Trade whiskey

[Terrier]

In the 80's I went to a lot of rendezvous in CA when I started in "Buckskinning" with a Mountain Man group, the popular drink was "Apple Pie":

A gallon of unfiltered apple juice warmed on the stove, infused with apple pie spices, allowed to cool and then the juice was poured off the sludge of spices. You then spiked it with 750ml rum or brandy and a cup of 180 proof. Awesome around the campfire. Just don't get carried away with it, or you'll be carried away... literally!

 

[springfield art]

In the 80's I went to a lot of rendezvous in CA when I started in "Buckskinning" with a Mountain Man group, the popular drink was "Apple Pie":

A gallon of unfiltered apple juice warmed on the stove, infused with apple pie spices, allowed to cool and then the juice was poured off the sludge of spices. You then spiked it with 750ml rum or brandy and a cup of 180 proof. Awesome around the campfire. Just don't get carried away with it, or you'll be carried away... literally!

Wow! Sounds like just the thing to get you thru a cold spell!

 

[Dark Angel]

When I saw the tag line 'Trade Whiskey' I thought WOW! REALLY? The comments I've read thus far aren't exactly what I
expected.
Had a good friend. sadly. long gone now, that prided himself in following Mountain Man traditions believing himself to be the spiritual heir of men like Jim Bridger and others. The subjects of Rendezvous, Green River knives and such came up often in our conversations. (He didn't even like the movie, Gray Eagle, because it didn't portray mountain men properly.) So did 'trade whiskey.' According to him, 'trade whiskey' was pure grain alcohol, a bit of chewing tobacco juice for color and according to him and other research I've done, since Indians, WOOPS! Sorry, Native Americans, at the time, didn't believe whiskey was any good unless it made them sick, just a bit of strychnine added for effect.

 

[nkbj]

Try aging spirits with bee balm (wild bergamot).

 

[Campbell]

Just take a bottle of Old Overholt.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well if you use diluted grain alcohol, and an alcohol flavoring agent, like Still Sprits Bourbon Essence, you get the right flavor, but..., you often still get a solvent flavor on the back end. This is what you want, for a trade whiskey would likely not have been properly fully aged, but would've had some flavor. Otherwise folks would've called it moonshine, or corn liquor, etc..., not whiskey in the journals, etc.

LD

 

[The Crisco Kid]

When you make it the trick is to let it age. At least for several days, or so I've been told.