Franklin County, Virginia has been called the Moonshine Capital of the World. I’ve commented before on how easy it is to find old moonshine stills rusting away in the woods. There has been so much moonshine made in Franklin County that you can literally walk up any creek and find an old moonshine still.

If you are going to be in SW Virginia this weekend, you should swing by the Philpott Lake Visitor Center to see a presentation on moonshine. The event is this Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM.  After the event, you can drive over to the Bassett Historical Center and [Read the Rest...]

The XXX on moonshine jugs is a classic symbol. It has been caricatured and cartooned many times in modern portrayals of the moonshiner. Everyone instinctively knows that “XXX” written on a jug indicates that it contains moonshine, but what does that symbol mean and why did moonshiners scrawl that on their jugs? The “XXX” signifies how many [Read the Rest...]

Today marks the one year anniversary of Moonshine Heritage. One year ago today I bought the domain MoonshineHeritage.com and published my first post (which had been written a few weeks before.) In one year’s time site traffic has grown from just a couple of visitors a day to well over 2,000 visitors a day! In [Read the Rest...]

The third annual Carolina ShineFest was held July 30-31 in Madison, NC over the course of a very hot weekend. The event, organized by the Southern Culture Society, attracted about 30,000 people. ShineFest featured muscle cars, bands, vendors, “moonshine” samples, and a distillery tour. There was also an appearance by moonshining legend Junior Johnson (who [Read the Rest...]

So you’ve found a rusting heap of metal in the woods and you think it’s an old moonshine still. But how can you tell? Here are 5 things to look for to determine if that pile of junk you’ve found is really a moonshine still.

Here’s a great video about the history of moonshine in the Appalachians. It’s actually from the DVD bonus features included on , the documentary about Popcorn Sutton and Appalachian moonshine. This video is a great introduction to the history of moonshine in America that started with the Scotch-Irish bringing their distilling knowledge with them from [Read the Rest...]

Snowbird Mill is a historic site in Henry County, Virginia that has been swallowed up by the woods and forgotten to time. The area is also a great place to locate moonshine stills.

Turkeycock Mountain lies on the eastern border of Franklin and Henry County, Virginia and the ridgeline of the mountain marks the county line. The mountain has a long history of moonshining. I’ve been hunting for stills two other times on the mountain and both times I’ve easily found the remains of old moonshine stills (Pt.1 [Read the Rest...]

The Foxfire Book is the original guidebook on making moonshine. Before the Internet, this was the only source of information on how to make moonshine. Many people have used it to make moonshine and it belongs in every moonshiner’s library.