Home Distiller

I was in the local discount grocery store buying a gallon of vinegar, 10 lbs of sugar, a 3 pack of red star and a six pack of beer. Old guy in front of me in line looked at my stuff on the conveyor belt, glanced at me, gave me a little wink and went back to minding his own business. I wish we didn't have to be so secretive in this hobby. He looked like he had volumes of knowledge.

Its funny who you can run into while buying unmentionables. Pay cash. 10 lbs of sugar aint a big deal. When i was starting out, i bought 5 10lb sacks of sugar. thought it was no big deal. the lady asked what i was making, i told her we were doing a bake sale for the church. I had no clue how much baking it took to use up that much sugar. People notice that stuff.

Move to NZ

Should seen the look on there face.When store had a sell on sugar and I rolled up to cashier with buggy loaded down with 5lb bags sugar. 200lbs sugar kinda heavy in a buggy.Told em I was bulk buying in case 2012 was real.I do buy In bulk though.But store clerk was grinnin whole time we loaded it in my truck.

I think it was dnder who said "do you want to sell it, or not?"

I got the same wink as Suburban, I was buying 2-25# bags of sugar, a case of tomato paste, and 2 bricks of bakers yeast, I sure wish the fella could have told me what was on his mind. MM

Man i am pretty lucky. My neighbor owns a little mom and pop restaurant and he buys lots of supplies at sams club..When I need sugar I have him add a 50# bag to his order. He can add it to his tax right off and no body thinks anything at all of it.. Also no way to for anyone to ever trace how much sugar I have bought.
Pretty sweet deal for me..
KS

I recall the first time I bought 50 pounds of sugar. Lots of questions.

"What's all that sugar for?"

I didn't answer, just paid and left.

Stopped in Aldi's a couple weeks ago and bought eight 5lb bags of sugar and two boxes of All Bran. Checking out I noticed a lady of Asian descent in the next lane whose cart was filled to the brim with 5lb bags of sugar. I wanted to ask her but I didn't.

bees are goin thru 20lbs of suger a day to get em stored up.
ole boys use a 150 gal ss vat an a lectric trollin moter to mix it.

if you got a couple hundred hives you buyin it by the pallet out the back.

so im tole

Got me a wink a few months ago. Nice old lady, looked in the cart, I had 6 5lb bags of sugar...some yeast...She looks at me and goes "Oh..Looks like canning season is upon us. Did you get enough mason jars?" then looked me straight in the eye and gave me a very obvious wink.

Think I might start buying sugar at Costco...

Note, at Costco and Sam's club, your purchase record IS recorded. You have to give them a membership card at time of checkout. They scan that, and even if you pay cash, YOUR purchase goes into their DB.

I do buy there, so I am not overly worried myself, but that is simply something to keep mind of. There is not someone there going over the database, LOOKING for moonshiners, however, it is a paper trail tied directly to YOUR name. IF you get popped, rest assured all of those sales records will be in a folder marked 'exhibit 17' at your trial. If you had purchased the same ingredients from Aldies and paid cash, there would be no paper trail.

H.

all stores are connected in a way,as most have computers that keep tract of innovatory.so even if you pay by cash or buy in different stores,they know.
but not much worries with what we buy.it is when you start buying 100-200lb a week a flag pops up. the same goes for malt.of witch you can buy 400lb.
a year then it is flagged.it is similar to the way they catch some that "grow stuff" . if your electric bill goes from 50$ to 200$ they check it out.
it is not that you will git caught.but they mite be watching if you buy that much.

goose eye wrote:bees are goin thru 20lbs of suger a day to get em stored up.
ole boys use a 150 gal ss vat an a lectric trollin moter to mix it.

if you got a couple hundred hives you buyin it by the pallet out the back.

so im tole

We used to buy sugar for the bees by the ton... Nobody ever questioned its intended use...

Anyone here in the US ever notice how much sugar the Amish buy in the local stores...??? I've watched them clear out an entire store shelf, only leaving a sparse few bags behind for other shoppers... Same with flour... When they shop they don't mess around...

I see a recuring theme here. You guys are all buying sugar and yeast at the same time.

Nah...happens when I just buy sugar too...just get funny looks from less mature women...

I love bee's an bees love sugar... Thats my excuse an stickin with it...

Either they wanna sell it or they don't...

I was going to Albertson's when they had sugar on sale, 40 cents a lb in 5 lb bags but you HAD to buy 10 bags to get that price, so it was no big deal if you bought a large amount. But then the Albertson's closest to me shut down, and the world price of sugar went up, so I don't know if their other stores still have that deal. It was only once a month or less.

Bought it at Costco on occasion but I didn't like the fact that they database every purchase. Finally started buying 10 lb bags at Wal Mart, their generic 'Great Value' brand, paid cash. Was buying 20 lbs at a time for slightly less than 10 bucks per trip down there. The checkout people there are so out of it they don't even look up, and no customer ever tumbled to what I was doing.

Now I just hit the feed store for barley and tell 'em I'm making homebrew whenever anyone expresses interest. Actually had one guy at the feed store say, "I don't know how to make beer but I sure do know how to make moonshine!" with a big grin on his face. I just smiled.