Moonshine Madness!

Now, I don't know if you all have ever heard of a fella named Junior Johnson or not, but I'm pretty darned sure you've heard of a thing called Moonshine!


Up where we are, I have heard rumors, (!) that you can buy a type of liquor brewed in a home made still from certain locals, but that would be illegal and I have certainly never bought any.....


I have heard rumors that it is made with potatoes or corn. Fermented in a metal barrel type thingy and the distilled droplets are liquor.  Legend has it the stuff will make you blind, crazy or just very sick.


I don't know any facts or proof about that, but I have heard of Junior Johnson and the roots of many of the old Nascar racing legends and that most of them learned how to drive by running moonshine through the Carolina's before they could hardly see over the steering wheels of cars!

Follow this link to read about Junior's running days.


Junior is just one of the most famous and he actually went to jail for that exact activity. (He explained that he was just doing what his Daddy told him to do and I for one believe him...) 

Born Robert Glenn Johnson Junior on June 28, 1931, he is one of the good old boys we all fondly acknowedge as a racing legend.  

During his racing days he was one of the early superstars of NASCAR in the 1950s and 1960s and won 50 races in his career before retiring in 1966 to go on and become a racing team owner.  
 The movie The Last American Hero starring Jeff Bridges is supposedly about his racing career.

He now produces a line of fried pork skins and country ham and oh!


 His name graces a label of legal moonshine.


Piedmont Distillers Inc is the official website address link and there's lots of serious information there including the other products they sell. Apparently, they are the only legal moonshine Distiller's in the US.


This is the bottle we found and bought.

The product is only sold in local states and we managed to find this bottle in Myrtle Beach. 

Of course we had to buy it! See why they call it white lightning?

The picture on the label has Junior in overalls, looking very much a bumpkin. He's really not a Bumpkin, even if he has the big old accent, but a successful businessman. The car however, is the real deal and I believe I've seen that exact same one. It's suspension is fortified with multi-shocks and the trunk holds a wooden box to hold the bottles of shine safe for the road trip. They had to be wedged into a box so that the sharp, fast corners wouldn't tumble and break them all!

See, the thing about this alcohol is that it's apparently made from grain, not corn or potatoes, so it has few carbohydrates.  I can't find any information on it's ingredients, so that's only here-say.

The inside of the label gives all the flavors and names they make.


So we tasted it. 
(You can't help but notice our bottle isn't full.)
And Dick loves the stuff!
I, on the other hand, didn't like the bite, but that's just me. The actual taste of it is good, fruity and sweet. It's smooth and seems to have a tendency to run down Dick's throat without any problem what so ever!


Just another chapter in history! Moonshine is such a part of the legacy of the south. Half romantic and half sort of sad.... 


I'm always glad when any of it gets preserved!
(Like Dick will be once he finishes the bottle!)

All of these photos were again shot and loaded directly from my Nikon P90 and then posted without alteration of any kind.