Moonshine - It's Legal in Georgia

Want to try a little moonshine? Or perhaps see just how White Lightning is made? You can do just that in Dawsonville, Ga., at a legalized moonshine distillery that just happens to be next door to the Dawsonville City Hall. (Yes, I did say NEXT to the City Hall.)

The Dawsonville Moonshine Distillery opened in October 2012, just in time for the annual Dawsonville Moonshine Festival. But it wasn't until December that the distillery received the legal okay to sell the moonshine and to permit the actual onsite sampling of the local white lightning.

However, if you want to buy your own moonshine stash, you'll have to wait in line. The moonshine batches sold out fast, but the distillery is taking orders for its next batch.

Owner Cheryl Wood uses moonshine recipes that go back over 150 years, recipes handed down to her grandfather, Simmie Free. The distillery is a one-still operation with fourth generation distiller Dwight "Punch" Bearden overseeing the moonshine making. The brewery consists of a 250 gallon copper still, a 1,050 gallon and two 415 gallon mash tanks.

Of course, Dawsonville is the perfect spot for a public distillery. After all, the town is the Moonshine Capital of the World. Legend is that the corn farmers in Dawson and neighboring Appalachian mountain communities survived the great depression by making and selling moonshine to city slickers.

The brew was transported to Atlanta across curvy mountain roads and down Georgia Hwy. 9. Federal government revenuers often chased the moonshine drivers down Thunder Road (Hwy. 9), giving birth to a legion of skilled drivers and the start of NASCAR. 

You can tour and taste Dawsonville moonshine every Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m. For directions and maybe to put your name on the "I need some moonshine" list, call 770-401-1211 or 706-344-1210.

Revooners raid Dawsonville moonshine still

Photo from Dawson Advertiser

Yep. The 'Revooners' (aka ATF) conducted a daring daylight raid on the Dawsonville Moonshine Distillery Friday, hoping to find moonshine in production. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had gotten a tip that moonshine was not only being brewed at the Distillery but also the dreaded white lightening was being sold on the premises.

AFT agents spent four hours at the Distillery, (which just so happens to be located next to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame), and left after they couldn't find any moonshine. They did find a still, which the owner of the Dawsonville Moonshine Distillery had unloaded the day before in anticipation of the 44th annual Mountain Moonshine Festival. The festival honors Dawsonville's legendary bootlegging, moonshining heritage.

"I thought I was going to jail," said Calvin Byrd, one of the organizers of the festival, as he described the AFT's raid.

While no moonshine was being produced when the AFT agents swarmed the place, that doesn't mean that the Distillery isn't going to LEGALLY make moonshine some day. In fact, plans call for the 6,5000 sq. ft. space located in the Dawsonville City Hall to one day produce moonshine which will ultimately be sold to a distributor for eventual sale to consumers. No moonshine will be sold on the Distillery's premises.

Operations permits are still pending. Expected to open by the end of the year, the Distillery will produce 'white lightning' based on recipes handed down from one generation of moonshiners to another. For more details, check out this AJC article.