• 
  Unlike the large submarine pots, the turnip still boiler was small enough for one person to carry. Franklin County, circa 1920s.
  
  Backins – Weak whiskey produced at the end of a double run or at the end of a run through a thumper.
• Bead – The bubbles that form on the surface of shaken whiskey and reflect the alcoholic content.
• Beading Oil – An oil dripped into low-quality whiskey by Prohibition-era moonshiners to make the alcohol bead like quality whiskey.
• Beer – The liquid part of fermented mash.  Beer, also called “teedum,” was often made for its own sake rather than for distilling.
• Blackpot – A submarine still in which the mash is allowed to ferment directly in the still rather than in barrels or boxes.
• Boiler – Also called a “pot,” the container in which mash is initially cooked or heated.
• Bootleg Turn – A whiskey-hauler’s technique of turning a car around in a sudden controlled skid. 
• Cap – The removable top of a still.  Caps are named by their shapes.
• Charge – The act of filling the still or the thumper with beer or pumice.
• Condenser – The part of the still, typically a copper coil, in which the steam condenses into liquid alcohol.
• Corn – Whiskey made primarily from corn mash.
• Dropping the Bead – Also called “cutting” or “proofing,” the process of lowering the strength of liquor by mixing it with weaker alcohol or water.
• Double Run – The technique of running alcohol through a still twice.
• Flake Stand – The wooden water-filled box in which the condenser is cooled.
• Gauger – A revenue agent in the pre-Prohibition era.
• Granny Fee – Bribery or payoff money paid by moonshiners to law enforcement officers.
• Liquor Car – A car modified to haul illegal alcohol to market.
• Malt – Barley malt for mixing in mash.  Corn that is sprouted and then ground can be used in place of barley malt.
• Mash – Some combination of water, grain, malt, yeast, and sugar that is allowed to ferment before being distilled into alcohol.
• Peckin’ the Cap – A technique of rapping on the cap to tell by the hollow sound if the mash has boiled into the cap.
• Pot-Tail – The “slop” of fruit or grain left over after the alcohol has been distilled out of it.  Also called “thumper tails.”
• 
  Any moonshiner can put together a submarine-type boiler, but he goes to a coppersmith or some other type of sheet metal worker to make still caps.  Virginia Blue Ridge, circa 1970s.
  
  Puke – The boiling over of a still.
• Pumice – Crushed fermented fruit and sugar used to make brandy. 
• Revenuer – A government agent whose job is to catch people involved in moonshining.
• Runner – A person who hauls moonshine.
• Singlings – Un-proofed whiskey that has gone through one distilling and will be distilled again.
• Steam Outfit – A still which uses steam rather than a direct flame to heat the mash inside the pot.
• Still – The combination of the cap and boiler in which the mash is initially distilled.  “Still” is also used to describe the entire distilling setup.
• Still Hand – A person who works at a still site.
• Stillhouse – Historically a small permanent building constructed specifically for distilling. 
• Stir Stick – A stick with a fork at the end used to stir mash.  Wire is commonly stretched back and forth across the fork.
• Submarine Still – A large-capacity style of still in common use since the 1920s.  Shaped like a low box with two curved ends, the submarine still usually has two wooden sides.
• Swab Stick – A bristled wooden stick used to clean out a still. 
• Thumper – The part between the boiler and the coil that distills mash and redistills the alcohol coming out of the boiler.  Also called a “doubler,” “thumper keg,” or “thump barrel.” 
• Turnip Still – An old style of still pot that has a round, squat shape.
• Worm – A coil submerged in a water-filled container.  Alcohol-laden steam condenses to a liquid in the coil.

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