State of the UnionFollow

Dood, by a CANDADIAN.

Canadian whisky is whisky made in Canada; by law it must be aged there at least three years in a barrel[1]. Most Canadian whiskies are blended multi-grain whiskies and are usually lighter and smoother than other whiskey styles. These are often casually called "rye whisky," however they differ from American rye whiskeys. Although rye is often a primary component in Canadian whiskies, the use of rye is not dictated by legal standards.

Canadian whisky featured prominently in illegal imports (known as bootlegging) into the U.S. during Prohibition in the 1920s. Hiram Walker and Seagram's have distilleries in Windsor, Ontario across the Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan that easily served small, fast smuggling boats. The long, undefended U.S.-Canadian border made smuggling fairly easy.

Moonshine (sometimes known as PoitÃn, mooney, creek water, hooch, Portuguese grape juice, and many others) is a common slang term for home-distilled alcohol, especially in places where this production is illegal.

The name is often assumed to be derived from the fact that moonshine producers and smugglers would often work at night (i.e. under the light of the moon) to avoid arrest for producing illegal liquor. The 1811 edition of the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose, defines "moonshine" as follows: "A matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle, nothing. The white brandy smuggled on the coasts of Kent and Sussex, and the gin in the north of Yorkshire, are also called moonshine." [1] It has been suggested that the term might derive from smugglers' explaining away their boxes and barrels as "mere moonshine" (that is, nothing). (Jonathon Green, American Dialect Society Mailing List, 31 Oct 2001)

Moonshine is made by yeast fermenting a sugar source to produce ethanol and then separating the alcohol from the fermenting mixture (the mash) through distillation using a still. Because of its illegal nature and simple production, moonshine is usually not aged in barrels as are other, similarly-produced liquors such as whisky or bourbon, and it sometimes contains impurities, off flavors, and toxins such as methanol that the more sophisticated distillation methods of commercial distilleries are able to control. In popular culture, moonshine is usually presented as being extremely strong and is commonly associated with the Southern United States, and Appalachia.

Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. The name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most of its articles to be edited by nearly anyone with access to the Web site. Its primary servers are in Tampa, Florida, with additional servers in Amsterdam and Seoul.