Tony Talks about An Appalachian Mother's Love

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Moonshine ingredients/ Malt Corn

Art’s Way to Get Malt Corn

By Tony Smith

Art was not gone long and when he came back, he had a long pillow case full of something. He held the pillow case up in one hand looked at me and said, “Now this right here is what will it twist it's tail.” He reached in to the sack and got a hand full. He showed it to me and as I looked at it I said to him, “Why Art, it just looks like corn to me.” He said, “This here is my malt corn, this is what makes it work off good.”

He put about half of his malt corn in to the barrel and with a stick he stirred it up into the mix that was already in the barrel. I looked at Art and said, “So that’s what makes it all work.” . Art stopped stirring for a minute and as he looked into the barrel he said, “Some people likes to use yeast instead of malt corn but I don’t like to use yeast. ‘I asked him, “Why not?” Once again Art looked at me and said, “Well that old yeast, it will leave a bad taste in your mouth and it will cause you to have a bad headache and that’s why I don’t like yeast.”

I asked Art how he got malt corn. He took a long breath and, “Well Tony, I get me a five gallon bucket and I fill it up with white hickory cane corn and then I pour warm water in on the corn until the water is about one inch over the top it. Then I will let it set over night. That will let the corn swell up some.”

“The next day I get me two big cloth sacks and I put half of the corn in one sack and half of the corn in the other sack. Th en I’ll take it down to the barn and I’ll get in one of the barn stalls. I dig me two holes about one foot deep and I lay a sack of corn down in one of the holes. Then I cover up the sack of corn with old dirt, straw and cow manure. I do the other sack the same way.

Every day I will go back to the barn and I rake back the old dirt and straw and I pour a half a bucket of the warm water on one of the sacks of corn and the other half of the bucket of warm water on top of the other sack of corn. I’ll do that every day for five or six days. When the corn gets sprouts on it about a inch or so long, I’ll go lay the sacks of corn on a big fl at rock. Then I’ll beat the corn up with a round rock or a sledge hammer. I don’t hit it too hard, just hard enough to bust up the corn. After I get all the corn busted up good, I lay a bed sheet down on my back porch and spread the corn out on the sheet. I let it dry out good. And that’s get my malt corn.”

How To Temper Licker by Tony Smith

How to Temper Licker

excerpt from "An Appalachian Mother's Love

After we got done eating Art said, “Now Tony, I’ll show you how to temper licker.” Mom said to us, “While you are doing that I’ll wash up your dishes for you. It won’t take long.” Art went outside and when he came back in he had a plastic barrel that had been cut in two. It was only about two feet tall. Art set the plastic barrel on the floor in front of the couch. Then he went to his closet and got the licker and set it down beside the plastic barrel. He walked over to the mantle and got a little half pint whiskey bottle. He came back to the couch and set down. He looked at me and asked, “Now Tony, are you ready to learn something?”

I looked at Art with a big smile on my face and said, “Why sure I am.” He said “Now Tony, you know that the first gallon of licker that comes out of the still, now that is always the strongest licker you will have. The longer the licker runs the weaker it gets. Now the first two gallons may be way over a 100 proof. The third gallon may be 100 proof and the fourth and fifth gallons may only be sixty or seventy proof. I am going to show you how to mix the weak licker with the strong licker until we get a 100 proof.”

I sat and watched as Art would pour a little of the strong licker into the plastic barrel. Then he poured a little of the weak licker into the barrel. Then he stirred it all up together. He took the little half pint whiskey bottle and filled it about half full of licker and put the lid back on the bottle. He shook up and down three times. He watched to see what the little bubbles in the bottle would do. After he looked at it, he said,“Well she is a little weak.” Then he poured more of the strong licker in the barrel. When he got it the way he wanted it, he had four gallons and a quart.

Me and Mom laughed when said, “I’ll sell Melvin the four gallons but he ain’t getting this quart.” Mom asked, “Well Art what are you going to with that quart?” Art said, “I’m keeping that for old self.” We all laughed. Art said, “Why,that will taste just as good to me as it would to someone else and we are the ones that’s doing all the work anyway.

Art's Cabin A good place to make Moonshine

An Appalachian Mother's Love