Dad’s [Tennessee/Kentucky] Recipe for Pure Grain Alcohol (C2 H5 OH)

In a clean 55 gallon drum heat 50 gallons of water to 80 degrees F

Add: 25 Lbs course ground corn meal

5 Lbs sugar; 1/2 Lb bakers yeast

Ferment 3 to 4 days at 70 to 90 degrees F

Drain off liquid and distill same at 170+ degrees … turns to water at 212 degrees:

This can be done on a much smaller scale in an old Pressure Cooker or Canner if you can tap out of the lid;~)

Whiskey Rebellion

Wikipedia

The Whiskey Rebellion, also known as the Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791, during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called “whiskey tax” was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. It became law in 1791, and was intended to generate revenue to help reduce the national debt.[3] Although the tax applied to all distilled spirits, whiskey was by far the most popular distilled beverage in the 18th-century U.S. Because of this, the excise became widely known as a “whiskey tax”. The new excise was a part of U.S. treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton‘s program to fund war debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War.

The tax was resisted by farmers in the western frontier regions who were long accustomed to distilling their surplus grain and corn into whiskey. In these regions, whiskey was sufficiently popular that it often served as a medium of exchange. Many of the resisters were war veterans who believed that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation, while the U.S. federal government maintained the taxes were the legal expression of the taxation powers of Congress.

Throughout counties in Western Pennsylvania, protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting the tax. Resistance came to a climax in July 1794, when a U.S. marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to servewrits to distillers who had not paid the excise. The alarm was raised, and more than 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville. Washington responded by sending peace commissioners to western Pennsylvania to negotiate with the rebels, while at the same time calling on governors to send a militia force to enforce the tax. With 13,000 militiamen provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Washington rode at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency. The rebels all went home before the arrival of the army, and there was no confrontation. About 20 men were arrested, but all were later acquitted or pardoned. Most distillers in nearby Kentucky were found to be all but impossible to tax; in the next six years, over 175 distillers from Kentucky were convicted of violating the tax law.[4] Numerous examples of resistance are recorded in court documents and newspaper accounts.[5]

The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the will and the ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws. The whiskey excise remained difficult to collect, however. The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States, a process already underway. The whiskey tax was repealed after Thomas Jefferson‘sRepublican Party, which opposed Hamilton’s Federalist Party, came to power in 1801.

Read the rest here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion

14 thoughts on “Dad’s [Tennessee/Kentucky] Recipe for Pure Grain Alcohol (C2 H5 OH)

  1. If you really want Tennessee bourbon, filter it through sugar maple charcoal. Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon do not taste the same. Compare Jack Daniels to Jim beam.

    1. DHS? I thought it was the treasury department that chased bootleggers. I can imagine GrayRider leaving them in the dust, and disappearing into the woods with a barrel of shine.

      And he’s not the first bootlegger we’ve had here, either. (4 potential producers on this page alone). I want a still too. It’s on my list.

  2. GrayRider,
    How much end product is produced and is store bought corn meal ok to use?
    (wondered if the store bought meal would be course enough)
    Thanks for posting your recipe.

    1. GrayRider,
      Thank you for responding to my questions as well as the interesting back round about the recipe. Sounds like your pa cared about making sure you were established in a different trade before sharing his recipe.

      Also the info. about the different results the numerous distillations will have on the end product was very useful.
      Glad you enjoyed the Christmas chat, I did also.

      What does MTHM mean? Closest I got was Metric Ton of Heavy Metal. I’m not too versed at the net speak, but have gotten better at figuring it out according to context, although yours has me stumped.
      I’m guessing the first M stands for mood.(?)

      Here is another guess, but it only works if you are in error with the last letter which is M. If the last letter is D,(MTHD)here’s the translation, Middle Tennessee Hispanic Democrat. Found this in my search, which made me chuckle.

  3. If you can find a keg, use that. It’s easy to put a new top on it with pressure and use the keg as your ‘still’. It’s easy to find on google. I did this 16 years ago and man it was easy, especially if you use electric heat sources as you can dial them in accurately. Ace hardware will have your copper needs…..

  4. that is sugar shine. The good stuff is made with all corn. have to malt some whole corn first, sprout it .then low cook that with the rest of the mash to turn all the starches to sugars forthe yeast to eat.

  5. This recipe uses the Wild Turkey grain bill; corn, rye, and barley.

    Ingredients:
    5 gallons of water
    4 lbs organic corn meal (grocery store grade)
    2 lbs rye flour
    1 lbs malt
    14 lbs of pure cane sugar (if it doesn’t say “cane” then it is beet sugar) – ABV 19%
    3 crushed Beano tablets
    1 packet Whisky Yeast
    2 handfuls oak chips (for aging)

Join the Conversation

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*