Southern Discomfort

The runaway price of staples, a source of anguish to housewives and politicians, has spelled disaster to a considerably less vocal segment of U.S. society: the Southern moonshiner. All the essential ingredients of corn likker have skyrocketed: sugar (up 300% in a year), grain and yeast, as well as the copper used for piping and kettles and the plastic jugs in which illicit hooch is transported and sold. A gallon of moonshine that used to sell for $1 now goes for $6 or more. As a result, the tide of "white whisky" that used to flow from Appalachian hills and hollers is now only a trickle.

Another reason for the decline of cottage distilleries is the influx of legitimate industry into the South, offering an economic alternative to young men who might formerly have opted for the still life. Also, Southerners' tastes have changed. George R. ("Bob") Powell, special agent in charge of the Division of Alcohol, Tax and Firearms station in Wilkesboro, N.C., observes: "You'll notice that even poor people like good liquor these days." Another explanation comes from a seventyish great-grandmother who operates a general store in North Carolina's moonshine capital of Wilkes County: "All these kids want to do these days," she maintains, "is smoke thet marry-wanna."

The moon will probably not set for good on moonshining as long as there are enough good ole boys around who prefer white lightning to bonded bourbon. In fact, while the smalltimers are being forced out of business, big operators are holding their own. The "revenoo" recently seized 1,146 gallons of 'shine (worth up to $8,000 untaxed) in Dawsonville, Ga.--their biggest local haul in four years. However, connoisseurs of corn complain that mass-production methods result in a relatively tasteless brew (which also tends to lack the dead rats and flies that spiced old-time likker). White lightning may yet find its uses. Once, when an agent cleaned off his fingerprinting machine with some confiscated corn, he found that it dissolved ink much faster than commercial solvents. Lightning fast.

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