Wheeler was instrumental in persuading Congress to vote for the law. Yet Wheeler, to get Volstead through Congress, had to permit some loopholes in the law that would loom larger than he had envisioned. Licensed doctors were permitted to prescribe whiskey, other distilled spirits from government-licensed distilleries and wine as treatments for aliments, limited to one pint every 10 days.
Both loopholes were abused. Doctors and pharmacists made a lot of money issuing the expensive prescriptions to patients for colds and sore throats. Bonded distillers and winemakers with government permits who provided the liquor also made out. Martin owed their rise as big businesses to making sacramental wine for clergymen, who essentially became bootleggers for their congregations. One of the largest exceptions to Volstead concerned winemaking at home.
In October , eight months after Prohibition took effect, the Treasury Department issued a statement clarifying Section 29 of Volstead concerning manufacturing fruit juices at home without a federal permit. The regulation — certainly not what Wheeler had intended — led to a nationwide surge in home-fermented wines and related businesses during Prohibition.
From to , million gallons of homemade wine passed through the lips of Americans — triple the amount they drank in the five years leading up to Prohibition.
The acreage farmers in California devoted to growing wine grapes expanded from 97, to , Under Prohibition laws, these businesses could face federal penalties for knowingly providing the makings of alcoholic beverages, but they did it anyway, selling them in a variety of wine grapes, including port, sherry, Riesling and Burgundy. Meanwhile, racketeers, in addition to buying whiskey and other liquors smuggled from Canada, Great Britain and Mexico, manufactured alcohol.
Some racketeers bought up closed breweries and distilleries and hired former employees to make the same products illegally. Though most prosecutions continue to be in the south, many of today's new moonshiners are hipster kids, foodie enthusiasts and hobbyists on America's coasts, making booze in their kitchens and bathrooms. One Brooklyn resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, makes moonshine to her father's recipe. She says: "Growing up, me and my brothers watched our dad make moonshine in the bathtub.
Now we do it. In her 20s and an aspiring musician, she is typical of the new breed of moonshiners. Rigged up in her kitchen is a gleaming copper still which she bought over the internet for several hundred dollars.
By day she works in a museum where many of her colleagues know about her illicit hobby. I wouldn't go blabbing about it to someone I'd just met," she says. Private individuals distilling small amounts at home for their own consumption are unlikely to get caught, although police say they take all tip-offs seriously. A number of distillers have set up websites and blogs where they anonymously answer questions and give advice to first-timers or anyone having problems.
Colonel Vaughn Wilson is one of America's best known builders of copper stills. He has seen demand double for his stills in recent years. Because prosecutions tend to be made on a state rather than federal basis, there is no record of the number of moonshine convictions made in America annually.
But arrests have been made in Kentucky, Georgia and Arkansas in the past month. A man in Bell County, Kentucky, was arrested in June after police discovered gallons of moonshine litres and gallons of mash on his property.
Police said it was part of an ongoing investigation and added that they hoped to make more arrests. As distillers began to secretly make their own shine or sell to others, the pot still became especially popular for its easy construction, operation and covert storage capacity.
While alcohol was commonly smuggled across U. Moonshine is rumored to have found its namesake in hidden distilleries that were operated in the dark, by the light of the moon. Though Prohibition was repealed in , many still have pot stills hidden away to make true, homemade moonshine. Take a look at the products section and see the complete stills available from Hillbilly Stills to find yours. To make whiskey some people use only what is known as a pot still, This can also be made in a single run with the Hillbilly Flute turn key system that uses a series of plates to make a high quality spirit carrying over lots of good flavor.
Murray, KY
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