Kentucky Moonshine

A concise, lively history of how the Bluegrass State became famous for illicit distilleries, by the author of The Big Con.

When the first American tax on distilled spirits was established in 1791, violence broke out in Pennsylvania. The resulting Whiskey Rebellion sent hundreds of families down the Ohio River by flatboat, stills on board, to settle anew in the fertile bottomlands of Kentucky.

Once there, they used cold limestone spring water to make bourbon and found that corn produced even better yields of whiskey than rye. Thus, the licit and illicit branches of the distilling industry grew up side by side in the state. This is the story of the illicit side—the moonshiners’ craft and craftsmanship, as practiced in Kentucky. This entertaining, deeply researched slice of history also includes a glossary of moonshiner argot, shedding light on such colorful terms as puker, slop, and weed-monkey.