And they say politics makes for strange bedfellows......
WARNING : Cody, you are too young to be investing in this stuff. Wonder who those other Georgia investors are? Johnny? Tommie? PattyKay?
'Moonshiners' stars are speedway guests during race weekend
(From left) J.T. Smith, father Tim and Steven Ray Tickle stand by their moonshine still in Climax, Va. near Danville, Va. Smith and Tickle will be at Bristol Motor Speedway as guests of the track. They will appear on the Hospitality Village stage on Saturday during the St. Patricks Day concert at 7 p.m. (Photo by Discovery Networks)
Posted: Thursday, March 14, 2013
BY KEVIN CASTLE | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER |
Tim Smith is on the verge of doing what moonshiners back in the mid-20th century couldn't do, bring a recipe for crafted Virginia hooch to the masses for legal consumption.
One of the stars of the Discovery Channel reality series "Moonshiners" and a guest of the Bristol Motor Speedway for race weekend, Smith told the Bristol Herald Courier that he has some investors in Georgia on-board to develop and market his family's taste of white lightning.
"I'm right on the edge of submitting my recipe to the (U.S. Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) for their approval," said Smith, a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Climax, Va., about 30 miles north of Danville.
Smith also has following on Facebook that numbers more than 4 million.
"That is going on, along with creating the label, Smith said of his submission to the bureau. The information on the label and the recipe have to be submitted simultaneously. They look at both of them to see what youre putting in and what youre bringing out and what the label states that is actually going on the bottle.
"We don't know if its going to be made here in Virginia or somewhere else, he said. That's another subject the investors and myself are going over. Although the TV show is only 2 years old, this project is something I've been working on for 14 years. The show has enabled me to broaden my vision. It was a backyard project attempting to go legal with an illegal product. I'm just taking my time and wanting to make the right decisions, because I am an outlaw trying to beat the system and get moonshine on the shelf."
Virginia and neighboring North Carolina have very strict laws enforcing the production of alcohol and none of them really fit Smith's business plan right now, he said.
Yet even he is taken aback by the success distilled by the show, he said. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the shows second-season finale pulled in 3.87 million viewers, setting it as the top broadcast for all of cable television that night.
Some critics, however, have said the show is "too staged," because of a successful run from the Virginia law despite a cable television crew, producers and millions around the country witnessing the making of illegal alcohol.
"We've been doing this since I was 7, years ago," Smith said.
"My dad was connected with the Popcorn Sutton gang out of Tennessee and other guys out of North and South Carolina. Once I bring my face out on national television, everybody is going to recognize you and what you're doing. I'm not backing down, though. Again, you get questions about the network allowing this to happen, making the shine.
"It's marketing. It's like speeding and being arrested after the fact. It would be very complicated to commit this crime and have it documented then prosecuted in a court of law, he said. And then after all of that, we're just talking about moonshine. We're not talking about serial killers killing people and billions and billions of dollars that people are making off of this. This is southern heritage culture. The laws created at the beginning of our country's government were made by people who were drinking moonshine."
Regarding the trip to Bristol to talk to fans of the show while taking in some racing, Smith said: That's just smooth going down.
"NASCAR racing was born out of the ridge runners who ran shine through the mountains, he said. Some of the best drivers in the sport back in the day ran shine. That's about as cut and dry as you can get."
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM
