‘Moonshiners’ Stars Say Ohio and New York Buyers Once Fueled Appalachia’s Liquor Trade

The cast of the long-running Discovery series “Moonshiners” is pushing back on one of the oldest warnings about illegal liquor — that it can make drinkers go blind — while also pointing to an overlooked chapter of the trade’s history that runs straight through Ohio.

Mark Ramsey and Eric “Digger” Manes, two stars of the show now in its 16th season, told Fox News Digital that much of moonshine’s frightening reputation traces back to government policy rather than the liquor itself.

“There’s a huge different thought process behind moonshine than there was, say, in the ’40s, ’30s, early years,” Manes said. “There was a lot of propaganda out there. It was said that it could make you go blind, make you die, make you go crazy, make you get the jack leg. The government was the one that was poisoning the industrial alcohol the people were stealing to make bathtub gin.”

That account lines up with historical record. During Prohibition, the federal government required toxic additives in industrial alcohol to deter people from drinking it, according to the Smithsonian Channel. Some of that poisoned alcohol ended up diverted into the black market — separate from traditionally distilled moonshine, but part of why the liquor came to be feared.

The toll was severe. The Smithsonian Channel reports that 66 people died in New York City on Christmas Day 1926 after drinking poisoned industrial alcohol. The city’s medical examiner at the time, Charles Norris, blamed the federal additive policy, including the use of methyl alcohol, or methanol, which can cause blindness and death.

Ramsey said genuine dangers did exist in earlier generations of moonshining, though they were accidental rather than intentional. Distillers once used solder containing lead to build their stills, not realizing it posed a health risk.

“Back in the day, there were people who had health issues because of moonshine,” Ramsey said. “The solder that they used to build the pots had lead in it back in the day, and they didn’t know that it was happening. So once it was discovered that the solder had lead in it, even the old timers here, when they built their stills, they no longer soldered their joints on the inside of the pots.” He added that the issue “was strictly an accident. They just didn’t know any better.”

Moonshine itself doesn’t inherently cause blindness, but improperly made spirits can contain dangerous methanol levels. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that methanol poisoning can damage the optic nerve and cause permanent vision loss or death.

A Trade Built on Northern Demand

Ramsey said the market for Appalachian moonshine historically depended on buyers well outside the mountains — particularly in Ohio and New York.

“[Moonshine] didn’t actually sell in Appalachia,” Ramsey said. “It went farther north: Ohio, Detroit, New York, the East Coast.” He recalled a friend describing a liquor run to Ohio: “Them fellas up there, they get it. And every one of them said, ‘God bless them hillbillies.'”

“The liquor business back in the day, the heyday of it, probably wouldn’t have flourished here in Appalachia so prominently had it not been for our northern neighbors buying it,” Ramsey said. “So we had a reason to make it, and they had a reason to want it.”

Manes put it more simply: “We were broke, but could make liquor. And they had money and could buy it.”

The Legal Fight Over Home Distilling

The debate over moonshine isn’t just historical. Federal law generally bars distilling spirits at home for personal use, according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, though recent court rulings have challenged that restriction’s constitutionality.

Federal appeals courts have split on the issue, The Washington Post reported. In April 2026, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that barring distilled spirits plants from operating in homes was unconstitutional. Days later, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion, calling the restriction a “necessary and proper means” of collecting liquor taxes.

The Hobby Distillers Association and four individual plaintiffs brought the 5th Circuit challenge, according to the Post. Supporters of legalizing home distilling hope a favorable ruling could spark a “craft spirits revolution.”

The dispute has now reached the Supreme Court. In July, John Ream, the plaintiff in the 6th Circuit case, asked the justices to review that ruling. The Justice Department filed its own petition in August seeking to overturn the 5th Circuit’s decision.

Defending a Tradition

Ramsey rejected the stereotype that moonshiners are reckless or lawless by nature.

“A lot of times, people give it a bad name because they just see it as poison and a bunch of heathens out doing stuff they shouldn’t do,” he said. “And moonshiners, as a rule, are very, very good people. They were just simply doing what they had to do to survive back in the day.”

Both men see a future for the craft. Ramsey said a new generation of distillers is stepping up to carry the tradition forward. “We always want to know who’s going to fill our shoes, who’s going to carry the torch forward,” he said. “We have so many good distillers up and coming. I think it’s got a future, a very healthy one.”

For Manes, the appeal comes down to craftsmanship. “We take what other people would consider slop — that’s the conglomeration of cornmeal and sugar — and make a crystal-clear product that tastes good,” he said. “And we love it.”

Ramsey added a wry note about the business’s staying power: “If you’re down in the dumps, you drink to drown your sorrows. If you’re happy, you drink to celebrate. So it’s got a good source of customers all the time.”