Re: Revival & Gelobrom & Winchester

Carson Graves x1507 3NE (carson@zama.HQ.ileaf.com)
Mon, 16 Sep 96 10:05:00 EDT

Terry King <101522.2625@CompuServe.COM> wrote:
>
> Judy said
>
>
> >What's a demi-john?
>
> A round squat bottle that holds about a gallon. It has round finger handles on
> either side of the neck. It was used a lot as the fermenting jar in the home
> made wine boom.
>
> It was also the bottle kids took to parties when I was young; the content then
> was usually Yugoslav riesling.
>
> They were, or are, also good for moonshine and potheen.
^^^^^^^^^

NO, NO, NO - At last a topic I can speak about with authority... Where I
went to school in the Cumberland plateau region of Tennessee, demi-john
may have been a given name, or even a description of one's mental state,
but 'shine always came in Mason jars (or the economy size in 5 gallon jerry
cans). You could always tell an active imbiber by the indentation on the
bridge of his or her nose from the opposite lip of the tilted up jar
pressing again the face. Good to the last drop.

So ingrained was the association of mason jars and drink in this region
that a legitimate distillery went to the length of packaging their
product in mason jars. Looked kind of silly with the tax stamp and
all.

[note: for those whose upbringing didn't bring them into contact
with Mason jars, the classic example is a 1 quart wide-mouthed glass
jar with a two-piece screw on metal lid. Typically used for preserving
summer fruits and vegetables for the winter, a process know as "canning")

Carson
carson@ileaf.com

(followups to alt-drink-process :-)

>
> Aldrich send me propanol in similar bottles !
>
> Terry King
>
>