News and Reviews
By cody On December 25th, 2010‘Shine On: The Moonshine Renaissance
Bon Appetit
Written By: Melba Newsome
January 2013
Cody Bradford has moonshine in his blood. Going back 150 years, he says, his father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather all made their own ‘shine–unlicensed and unregulated pure corn liquor.
“My great-grandfather made it because if they grew corn and couldn’t get it to market, they could make liquor out of it,” the 28-year-old says. “I love moonshine and think it’s the best alcohol out there if it’s done right.”
But the family tradition nearly came to an end with Bradford. “My father wanted to teach me how,” he says, “but I was afraid of taking the risk.”
And the risk was serious. Moonshiners like Bradford’s ancestors skirted the law by distilling and selling their corn whiskey without a permit–and without paying taxes on the proceeds. If caught, they faced years in prison. Of course, that failed to deter many ‘shiners, and it was the folklore and enthusiasm surrounding their exploits that convinced several present-day entrepreneurs that making moonshine–aboveboard, this time–could be a viable business. Now a moonshine renaissance is under way, with Gen X’ers, housewives, and NASCAR legends firing up their copper stills to turn out triple-distilled corn whiskey in small, handcrafted batches…
“I’m a really big fan of Troy & Sons,” says Dan Latimer, Husk’s general manager. “The flavors in there and the nuances in that moonshine are really awesome to me, and I think that [Ball's] ability to really showcase the ingredient that goes into the whiskey is just beautiful, this strong cereal flavor that comes through.”
Latimer says that moonshine is best thought of as a spirit unto itself, since the flavor profile of bourbon, its older brother, is so heavily influenced by its years spent aging in charred oak barrels. “Compared to other clear spirits, you can definitely taste the corn,” he says. “Sometimes there’s that cereal profile, and sometimes, like with white whiskey from a Tennessee distillery called Prichard’s, it has a little bit more of a sweetness, and that kind of comes forth, like a corn cake or johnnycake.”
And the moonshine surge isn’t limited to the South. Sean Josephs, owner of the encyclopedic Brooklyn whiskey bar Char No. 4, keeps a selection of white whiskeys on hand, and sees them as a necessary teaching tool for whiskey tasting. “Tasting it with no wood, just with the raw corn flavor,” Josephs says, “lets you really get a sense of how char affects the spirit, as it matures into bourbon.”
Taste aside, though, the moonshine renaissance is both a product of and a boon to the boom of artisanal distilleries that have cropped up across the country in recent years. Bourbon is generally aged for a minimum of four years, which means that startup distillers have a long time to wait before they can even start making a return on their investments. “Just one standard barrel holds 240 bottles, or 20 cases,” Josephs says. “That’s a lot of product to be sitting on.” But with white whiskey, distillers can start shipping as soon as their first batch of mash makes its way through the stills.
“It’s an opportunity for a lot of people to get some positive cash-flow while they’re aging their other bourbons and whiskeys,” says Latimer. And indeed Troy & Sons is already waiting on batches of barrel-aged bourbon to mature.
But that doesn’t mean that moonshine’s star will fade as soon as those barrels hit the right birthday. “I do think that the art of the craft will maintain, because there’s an allure to it, that historical breaking the law kind of appeal,” says Latimer, “I think a couple people who are really doing it the right way and paying attention to the distillation process will stick and hold, and turn into a kind of standard in the industry.” –Melba Newsome
Mountain Spirits
It has been called a quiet revolution. A renaissance. And Western North Carolina is smack in the middle of it. With five distilleries opening in the last two years, our region is keeping stride with a national craft liquor trend.
WNC Magazine
Written By: Jim Murphy
Photographs by: Peter Frank Edwards
November/December 2012
“It’s exploding,” says Bill Owens, president of The American Distilling Institute in California. It’s part of his job to promote this young industry, and his enthusiasm is obvious as he rattles off numbers. “In 2000, there were only 24 craft distilleries in the United States. By the end of last year, there were 244. And it keeps getting bigger.”
He credits the growth to a confluence of changing attitudes about food and drink. “Ten years ago in a lot of small towns, the only place to get a meal was IHOP,” he says. “Now you can find great little restaurants serving creative menus that feature fresh, local dishes. The young foodies have created a new market, which extends to craft beers, local wines, and now good, smooth, high-quality craft liquor.” Considering the moonshine history of Western North Carolina, Owens says, “It was a natural for your area. It was inevitable.”
But maybe not. North Carolina has endured a love-hate relationship with alcohol that dates back to the early days of the republic. From the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 to the bootleg era of the 20th century, the state has vacillated between wet and dry, legal and illegal.
In 1908, with Prohibition still 12 years away, North Carolina outlawed alcoholic beverages in a referendum that passed with 62 percent of the vote. But when alcohol was banned nationwide, the moonshine business only grew. Federal and state agents scoured the mountains to bust up stills and arrest moonshiners to shut down the flow that was looking more like a flood. Academic and news accounts of Prohibition in North Carolina often include a statement by the chief alcohol enforcement officer venting his frustration, saying, “We have more illicit distilleries than any other state in this union, and that number is increasing.”
Even after Prohibition ran its course in 1933, homemade liquor remained a thriving industry. To the moonshiners, it was more than a business; it was a way of life.
Today, a new generation of distillers is bringing a fresh perspective and commitment to the tradition, albeit on the right side of the law. Whether you prefer white lightning, brandy, gin, or single malt whiskey, you can find a locally made liquor to fill your glass or blend a favorite cocktail. Here’s your chance to get to know the committed and ambitious folks putting spirits back in the mountains.
Old-time Inspiration Howling Moon Distillery
Raymond Fairchild is that rare moonshiner who has walked both sides of the legal line. He began working at his family’s still when he was about five years old, and grew up to become a popular bluegrass banjo player, cutting two gold records and appearing on the Grand Ole Opry. With his success, he no longer needed the income from selling ’shine, yet he couldn’t bring himself to give it up. “It gets in your blood,” he says. “It’s a rush. You gotta do it.”
Now the 73-years-old’s name and picture adorn the label of Howling Moon Moonshine. “We got to know Raymond when we went to see him play a few times,” says Cody Bradford, CEO of the distillery. “We would get to talking, and when the conversation turned to moonshine, I realized his recipe and name would be a natural for us.”
Howling Moon distills its whiskey in a modest building just north of Asheville. Bradford and his cousin, Chivous Downey, released their white lightning in February and already anticipate a move to bigger digs. The cousins, in their 20s, constitute the entire staff at Howling Moon. Entrepreneurs in baseball caps and T-shirts, they take on every job, from unloading sacks of corn to bottling the final product. And just as they went with an old-time recipe, they stuck with the old methods, from the homemade still to the corn ground at a local water wheel.
“My family has been making moonshine for 150 years,” Bradford says. “My father wanted to teach me how, but I was afraid of taking the risk.” But when he got tired of traveling for his job with a nursing home service, he decided to take the leap.
The operation began on a shoestring, and had some shaky moments. “We were biting our nails,” Bradford says. “We were worried our money would run out before we got our permits.” The permits finally came in, the product hit shelves, and business is booming. “We had to build a second still, and it’s still not enough to fill the demand,” Bradford says. “The only reason this won’t work is if we don’t work hard enough.”
As for Fairchild, he doesn’t mind the tamer side of the liquor business. “I don’t have to keep looking over my shoulder any more, and that’s a good thing because at my age I can’t turn around as fast.”
From still to store: North Carolina-made liquor business booming
North Carolina history is full of tales about clandestine copper stills, bootleggers evading revenuers and Mason jars of illegal ’shine.
That legacy can be seen in today’s liquor stores, where more and more legal North Carolina-made spirits stock the shelves.
North Carolina now has nine liquor distilleries with another on the horizon. More than half began selling their products in state-run stores within the past nine months. Tar Heels can now enjoy a cocktail made with rum by Muddy River Distillery in Belmont or vodka by Top of the Hill Distillery in Chapel Hill, which started bottling last week.
It’s part of a national trend. Three years ago, there were about 150 microdistilleries across the country; today, there are more than 400.
That North Carolina has seen similar growth doesn’t surprise Bill Owens, president of the American Distilling Institute, a trade organization founded a decade ago.
“A lot of people (in North Carolina) have distilling DNA in their blood,” Owens said.
While bootlegging liquor – making it without government permits and without paying taxes – has always been illegal, Joe Michalek was the first in North Carolina to take advantage of the legal way to make moonshine in 2005. His Piedmont Distillers in Madison is North Carolina’s largest, selling more than 10,000 cases in the state over the past year.
Michalek smartly tapped into the connection between bootlegging and NASCAR by getting former driver Junior Johnson to add his name to a line of moonshine. Johnson used to race through Wilkes County running bootleg liquor for his daddy – a family history shared by several new distillers.
Jeremy Norris of Broadslab Distillery has a part of his granddaddy’s busted-up still hanging on the wall of his distillery outside Benson in southern Johnston County. Cody Bradford, who makes Howling Moon moonshine in Asheville, is using a condenser that his great-granddaddy used to make corn whiskey.
“My family has been in this business for generations,” said Bradford, whose white moonshine recipe comes from renowned banjo player Raymond Fairchild of the Maggie Valley Boys.
Others see the state’s growing distilling business and bootlegging heritage as a draw for tourists. Chris Hollifield, who is continuing a family tradition by making Carriage House apple brandy in Lenoir, said: “I think North Carolina is going to be the next Bardstown in Kentucky.”
Instead of the “bourbon capital of the world,” North Carolina could be the moonshine (and brandy and vodka and gin and rum) capital of the world.
How do they taste?
Howling Moon Moonshine: Raymond Fairchild’s Mountain Moonshine had a clean smell with an initial sweet taste and a hint of corn at the end. It is a friendly, not overpowering, moonshine that would be good mixed or straight. The apple-pie version smelled of cinnamon and tasted of apples, but the drinker still knows it is moonshine. Made by Copper Still, Asheville, howlingmoonshine.com. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/02/3572499/from-still-to-store-north-carolina.html#storylink=cpy
Carry It Out in the Front Pocket of Your Trench Coat if You Like, but Howling Moon Moonshine is Completely Legal
Beer City Guide September 4, 2012
Are you looking for authentic moonshine? Not only is Howling Moon in Weaverville the real thing, but you can buy it legally.
Howling Moon can be purchased at many ABC stores throughout western North Carolina. You can also get it at three area restaurants: Jack of Hearts in Weaverville, Wild Wing Café in Asheville and Baja Café in Woodfin. Keep an eye on its Web site for the latest updates.
The team at Beer City Guide arranged a tour of the distillery with Cody Bradford, the owner… The distillery isn’t open to the public so this was a pretty neat inside look at the production.
We visited Troy & Sons Distillery on the same day, and the two area moonshiners are at different ends of the spectrum. While Troy & Sons is very corporate and industrial, Howling Moon is quite the opposite. {They}… make their beer from locally sourced corn, which ferments in barrels stored in a temperature controlled room in a basement. Once the beer is fermented it goes into the still, a process they demonstrated to us.
The old fashioned still is just like the ones used by generations of their family and is made with rocks, wooden barrels, and metal tubes.
We were offered a taste of the moonshine. Now, please keep in mind that I am a beer girl – whiskey and I broke up a long time ago; wine and I only date occasionally. Craft beer and I go everywhere together. Tasting moonshine is simply not something I’ve had a lot of experience with. I knew that Howling Moon was the real thing, but I can’t really say that I liked it. This was not the fault of Howling Moon, just my palate’s preference for beer.
Cody…told me that they would be releasing their flavored liquors, Apple Pie and Strawberry Pie, both made with real fruit, soon. Many years ago I was at a camping festival, and someone I didn’t know offered me a sip of “Apple Jack” from a mason jar. I couldn’t tell you the origin of this moonshine, and I wouldn’t recommend drinking anything a stranger gives you in general. But I did, and it was amazingly delicious. I can’t wait to see what the Apple Pie from Howling Moon tastes like.
If you’re looking for an authentic mountain experience here in Asheville you can’t get much more real than Howling Moon. Check them out when you can and stay tuned for information on their flavored moonshine.
Trivial Destination
Howling Moon Moonshine
Why It’s Worth the Gas: In a word, “process.” There are bigger moonshine makers in the South, but there might not be a more purposeful legal moonshine distillery in our parts. The folks at Howling Moon create small batch hooch made from local corn, using a family recipe, in a hand-crafted still with pipes held together with rye paste. Now that’s old school. Howling Moon can only produce 80 cases a month, and you can only find it in a dozen places in Western North Carolina. howlingmoonshine.com
Howling moonshine tastes like tradition
“We do almost everything exactly how it was done 150 years ago,” says Bradford, pointing out how the pipes that run between the barrels of the hand-crafted still are held together with rye paste. “That’s just rye flour and water,” he says, tapping at the joints. “You’ve got to get it just right, and it will harden like cement.”
Chivous Downey, Howling Moon’s president, offers a taste of the moonshine, cool and clean in the distillery’s nearly oppressively humid, ferment-scented air. The corn whiskey is 100-proof, and tastes exactly like moonshine should taste if you’ve ever sipped it out of a mason jar next to a bonfire. If you have, then you know.
Except there’s this: the moonshine leaves a trail of heat in its wake and, beyond that, there’s a distinct flavor of the sweetest corn that hits the palate as the warmth subsides. The North Carolina-grown white corn that makes this moonshine is processed at a historic grist mill in Cane Creek. Built in 1867, it’s the last water-powered mill of its kind left in the state. Howling Moon’s Appalachian heritage can practically be tasted.
Howling Moon only turns out 80 cases a month, with more on the way. The moonshine comes in a large mason jar that costs a reasonable $23.95. “It’s good, authentic, traditional moonshine at a good, authentic price,” says Downey.
The distillery doesn’t have a great PR machine, a tourist-appropriate tasting area or slick branding. It’s just good moonshine that packs a hefty wallop, with 150 years of history standing behind it.
The distillery will host a “Howling Moon goes legal party” at Wild Wings on April 14 beginning at 6 p.m. Tim Smith from the Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners will be on hand, as will Raymond Fairchild, the banjo player who gave the distillery the recipe for its ‘shine. Fairchild, Steve Brown and the Maggie Valley Boys will perform.
White Lightning Strikes Twice
Asheville Welcomes Its Newest Moonshine Distillery
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| Chivous Downey, left, and Cody Bradford, founders of Howling Moon distillery Photo courtesy of John Coutlakis / Asheville Citizen Times |
Asheville has held the title of Beer City USA for three years running, but it appears heady brew isn’t the only libation seeing growth in the region. The Howling Moon Distillery has become the second legal moonshine producer to open its doors in the mountains.
Second moonshine distillery opens in North Carolina
Though Troy & Sons claims much of the spotlight, appearing in the pages of Garden & Gun, Savor NC, among other publications, Howling Moon Distillery is the new kid in town.
Located just north of Asheville on Old Elk Mountain Road, Howling Moon‘s moonshine is made with a recipe from bluegrass artist Raymond Fairchild and sometimes incorporates seasonal fruits like apples and strawberries.
The corn used for Howling Moonshine is processed at Dellinger Grist Mill on Cane Creek, located four miles east of Bakersville, N.C. The mill is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the last water-powered, stone-ground grist mill of its kind in North Carolina.
A little information from the distillery’s website, written by CEO Cody Bradford:
The art of making moonshine has been passed down for generations as it was in my family. My great-uncle was a moonshiner and I want to continue the tradition by making traditional moonshine legally with family recipes. We use all-natural ingredients in every step of the process. The only way to make true moonshine is use fresh and natural ingredients, but it’s not moonshine if its not made in a moonshine still like the one we are using, which was hand-crafted, not store bought — like everything we make. We spend a lot of time and money to make less product, but it is the highest quality moonshine you can find in the woods or the store. We can trace our recipe back over 150 years, when everything was handmade in these mountains with pride. If you want to know what moonshine really tasted like in these mountains 150 years ago, then try Howling Moon.
Our straight white moonshine [is from] the recipe of moonshiner and bluegrass star Raymond Fairchild. Raymond has two gold records and is recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Museum as a pioneer of Bluegrass. He will help us make his own brand of moonshine. In a few months we will also offer fruit flavors from my family recipe and in time a variety of moonshine flavors and styles generations old that are rare even in these mountains. Some of the flavors will be seasonal because we will use local fruits and some will be consistent like Strawberry and Apple Pie. We are making moonshine the traditional way with old Appalachian recipes and a traditional moonshine still. Our products will be available in Western North Carolina first. We plan to grow, but we won’t compromise our quality or our traditional methods, which take longer to produce alcohol, but the quality is better and the moonshine is genuine.
New Woodfin distillery taps into legal moonshine market
2nd Buncombe ‘moonshiner’ opens distillery
Feb. 27, 2012
Written by Tony Kiss-The Asheville Citizen Times
WOODFIN — A new craft distillery has opened here, and it has delivered its first batch of white corn liquor to state ABC stores.
The Howling Moon Distillery is making what it calls “real moonshine,” using a century-old recipe from legendary Western North Carolina banjo picker Raymond Fairchild, who is also promoting the product by lending his name to the liquor.
Raymond Fairchild Mountain Moonshine is now available at ABC stores in Woodfin and Weaverville.
Asheville’s first legal distillery, Troy & Sons, is selling its white corn liquor across North Carolina, and now in Florida, and will soon be marketing in South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. That operation is also changing its name to Asheville Distilling Co.
The craft distilling industry is continuing to grow nationwide. Across the country, almost 400 small craft distilleries have opened. Buncombe County is also home to 10 craft breweries and the Biltmore Estate winery.
Howling Moon was founded by Cody Bradford, who constructed most of his distillery by hand. He said that distilling has “been in my family for generations. It’s a part of mountain history, but the tradition is kind of dying out.”
He spent a year and a half building the operation and began distilling in November while awaiting bottle label approval. The first bottles of his liquor were shipped to stores this week.
Bradford said he faced lengthy challenges in obtaining federal permitting but was assisted by U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler. Bradford is planning a promotional party April 14 at the Wild Wing Cafe in Asheville.
At the newly renamed Asheville Distilling Co., founder Troy Ball said that her business is booming, and the company has ordered a second still to increase production.
“I’m glad that more people are getting involved in the distilling industry,” she said.
The company will release two more products later this year: an oak-aged reserve corn liquor and a blond whiskey.
Local distiller gets in the spirits
Robbie Delaney had a crowd covering the plank floors of his one-man distillery.
They were waiting, joking, having fun while his stainless steel machine churned, turning sugar, molasses and yeast into what Delaney hoped would be a batch of rum.
He was sweating it out.
With an entire year and untold thousands already invested, Delaney had no idea whether his still would work properly, or what it would produce.
Muddy River Distillery had the still. It had a pile of paperwork to secure federal and state permits. It had a legal, bonded location in Belmont’s Riverside Complex.
What it needed was a product.
Dollars and distilleries
Delaney is among a growing breed of craft distillers in North Carolina, a group hoping for a spot on the ground floor of an industry poised to proliferate in the shadow of the state’s craft-beer brewing craze.
Independent makers of moonshine and gin, brandy and vodka and other stout spirits have multiplied across the state.
At the end of 2011, four distillers had state permits for producing liquor. Today they number nine.
That’s a far cry from the 540 registered distillers operating in North Carolina 100 years ago during pre-Prohibition days. Back then, the Tar Heel state led the nation on the liquor front, according to the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
The agency can’t help but wonder whether those happy days are here again.
Happy?
The nearly giddy tone with which the N.C. ABC’s annual report deals with distilleries would suggest it.
“Could history repeat itself?” the report asks.
And it answers, “If North Carolina’s distilleries see the strong popularity experienced by the state’s craft brewers and local wineries in recent years, ABC stores across the state will need to get some additional space ready on the North Carolina shelf.”
From 2008 to 2011 the state collected nearly $500 million on beer and wine sales. And North Carolina’s beer and wine revenue grew by more than $20 million between 2008 and 2011.
Native spirits, quality, choices
Distillers say there are other good reasons to like homegrown liquor.
“We don’t get a big yield but it’s a really good-quality product,” says Cody Bradford, the CEO of moonshine-making Howling Moon Distillery in Asheville.
The company is preparing to add a second still and expects to soon produce 160 cases a month of its mason-jar fifths.
Part of the draw for buyers is also about choices, according Charlie Mauney, manager and distiller at Kings Mountain’s Southern Artisan Spirits, home to Cardinal Gin.
Go into the ABC store and you’ll see almost everything on the shelf is owned by a large, often multinational, company, he says.
“When people see something on the shelf made in North Carolina or close by, they really take an interest in it. We’re using local grains and whatnot to produce our spirits.”
Cardinal Gin helps prove his point. Southern Artisan started producing in August 2011. The first of its batches went into a dozen stores in North Carolina.
It is now in more than 300. Last year, ABC stores ordered more than 240 cases, according to the commission.
And that’s not counting the Cardinal Gin distributors in Virginia and South Carolina or online sales in New Jersey.
The Kings Mountain distillery also has a license to sell in Georgia, mostly because a store owner there called to ask for the gin, Mauney said. Maryland is next on the list.
By the end of the summer, Southern Artisan expects to be making rye whiskey and bourbon as well as the signature gin.
Still waiting — and spending
Delaney shares in the optimism.
His goal in founding Muddy River Distillery was to grow it into a large enough operation to make distilling his full-time gig.
A 27-year-old who works full time in the construction business, he lives in Charlotte but works in Durham. The position has him regularly flying out of state for major jobs and an in-flight magazine gave him the idea about craft distilling.
Delaney is a beer drinker. Liquor has never been his thing. But he has a friend who is a fan of rum and the two decided to partner on the project.
That friend bailed about four months later.
Determined to follow through, Delaney built the original still himself.
He started with a 32-gallon stainless steel tub and put together the most manual machine he could envision, from the tall column to the copper tubing to the customary coil, familiar to anyone who ever watched a movie about moonshiners.
Before he has sold even a drop of Muddy River rum — that’s a different set of permits and he’s waiting now to have his label approved — Delaney has plans for a second still that is five times the size of his original.
“The new tank is insane,” he said. “I could crawl inside it.”
It will also represent an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 investment.
That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what Delaney has spent so far. He doesn’t want to disclose a dollar amount but he’s using the money he and his Gaston-native fiancée, Caroline Burnet, saved to build a house.
“I figured I could do this for around 25 (thousand),” he said. “Let’s just say I’m close.”
A maze of regulation
The process consumes as much time as money.
And the real time-killer is the regulations.
Delaney and Mauney both say it took about a year to get permits just to make liquor.
For Bradford, it was more like a year and a half. His words on the subject of federal licensing are as heated as his still. He says he spent that time submitting and re-submitting paperwork, waiting for never-returned calls, seeing the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau miss the deadlines it imposes on itself and generally boiling over for more than 12 months.
Bradford finally called his congressman for help and says the process moved more swiftly afterward.
The bureau recently announced it would streamline at least one of its permitting processes.
Approving labels, the process for which Delaney is waiting now, will be simpler after the changes, according to the TTB. It will stop considering type size and issues related to the types of image files distillers are using, as well as publicize turnaround times and make other changes to speed up the process.
Different steps left Delaney scratching his head when it came to permitting. The 78-page application for a federal distilling permit could only be approved after the still was installed.
But in North Carolina it’s illegal to even possess a still before possessing a permit.
The distillery has to be bonded, similar to being insured, so that the taxes are covered even if something happens to keep the rum from selling.
But Delaney has to have a special, non-bonded space, with a door and a lock, where he must store any returns.
The first sweet sip
Only after all the red tape can he get to the white rum.
Then it takes from eight to nine days for the ingredients to fully ferment. The resulting “mash” goes into the still and, in a short seven hours, Delaney has the result, a whole couple gallons of it.
That’s what he got from that first batch from the first still he ever tried. It poured, clear as water, out of the copper spiral into a waiting mason jar.
He took the first sweet sip and sighed in relief.
“Thank God,” Delaney said to himself. “It works.”
Now it’s time for him to.
Distilleries begin to show up in area
March 17, 2011
By Matt Tate-The Weaverville Tribune
Rickety copper stills hidden deep in the woods for clandestine distilling. Souped-up or modified engines designed to outrun the law. Mason jars of clear corn liquor that pack a formidable punch.
These are usually the images that come to mind with moonshine, but authorized distilleries for moonshine and other liquors are becoming increasingly prevalent in the state and across the country.
Two men are in the process of opening North Buncombe’s first legally operating distillery.
Cody Bradford and Chivous Downey are the two men behind Copper Still in Woodfin. They hope to be producing moonshine liquor within the coming months.
Bradford said Copper Still will have three different flavors and use all-natural ingredients.
Both said their love of moonshine is part of their fabric.
“Moonshine has been in my family forever,” Bradford said. “It is part of our heritage.”
Distilleries are beginning to pop up across the state, much like microbreweries did in the 1980s and wineries in the 1990s.
Troy and Sons distillery is opening in Asheville soon as well. These two local operations will join ventures such as Piedmont Distillers, a Madison-based company that produces Catdaddy, the state’s first legal homegrown liquor, and Junior Johnson’s Moonshine, a nod to the early stock car racer associated with running moonshine, in addition to Southern Artisan Spirits in Kings Mountain.
Weaverville’s ABC store carries the two products from Piedmont Distillers.
Bradford said they currently have nine stores interested in their drink including local Western North Carolina stores as well as a store in Charleston, SC.
The growth is good, he said, but the level of production needed to stock the interested parties may outwork their 25-gallon still.
State law allows North Carolina distilleries to sell both within state and to out-of-state and out-of-country private or public agencies subject to the laws of those jurisdictions.
The Woodfin store stocks several local products as well. Jason Young, the town’s administrator, said he looks forward to seeing Copper Still’s creations.
“We’d love to add them to the inventory at the ABC store,” he said.
The American Distilling Institute, created in 2003, had 240 companies with distilled spirits licenses in the country in 2010 and predicts that number to grow to more than 400 by the end of 2015.