Like moonshine, like whisky

We learned a lot of fun stuff about whisky and whisky production this week.  Namely, that practically every householder used to make whisky before and after the clearances. Some of the distilled brew made on these tenant farms was among the best in the land. And the only vital piece of equipment needed, which you couldn't concoct from something else, was a copper coil which allowed the alcohol to rise and separate from the distilled brew when the potion was placed in a cooling stream.

Like moonshine.

Many lords and their ladies professed concern at the level of whisky consumption going on in the straths and glens, so they set up their own distilleries, attempting to minimise illegal consumption and distribution. Profits notwithstanding. 

Still illicit whisky production thrived. 

Some bright spark in the government thought to contain illicit production by offering £5.00 to any person reporting the site of an illegal whisky still. Dobbing in a friend. 

It did not take long for the locals to figure out that every time one of their precious copper coils had reached its end they could leave it in a good location, report the coil to the authorities, collect the £5 reward, then hie off to the nearest market to buy a brand new one. Thanks to the government. 

Some 14,000 stills were confiscated each year, but many new coils were bought for the tenant distillers by the very government that was attempting to curtail the production. 

Many emigrants took their coils with them in their preciously packed luggage when they sailed away from Scotland, off to Canada, New Zealand, America and Australia. 

And in Scotland, illegal whisky continued to be made until an Excise Act was brought in in 1823, sanctioning whisky production in return for a licence payment of £10. It also set the price per gallon of spirits throughout the land. 

Today, many of the whisky distilleries that still operate stand on sites used by the illicit producers of days long past. 

It was the best whisky then; still the best whisky now. 

Whisky still 

Copper coil