Legal Moonshine! Popcorn's Dream Comes True, Only Months After He Commits Suicide.

Seems moonshine will soon be legal in approximately ten states in the U.S. It is already legal in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia.
Popcorn Sutton, from Cocke County, TN is the man behind the infamous secret receipe, and Hank Williams, Jr. will be involved in it's new production facility in Newport, TN. ( GO HANK!)

It is a sad turn of events that Popcorn committed suicide only a few months prior to his "likker" becoming legalized, due to facing prison charges for selling it illegally.

Anyone tasted this stuff?
I was in my late teens when I had my first experience with moonshine. All I will say is, I never tried it again! Ha!

Source: www.citizentribune.com...

Popcorn Sutton Distilling opening a Cocke County distillery Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 11:57 am

Popcorn Sutton After decades of playing cat and mouse with revenuers on both sides of the North Carolina and Tennessee state line, it appears moonshiner Popcorn Sutton is getting the last laugh. Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey has announced it will open the largest pot still whiskey operation in the United States. The facility will be in Sutton’s old stomping grounds of Cocke County.

Popcorn Sutton Distilling will open the operation in the former Falcon Products offices and showroom on the West Highway 25/70 corridor. Jamie Grosser, master distiller and partner in the operation, along with country musician Hank Williams Jr., said the building is being prepared and liquor should be flowing at the distillery this summer.

For years, Sutton brewed his illegal “likker” in Cocke County and Western North Carolina and on several occasions faced both state and federal moonshining charges. Now the legal recipe is available in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia. But distribution should expand to half a dozen more states this year and in half of the U.S. by 2014.

“It was the dream of Popcorn Sutton and myself to have the distillery in Cocke County but it’s been a long road, getting the company up and going,” Grosser said Monday. The liquor has been produced in Nashville for several years “and now we are doing what we said we would do from the get-go, which is to move back home to Cocke County.”
Plans are to produce test batches of the liquor in late June or July and then begin hiring local residents in August “in an effort to make Popcorn Sutton’s legacy live on,” Grosser said.

Plans call for the operation to have 15 to 20 employees in the first year, and full employment of 40 to 50 by the end of the second year. The operation will produce 20,000 to 30,000 cases of liquor per month, compared to 1,500 cases per month produced currently in the Nashville location, which will continue to operate.

On March 16, 2009, several days before Popcorn Sutton was scheduled to begin an 18-month federal prison term for brewing 850 gallons of moonshine, the infamous bootlegger committed suicide. Later that year the Tennessee legislature passed a bill that expanded the areas of the state where distilling is allowed. The new law allowed many moonshiners to produce their products legally and other distillers to set up operations. The legislation permitted distilleries in any county in Tennessee where there are both operating liquor stores and liquor by the drink.

Sutton was a third generation moonshiner who lived and distilled his whiskey in Cocke County, but also claimed North Carolina as home. Sutton was well known throughout the Southeast and beyond for making the best “likker” anyone had ever tasted.
“Popcorn believed he was the last true moonshiner and before his death he taught me his secret recipes as well as the tradition and craft that made his whiskey world-renowned,” says Grosser.
The Newport City Council voted last week to annex the distillery property, owned by Betty Ann Bewley, into the city. The move was at the request of Bewley. - By Ray Snader, Tribune Correspondent

Originally posted by sled735

Anyone tasted this stuff?
I was in my late teens when I had my first experience with moonshine. All I will say is, I never tried it again! Ha!

Then you never had good blockade.

Really high quality blockade whiskey has an almost citrusy flavor that's really light and hard to define - it goes down easy and then detonates into a small happy star in your tum.

You should be able to enjoy it neat. If you can't, it wasn't made right. It's easy to screw up, takes a lot of practice to do it well.

reply to post by Bedlam


Oh, it wasn't the taste that turned me off to moonshine; It was the "after affects".
I think I had too much! It doesn't take a lot of moonshine to "flip you for a loop"!
I discovered this the hard way.

Moonshine isn't illegal per se.
Un-taxed alcohol is.

To leaglly make and distribute Moonshine you need to jump through a lot of hoops. All of which cost money.
The TV show Moonshiners gives a slight clue as to how hard and costly it can be. If you live in the back woods and know the people you are selling to, why pay the middleman?

My local Krogers sells leagal Moonshine in Mason style jars. $20 and 100 proof.

Originally posted by sled735
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Oh, it wasn't the taste that turned me off to moonshine; It was the "after affects".
I think I had too much!

It doesn't take a lot of moonshine to "flip you for a loop"!
I discovered this the hard way.

Haha reminds me of my first run, litres of white spirit that would be 70%-80% alcohol, if I ran it through the still again and triple distilled it it would get even better.. but the whole week was a blur and I was sick for a week.. oO

I keep meaning to give it another run just to have a store of it. As a hobby that would be a good time waster

reply to post by Bedlam


Sounds like you may have had some practice at this?

reply to post by winofiend


Yeah, the only other time I can remember being that sick was when someone put something in my tequila sunrise drink, and I was in bed for a week too. I never was much of a "drinker", but I did enjoy a fine glass of wine from time to time.
I got turned off to the hard core stuff mighty fast after my two experiences.
To this day if I even smell moonshine or tequila I get sick at my stomach, and that was many, many years ago I got sick on them.

I remember my first moonshine experience. Me. my Dad and my cousin were out fishing on a hot day and I was very thirsty. My dad was sitting up on the bank, taking an occasional drink from a mason jar, while we were down by the water. He sat the jar down to get to his rod when he got a bite and being thirsty, I picked it up, unscrewed the lid [ thinking it was water ] and turned it up. I was on the 3rd swallow by the time the burn hit. Don't remember much after that, I was only 11 at the time. Glad to see 'shine going legal. We can make beer, why not hard liquor.

Originally posted by sled735
Anyone tasted this stuff?

Got a mostly empty jar in the cabinet right now. It's my husband's preferred store bought brand.

Got some friends up in Sevier County that used to get the real stuff made by Popcorn himself, had a jar from one of his last batches.

What happened to him is heartbreaking.

The "legal recipe". You realize, the form of his whiskey they'll be selling, won't be the real deal. It will be colored. It's Federal law, that whiskey/bourbon makers have to add the coloring. Whiskey that looks like water, is still illegal to make/sell.

ETA:
Popcorn's widow has already marketed a "colored" version of his brew. I've had it, when I lived in southwest VA. And it's not very good.

Originally posted by MadDogtheHunter
The "legal recipe". You realize, the form of his whiskey they'll be selling, won't be the real deal. It will be colored. It's Federal law, that whiskey/bourbon makers have to add the coloring. Whiskey that looks like water, is still illegal to make/sell.

The jars we've bought of the stuff are clear as a bell. No coloring added.

And Popcorn's brand isn't the only available moonshine. Ole Smoky Moonshine made in downtown Gatlinburg and Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon are both brands we've bought that's been clear as water.

Originally posted by OneisOne

Originally posted by sled735
Anyone tasted this stuff?

Got a mostly empty jar in the cabinet right now. It's my husband's preferred store bought brand.

Got some friends up in Sevier County that used to get the real stuff made by Popcorn himself, had a jar from one of his last batches.

What happened to him is heartbreaking.

WOW! You should hold on to that! It may be worth some "big bucks" some day!

I'm not too far from Sevierville. I was raised in Cocke Co. where Popcorn is from, but I never met him.
Yes, it is sad he took his life, especially since if he had hung in there, he would have seen his dream come true.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Just a note to everyone visiting the thread: not everyone from "the hills" looks like that! Ha!

Originally posted by OneisOne

Originally posted by MadDogtheHunter
The "legal recipe". You realize, the form of his whiskey they'll be selling, won't be the real deal. It will be colored. It's Federal law, that whiskey/bourbon makers have to add the coloring. Whiskey that looks like water, is still illegal to make/sell.

The jars we've bought of the stuff are clear as a bell. No coloring added.

And Popcorn's brand isn't the only available moonshine. Ole Smoky Moonshine made in downtown Gatlinburg and Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon are both brands we've bought that's been clear as water.

Yup-

Used to buy Clear moonshine (in a jar) from "liquor World" in Richmond KY- Was fantastic.

-That said, the "Moonshine" in the "dry" counties was far more potent- Too much so for my liking. The stuff purchased from "a guy" we would let soak in a mug filled with watermelon in the freezer- The only way I could drink it. The "regulated" stuff was just...Good straight up. IMHO.

It is a sad turn of events that Popcorn committed suicide only a few months prior to his "likker" becoming legalized, due to facing prison charges for selling it illegally.

I dont know about america but here in the uk if you broke the law and were facing trial and then they changed the law before you got to trial you would still go to trail for your crimes committed.

I dont see how commercialization of his recipe is a win for him.

If anything it's a win for the revenuers and those who will profit from his namesake.

The secondary point of the article being the legalization of distillation in those states could be considered a "win" of sorts in the same way that marijuana decriminalization can be considered a win in WA and CO but federal prohibition remains.

I wonder how many bodies prohibition has claimed and how many widows prohibition has made over the decades.

Originally posted by samkent
Moonshine isn't illegal per se.
Un-taxed alcohol is.

To leaglly make and distribute Moonshine you need to jump through a lot of hoops. All of which cost money.
The TV show Moonshiners gives a slight clue as to how hard and costly it can be. If you live in the back woods and know the people you are selling to, why pay the middleman?

My local Krogers sells leagal Moonshine in Mason style jars. $20 and 100 proof.

privately distilled alcohol without a license is illegal. the only reason it is illegal is because it is very easy to do and the government would lose out on alot of alcohol tax income if it were made legal.

moonshine is quite good with fruit soaked in it. mix it with hawaiian punch if you don't want to taste the alcohol, but be warned, you'll end up hammered very quickly.

When Americans refer to Moonshine, I often wonder if it's similar to the Potcheen/Poitín they brew in Ireland. Whilst you can buy legal potcheen, it's not as strong as the real stuff.

When I was in college, an Irish friend of mine smuggled a bottle of the real stuff into the UK to share with us. It was in an unlabeled 1l glass soft drink bottle and had little bits of sediment in it.

I'll not lie - despite enjoying hard liqour, the Potcheen was quite an experience. It certainly did the job, shall we say.

Try anything once, eh?

Edit: Also 'Popcorn' Sutton is an absolutely fantastic nickname.

sounds familiar, I committed job suicide one day because i was getting treated like sh!t cause i wouldn't conform and kiss A$$, I showed up with alcohol coming out my pores knowing the consequences, (mind you i was still able to out perform most of them)

anyway one of the reasons i was looked down upon was my unwillingness to shave everyday(i didn't grow a a beard, but i definitely had a 5 oclock shadow rocking almost everyday, and got called out on multiple occasions). how this relates to the op, is not three days after i committed job suicide, all facial hair was allowed no matter what the length. I was pissed, but im happier now, and that is all that matters.

Just like im sure Popcorn is happier than he would have been if he rotted in the corporation they call prison. RIP popcorn you fought the good fight and I commend you for it(and yes i do understand a commendation from me is nothing to write home about) but either way, i know you were one of the good guys, wich is why the man tried to put you down.

Yay! more booze, now throw in some firearms and Voila!! you have the United States.

Second line....... Most gun crimes are done under the influence.