How would Mike know Popcorn Sutton, I wondered. Curious, I looked.
All per Wikipedia. Known for always wearing his hat and his bib overalls. Sutton, (perfect name) wrote a self-published book about making moonshine Me and My Likker along with a self-produced home VHS video about related activities, This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make, which quickly became a cult classic and the source material for a documentary by television producers in Boston The Last One, which received a Southeast Emmy Award, and further, later used by Discovery Channel for their show the Moonshiners. This photograph is titled "the day before Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton killed himself" taken by Andy Armstrong.
Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Sutton
This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make full movie YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp56sT66D1U
You really should see the first photo in Google images. I almost posted it, but this one is better. More respectful.
Google images [popcorn sutton] http://tinyurl.com/mqh3ay3
Popcorn Sutton was thirty-two years old.
Kidding. He was sixty-three years old. But why did he off himself? Reading that made me sad. Why, Popcorn, why? What was so impossible that suicide was the rational thing to do?
He killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning to avoid federal prison term due to begin a few days later. They finally caught up to him. He had scrapes with the law previously, probation and such, and he always insisted he run his last run of moonshine, that he aint gonna do it anymore, that he's getting too old to be doing that stuff.
Hank Williams announced a partnership with his widow Pam Sutton to distill and distribute a brand by his name, Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey marketed as being produced in stills of Sutton's design. They were sued by Jack Daniel's Properties, Inc. because their bottles were too closely resembled. They wanted all bottles removed and profits from sales of those bottles turned over to Jack Daniel's. Rough.
Let's look.
So? Well, yeah. But so? Well, yeah. I'm conflicted. Come on, the guy died.
Bastards.
It's business.
Business is bastardly and so is law sometimes. Jeeze those people are touchy.
I hate this story. It hurts my American heart. Can't a guy just make whiskey? No. He cannot. He must dance around and hide his activities.
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14 comments:
The first time that I saw him on tv, I Googled his name to find out more about that very old man. Turns out that we were the same age.
I have a bottle of "Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey 93 Proof" in my pantry. I bought it while in Tennessee because several locals I was visiting told me alllll about the legend of Popcorn Sutton and convinced me that I really, really needed to spend $47 on a bottle of Grade A Number 1 bootleg whiskey.
You can imagine my excitement when I opened it (bluegrass music playing in the background for authenticity) and prepared for a sip of glorious, historic, Hank Williams, Jr. endorsed moonshine.
The stuff is shit.
It is nearly undrinkable. It tastes like turpentine that was used to clean pigeons after an oil spill, filtered through SOS pads for extra body and smoothness.
There is no way to make it taste better. Ice doesn't help, nor does any mix. So there it site on my shelf, a reminder that despite my age and wisdom, I am still a sucker for a story made up by a huge liquor distributor in order to massively overcharge for straight grain alcohol, cut with tap water, and not allowed to age or mellow.
That was interesting. Thanks for posting it. We no longer subscribe to those channels.
The bottles are only able to be mistaken for each other if you can't read or are already blind drunk. Maybe that IS the target market?
I once had a mint julep I really enjoyed, maybe because I was down south at the time and it was summer, but I always thought of bourbon as kind of overrated, due at least in part to nativist chauvinism.
Receiving as a gift a bottle of Black Maple Hill showed me the error of my ways.
Dear Mr. Bourbon, please accept my most sincere and humble apologies.
I was wrong. So very, very, very wrong.
Michael Haz....Heh heh. I've tasted enough real mason jar moonshine to know I'd not pay over $10 for it if it was the last "likkur" on the planet...had friends who lived in the hills. Most had one leg shorter than the other :) Others who went to college near-by who always just had to give me a quart jar when I visited.
Worked with a guy in my late teens who kept a jar in his truck to accompany the beer he drank all the day long....the beer I am sure was to quell the for crap taste of the shine. He finally got fired when he fell asleep at the wheel of his...while driving. Say whot?
My favorite "apostasy", so to speak, is my choice of "Maker's Mark" over Jack Daniels anything (back when I'd drink any whiskey ... no longer do), because it has the same flavor but without the shitty bite like JD whatever. Wild Turkey also amused me, such a great talked up reputation for stuff coarser than Jim Beam's off brand rot gut on a bad day.
I'm of the opinion that booze is like wine...drink what tastes good to you, forget what experts and assholes (like me) tell you. Booze is booze...none of it is good for you. One day I'll quit it all...Cognac included. And you can stupid silly with Cognac and various XO's...try some Camus Bordieries XO or Kelt XO. REally absurb is Remy Louis XIII, aka "Black Pearl." Nothing like some $1700 a 5th crap to impress your friends, eh? The cost alone puts you in the silly class....after 3 or 4 ounces, you really can't tell it from Christian Brothers. Same for the rest, but for now I'll stick to my favorite .... Martell Cordon Blue, when I can find it. It's proof enough that I am an idiot. I'm ever happier when I can find a bootleg bottle of "Baron Otard VSOP" now and then...from a Canadian border smuggler.
A few sips is still part of the addiction. Like wine, which cognac is related, it is what you like individually that matters....I used to piss of the wine snobs when I'd say French La Tour was best at 5 years old (2 years after bottling) rather than waiting for another 10 years until it tasted like fungus imbued nasty syrup.
For my 40th birthday Judi gave me a 4 year old bottle of a 1st growth Gran Cru Cabernet...e.g., a spectacular Pauillac ...with the idea we'd drink it on my 50th birthday...the aging per snobs to be exactly right. It was very nice at my 50th, its 14th, but would have been far better at my 43rd, its 7th...as it was, at 14, aged (allegedly) perfectly, it tasted like some rank Muscatel barely out of the cask....however valued at nearly $1900 at the time as a Jeroboam bottle.
I've read the proof version of this post, zndyes there are some errors, spelling and what not...I am too lazy to fix them. Just understand on ething...booze is addicting and the best is still shit.
@ Aridog
While my husband and I are generally scotch drinkers...Makers Mark is my favorite in the whiskey category.
Being older...and hopefully smarter, we have cut way back on our alcohol consumption, compared to our youthful practices, and hardly ever go "out" anymore. However a nice drink (or two) of scotch or a glass of wine on the deck before dinner is a great way to wind down a hot day in the summer.
First, Chip, thanks for contributing levity, which is appreciated.
Second: in another thread, someone mentioned some favorite cocktails. I think that would make an interesting thread all it's own.
A suggestion for whoever wishes to take it up.
Fr Fox...as an old reformed drunk, I have to ask...you mean there really are "cocktails" that don't involve a shot of whiskey and a beer consumed jointly? :))
When I was a teenager, I worked at a Pure Oil service station in Cottondale, Alabama. I made $13 a week. Some credit customers paid my boss in whiskey. One week, I talked my boss into paying me in whiskey. I got one gallon of white lightning and one half gallon of what he called chartered oak. It was aged in charred oak kegs. The white lightning was almost undrinkable, no matter what you mixed it with. It smelled like vomit. It would run in my lawn mower but it choked out on high grass. OTOH The aged stuff was great.
BTW, don't go to moderated comments. I have had plenty of insulting comments directed at me on other blogs. I just ignore 'em.
Aridog:
Indeed there are. What interests me are not the infinite variety, but certain "classics," and what everyone else might include on such a list; and then, what folks would insist defines these drinks.
For my part, I scoff at the notion of various "-tinis" that bear no reasonable connection to a Martini; but then, a Martini purist will throw the flag on my Vodka Martinis! So it goes.
I think it could be fun, particularly if we had a thread on a particular drink. (I suppose I could do it on my blog, but...I'm not sure I want to do that!)
I would have to say that an Old Fashioned should be on the classic list.
Recipe:
2 oz blended whiskey
1 sugar cube
1 dash bitters
1 slice lemon
1 cherry
1 slice orange
Combine the sugar cube, bitters, and 1 tsp. water in an old-fashioned glass. Muddle well, add blended whiskey, and stir. Add a twist of lemon peel and ice cubes. Add slices of orange and lemon and top with the cherry. Serve with a swizzle stick.
I leave off the cherry because I can't stand those things. With the sugar on top of the alcohol, one of these is plenty for me.
Other classics. Whiskey sour. Ramos Fizz. Vodka Gimlet. Rum Daiquiri..over, not blended.
I like this idea and yes, Father. You probably don't want it on your website :-)
Remind me to tell you one day about my trip to Ireland on a charter flight with the St Patrick's Fathers. They had a few extra seats and my friend and I went with them. A fun group of wild and crazy guys.
DBQ:
Here's my recipe for an Old Fashioned, which -- if you don't mind me saying so -- I believe to be more "authentic" (for what's that's worth!):
Begin with sugar cube or a spoon of sugar; coat it in bitters, and mash it up. If needed, add a bit of your whiskey (rye or bourbon). When the sugar is dissolved, add ice, and then add rest of the shot of whiskey.
Garnish with orange peel only (no fruit salad).
This is, to my mind, the perfect Old Fashioned. Not too fruity or too watery; no carbonation.
DBQ:
I've been working on perfecting a Gimlet (with gin) lately. A bartender at a place I go gets it just right. I haven't gotten the proportions right at home, yet.
For me, the key is to avoid too much sweetness. Instead of Rose lime juice, he uses a bit of sugar syrup, and a bit of fresh lime juice and shakes that. Way less lime juice for me than is usually called for, and it's just right.
Tennessee law eased up on distillers in '09 and moonshine has become a booming business. Yes, I agree the stuff tastes awful, but my brother tells me the Apple Pie version is tasty.
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