Knocking Back Moonshine with Max Watman

Max Watman, journalist and the author of  Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine, is coming to Seattle to provide a “Drinking Lesson,” to 12 lucky guests at the Sorrento Hotel, this Sunday, February 28th. We asked Watman a few questions about his new book, his obsession with moonshine, and his thoughts on the current micro-distillery movement.

I love how you have written about the significance of moonshine as a

part of American culture. Do you wonder if there would be as much

drama involved, had it always been legal? What benefits, if any, do

you think there would have been?

If making spirits had never been criminalized,  the nation would be

entirely different. The first tax levied on American citizens was a

tax on whiskey, and moonshine is nothing more than untaxed spirit made

on an unregistered still. If we?d never levied that tax, perhaps the

implication would be that Thomas Jefferson?s vision of the  yeoman

farmer might have prevailed, rather than the corporatized economy that

Alexander Hamilton argued for. That would have changed every moment of

American history. But lets not go that far ? we can assume that

Hamilton would have thought of something else to tax. Same thing for

the IRS ? very high on the list of things the IRS was created to tax

was whiskey, but we can assume that they would have taxed cotton and

corn and income and so forth to repay the debt of the civil war. Legal

moonshine might have meant no organized crime, or much less of it,

because Prohibition was the real turning point. For Meyer Lansky, and

all the other recognizable founding fathers of American Organized

Crime, prohibition turned them into a full-time gangsters.

To understand the benefits and costs today, you?ve got to divide the

world of illicit spirits into two camps ? if making your own spirits

were legal, there?d be a whole lot of hobbyists enjoying themselves

more openly. On the other hand, there continues to be a vast black

market for illegal hooch of the lowest quality. That stuff shouldn?t

be legal, because it shouldn?t be legal to sell people poison.

What tied you to this subject? Why this fascination with ?America?s

vice??What preconceived notions were dispelled once you started doing

your research on moonshine?

Key to my interest in this topic was how surprised I was once I

started learning the truth about things. The spark for me came when I

found an article about a still that had exploded ? or been blown up ?

in Philadelphia in 2002. There were 6 stills in a brick warehouse,

each of which had a 500 gallon capacity. That?s enough to capacity to

put 4,200 gallons of moonshine on the street every week. Preconceived

notions about moonshine involve overalls, crooked shotguns, and

hillbillies sleeping by a stream. 4,200 gallons of moonshine in

Philadelphia in 2002? That?s a surprise, and the surprises just kept

coming, it was a very exciting book to research and write.

You have been writing your whole life about a wide range of topics

from Nascar to horse racing and now moonshine. It?s super uncanny

timing to release a book during our current cocktail revolution – was

this planned or purely serendipitous?

Pure luck. Then again, this speaks to the surprises I mentioned just

above. A lot of what I did for this book involved legitimate

distilleries, micro-distilleries, and cocktails, and and everywhere I

went there were people taking spirits very seriously. It?s been an

incredible decade for drinking. It?s no longer enough to have a bottle

opener and some sugar water. I remain amazed that I can walk into a

bar and order something as perfect as an Aviation cocktail with

Aviation Gin. That?s more than a drink, it?s a little piece of

collaborative art.

The dedication of the book to your mom reads ?For my mom, who

undoubtedly had something better in mind.? What did she have in mind?

My mom would say she just wants me to be happy, I?m sure, because

that?s what moms say. But a lot of this book took place on the fringes

of society. Moms don?t want their boys chasing down illegal liquor in

rural Virginia. She doesn?t want to hear that I?m trying to infiltrate

a federal trial. She doesn?t want me to call her up and say that I?m

drinking beer in a barn with a guy who is looking at a stretch in the

federal penitentiary. She?s my mom, she doesn?t care how fast a race

car goes.

With the surge in new distilleries and new licensing, what

unexpected benefits do you think will emerge? What global affect do

you think it might have?

The benefits are many: there?s natural, immediate benefits on the

shelves of the liquor stores ? we get to drink better, more

interesting stuff. What?s more, we have small, honest companies making

products carefully, tied to their local agricultural communities, and

tied to their customers. In Upstate New York,  Harvest Spirits made a

whole batch of pear brandy out of their neighbor?s crop, which had

been damaged by hail. That farmer was looking at a very bad year, and

they helped turn it around. Pigs in Palisade eat the spent bourbon

mash from the Peach Street Distillery, which in turn buys fruit from

the local farmers. House Spirits has teamed with an Oregon farmer to

grow barley.

It seems that many bartenders across America are taking their jobs

very seriously these days. Their attention to detail, the quality of

ingredients and what they wear behind the bar seems to play apart in

bartending today. Would you agree with that?

People often long for the golden age of drinking, whenever they think

it might have been, but I think we?re in it.

What could the American beer or wine industry learn from your

research about the micro distillery?

Inside everything they make there is booze.

You are going to be making an appearance next week at Michael Hebb?s

Nightschool series, ?Drinking Lessons,? what cocktail creations will

you be making for everyone? Do you have a favorite liquor, or a spirit

that you are into at the moment?

I?ll be there with Christian Krogstad from House Spirits and we?re

going to make some great white whiskey drinks. We?re making a John

Collins, a predecessor to the Tom Collins. A fantastic White

Manhattan. We?re going to make a side by side comparison of a drink I

created called the Coffee Lace ? I named it that because that?s what

coal miners would call their moonshine spiked coffee ? we?ll make one

with white dog and we?ll make one with vodka. I think people will be

amazed at how different they are. We?re going to taste some white

liquor next to some age whiskey, and talk about which flavors are

inherent to the distillate and which come from the barrel. It?s going

to be a lot of fun.



Besides moonshine, I hear you are really into food as well. I?m

thrilled you are thinking of writing a book on Jewish cooking in the

South. Can you tell me more about that?

A very large part of the immigrant experience has to do with food. For

Jews, it?s more than the flavors of home, it?s a system of rules ?

it?s very interesting to me the way those rules are abided by or

eschewed, and the way those decisions affect assimilation. When I

moved out to the country, there were no Jews there. I was the only

Jewish kid in my school, and for many of the kids there I was the

first Jew they?d ever met. It wasn?t easy.

We did a great job with food ? we sourced the Shenandoah valley for

well raised meats and sold them in the city. We made goat cheese. I

did not do all that well at assimilating. I want to explore the Jewish

population centers, surprising pockets of Judaism throughout the

South, and I want to cook my way through that adventure.

Lastly, what trends in cocktails, spirits and/or bars do you see for 2010?

I think that we?ve made our point: cocktails should be carefully

constructed, artful things. Now, I think, we?re going to see a return

to fun. I think we?ll see a blending of attitudes. It?s important to

be able to get a shot and a beer.

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