# Did they really use to put X's on a jug to mean it was hooch?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 29, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902 "2013-09-29T04:15:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/1 "2013-09-29T04:15:08Z")
Younger people might not have seen it, but there’s this stereotypical character of a backwoods hillbilly drunk, who always drinks white lightning out of an (apparently) ceramic jug. This jug almost always has a little finger handle at the base of the neck and three letter X’s on it which apparently is supposed to mean it’s a high proof alcoholic beverage.
With the sole exception of Dos Equis beer, and the apparently apocryphal and/or legendary Tres Equis beer, I’ve never seen this system used IRL to represent alcohol. Did such a standard system of symbols ever really exist otherwise?
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### Author:  [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/2 "2013-09-29T04:21:57Z")
The story is that moonshiners would write X on a jug to mark each time it had been distilled. The stereotypical XXX jug would be triple distilled moonshine.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/3 "2013-09-29T13:15:31Z")
“This ain’t no five-X whiskey! I can still see!”
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/4 "2013-09-29T13:22:45Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> With the sole exception of Dos Equis beer, and the apparently apocryphal and/or legendary Tres Equis beer, I’ve never seen this system used IRL to represent alcohol. Did such a standard system of symbols ever really exist otherwise?
And Dos Equis got the name because the formula was originally intended as a Special Edition to celebrate the arrival of the 20th century: Spanish uses Roman numerals for centuries. It’s got nothing to do with its being alcoholic.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/5 "2013-09-29T16:04:45Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> and the apparently apocryphal and/or legendary Tres Equis beer,
I never heard that Tres Equis might be apocryphal. I used to drink it in the 1970s in Colorado.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/6 "2013-09-29T19:52:15Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > and the apparently apocryphal and/or legendary Tres Equis beer
>
> I never heard that Tres Equis might be apocryphal. I used to drink it in the 1970s in Colorado.
I wasn’t being 100% serious, but I never did see it at UCSD, which is slightly odd considering the geography; you’d think it would happen just by default. Then again, my circle of friends and acquaintances tended to favor German beer.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/7 "2013-09-29T19:58:45Z")
> [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](#):
>
> The story is that moonshiners would write X on a jug to mark each time it had been distilled. The stereotypical XXX jug would be triple distilled moonshine.
I live in a part of the world where the locals did, in fact, mark their jugs in such a manner. A triply distilled corn whisky is about as close to pure alcohol as you can get outside of a chemical plant, and that is what the oldtimers still sell around here.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/8 "2013-09-29T20:40:20Z")
> [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](#):
>
> The story is that moonshiners would write X on a jug to mark each time it had been distilled. The stereotypical XXX jug would be triple distilled moonshine.
Fascinating. I didn’t know distallation happened in jug-sized amounts–unless they did a whole phalanx of jugs in one run.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Morris\_J.Alderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Morris_J.Alderman)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/9 "2013-09-29T21:12:37Z")
No. X’s on a jug of home-produced spirits had nothing to do with alcohol. This was the method of identifying the initials of the moonshiners for those who were illiterate.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/10 "2013-10-02T07:48:36Z")
Ha! Here’s double that Dos Equis: [XXXX beer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXXX)
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2013, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/11 "2013-10-05T08:48:03Z")
I love this question, and it’s why I love this board.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/12 "2013-10-06T03:24:38Z")
Amen to that. Thanks indeed to all of you who replied.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-they-really-use-to-put-xs-on-a-jug-to-mean-it-was-hooch/669902/13 "2013-10-09T23:23:09Z")
Tres Equis was readily available in Baja back in the 90s. It came in stubbies with an indentation in the bottom of the bottle for opening the next one. Seems the twist-off caps were rather sharp, and would cut your hand if you tried to open one like a Bud. It was the favored beer of our sailing group, mainly because it was so cheap.