Shawn Hall grew up listening to his grandfather and great-uncles talk about their moonshining days in Middle Georgia.
"They made it. They ran it. They bootlegged in the western part of Spalding County just south of Hampton," Hall said.
Hall -- along with his partner at Georgia Distilling, Bill Mauldin -- is about to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, with one difference.
Hall and Mauldin are getting a license to distill corn whiskey and other liquors such as peach brandy and will be paying at least $13.50 per gallon in federal tax and $3.79 in state tax when the liquid drips from the stills.
In a year when Sunday sales of alcohol has been a divisive political topic, a bipartisan set of state senators is sponsoring a bill to make it easier for people such as Hall to turn Georgia fruits and grains into adult beverages. So far, the effort has faced little resistance.
Senate Bill 114's primary sponsor, Sen. Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville, said Georgia already allows distilling -- 13th Colony Distillery in Americus has made small batches of gin, whiskey and vodka since 2009 -- but the law was fuzzy.
Dan Rivers, a constituent from Butts County with plans to make corn whiskey in a still that he has already paid for, asked Grant to clear up the law. The changes offered by the senator would put to rest a question about whether distilling grain is legal. The law was already clear on distilling fruits.
Grant's proposal also would allow distilling in communities where liquor is sold by the drink. Distilling is currently permitted only in communities where package sales have been approved.
The bill is in the Senate's Regulated Industries Committee.
Small distilleries, wiped out by Prohibition, now stand where Georgia's wine-making and beer-brewing industries were a decade or two ago -- on the verge of a takeoff as drinkers seek something other than big-name liquors to please their palates. Along with Grant's three constituents who plan to make whiskey, gin, rye and bourbon, two other distillers have permits in process. Back of the House Distilling has a still in place south of Columbus and is ready to fire up its pot to make rum from fresh Georgia sugar cane juice. Tallulah Falls Distillery in northeast Georgia is waiting for delivery of a still and will make whiskey and maybe apple brandy.
"I think we might see five or 10 distilleries pop up in the next five to 10 years," Mauldin said.
"Georgia has a rich, rich history in distilling, whether legal or not," he said. "But the state has been slow to embrace what is a huge moneymaker for folks like Colorado, California and New York."
Those states are national leaders in the boom of small distilleries, which have grown from maybe a couple of dozen across the country in 2000 to more than 200 today, said George Coleman of Washington's Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.
Georgia's 13th Colony Distillery opened the door here when four friends in South Georgia began looking for unique Christmas gifts for employees. "What if we ..." one idea began before ending with "made some homemade moonshine?"
"It seemed like fun," said Lindsey Cotton, the daughter of one of the progenitors of the idea and now a company employee. "And as they were talking around town they eventually encountered the sheriff of Sumter County, who told them although it was a great idea, they might end up in jail."
The warning did not kill the idea. Instead, the men began looking at questions of licenses and taxes, which are not easy hurdles to clear. The paperwork is thick and the requirements stringent, and distillers have to make the investment by putting the still on the ground before they can get final approval.
After those steps, still needed are a state license and local permission, including zoning hearings.
Rivers, who has built a building in Jackson to hold his still, said the city welcomed him. A Baptist pastor and another local man were the only opponents to his idea, which he hopes will spur a bit of tourism.
Cotton said 13th Colony shopped the idea of a distillery to a couple of communities before Americus, a Bible Belt slice of small-town America near Jimmy Carter's boyhood home in Plains, opened its doors.
There has been no vocal opposition to SB 114, though Pat Tippitt with Georgia Conservatives in Action, which helped rally support against local voting for Sunday sales, said the group is keeping an eye on it.
Cotton said 13th Colony took about two years to get permits and permissions in place. She was living in Charleston, S.C., at the time, and her father asked her to come home to work there.
"How can you turn down the opportunity to make liquor?" she quipped.
Now, 13th Colony ships its iced-tea brown whiskey and crystal vodkas and gin to stores from Savannah to New Orleans. But visitors cannot buy or even taste it on the grounds of the business. That is against the law in Georgia, something the distillers would like to see change to boost business and create local tourism.
Jim Harris, a chemical engineer who is the man behind Tallulah Falls Distillery, says he may even locate across the state line in South Carolina, where tasting is allowed, if the law is not changed.
Grant, the sponsor of the legislation, knows that would likely be a bruising political fight, given the current atmosphere, and he would be happy to see the minor changes he is proposing get through.
"Another legislator can take that up if they want to," he said.
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