Home Distilling Makes a Comeback

Salon reports that home-brewed liquor’s popularity is on the rise. No longer is making moonshine and other types of alcoholic drinks solely the province of outlaws. Though still illegal, home distilling is being approached as another type of artisanal craft by enthusiasts from all walks of life.

Salon reports:

Standing in the middle of the room at the Sweetwater Distillery in Petaluma, Calif., Bill Owens held a feedbag full of stale donuts high in the air. With a crowd gathered around him, he dumped its contents — chocolate glazed, jelly-filled, iced with sprinkles — into a tank filled with hot water and plunged an industrial mixer into the liquid, splattering warm, sticky bits onto anyone who stood too close. A dog wandered up and began licking the floor.

Owens is the president of the American Distilling Institute, an organization devoted to educating people about the art and science of distilled spirits. His audience was a group of about 25 who’d come from as far away as Maine and Tennessee to spend a week learning the basics of making whiskey, from developing a mash and running a still to bottling the alcohol and testing its proof.

Salon: “Moonshine returns!”

[via NYT Ideas Blog]