If you go
› What: Grandaddy Mimm’s Distillery & Museum, 161 Pappy’s Plaza, Blairsville, Georgia› Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday› Phone: 706-781-1829› Website: www.mimmsmoonshine.comComing WednesdayRead more about the food scene in Blairsville, Georgia, in Wednesday’s Food section.
OWLTOWN, Ga. – Lightning never strikes the same place twice. But white lightning? Well, that’s a whole different story, and it’s one that begins in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains where Jack “Mimm” McClure plied a trade that got him through the years of the Great Depression, making some of the best hooch in the mountains.
Now, his grandson, Tommy Townsend, a musician of note, has picked up the family moonshine mantle and, once again, McClure’s famous ‘shine is back on the market, albeit this time legally.
McClure died in 1969, and best as anyone knew, his recipe was lost to the ages. But Townsend was urged by his longtime friend, Jack Keeter, to see if he could find the recipe. So, Townsend contacted his uncle, George McClure, who, he discovered, remembered the secret to the ‘shine. And though bootlegging is, for the most part, far in the past, Townsend and Keeter turned the spirited, age-old tradition into 100-proof liquid gold.
“He fired his stills with wood – we use gas, but other than that, we’re making it the exact same way he did – in small batches just like he did,” Townsend says, adding with a laugh, “Except we’re paying taxes.”