Mainstream Moonshine

I may live in the North, but I'm no stranger to moonshine (and, let's not kid ourselves; Western Pennsylania's a lot more "Kentucky backwoods" than "uptown Manhattan"). For some time, Finn & Genoa kept a large jug of moonshine in their basement. When we would occassionally convene at their house for a night of beer pong and drunken fun, the jug would inevitably be passed around, and then we'd all wake up on the floor the next morning. And no matter how many times this happened, the amount of moonshine in the jug never seemed to lessen. It was like a bottomless pit of hangovers and sorrow.

This past Xmas Eve Eve, Dupa brought a mason jar of homemade hell with him. True, it tasted like apple pie, but it was not the stuff of sweet little grandmothers. When I awoke the following day, I found the mason jar sitting in my fridge, with some of the brew still left in it. That jar has sat in the same place ever since. We have an understanding of sorts: I don't disturb it, it doesn't lead me to wake up naked in the woods next to the carcass of a freshly-killed deer.

There are now micro-distilleries popping up all around the country, where drinking "moonshine" is not only legal, it's given the same treatment as a wine tasting trip to a vineyard would. Which is giving me a great movie idea—think Sideways meets Road Trip. NBC's "Today Show" took a look at this new take on the good ol' boy staple (bonus lol's come at the end, when the reporter starts taste testing, and is about a shot and a dare away from dancing on a table).

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