Making moonshine is still illegal without the proper licenses and nod to the revenuers, but scenes like this are certainly more rare than they used to be.

That’s Pharis Macon Conley on the left kneeling behind several gallons of confiscated moonshine with a fellow Cannon County deputy. Conley severed three terms as Sheriff of Cannon County from 1948-1954 and saw his share of moonshine busts.

Fast-foward … (Moonshine: The Next Generation, Short Mountain Distillery Creating Legal Beverage):

The corn liquor it produces is not just any moonshine, but the moonshine your grandparents may have drunk. This is because Short Mountain employs three of the best moonshiners this area has to offer: Ricky Estes, Jimmy Simpson and Ronald Lawson. The three of them have given up their days of illegal wildcatting. Judging by the smile on Lawson’s face (who was on the property the day of our visit), it seems to be working out well for them. Along with head distiller Josh Smotherman, they make a quality product that meets all legal requirements. Now that’s a brand new angle; the revenuers like the moonshiners.

… to today (Moonshine Monday: Short Mountain Distillery)

Kaufman says, “When we opened, we already had 150 years of distilling experience thanks to these three guys.” Where Smotherman has access to all the technology that he needs for large-batch production, the moonshiners track the progress of the steam through the pipes as the alcohol boils off and then condenses by feeling the temperature of the copper pipes, listening to the hiss of the vortex in the pot still and watching the bubbles in the Carlo Rossi jugs they use to trap their lovely corn likker as it drips out of the outlet of the still.

Sometimes people need a good reminder of how things used to be. We could speed things up with tractors or increase our yield with a few chemicals, but when it comes to making good whiskey, some things just can’t be rushed.

A good team of mules are hard workers. Sometimes they’re slow, sometimes stubborn, but dedicated to getting the job done.

This is the second year we’ve teamed up with the Middle Tennessee Mule Skinners Association to disc our organic corn fields. Twelve teams came out Saturday and helped make farming look easy. The field they disced will become the corn that makes our authentic Tennessee Moonshine.

If you missed this year’s discing, be sure to come to our grand opening Saturday April 21 for free mule wagon rides, tours and Moonshine tasting. You can also catch a performance by the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. And if the timing is right, we’ll have a few bottles of Shine for you to take home a genuine taste of this unique Tennessee experience.

Wanda Thompson and her son Aaron Thompson show off their cranberry-pecan Moonshine Cookies at The Blue Porch.

Some things are just meant to be, like Moonshine infused icing on a blue berry bread pudding. If that sounds amazing, wait until you take a bite of this and other tasty treats being whipped up in The Blue Porch at the Art Center of Cannon County.

Owners Wanda and Aaron Thompson have taken our authentic Tennessee Moonshine to a whole new level by baking it into cookies, soaking it into oatmeal cake and drizzling it in icing over two different types of bread pudding.

By the time I showed up to do some research yesterday, it looked like half of Cannon County had already decided the blue berry bread pudding is a hit. There was none left, and I could see why. It’s the one treat with the most distinguishable taste of Short Mountain Shine. You can taste it in the cookies if you know what to look for. Like with most baking, there isn’t any more alcohol in these than there would be cooking with extracts.

Short Mountain Distillery is a sponsor of the April 13-28 performance of Mitch Albom’s Duck Hunter Shoots Angel at the Arts Center. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to stop by The Blue Porch and take home a genuine taste of Cannon County!

Video from our Spring Planting 2011 at Short Mountain Distillery.

Saturday morning April 14 starting around 10, bring the family and a couple of lawn chairs out to the distillery to watch us disc our organic corn fields with 12 mule teams from the Middle Tennessee Muleskinner’s Association.

We had so much fun discing the fields last Spring with mules that we decided to do it again this year. It might take a little longer to get done, but every thing about it just feels right to us. See y’all Saturday!

Check out the very nice review of Short Mountain Distillery by Chuck Rainey in the April edition of Nashville Lifestyles: Let It Shine – Short Mountain Distillery revives traditional Tennessee distilling brilliantly.

Since opening March 23, the Still House Store has sold out of our authentic Tennessee Moonshine every day, and we’re working hard to keep up while also fulfilling orders to place the product in stores across the state of Tennessee this Spring. Visitors probably won’t see much of the steady pace of the Still House against the backdrop of slow farm life, but you can sure taste the results when the two come together.

Long before you arrive on site, the fresh air and gorgeous scenery begin to take hold and cast away the cares of daily drudgery, taking you back to a simpler time. Genuine handshakes, friendly smiles and a piece of Tennessee tradition await you at Short Mountain Distillery. Picnic tables are scattered about the property in welcoming fashion. Bring a lunch, some cards, a checker board and stay awhile. You are welcome.

Watch the video to see Billy Kaufman announce our Grand Opening April 21, 2012. We are still having our March 23 and 24 soft opening for friends and neighbors where you can enjoy a short tour and some bluegrass music, eat some BBQ, meet the moonshiners and taste and purchase our authentic Tennessee Moonshine, but demand for the first bottles has been so overwhelming we know we won’t have enough by March 23.

600 specially signed bottles from our first batch are being set aside for everyone who requested one. At this point, we can no longer reserve any more of these specially signed bottles. You can begin purchasing them at the Still House Store beginning March 23. Just give our clerk your name if you are on the list. Follow us on Facebook to see announcements on availability, or come out and see us April 21.

We will be open Fridays and Saturdays until our grand opening April 21 when we will then operate normal business hours of Tuesday through Saturday 9am – 4pm. We look forward to seeing you!

A new chapter began yesterday in the story of Tennessee’s whiskey making heritage when three living legends of moonshine making signed a deal with Short Mountain Distillery.

Jimmy Simpson, Ricky Estes and Ronald Lawson (pictured left to right) all grew up in Cannon County around Short Mountain where some families on hard times relied on illicit moonshine to make ends meet. It’s a story of struggle, honor, and perseverance, and it’s the story of America.

A change in state law created an opportunity for their treasured craft to finally come out in the open. The three men bring with them over 100 years of history and backwoods whiskey making experience to our distillery.

Here’s an excerpt from a story by local CBS television affiliate News Channel 5 (WTVF). Check back for links to local newspaper articles as they post.

“It’s kind of a dream come true. I don’t think that any of us ever realized we would be making moonshine legally,” said Simpson.

They are using the same locally grown ingredients and the same method but this time, following the law.

“We know what we are doing. I might not talk very well, but I know how to make moonshine,” said Estes.

“It’s really something worth preserving,” said Short Mountain founder, Billy Kaufman.

Kaufman built the distillery to save what he calls a dying art and a lost piece of the area’s heritage.

“They might be lost in another 10 to 20 years and no one knows how to do these things again,” said Kaufman.

Short Mountain Distillery will open to the public March 23. Be sure to see this story in the Murfreesboro Post, Smithville Review and Cannon Courier:

• February 23, 2012 Smithville Review – Moonshiners Go Legit
• February 23, 2012 Murfreesboro Post – Cannon County Moonshiners ‘Go Legal’

I’m certainly not the first person to infuse bacon into alcoholic beverages. A quick search led me to a number of very informative posts by fellow bacon lovers who all seem to use roughly the same process called “fat washing.” Here’s how Southern California mixologist Don Lee describes it.

The fat is actually what makes this infusion possible. Fat is non-polar, while drinking alcohol (40% abv) is mostly water and thus polar. This prevents the fat from being dissolved into the alcohol. The alcohol itself (ethanol), however is both polar and nonpolar, allowing water to be dissolved into itself as well fat soluble compounds. What this means is that flavorful compounds from the fat will transfer into the alcohol while keeping the fat itself separate. This, combined with the higher freezing point of fat v. low freezing point of alcohol makes it possible to solidify the fat in a standard freezer and easy to remove.

Lee uses 1 oz. of rendered bacon fat in a 750ml bottle of bourbon. It’s the same recipe Jacob Grier says PDT uses in New York. You may be confident that you won’t screw up a whole 750ml bottle of bourbon or moonshine. I’m not. So, here’s my recipe that should make at least six cocktails.

Bacon infused Moonshine and Bourbon:

• 4-6 strips of thick hickory smoked bacon
• 6 ounces of bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon) or moonshine or both

Cook the bacon and collect a tablespoon of rendered bacon fat. Pour it into 6 ounces of bourbon or moonshine and let sit for two hours. This is probably a larger ratio of bacon to bourbon or moonshine than other recipes, but I love bacon. You can shove the bacon in your moonshine or your mouth or both. I did both.

After the bacon flavor has been taken by the spirit, pour into a plastic cup and place into the freezer until all the fat solidifies. This may take a few hours. Remove the fat, filter and serve neat or in cocktails that are complimented by a smokey (smokey maple bourbon) flavor.

They’re pink, blue and white and represent a good year’s worth of ignoring television and Twitter.

This isn’t all of the permits required before we can legally sell our authentic Tennessee Moonshine, but combined with the others they ought to get us from Memphis to Bristol without too much worry about going to prison. Now if we can keep the ’51 Chevy pickup under 70MPH as we travel the state, we should be fine.

God Bless America, and God Bless the Shine.

Yesterday, I showed you a glimpse of our federally approved label for Short Mountain Shine along with the news that we signed distribution deals with all four regions of the state of Tennessee.

I thought I’d throw this photo of the bottle out there after a failed attempt yesterday to photograph the bottle for an upcoming tourism pamphlet. This isn’t an image we’d use, but it showed just enough to tease, and I’m a teaser. You can tell we used a sample label sent to us by our printer.

You’ll be able to taste a sample and purchase a bottle at our distillery on Short Mountain in Woodbury, TN once we open in late March. Shortly after that, it will be in stores throughout Middle Tennessee’s 36 county distribution region.

If it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s already famous. Most old-timers in Middle Tennessee know something about it, and it was sung about by Uncle Dave Macon on the October 1939 NBC television debut of the Grand Ole Opry. Who knows? Maybe one day the bottle will make a special appearance on one of country music’s biggest nights.

Short Mountain Shine is a respectable 105 proof authentic Tennessee Moonshine made from a family recipe handed down for generations. As Billy likes to say, “It’s the best moonshine ever made, made even better.”