Moonshine is leaving its mountain roots for bright lights of the big city. "Unaged hooch is no longer confined to Appalachia," Anna Sale of West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports for Marketplace. "Hipsters and foodies around the country are starting to acquire a taste for it. And that's given rise to a whole new industry of microdistillers." Since the passing of the Whiskey Act of 1791, making liquor without a license has been illegal, but Kentucky native Colin Spoleman brought moonshine to New York as state distilling laws began to relax to attract tourists to upstate farms.
Spoleman and friend David Haskell opened Kings County Distillery earlier this month on Staten Island, Sale reports. It's the only licensed whiskey distillery in New York City, and the first production on its shelves will be moonshine. The American Distilling Institute report the number of microdistilleries nationwide has increased from 60 seven years ago to over 200 today, but they still make up just under one percent of the U.S. liquor market.
Vaughn Wilson, an Arkansas still maker, has noticed an uptick in moonshine interest. He sells stills on his website but doesn't ask if they are going to legal operations, Sale writes. While Spoleman and Haskell plan to keep the micro in microbrewery, they hope to be stocking Brooklyn bars and liquor stores by June. (Read more)
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