Moonshine by country
It is made from different fruits, usually grapes, but also plums, apples, blackberries, cornelian cherry, strawberry tree, mulberry, persimmons, figs, juniperus and walnuts.
This kind of brandy production is very common in the Croatian culture and was largely unregulated before Croatia's accession to the EU on 1 July 2013, when registration and certain taxes were imposed even on distilling for personal use.
However, in recent years, the structural change of the rural Finland, the changes in Finnish alcohol politics due to EU membership, the rise of living standards and the availability of cheaper legal liquors, caused by lowering the excise taxes and abolishment of specific import restrictions from Estonia, have made making pontikka a rarity, and it is no longer considered a serious policy issue.
Community distilleries also exist, operated by one or more villages, to make maintaining the equipment profitable (in case of rented distill-time, however, the personal quota is 50 liters).
Also because of the danger of carrying Arak in Iran (as a forbidden drink in Islam) or simply the difficulty of finding it, some use pure ethanol made for chemical uses which increases the chance of alcohol poisoning.
In the past, the wisp of smoke on an isolated hillside was what gave the poteen-maker away: in modern times this risk was removed by the use of bottled gas to fire the clandestine still.
[17] On the island of Sardinia, one can still find local varieties of abbardenti (a distillate similar to Spanish aguardiente or Italian grappa) which is dubbed 'fil'e ferru', which means 'iron-thread' in the Sardinian language; this peculiar name comes from the fact that jugs and bottles were buried to hide them from authorities with iron-thread tied to them for later retrieval.
The drink has been known to cause blindness and death, possibly as a result of impure distillation, or of unscrupulous adulteration by sellers who aim to enhance the effects of the beverage, such as by adding battery acid.
After being illegal in Kenya for many years, the Kenyan government legalised the traditional home-brewed spirit in 2010 in an effort to take business away from establishments adding toxic chemicals to the brew to make it stronger.
Moonshine is variously called 'ogogoro', 'kai-kai', 'kainkain', 'Abua first eleven', 'agbagba', 'akpeteshi', 'aka mere', 'push me, I push you', 'koo koo juice', 'crazy man in the bottle', or 'Sapele water' (particularly in Delta State), depending on locality.
[citation needed] Due to the very high taxation of alcohol, moonshine production—primarily from potatoes and sugar—remains a popular, albeit illegal, activity in most parts of the country.
In the old days on Finnskogen they called the mash Skogens vin ("Wine of the forest"), a name used by poorer people without access to distilling equipment.
A common joke is that the traditional mixture was made by brewing the strongest, blackest coffee possible, then putting a 5 Øre piece (a copper coin of size and color of a pre-decimalization English penny, no longer in circulation) in a cup.
In the faraway rural areas of Panama, the illegal beverage is known as "chirrisco" or "chicha fuerte", and is highly persecuted by the law, as it is a public health concern.
Unscrupulous or ignorant distillers often add car battery acid or toxic chemicals to increase potency, thereby leading to poisoning and severe health problems.
Peruvians for millennia have drunk a type of corn-based beer called chicha, with generally low alcohol content, often homemade in the highlands with some regional variations.
The tradition of producing moonshine might be traced back to the Middle Ages when tavern owners manufactured vodka for local sale from grain and fruit.
The plum moonshine made in area of Łącko (Southern Poland) called Łącka Śliwowica gained nationwide fame, with tourists travelling to buy this strong liquor.
The word refers to bagasse, the mash of grape skins and stems left over from the production of wine, which is distilled to produce this spirit that bears the same name.
Rakija is readily available on open markets even in the big cities, so finding a producer of quality product is the only real challenge in the process.
Witblits has a long history in the Western Cape Province (over 200 years) and many producers take pride in their product, which is widely available from liquor stores and at farmer's markets.
The raw materials used in the production are mainly common white sugar (from Sugarcane) or local fruits for special brew kasippu manufactured in Sri Lanka, yeast, and urea as a nitrogen source.
As the desired product is a neutral spirit (resembling vodka), the "mash" is typically a mix of sugar and yeast in water which gets a simple distillation followed by filtration in activated charcoal after being diluted to 30%–50% ABV as higher strengths lessens the efficiency of the filtering.
[32] However, moonshine is most socially accepted in rural areas, where it is produced for own consumption rather than for sale, but due to relaxed import regulation since 2005, business has declined.
Real "moonshine" from clandestine sources that is homemade from grapes, figs, berries or sour cherries is popular in the south, and called "boğma".
A very distinctive source of 100% pure Turkish moonshine made by locals of Arabic descent is the district of Samandağ in Hatay Province, close to Syria.
[37] In addition to waragi, which is popular in the Central region, other moonshine gins include Lira-lira, which, according to research reports, contains between 100 and 6000% copper above the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit.
With the availability of cheap refined white sugar, moonshiners can make saleable product for a fraction of the price of heavily taxed and legally sold distilled spirits.
[40] Lengthy prison sentences for those caught manufacturing or distributing illegal alcohol makes moonshiners conceal their still sites in secret locations.
[44] In the southern states, some moonshiners sold their product to bootleggers, who transported it all over the country, often selling to crime syndicates such as that run by Al Capone.
