United States | Native spirit

A Texas judge gives a nod to America’s at-home distillers

Life, liberty and the pursuit of liquor

Man stands beside his illegal still at Visalia, California on Feb. 22, 1954
Photograph: AP
|Washington, DC

In Devils Lake, North Dakota, a man named Ray is making a batch of watermelon moonshine. A video posted to Facebook shows his ruby-red liquid bubbling. “Sounds like Rice Krispies,” he wrote. The copper still he makes it in is in his garage. Officially, he claims the set-up is just for distilling water and hand-sanitiser.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Life, liberty and the pursuit of liquor”

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