[TheForge] blacksmiths and beer

[dann]

 From the 1920s, word of mouth story a  local moon shiner near Forest City, 
Iowa:  comes a local tale about a dairy farmer that supplied alcohol, 
even  to the local medical doctors.  I  understand at that time,  many of 
the rural doctors made their own concoctions  like  laudanum  by 
mixing  morphine with grain  alcohol. The farmer was finally busted about 4 
am one morning while milking his cows,  but his product was reportedly the 
"purest"  tested grain alcohol that  the Feds in Ames, Iowa had  seen, 
superior to many  "commercial distillers".  One of the final steps in his 
process was to use an "iced" silk stocking  at the surface  of 
his  distillate  to wick off some final impurities.
Sounds like an Art to me.

Dann



At 07:28 PM 9/3/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Years ago I had moonshine that was a beautiful drink and I also 
>experienced something that tasted like **** with the same name. In all 
>walks of life there are artists ;-)
>Not trying to kick the artist thing off again
>L Brown
>
>
>>Those of us that have tasted  rough tasting '"fire water" like Mescal, 
>>and moonshine  have tasted the bitter fusols  that a poor distillation 
>>process can add.  A careful fractional distillation yields less, but 
>>a  purer product.
>
>
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