Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor
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Published by: Black Rose Writing
Release Date: December 23, 2020
Pages: 131
ISBN13: 978-1684335985
Synopsis
Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor is a family memoir and brief history of the bootleg liquor industry. The founding fathers distilled it and imbibed while they plotted the American Revolution. Women made it and brought it to their loved ones on Civil War battlefields. Farmers believed it was healthier than water from streams that ran through pasturelands. Sailors filtered it from torpedo fuel aboard ships. Both men and women went to jail for distributing it illegally. Around the world throughout history people have enjoyed hard liquor, including the author’s ancestors in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley who were in the thick of the bootleg liquor industry. Each chapter ends with a recipe for a dish made with whiskey, legal or otherwise.
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Praise
“Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor is more than a family history or a chronicle of illicit distilling in the Shenandoah Valley. It explores the important role that alcohol has played – and continues to play – in American society since the 1700s. Entertaining and creative, it is a must read for anyone interested in alcohol studies.”
–Bruce Stewart, author of Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia
"Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor: A Family History of Whiskey in the Shenandoah Valley begins with a glimpse of Roman history centuries ago and introduces us to Bryant’s maternal relatives (1700s) who emigrated from Germany to the U.S. Bryant takes us through the American Revolution and the Civil War, with details about people and their involvement with the stills that produced various grades of moonshine, then progresses into whiskey and bourbon refreshment. The writing is conversational, sharing the author’s personal past alongside moonshine’s place in society. To my delight, each chapter shares a recipe featuring whiskey, recipes suitable for today’s table. I learned and marveled with each page, regarding this story as an homage to my own grandfather, a Kentucky moonshiner in the 1940s-1960s. "
–Vickie Weaver, author of Billie Girl
"A good writer can stuff a book full of tasty and festive treats, much like a piñata. If you bust open HOT SPRINGS AND MOONSHINE LIQUOR, pouring forth will be:
An historical study of moonshining in the Virginia hills and Shenandoah Valley, including the revelation that the Father of our Country made some of his money by operating the most productive whiskey still in the nation;
A memoir of a childhood filled with funny and memorable family stories;
The genealogy tracing generations of eccentric and semi-law abiding characters;
A collection of liquor based food recipes— tasty and simple to prepare;
Social commentary on the relationship of alcohol and America, both negative and positive;
A scientific study on the distillation and fermentation of alcohol.
…all delivered with a mature writing style that is as clear as the waters of a deep-woods Virginia stream, and as powerful as an even deeper-woods Virginia moonshine still. "
– Jim Defilippi, author of Forty Steps to Old Sparky
"Very entertaining! Fun, fascinating look into the world of illegal distilling, with some wonderful anecdotes and - unexpectedly - recipes for a variety of dishes incorporating whiskey, whether homemade or bought."
–Colin McGee
Excerpt
Here’s how they would have done it.
Pick a trail overgrown with briars and poison ivy, making it all but impassable. Tread slowly, carefully, to break as few stems as possible. Weave sharp laurel branches into the briars so there can be no quick charge. Fell a hemlock across the way—its leaves will be a green screen for the next year, even in winter.
Choose a cloudy night. Fog is even better—the mist will obscure the fire’s smolder. For the fire use cypress, a softwood that doesn’t give off much smoke. If there are stars, the Big Dipper will point north, where the moonshine will go to seek its fortune. But don’t allow the moon. Or if the moon must shine, a gibbous moon is best, hanging as a sliver of light.
By a clear spring, set up your equipment—pots, copper piping, spigots, etc. You’ll want clean clear water that runs cold from the mountains. Keep silent. The only sounds should be the gurgle of water over rock, a rustling of leaves in the breeze, the creak of crickets. There will be the sticky smell of pawpaw and honeysuckle, the taste of copper on the air, the sour sweet flavor of mash fermented for eight patient days.
