When I was first told about Stillhouse Moonshine, I immediately stopped what I was doing, found this gif, then wrote the headline of my review. Once I got that out of my system (it took a couple of days), I turned my attention to the two bottles, er, containers of moonshine in front of me.

First, Stillhouse is extremely proud of their packaging, and rightfully so–the moonshine is house in a metal can … it’s a turpentine can with booze in it? Now I’ve seen everything. It’s a cool bit to stand out from the constantly expanding clear/white whiskey shelf at the liquor store and definitely begs to be taken on a camping trip, tailgate, beach outing or other activity that frowns upon glass. It’s also fun to get a non-whiskey drinker to watch you swig from the can, because their cringes are always worth it.

Courtesy of Stillhouse

The Stillhouse line offers a full spectrum of flavors–original, apple crisp, peach tea, mint chip, coconut lime, and red hot. Their website offers recipes for shots (they strongly recommend you chill the shots), rocks cocktails and punches.

The team was sent the original and peach tea flavors to try out, so I started sipping the original moonshine neat and immediately noticed how smooth it was– almost like a vodka as opposed to a moonshine. It’s highly filtered with just a hint of sweet corn, which made it easy to drink, but it definitely seemed meant as a mixer, especially since it’s only 80 proof. The chilled shot also felt like drinking a good vodka, but the possibilities for infusions, punches and even replacing vodka in a lot of standard drink recipes (it paired well with ginger beer) allow for some unique experimentation. I also tasted the peach tea moonshine neat and it was even easier to drink, but not as sweet as a lot of the flavored whiskeys on the market. (Thank f**k.) It’s a nice 69 proof and could easily see myself drinking a glass or two of it straight. It made a great chilled shot and didn’t need to be dressed up, but adding lemonade made for a great shot or quick cocktail.

If the other Stillhouse flavors can balance capturing the intended flavor without a sugar rush (looking at you, mint chip), this is a really versatile base spirit for some interesting drink ideas and experimentation.

STILLHOUSE MOONSHINE
stillhouse.com
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~$25 / 750 ml
Stillhouse is available at most major liquor stores in the area