Farm to Table from Still House Restaurant

While the moonshiners at Short Mountain Distillery have been keeping bourbon and moonshine local since the post Civil War era, people all over the world have been benefiting from Canon county’s produce and livestock for just as long, which is why we thought we’d start “keeping it local.”

Beginning June 6, 2015, Short Mountain Distillery will be opening Canon County’s first farm to table dining experience, Still HouseRestaurant.  One goal of farm to table dining is to limit the impact people have on the environment.  By using produce and livestock from plants and animals locally raised right here in Canon county, Still House Restaurant will eliminate both the monetary shipping costs, as well as the eco footprint most restaurants leave after moving food over long distances.

Additionally, farm to table food doesn’t have to be sprayed with preservatives or even frozen to maintain freshness.  The result is a number of additional, naturally occurring nutrients in every meal. 

Farm to table restaurants also support local farmers.  Asparagus, beans, beets, carrots, okra, onions, potatoes, squash, apples, apricots, apples, blackberries, figs, beef, lamb, ham, pork, and a number of dairy products are all produced right in the heart of Tennessee, and much of it will be featured on our menu. Come taste the richness all of Canon county farming has to offer!

Plus, unlike our secret 150-year-old moonshine recipe, it’s no secret fresh food tastes, well, better.

Join us Sat. June 6, 2015 at 5pm for the grand opening of Still House Restaurant! Take a tour of ShortMountain Distillery, taste the difference 150 years of moonshining can make from one of our old time shiners, then explore Little Short Mountain Farm. Get away from the hustle and bustle of Nashville and big city living, and get back to your roots on our beautiful 300 acre farm, before joining us for an elegant farm to table meal in our grand banquet room. Original moonshine cocktails will be available throughout the night as well as live original music from local grass roots artists. 

Moonshining: "How To" from Short Mountain Distillery

At Short Mountain Distillery, we learned how to make top quality Tennessee Moonshine from 150 years of tradition.  While we believe nothing beats a century and a half of expertise as far as moonshining is concerned, we thought we’d give you a couple of tips on how to shine.  No Short Mountain back hill secrets here, those are kept exclusively on the lips of our actual shiners, but to give you a basic idea of how moonshine is made, here’s a quick brewing lesson.

How to Shine:

Step 1: Grind. Grind corn into a meal.

Step 2: Soak.  Let the corn meal sit in hot water in the still.

Step 3: Mix.  First mix the corn meal with malt to make sugar then yeast to start fermentation.  This mix is called mash and is the beginning of a completed moonshine.

Step 4: Turn it up. Increase the heat in the still furnace to 172 degrees Fahrenheit.  If anyone ever told you there’s no such thing as a magic number, they were wrong.

Step 5: Evaporate.  As heat in the still increases, the alcohol from the mash evaporates through a pipe that leads out of the top of the still.

Step 6: Thump.  A thump keg filters out any solid material from the mash that also was forced out of the still through the production of alcohol steam. 

Step 7: Worm box.  Once the steam filters through the thump keg, it is cooled off and turned back into liquid in the worm box, usually cooled with running water from a creek.

Step 8: One last filter.

Step 9: Drink.

To put it short, making moonshine (and most alcohol) involves two processes.  The first is fermentation.  Fermentation occurs when yeast breaks down sugar.  The residual substance produced from this chemical reaction is alcohol.  After alcohol is formed, anything that is distilled, is further purified, by evaporating the alcohol to separate it from the yeast and the sugar, then condensing it back into liquid form for consumption.

If you’re in Nashville and are interested in visiting an authentic Tennessee distillery serving Tennessee bourbon and Tennesseemoonshine, Short Mountain offers distillery tours.  Visit our Website today!