I have never tasted moonshine but I sure would like to.
The police are NAZIS.
I'm not going to get into a long winded debate about the how, what and why that it's illegal to make your own alcohol from legally obtained items that you have already paid taxes on in the first place. Aside from the federal government who says it's OK if you give us a cut of the money, but if you don't, they will throw you in jail and take everything you own.
And also in the state laws from the hundreds of distilleries around the state capital who have lobbyists that gives a lot of stuff and money to politicians to keep things at the status quo.
This is a government problem. Not a problem in the community or for those in the community. (again, read the comments).
Where I am from, many families kept a roof over their families heads this way. And don't forget, many revolted in the whiskey rebellion when the government wanted to tax liquor in order to help pay back their debt to france for buying weapons and stuff from them during the Revolutionary war, but even after that debt was paid, it shouldn't surprise you that the government decided not to stop taxing alcohol. Imagine that.
So, it's only illegal if you don't give the government their extortion money. Err. tax. And this is despite that you pay taxes for the grain and sugar that you use too. The more you use, the more taxes you're forced to pay. Then, the more alcohol you make, the more you have to pay.
On both sides of my family, my Dads dad was a moonshiner. My Dad hauled it for him and my uncle. And on my Moms side, my grandmother and grandfather were shiners too.
My grandmother got caught with 70 gallons in the fall of 1973. Thankfully she had already gotten rid of the first two pickup truck loads the day before, but that's what she got caught with when they raided them.
My grandmother had a 4th grade education. Couldn't read or write and other than counting money for change is about all the arithmetic she could do either, but this is what she knew to do to put my Mom through college to get a nursing degree, and my uncle through vocational school to be a certified welder. There's no shame in that. She was the sweetest lady you'd ever meet and have given perfect strangers food at her little roadside store. And by God, she could make some of the smoothest whiskey that would roll across your tongue too. She learned from her Father, and her great great grandfathers taught their family from Scotland before coming over here.
This is as much of a way of life in these mountains as the sun coming up in the morning.
I'm sure the police have tracked whoever was making this so it's just going to be a matter of time before they're arrested. That's the only way they would've found the still site in the first place. But, they'll never get a conviction in a jury trial unless they stack the jury in their favor.
But, read the comments. A lot of people aren't happy about this. And for the same reason that I'm scornful of it.
I also don't think it's right to charge a tax for churches from their tithes and offerings and I also don't believe it's right to charge tax on a newspaper or to read the internet, and I also don't think it's right to charge a tax to allow someone to have a machinegun or silencer. You shouldn't have to pay a tax to make your own liquor either.
People have a right to do what they want to be happy. Government should get bent.
This is just how it is here in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.
And lately, people are even less tolerant of government folks. But that's probably a conversation to save for another day.