In the rolling green hills of Tennessee, moonshine legends Mark Ramsey and Eric “Digger” Manes are once again proving that when it comes to liquor-making, tradition can mix with innovation—and taste pretty damn good, too.
This week, the duo made headlines by doing the unthinkable: transforming leftover milk whey into high-quality moonshine. After reading about milk fermentation in a county jail library, Digger became fixated on the idea. And sure enough, in true outlaw fashion, they made it happen.
“It’s the craziest thing I ever heard,” Digger said. “But we gave it a shot—and turns out, it works like a charm.”
The team visited Sweetwater Valley Farms, a family-owned cheese-making operation, where they secured hundreds of gallons of milk whey—usually used for feeding livestock. With a handshake deal and a few smiles (plus a promised sample of the end product), the moonshiners loaded up their barrels.
Inside their backwoods still site, they heated the whey, pitched in yeast, and began the fermentation process. They even tossed in a bit of barley—not for flavor, but to cap the mash and show when fermentation was done.
The science behind the shine? Whey contains lactose—a sugar made of glucose and galactose. By using lactose-intolerance pills (lactase enzymes), they split the lactose, allowing the glucose to ferment into alcohol.
As the stills fired up and the vapors began to flow, the team finally tasted the finished product—and were blown away.
“It’s smooth. Velvety. Buttery,” said Mark. “This ain’t just some backwoods hooch. This is something new entirely.”
With Mark briefly sidelined due to COVID, fellow moonshiner Daniel stepped in to help pump, heat, and tend the mash. But Mark returned just in time for the first run—armed with a clean test and ready to work.
What started as a wild idea turned into one of the smoothest, most unique spirits to ever come out of the hills.
“No one ever made good liquor by playing it safe,” said Digger. “Sometimes you gotta take a shot in the dark—and this one paid off.”
Sweetwater’s secret is out. The moonshine world may never be the same.
Backwoods Innovation:
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Ingredient: Milk whey from Sweetwater Valley cheese
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Process: Heated, enzyme-treated, and fermented with yeast
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Result: A velvety, buttery, surprisingly smooth new moonshine
