NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Moonshining is perhaps just as much of a part of Tennessee history as country music, but home distilling has been illegal since even before prohibition. Now, nearly 160 years later, one lawmaker from the Volunteer State hopes to change that.
Eric Manes, better known as “Digger” from the show Moonshiners, is proud of his roots in East Tennessee. Currently, he’s pushing for the Freedom to Home Distill Act to move forward.
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“You have to understand, I come from Appalachia, the heart of it, around the Great Smoky Mountains where our patriot angel just passed… Dolly Parton,” Manes said. “This has been more of a revenue issue more than a criminal issue. It’s taxation. We all know the first rebellion in our country was when George Washington, one of our first moonshiners, decided to implement the whiskey tax to pay for the war cost. We had a huge amount of debt and he paid it off by people drinking whiskey.”
Meanwhile, in Nashville, Michael Hinds, co-founder of the Nashville Barrel Company, is also in favor of legalizing home spirit distilling…