Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 8, 1993 TAG: 9301080065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COOL BRANCH LENGTH: Medium
RECORD MOONSHINE OPERATION RAIDED
FRANKLIN COUNTY LOST a dubious distinction Wednesday.\ The 28,200-gallon still raided Wednesday in Pittsylvania County was the largest ever found in Virginia.
Some said it was the largest illegal distillery of its kind ever discovered in the United States.
Some said the largest in the world.
It was even bigger than the one raided in Franklin County in 1974.
That one, Virginia's previous record, was unearthed in the Crossroads area of Franklin County. It had a 19,000-gallon capacity, but that was just two-thirds the size of the one found in a custom-built moonshine shed Wednesday.
"We had talked a number of times, saying we would probably run into one, one of these days, as big as the 24-pot one in 1974," said Butch Wright, an Alcoholic Beverage Control agent from Franklin County.
"But to think somebody is running 36 pots, it kind of blows your mind."
The still's 36 800-gallon pots, hammered together from boards and galvanized metal, were full of mash when the operation was raided.
The still was so large that authorities called in a private environmental contractor to pump the distilling liquor from the vats and haul it to a waste-water treatment plant.
Dumping the alcohol into the ground, as is normal following moonshine raids, could have polluted streams or the ground water.
How big was the still?
It would take 25,000 pounds of sugar to make mash - the alcoholic mixture that later becomes whiskey - in all 36 pots.
It could have produced 3,000 gallons of whiskey per run, and would have taken at least four people to operate it.
"I'd venture to say some legal distilleries don't have that capacity," said Jack Powell, a retired ABC agent who is writing a book about illegal whiskey. "That's the most I've ever heard of and ever will."
The still was set up in an 80-by-45-foot shed built specifically for the operation.
The 800-gallon pots were arranged in a U-shape, numbered 1 through 36, along the side and back walls of the shed.
Proofing tanks, where the 30-proof mash is converted to 100-proof whiskey, sat in the middle of the pots.
Because the propane used to cook the mash in the galvanized metal and wooden casks makes an indoor moonshine operation hot, the building had ventilation fans near the roof on both ends.
"They were set up just as neat as could be," Wright said.
Pittsylvania County Sheriff Harold Plaster estimated the sugar, malt and the still itself were worth $50,000. To erect the building probably cost another $15,000.
The private driveway leading to the still, just about a mile over the Franklin County line, had been under the watch of authorities for 11 days.
But no one has been arrested. John Wright, head of the ABC regulatory division in Richmond, said the property owner has disappeared. The still had been operating less than three months, authorities estimated. Wright said the operation's owner did not have enough time to recover his $65,000 in set-up costs.
"Somebody is hurting big-time," Wright said.
Word of the raid on the huge still spread quickly through Franklin County.
Arlene Jones, who runs a design shop in Rocky Mount, has been selling T-shirts with a picture of the 1974 still, proclaiming Franklin County "Moonshine Capital of the World."
"Oh, no," Jones said of Wednesday's discovery, "we can't lose that honor."
But the experts say it likely will be a long time - or never - before someone tries to top the one found Wednesday at Cool Branch.
"I doubt if the largest-one-ever-raided [record] will ever come back to Franklin County," Butch Wright said.