horse turd whiskey

[raffavita]

Hi everybody,
I'm new of this forum.
I'm translating an Americn book into Italian.
I ran into this expression: "horse turd whiskey".
After a hunt, I've come to figure out that it's a home made/bootlegged whiskey, but I still wonder whether it's made of real horse manure.
Can anybody help me?
Thank you in advance.
Raffaella

[Husker]

I wonder if this name is given due to dry manure being used to fire the boiler. Just a guess, as I really do not know

It sounds like a purposeful negative PR that the government (and "legit" distilleries) promote to try to keep people from trying homemade hooch, and thus elimintating the tax revenue since the homemade stuff short circuits the path of the taxman.

H.

[MikeyT]

Things have changed quite a bit since the "real old" moonshine recipes ... Jeff wrote of
SOUR MASH MOON SHINE
1 bushel of hard (seed) white corn
bury corn in horse manure
pour 5 gallon of water over the corn
corn sprouts in about two days
remove corn and wash
roll the corn to crack it
put corn in a 55 gallon barrel
add 1/2 bushel of corn meal
add 5 pound of sugar
fill barrel with water
in 21 days a red skim will form and it is time to cook it put a hose with a stopper in the end and push it to the bottom. Blow out the stopper and siphon off the mixture until about 4 inches is left in the barrel
strain remaining liquid, put in cooker, cook it till it boils, then simmer.
yields 1.5 gallons of 105 proof moon shine!!!


Taken from homedistiller.org---------
I would think that you'd need to crumble the turds up into a finer consistency.

[Husker]

I think horse manure is pretty crumbly to start with. Their diet is pretty rough, and lots of hard fiber is left over (well I guess that depends upon diet).

However, I do not find "turd" whiskey to have much of an appealing sound to it. I am glad I "came of age" in the home distilling circles after LOTS of information has been exchanged over the internet. I guess that is also why I would rather distill my own. At least I know there is no extraneous dung left in mine

H.

[Aidas]

My best guess is that it's referring to an old practice of throwing a bag of grain into a manure pile, allowing it to sprout (malt). Also, I have heard of crap being tossed into the wort (I guess as a yeast nutrient). Raw meat was used in such a manner, as well. These days, I hope that practice is dead.

Aidas

[junkyard dawg]

That line' bury corn in horse manure' is just an instruction. It says a lot with very few words. It means to use a hotbed for getting the grain to sprout. Making the malt was essential. Farmers knew to mix half horse manure and half fine straw together. This puts out a lot of heat as it composts. You can pack that compost into a hole and put your moist grain in a sack on top and cover it up it will make plenty of heat and moisture to germinate the seeds. That technique was probably common knowledge back in early farming communities. I don't think there was any negative pr attached to that manure reference. I think it is a clear instruction to use a specific technique to sprout grain when its cold outside.

[raffavita]

Hi everybody,
first of all, thank you so much for your help.
It's quite difficult to translate this expression, but I've just decided that I will simply define it a home made, bootlegged whiskey I cannot provide the whole recipe, you know?
The man who's drinking the whiskey seems to be very proud of it; in fact, he states that "A man who can't handle that whiskey is not a man".
I assume, the best I can do, that it's a very strong one, a sort of trial for an unexperienced person.
Thanks to you I've come to realize that, maybe, they use horse manure for the grain. At first I thought they put horse manure in the whiskey itself.
Who knows?
But you clarified the point.
Thank you very much for your help.
I appreciate it.
Raffaella

[MikeyT]

Well, you know, human spit has amylase in it so maybe horse turds do too????

[wineo]

It was just miracle grow,for the corn,and a heat source for malting.I dont think anybody put turds in the ferment.
wineo

[blanikdog]

I do, wineo. I thought everybody did.

[hornedrhodent]

It was just miracle grow,for the corn,and a heat source for malting.I dont think anybody put turds in the ferment.
wineo

I saw a movie once where the Yanks were hiding from the Germans and could steal a vehicle and food and sugar but had no fuel so one of their number quickly set up a brewing and distilling operation to save the world.

He used dung as a nutrient for his fuel and nearly stuffed up the escape because he couldn't resist drinking it.

Anything is possible in movies - Can anyone identify the movie?

[jake]

there is a recipie in the "Alaskan bootleggers bible" by Leon W. Kania on page 110