What is Moonshine

[Henry Hill]

I`m not an American but i`m a big fan of the show and i have a fascination with the american south. Anyway, can someone explain to me what exactly is moonshine made of cause i`ve seen it in a lot of movies that takes place in the south but i never knew what exactly it is.

Any explanation.

[lost_sheep3]

Welcome to HNet!

Moonshine is illegal grain alcohol, most often made from corn. Families in the south have been making moonshine for a couple hundred years, they grew the corn then used that to make the whiskey.

Moonshine probably hit it's most prominent phase during prohibition in the 1930's (when alcohol could not be served or made in the United States) people would make up batches of "moonshine" in the fields and woods near their homes and transport it to "speakeasy's" which were underground bars.

Moonshine is generally very potent and because it's illegal there is not consistency within each batch (or each producer) and there are no regulations enforced with it's production. Also, because it's produced "underground" the government cannot tax it.

Within the context of the Dukes of Hazzard - the Duke family has been making Moonshine on their land for 200 years, until Bo and Luke got caught carrying' (or "running") a load just before the first season began. In order to keep the boys from going to federal prison, Jesse agreed to give up the production and sale of moonshine and the boys were placed on probation. Moonshine does make several appearances in the run of the show, as it's often being used to try to get the boys sent to prison.

Here's a link that can probably describe it better than I can:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonshine

LS3