Moonshine Production And Early Background
Moonshine is described as being an extremely strong, homemade alcoholic drink. It has developed a cult following over the years throughout parts of North America. Generally, Moonshine is manufactured using very small-scale stills in remote locations. This is because moonshine producers want to avoid the legal ramifications of obtaining a commercial still license. If you are addicted to Moonshine, please seek alcohol addiction treatment.
Stills
Stills are constructed of either copper or steel, and a water filled barrel with copper tubing used as a condenser. This kind of still is widely used because of its simple construction and history within the moonshining community. Today, there are various do-it-yourself still models online for sale. However, these new moonshine methods can be potentially dangerous. When fermenting yeast and sugar together methanol can be a byproduct and pollute the moonshine with toxic levels of the gas.
Impurities
Moonshine is made safe by the deduction of what is known as “foreshot”. Foreshot represents the first few ounces of alcohol that drips from the condenser at the onset of production. These first couple drips hold most, but ideally all, of the methanol byproduct. It also contains trace quantities of other toxic elements such as acetone and aldehydes.
Dangers
Another reason Moonshine is dangerous is because of its high flammability. Any alcohol that is at least 80 proof, meaning it is 40% alcohol by volume, can potentially ignite. This is especially true during the distillation process when vaporized alcohol can penetrate the air if there is not proper ventilation. Moonshine is also sometimes added with lye or beading oil in order to increase its alcohol content. This is extremely risky as this toxic mixture has been known to cause blindness and even death.
Testing
The method moonshiners employ to test the worth of their batch is to pour a small amount onto a spoon and set it on fire. Safe moonshine will burn with a blue flame while a contaminated batch will burn yellow. Although this test does potentially reveal the presence of toxic lead, it does not uncover the potential presence of methanol which burns invisibly.
History
Moonshining was born very early on in American history. Shortly after the American Revolution, the United States found itself struggling to pay for the expenses of a long war. The solution they came up with was to place a federal tax on alcohol. Having just fought a war to get out from under oppressive British taxes, the people were not thrilled with this new law. Moonshining was born when people decided to start making their own whiskey, completely ignoring the new federal tax. Fight your alcoholism.
During these times there was absolutely no talk of alcohol addiction treatment as people had much bigger problems to worry about. Fight alcohol abuse.
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