This brings back memories of a good woopin

I have told the story in the past about my misadventure with homemade applejack. I am pressed for time now to repeat that but some of you, I think, would find this article of interest (historically speaking of course :hatoff:)

Americas First Moonshine

...and yes, I will have to give this a try:toast:

Added in edit:

We had a lot of orchards in this area when I was growing up---mostly peach and apples. Some of the old time orchard men made applejack---something they took great pride in. They used a different production method than the freezing method described in this article. They first would ferment apple cider to make hard cider. Some would add raisins to raise the sugar to aid fermentation, others would use various mixes of different varieties to do the same thing and some I think simply added sugar or honey to the cider to speed fermentation. This would normally be done in wooden casks.

Once cold weather arrived they would lay these barrels on their sides, normally along a place they routinely walked. Then as they passed they would give the barrels a kick to roll them over---maybe a quarter of a turn at a time. Based on some magic time clock far beyond my level of understanding, they would remove the bong that was placed in the center of the head and drain out the liquid---the water remained frozen around the sides of the barrell.

In very cold weather this could generate a high proof treat---one that could make a teenage kid dumb as hell :rolleyes2::doh: