# I want to buy moonshine....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 28, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363 "2011-11-28T18:50:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/1 "2011-11-28T18:50:18Z")
…without breaking the law.
I don’t have the space or experience to make it, and would rather not get a cheap imitation.
Anyone here ever drink a commercial 'shine similar to Grandma’s recipe? Bonus points if it’s sold in a canning jar.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/2 "2011-11-28T19:00:24Z")
The legal stuff isn’t the same as the real stuff. Real moonshine is 198 proof. Pretty much all states don’t allow ethyl alcohol in that content.
Plus, the real stuff is so godawful that nobody would actually buy it in a liquor store to make it commercially feasible.
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/3 "2011-11-28T19:00:29Z")
Would moonshine be distinguishable from Everclear?
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/4 "2011-11-28T19:07:27Z")
I don’t know how much help this will be to you, but you can get moonshine legally in South Carolina in a few places. There’s a place in Greenville that just opened recently. A clause in the law regarding microbreweries lets “microdistilleries” operate legally also, with a whole slew of regulations.
[Dark Corner Distillery](http://www.darkcornerdistillery.com/distillery.html)
I have had moonshine (the not so legal kind) and in my opinion, it’s much better than Everclear. The batches I have tried have much less of a “bite” to them than Everclear does. The sample I tried from Dark Corner was also of very good quality.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/5 "2011-11-28T19:12:13Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> Real moonshine is 198 proof.
FYI, the maximum you’ll get via fractional distillation should be around 192, if even that. Ethanol forms an azeotrope with water at around 95-96% by volume.
I don’t know about real moonshine, but if they’re actually getting 198 proof, there’s some other stuff added to the liquor that can’t be good for human consumption. The usual agent to get ultra pure ethanol is benzene, which definitely isn’t good for drinking.
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### Author:  [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/6 "2011-11-28T19:36:19Z")
> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> I have had moonshine (the not so legal kind) and in my opinion, it’s much better than Everclear. The batches I have tried have much less of a “bite” to them than Everclear does.
I’ve also had not-so-legal moonshine and it was god-fucking-awful. As in ‘immediate gag response’ awful, and some gentler folks who partook found themselves immediately vomiting. This was from, as I was told, a “known good” source who only sold to friends, who had been buying for years and not one – I say, not one – had gone blind. Someplace in Kentucky, I understand. Would not recommend.
We do have the ‘mason jar’ commercial kind around here – some sort of corn liquor – but I wasn’t too keen to repeat the experience and haven’t purchased it.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/7 "2011-11-28T20:09:58Z")
Nitpick: Moonshine is alcohol produced on an illegal still. You can’t have “legal moonshine”. If its legal, its not moonshine.
But I think what your looking for is the product of micro-distilleries, mentioned above.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/8 "2011-11-28T20:16:35Z")
I’ve seen it at Bevmo, as well as poteen, which is a similar idea, and I’m sure grappa is there. I didn’t look at the percentages, but I’m going to guess these are way smoother than homemade, and (hopefully) contain less methanol and such.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/9 "2011-11-28T21:50:39Z")
Most moonshine is pretty godawful, in the same category as prison toilet wine. There are some things were “authentic” doesn’t = better.
Moonshne is by it’s nature “a cheap imitation” of professionally distilled alcohol. That’s essentially what it is. Asking for moonshine that’s not a “cheap imitation” isn’t logical.
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### Author:  [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/10 "2011-11-28T22:46:36Z")
How about this? [Stillhouse Moonshine: The Book (NOTCOT)](http://www.notcot.com/archives/2011/07/moonshine.php)
The manufacturer’s site is at [moonshine.com](http://moonshine.com)
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/11 "2011-11-29T01:40:14Z")
Back when I was working in agriculture, a few of the company execs were at the opening of an ethanol plant, and had a ceremonial “toast” of ethanol that hadn’t been denatured. Pure ethanol is about as close to straight-from-the-still moonshine as possible. I don’t believe any of them actually swallowed it, feeling compelled to spit it out as soon as it hit their mucous membranes.
Everclear is as close as you want to get to moonshine.
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### Author:  [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/12 "2011-11-29T02:24:49Z")
I’ve had some that tasted like wang-y Everclear, your basic (pshew!) White Lightning, but I’ve also had some that was more of a corn whiskey…a little lighter in color than Bourbon or Mash, more yellowy. That was fairly sippable once you had enough sips. Also, some not-so good Brandy.
All this was made by a friend’s great uncle, who was in his 70s when I was a kid in the late 70s, so he probably had some experience back in the day. By that time, I think him and his fishing buddies just did it for something to do.
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### Author:  [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/13 "2011-11-29T02:31:17Z")
Well, if the OP can travel, there are a variety of options. In Cyprus there is Zefaniya, In Saudi there is Sid and Thailand has something distilled from sugar cane that is a lot like drinking lighter fluid. Even the Aka tribesmen in the Golden Triangle have some kind of dreadful thing they distill. It has things floating in it. Ireland has Poteen and I’m sure most other European countries have something similar.
I’ve had moonshine in Ky. and it was frankly awful. In highschool we used to buy a gallon of that and a case of beer to get it down with. That made for an awful sort of weekend.
Regards
Testy
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### Author:  [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/14 "2011-11-30T22:05:47Z")
The moonshine sold around here comes in mason jars, diluted and flavored with fruit. It’s strong, but it tastes good.
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### Author:  [@Moonshiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshiner)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/15 "2011-12-01T02:44:54Z")
You want to buy legal shine? Sorry, can’t help ya there buddy. {;^)
Actually, there are a number of distlleries making legal white lightning these days.
[http://www.juniorsmidnightmoon.com](http://www.juniorsmidnightmoon.com)
[http://troyandsons.com/](http://troyandsons.com/)
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/16 "2011-12-01T02:56:57Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> Back when I was working in agriculture, a few of the company execs were at the opening of an ethanol plant, and had a ceremonial “toast” of ethanol that hadn’t been denatured. Pure ethanol is about as close to straight-from-the-still moonshine as possible. I don’t believe any of them actually swallowed it, feeling compelled to spit it out as soon as it hit their mucous membranes.
>
> Everclear is as close as you want to get to moonshine.
it dilutes itself with any water it can find it your body, sucks it right out of your cells.
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### Author:  [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/17 "2011-12-01T03:02:02Z")
The legal, corn based, fancy-labeled “White Whiskey” seems like a ripoff to me - basically Bourbon minus the cost, trouble, and benefit of barrel aging, yet sold for a similar price, no?
Isn’t actual moonshine mostly just distilled from plain sugar nowadays?
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### Author:  [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/18 "2011-12-01T03:28:54Z")
My great aunt had a still and drank her own shine until she died a few years ago at 102. She drank it in a rocks glass (hold the rocks) with a teaspoon of sugar and a twist of lemon. She drank three or four every evening.
I have no idea how she did it and managed to live that long… By far the nastiest drink I’ve ever put in my mouth, like sweetened kerosene with a twist.
Just the thought makes me shiver and I tasted it 30 years ago.
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### Author:  [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/19 "2011-12-01T05:09:23Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> The legal stuff isn’t the same as the real stuff. Real moonshine is 198 proof. **Pretty much all states don’t allow ethyl alcohol in that content.**
>
> Plus, the real stuff is so godawful that nobody would actually buy it in a liquor store to make it commercially feasible.
Not really. You can buy 190 proof Everclear in the [vast majority](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_%28alcohol%29#190-proof) of states. For drinking purposes, and 8 proof difference is academic. That shit is dangerous though, and I don’t mean dangerous like Jagermeister, I mean like read the MSDS dangerous.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-buy-moonshine/604363/20 "2011-12-02T17:07:32Z")
Poitín is awful stuff. I was very disappointed anytime I’ve had it.
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