Moonshiners show how is it legal

One of them won an Emmy. Sutton was lucky enough to mostly evade the law for decades, until he told an undercover officer that he had over nine hundred gallons of illegal moonshine that he was ready to sell. He was charged with illegally distilling spirits shocker and possession of a handgun as a felon. Sutton pled guilty and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison the following January. As long-time viewers of the show know, Tim no longer has to hide his moonshining.

He is now proudly able to sell his moonshine legally, which he helps will aid him in his effort to preserve the traditions and culture surrounding moonshine. As Tim was starting up his distillery, rumors flew that the Virginia ABC almost denied him a license to produce moonshine legally.

Stephen Tickle, a fan favorite on the show, also admitted that he considered going into politics -- long before Donald Trump ever threw his hat into the ring for president. Back in , Tickle said in an interview with a local paper that he was considering running for a state office in southern Virginia.

He realized that the show was giving him a larger platform and wanted to use that to make a positive change. This was a pretty honorable goal. He never did get around to it, though, since there were a variety of things that got in his way. More on that later. The report says that he drove his vehicle into a crowd, after which the officer made him take a field sobriety test His attorney was able to help him walk away with just a fine and court costs.

Before he was a moonshiner, Josh Owens used to be a professional motorbike and motocross racer. He still rides his motorcycle on the show with his dog, Cutie Pie. Viewers might like Cutie Pie better than they like Josh, honestly. He still loves motorcycles, and he was coming back from a motorcycle rally last August when he discovered that his trailer had caught on fire.

The show, which follows a group of individuals in the deep woods of Appalachia who go to extreme lengths to manufacture craft whiskey, is technically capturing an illegal activity and broadcasting it to millions of people — which has people wondering how the stars haven't been caught by police yet.

If these guys are scared to get arrested why would you go on a TV reality show. Kind of. Yes, cameras are capturing moonshiners, but it's not as illegal as you think. Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokeswoman Kathleen Shaw responded to concern from residents about the illegal production of alcohol, and reassured everyone that the state has the situation under control by hinting the show is not as authentic as it seems.

Also, it is totally possible for the cast to obtain permits to manufacture their product — like star Tim Smith did. As the camera crew with the Moonshiners is not helping them to actively evade police or to create the moonshine, they are merely documenting it.

Also, these alleged crimes would have happened several months prior by the time they ever reach the air, meaning that evidence beyond this reality show is likely to no longer exist. There is a burning concern that the show is nothing more than a dramatization, and that is what the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement has released statements to suggest. Their take on the situation is that if they were under any suspicion that actual illegal activity were taking place with the production or distribution of unlawful moonshine, that their department would be there immediately to arrest all parties involved and to put a stop to it.

According to this primary office within the state, the show merely has been offering viewers an exciting spin on what making shine actually looks like and the idea that they are somehow eluding law enforcement with their distribution techniques.

According to the main man of the show, Tim Smith, he is always hopeful that the majority of people can see the authenticity of what he is doing and root for the multi-generation moonshining family to continue to escape the law. The show does feature unquestionably real footage of moonshine being produced by legendary bootlegger "Popcorn" Sutton. However, this footage wasn't filmed for the show. In fact, Sutton sadly took his own life in , two years before Moonshiners first aired.

The producers merely bought the rights to the movie and used the footage in the first season of their show. At the time of his death, Sutton was awaiting trial for illegally distilling spirits, a charge notably avoided by the other stars of the show, who we're told are doing the exact same thing, while millions watch. When asked how they get away with breaking the law on national TV, the stars of Moonshiners usually have a simple answer: nobody can prove they're actually doing that. Tim Smith told BourbonBlog that it's not enough to see someone making something that looks like moonshine.

Instead, "physical samples of the product you're producing have to be taken and analyzed. And for two, I could be doing anything, it could be just water.

When Magilla Entertainment started working on the show in , executives thought that focusing on illicit moonshiners would be legally risky, probably because it is. Instead, they planned to feature licensed moonshiners going legit. Unfortunately, that turned out to be insanely boring. As producer Matt Ostrom told author Jamie Joyce , "a legal distillery is not the most compelling thing.

It's not like people on boats hunting alligators or fighting giant seas. It's literally: Water boils.