Max Watman. Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010. 293 pages.
In Chasing the White Dog, Max Watman blends three spirits, so to speak: a bit of bootlegging history, going back to the Whiskey Rebellion, some reportage on the current state of moonshine (it’s a surprisingly large business), and a good helping of memoir, detailing Watman’s investigations and his own foray into home distilling.
I learned a great deal from the book, starting with the historical background, but more interestingly with the present-day goings-on. Moonshine isn’t just a relic of bygone days; it’s a multi-million dollar, interstate criminal operation, with much of the liquor distilled in Appalachia ending up in nip joints, unlicensed watering holes in large cities; Philadelphia is the nation’s biggest consumer of moonshine. The connection between Hazzard County (so to speak) and North Philly is surprising but nonetheless important. Watman also chronicles the law enforcement officers who are ranged against the moonshiners, like Jimmy Beheler of Virginia’s Alcohol Control Board’s Illegal Whiskey Task Force, and concludes the book with a day-by-day recounting of a moonshine trial in Roanoke, Virginia. Along the way, Watman passes along some humorous asides, with “How (not) to be a criminal, Item X” footnotes, a running gag that both informs and entertains. Watman neither romanticizes the bootleggers (though some figures, like Junior Johnson, inevitably come across as larger than life), nor does he mock it…as a (sometimes) participant observer, he calls it as close down the middle as possible.
The material about Watman’s own experiments with home distilling reflect his passion for spirits. He’s able to share his excitement at finally producing a passable batch of applejack well with his readers. Whether they share that excitement probably has more to do with their appreciation of liquor than anything else; non-drinkers won’t find much to relate to, though they will still find plenty to marvel at, from the technical aspects of setting up a working still to the development of artisanal distilling, paralleling the boom in micro-breweries. Watman’s final thoughts make a strong case for legalizing home distilling under a certain threshold, whether you want to distill your own spirits or not.
All in all, it’s a fun read about a fascinating subject that may get serious whiskey drinkers thinking about looking beyond the local supermarket when it comes to buying something to drink.