US: Home moonshiners sip quietly under the radar in Dallas area

(DallasNews) - A modern-day moonshiner holds a glass jar of homemade absinthe up to the sunlight, illuminating the potent liquor’s green color.

A shiny copper distilling unit — a still — sits on his kitchen counter next to the sink. It was crafted in Portugal and looks more like a work of art than an implement of illegality.

On a quiet Saturday morning, the moonshiner puts the still through its paces in his small suburban apartment outside Dallas. Plastic bags filled with fennel, wormwood and anise — herbs and spices used to flavor the absinthe — litter a nearby dining table.

“The whole ‘mad scientist’ thing is really fun, adding a little bit of this and little bit of that,” says the moonshiner. We’ll call him Andy. He doesn’t want to be identified because it’s illegal to distill spirits without state and federal licenses, and he doesn’t want his employer to find out about his new pastime.

Federal law allows hobbyists to brew up to 100 gallons of beer a year without a license or paying taxes. The same is true of winemaking. But distilling any amount of liquor — whiskey, gin, vodka, brandy, absinthe — can land you in trouble.

But criminal penalties — a misdemeanor at the state level and possible felony charges for tax evasion at the federal level — aren’t much of a deterrent to Andy and a growing number of underground artisan distillers.

“I just think the laws are a holdover from a bygone era,” Andy says. “I don’t sell what I make like the old moonshiners, and I don’t see any reason why a citizen should not be able to do this legally without fear.”

A cargo shorts guy

When you think of Andy, don’t picture the overall-clad hillbillies in Moonshiners, the hit reality show on the Discovery Channel.

Andy, 40, is a college-educated professional in a white-collar job. He runs his still in cargo shorts and a T-shirt. A mountain bike leans against his living room wall.

“I was in Las Vegas and went to this show at Caesars Palace,” he said. “It was called Absinthe and they were serving the drink. I liked it a lot. I read a couple of books and invested about $500, and that’s how I got started.”