Legal Moonshine to Be Sold in South Carolina

Not that it ever left, but moonshine is back in South Carolina in a big way and with a new twist: it's legal.

The Dark Corner Distillery is set to open next month in Greenville and the two owners, engineer Joe Fenten and home beer brewer Richard Wenger, will take use the wording of new SC micro-distillery laws to sell the state's first ever legal moonshine.

The Dark Corner Distillery will open in an old 1925 building and feature a museum and tasting bar. Dark Corner, SC was once the home of loved and feared SC moonshiners. The area was even once known as SC's "little Chicago" due to the moonshine feuds and violence.

"They thought it was their inalienable, God-given right to make whiskey," said Fenten, a Dark Corner native. "It was a hard life. If you could make an extra 10 cents more for a gallon of whiskey than you could for a bushel of corn, then why not?"

It is well known that illegal moonshine is still made in SC, as a June bust by sheriff's deputies netted 2,000 gallons of moonshine and $150,000 in cash.

Now, thanks to loopholes in new 2009 micro-brewery laws moonshine is about to make a comeback in a big way in SC, all totally legal.

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Source: "Southern U.S. distillery to legally sell moonshine" Reuters, 7/29/11