What could be a more authentic experience in the Smoky Mountains then learning about and tasting genuine Moonshine?! Thanks to Sugarlands Distilling Company my family was able to do just that. We honestly did not know what to expect when we walked through the doors of this business but we were instantly impressed with the energy and how busy it was. In fact since this locally owned and operated business began in March 2014 more than 2 million people have visited.
What they make here is authentic Moonshine. They currently have 14 different varieties, some created by the men made famous on the Discover Channel show, "Moonshiners". But how is Moonshine made? I am sure everyone has heard about the illegal stills out in the woods using fire, but Sugarlands Distilling has brought it inside and produces all of it onsite in Gatlinburg. Thanks to our incredibly knowledgeable and friendly guide, Matt, we learned how Sugarlands Shine is made from start to finish.
The base of moonshine is corn. Sugarlands uses white corn because as we learned it has more sugars and better starches. They have their own grist mill and grind all of their corn. The corn they use is purchased from family owned farms in Tennessee. The ground up corn comes out like sand.
Here is their 750 gallon fermentation tank that is double walled. Cold water is pumped around it to keep the yeast active. The waste is not thrown away, instead it is given for free to local farmers and used as feed for cows.
Then they cook it at up to 200 degrees for four hours. They use steam instead of fire because it is easier to control the temperature. At 172 degrees alcohol will boil. It actually becomes a vapor.
Then it is distilled 6 times which gives it a smoother taste. The vapor is converted back to liquid through a condenser. Copper coils have cold water running through it. The liquid then separates into 3 troughs, what they call the heads which is 170-180 proof, the hearts which is 125 proof which is what Sugarlands puts on their shelves for sale, and the Tails which has the oils and would give you a terrible hangover if you drank it. Sugarlands takes the Heads and Tails and reruns it with the next batch which means every bottle they produce is related.
They do all of the flavoring and bottling on site as well. They use only real flavors and use high speed blenders to make the flavored moonshine. They have an automatic filler to fill the bottles, but they use their employees to lid and label the bottles. Our guide Matt said that they want the personal touch for all of their products, which is why they choose to do it by hand.
Earlier I mentioned the 14 varieties of Sugarlands Shine that is produced at Sugarlands Distilling Company.
Our guide and bartender, Matt, took us through all of the flavors and gave us some great information about what we were tasting and also sharing some tasty recipes using the different flavors.
The flavors we sampled were:
-Jim Tom's Unaged Rye Whisky
-Silver Cloud Prohibition Style
-Blockader's Blackberry 40 Proof
-Mark and Digger's Rye Apple which is 80 proof and and has apples, allspice and cinnamon
-40 Proof Lemonade
-Southern Sweet Tea which is 40 proof and uses black tea leaves and sassafras
-Mark Rogers American Peach Moonshine which is 70 proof
-Appalachian Apple Pie which is 50 proof and won best new flavor in the world. It has green Granny Smith apples and caramel. What was fascinating about this one was that Matt told us to drink the shot and swallow it which gave us the apple taste, but then open our lips and suck air through our teeth which was when we got the caramel taste.
-Peanut Butter and Jelly which is 70 proof
-Blueberry Muffin 70 Proof which has actual streusel mixed in
-Root Beer which is 70 proof
-Butterscotch Gold which is 40 proof
-Peppermint which is 100 proof
-Steven Tickle's Dynamite Cinnamon which is 70 proof
My husband and I really enjoyed the tasting and were impressed at how smooth the moonshine was and how authentic all of the flavors were. Of course, all of the flavors are available for purchase. We had a difficult time deciding which ones to take, but we finally agreed on six of them.
Visitors have the opportunity to take a private tour and tasting for $12.50 per person. If you want to skip that, free tastings are offered to anyone of legal drinking age. They also offer a Distiller Workshop or if you are really interested in moonshine, you could be a Distiller for the Day and participate in the making of a batch of Sugarlands Shine.
If you find yourself in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, you really need to stop by and check out this operation for yourself, I am sure you won't be disappointed. For more information I encourage you to visit the Sugarlands Distilling Company site. The site has some great recipe ideas, information about the moonshine making process and a store locator to see if Sugarlands Shine is available in your area.
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