Home Distiller

Very interesting forum here.
I hail from Alabama, 21.5 yrs as Alcohol Beverage Enforcement Agt, 20 yrs Military LEO before that and 6 months Head Dog Catcher in between! Now that was a fun job! Seen lots of stills in AL woods, most all sheet copper, some steel barrels for cookers, strongest liquor ever was 132 proof, still hot out of the condenser. Biggest still was 50 55-gal drums for mash w/ 500 gal. copper cooker, all copper rig of what we called the "dead man" type. These are rectangular box-like cookers w/ a round cap, a 4" steam line going up @ 45 degree angle w/ no thumper/puker, into the copper hollow-wall or double worm condenser. Got tons of photos if someone will tell me how to post them. Now retired, seeing how the "other folks" live.

This is funny...

I'm sure you'll be fielding many questions soon.

I'll start - you guys ever care about the guy making stuff for himself and his friends, or did you just concentrate on the guys that were selling it?

Thanks for the shout back. We mostly were after the sellers. Their stills were 12-50 55 gallon barrels of mash(rye/sugar/yeast) with 250-500 gal copper cookers. Condensers were copper double worms ot hollow-wall boxes in very large vats of water. Almost exclusively in the woods but a few were in barns/storage buildings. One was even in a small travel trailer with what looked for all the world like a towed BBQ pit for the cooker! Biggest reported load we worked was 7500 gallons in one sale. Some water sources were from taps, but most was creek water.

What did it taste like

I realise you had to do what you were ordered to if you wanted to keep your job, (though you did choose to stay in the job for a long time, and presumably reached a relatively senior level of authority). But at a personal level, do you have any serious regrets about busting small scale, personal use stillers? You know, people like us. Coz it seems like a classic example of a victimless crime to me, that should never have been on the books in the first place. Just another illegitimate grab for power and cash by the state.

Assuming it is done safely, do you believe small scale, personal use, hobby level stilling should be legal? If not, why not?

Lastly, how long ago were you doing this stuff?



You can post pics as attachments. See the box below the comments box:

Click 'Choose File'
Select the file
Click 'Add the file'
When it has uploaded, you need to 'Place inline' somewhere in the comment box.

Or you can post them on a third party image hosting site, and just post the links to them back here.

Hey ALRevenuer, good to hear from the dark side. You'll have many interesting experiences to tell and any tips you may let slip will be most welcome. You must have found a lot of skanky hooch along with some very fine product too.

Cheers!

ALRevenuer wrote:strongest liquor ever was 132 proof

Would that be ready for sale/consumption?
Recon no perps in your jurisdiction was running a reflux column.

Have you ever had a nip of likker made with proper cuts?

To: Airhill - pretty raw stuff, burned! It tested out with a lead content from the solder used on the still seams. Not too good!
To: Hookline - Must say in all honesty MOST of the violators we dealt with seemed to be good folks, BUT, it is a felony in AL. Note: See lead content comment above. One guy killed 5 people in a week in one E. AL county. I was on the job 21.5 yrs., but sought no high rank. I don't do the Kiss A thing. Politics always hurt an outfit that promotes that way.
To: LWTCS - Not fit for human consumption as they say. It was right out of the still, too hot even to handle. It would have been blended with the "low wines" to about 80-90 proof for sale had we not spoiled that party! No reflux columns in the AL woods! These boys run 16 ga. sheet copper deadman rigs (200-500 gallon cookers)w/ a 45 degree up-angle steamline straight into the condenser vat. This is what is referred to as "sugar whiskey" intended to ferment fast to produce quantity, not gourmet quality. It would sell for $2.00 a babyfood jar in a "shot house" (Illegal, unlicensed drinking place). The fact that is is dispenced from a gallon milk jug into a used babyfood jar sheds light on the quality of product.

ALRevenuer wrote:The fact that is is dispenced from a gallon milk jug into a used babyfood jar sheds light on the quality of product.

Welllllll..... Don't judge a book by its cover

ALRevenuer wrote:I hail from Alabama, 21.5 yrs as Alcohol Beverage Enforcement Agt, 20 yrs Military LEO before that and 6 months Head Dog Catcher in between!

I got 4 Dobermans guaranteed to make you run a 10 second 1/4 mile with those credentials. JK

Only been to the states once. Stayed in Clevelend. It was an eye opener.

I bet you've seen some weird and wonderfull setups tucked away in them thar woods. I'd be more worried about getting bitten by a snake or ending up some bears lunch. Hell, I got bailed up by a cranky possum once and thought I was a goner.

I'm not chicken.

Honest.

Oh....and welcome!

scarecrow

Thanks, Scarecrow. We did run up on a big pack of feral dogs one day that showed an acute sense of disrespect for our position . ABC Agents 16- wild dogs 0. The rest of the day was a waste because everyone in 3 counties thought WWIII had started. I like possums, they eat snakes!

ALRevenuer wrote:I like possums, they eat snakes!

You guys have WAY cooler possums than us. Ours eat leaves, and make noises to keep you awake at night, which leads to them staring into the beam of a torch while you smack them with a shovel.

I did find one floating in a barrel of mash one time, dead. Yuk!! Things like that give people who try to do it right a bad name. That was a bad day too. We walked 9 miles (12.6KM I think) through the woods looking for that still on a hot August day (about 98 degreesF) only to find we missed the trail sign right away and it was within 100 yds of where we parked the cars! Cheap still too. He was using plastic chemical barrels for mash, 55 gallon steel drum for a cooker, and galvanized pipe for steam line/condenser! Condenser was a "flake stand" which is an open wood box with water flowing over the pipes. Not real efficient. Still was filthy, so the possum was no real surprise, just a confirmation of what else we found. He was using corn too, which is a local thing. The blacks all used corn and the whites a few counties away detested corn whiskey and only used rye.

Here a possum eats, roots, shoots, and leaves.
In Aussie slang 'possum' is a term of endearment