Three Things You Didn’t Know About Moonshine

As a distilling company, we love our moonshine, and we’re proud of the process and results every day. We drink moonshine in celebration, to handle a long day’s work, and for just about any other reason. We love explaining the distilling process and giving information on its history during our tasting appointments. Moonshine is an incredible drink with a long history, but there are some things we bet you didn’t know about our favorite beverage.

XXX used to indicate the quality of the ‘shine.

Each X stated how many times the batch was run through the still. When moonshine was entirely homemade, three runs were necessary to get a higher and more pure alcohol content. Moonshiners had so much pride in their products that they would only put out high-quality and high ABV products. So next time you see a cartoon or old movie with XXX on the jar, you know why! 

NASCAR began because of moonshine.

We’ve discussed this before, but as a reminder, moonshiners made moonshine, and bootleggers smuggled it. Many soldiers returning home after WWII used the knowledge they gained about automobiles and started smuggling liquor inside them! These soldiers could modify the cars to fit more moonshine inside. When they weren’t busy smuggling liquor and running from the cops, they would race each other. This past time turned into the NASCAR we know and love today. A moonshiner is the benefactor behind it all, too, giving NASCAR founder Bill France the start-up money. 

Not all moonshine is illegal.

This one may be obvious, as that’s the primary liquor we sell, but this wasn’t always the case. Moonshine became popular when taxes were put on alcohol and during prohibition. It was a cheap and easy way to get drunk – drunk – and people loved it. Today’s distilling process is much different and much safer than it was back in the day. Today, moonshine is labeled as anything that doesn’t fall into a pre-determined category. For example, our moonshine can differ from another distiller. And do note that ours is the better option. 

There you have it! We hope you enjoyed a few fun facts about moonshine to make it even more enjoyable. If you’re looking to stock up on legal (but so tasty it could be illegal) moonshine, stop by our Kodak, TN location. We offer free samples on any products and $5 cocktails every day of the week. After a few sips, you’ll see why we love it so much.