I once got a 2-week "furlough" from Boarding School for making and drinking "hard" cider.
When I got home, I built a "still".
My Father, who was raised in the mountains of North Carolina, found the still......and asked me IF I had drank any of the "produce".
I told the truth: " I tasted it. It wasn't any good. Bitter! So, I spit it out!"
"Fine," he said. "You built it Wrong. That would have been poison or blinded you. Some time later, I will show you how to do it Right!"
He never got around to showing me how to do that right. He was too busy showing me how to do "other things" right.
But, I have drank some "superb" 160 proof "White Liqour" made by an Uncle of mine in North Carolina. THAT is the "smoothest", clearest, medicine that any person would desire..............
Seriously, I used to know an old lady that used to give parrots a type of moonshine called Bacanora. The purpose was to make them drunk so they would be quiet while she crossed them into the US. Her and the parrots are long dead now.