enforcement difficult. However, the price advantage that moonshine once held over its legally sold competition has fallen. Nevertheless, over half the retail price of a bottle of distilled spirits typically consists of taxes. With the availability of cheap refined white sugar, moonshiners can make saleable product for a fraction of the price of heavily taxed and legally sold distilled spirits. Some people also use moonshine alcohol for herbal tinctures.
  The number of jurisdictions that ban alcoholic beverage sales has steadily decreased, which means many of former moonshine consumers are much nearer to a legal alcohol sales outlet than before. Many legal distilled beverages, usually neutral spirits or corn whiskey, with names evoking moonshine exist, such as Onyx Moonshine, Virginia Lightning, Georgia Moon Corn Whiskey, Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine, and Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon are produced commercially and sold in liquor stores, typically packaged in a clay jug or glass Mason jar. While these products may refer to themselves as "moonshine," any alcohol that is legally sold cannot be accurately called "moonshine" by nature of the term.
  Moonshining has always been popular in the southeastern part of the United States, especially in farm communities, partly because farmers have the produce (corn, barley, apples, grapes, etc.) to make illegal liquor. In some cases, farmers use produce they cannot sell to make moonshine for a profit. Lengthy prison sentences for those caught manufacturing or distributing illegal alcohol makes moonshiners conceal their still sites in secret locations. Stills are unique contraptions that typically consist of several metal drums, copper pipes, and heat sources that heat the mash of sugar, starch and fruit or grain product. The weight and overall size of stills makes concealment difficult. This has led many moonshiners to hide their still sites in very clever locations; most of these moonshiners take refuge deep in the backwoods of America, in abandoned barns in addition to underground structures and tunnels.  A classic example of underground still sites that are still being utilized today is the usage of old abandoned mining tunnels. This idea is said to have started in the old mining caves in Tennessee soon after the civil war. Illegal distillers would use these caves because it provided adequate cover that protected them from being discovered by law enforcement officers. American moonshiners also preferred the use of caves due to the natural abundance of water that the caves provided; which is a key ingredient of moonshine. These caves were used to manufacture moonshine until well into the 20th century.
  During prohibition (which lasted from 1920 to 1933), the sale, manufacture and distribution of alcohol was severely curtailed. This new legal sanction created a landslide of illegal distribution of liquor and moonshine, which some farmers and illegal distillers would call the golden age of moonshining. Since alcohol was illegal, moonshiners and bootleggers faced a high demand for liquor that allowed them to have a monopoly over the alcohol trade in the United States. The Great Depression—from 1929 to 1939—also contributed to the popularity of moonshining in the United States. During that time of economic hardship, many Americans turned to manufacturing and distributing illegal products.  In the southern states, some moonshiners sold their product to bootleggers, who transported it all over the country, often selling to crime syndicates such as that run by Al Capone.
  As early as prohibition, there have been stories of moonshiners using 
caption: A typical jar of moonshine. It was once wrongly believed that the blue flame meant that it was safe to drink.
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