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My name is Tom and I'm in Florida


Guest sensei

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Guest sensei

Hello,

I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Tom and I am currently living in Southern Florida, though I would never start a craft distillery/brewery here because IMO, the water is horrible. I grew up in Tennessee and come from a long line of moonshiners, but I want that illegal family traditon, that stopped with my dad, to finally become legitimate and respectable.

I'm still in the research stage right now because I don't want ot be like so many small business statups where people don't really know what they're doing and go bankrupt in less than 2 years.

I expect to be asking a lot of questions.

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Hello,

I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Tom and I am currently living in Southern Florida, though I would never start a craft distillery/brewery here because IMO, the water is horrible. I grew up in Tennessee and come from a long line of moonshiners, but I want that illegal family traditon, that stopped with my dad, to finally become legitimate and respectable.

I'm still in the research stage right now because I don't want ot be like so many small business statups where people don't really know what they're doing and go bankrupt in less than 2 years.

I expect to be asking a lot of questions.

Welcome Tom, Having lived in FL I know what you mean (spent summers of my youth in TN too) but don't let the South FL water stop you. You can fix the water- run it through an RO system and then add the desired minerals (consult some brewing manuals). Not as easy as getting what you want out of the ground but very doable.

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Guest sensei

There are some "South Florida" micro-brews...but they're all from the brewery in Melbourne. Where I live now, I use a Brita filter for all of my water and it is almond color going in and so the filters don't last as long as they did back in Tennessee. In West Palm Beach, its not uncommon to get a boil water advisory. Not very confidence inspiring. I'm here for two more years, one more if I'm lucky. Its also just too expensive.

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Sensei,

I can't find the link anymore but there was a college in I believe North Carolina doing an oral history preservation project on old time moonshiners throughout appalachia who would probably want to interview your relatives. I am from Tennessee but the part of my family involved with moonshine were really rum runners, I guess they were the distributors of their time. That was 4 generations ago and they are all long, long gone. We are rapidly losing a lot of this old time knowledge, and it is such a shame. I have a friend who just got back from Bonnaroo, where he bought a small mason jar of shine for 5$. It tasted awful and he has seen a huge decline in quality since he first started going to the festival as it has grown in popularity. I guess money ruins everything. I am in Nashville and you cannot get it here anymore, the best shine now is supposedly outside Knoxville.

Good luck with everything, I hope you do open a distillery at some point and make your grandparents proud.

WT

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Guest sensei
Sensei,

I can't find the link anymore but there was a college in I believe North Carolina doing an oral history preservation project on old time moonshiners throughout appalachia who would probably want to interview your relatives.

Honestly, I'd like to interview them. But, they're all dead now and my dad was kept out of the loop when he was young and all of my uncles and my grandfather are dead. I talked to my 86 year old aunt about my uncle's (he was the biggest in the family) distilling but she wasn't involved and didn't know any recipes. Damn....

We are rapidly losing a lot of this old time knowledge, and it is such a shame.

I did some reseach on pre-Prohibition distilleries and found only a little information. It's be nice for a history book to exist.

I have a friend who just got back from Bonnaroo, where he bought a small mason jar of shine for 5$. It tasted awful and he has seen a huge decline in quality since he first started going to the festival as it has grown in popularity.

Ahhhhh, Bonnaroo. McAlister’s farm. I grew up a little over a mile away. My brother, before he moved, used to get some moonshine from Grundy County, but I too would agree that it wasn't too good. It was then I started to gain interest in my family history and by then, it was too late. Those who knew had died.

I guess money ruins everything. I am in Nashville and you cannot get it here anymore, the best shine now is supposedly outside Knoxville.

I would have liked to have had a small distillery in Nashville. The Marathon building has lots of space and it already has Yazoo Brew, so getting a permit, one would think could be easier. if only there was enoug lobyist pressure to open up how many counties can have a distillery but Jack Daniel's couldn't even muscle a law change to allow a tourist store in the old feed store on Broadway across from Hard Rock.

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