Updated August 2026.
There is no federal moonshine percent. Legal commercial “moonshine” is unlabeled-as-class folklore; TTB whiskey (5.143) or neutral-spirits (5.142) rules apply to the labeled bottle. Official commercial ABV only if fetched this run. Illicit still strength is not a number we will invent and is not a how-to. Read the class line.
Class already on disk: leftover moonshine vs whiskey. Neutral-spirits neighbor: leftover moonshine vs vodka. Taste language: leftover what does moonshine taste like. Proof math: leftover what is vodka proof.
Folklore word, labeled class
27 CFR 5.143 this fetch: whisky is a grain distillate under 95% ABV, stored in oak barrels — except corn whisky need not be so stored — and bottled at or above 40% ABV. Corn whisky (Table 1 type 3) is a fermented mash of at least 80% corn, distilled at 160° or less; oak is required only if age is claimed. 27 CFR 5.142 this fetch: vodka / neutral spirits are distilled at or above 95% ABV and bottled ≥40%. “Moonshine” is not a type in either section. A legal jar is labeled as corn whiskey, whiskey, a flavored spirit (5.151, bottled ≥30% if that class applies), or a distilled spirits specialty. Read that line. We will not create a moonshine term.
The 2022 URL locked an “average 40%, range 60–80%” as if it were federal, then printed a 150-proof / 75% folklore ceiling. Unused as a federal percent. Illicit still strength is not a number this magazine will invent. Home-distill steps are skipped. Methanol scare-copy from the 2022 URL is not a how-to and is not a commercial ABV. unused illicit-still math.
| Fetched commercial SKU | Official ABV this fetch | Class note |
|---|---|---|
| Ole Smoky White Lightnin’ | 50% / 100 (olesmoky.com product + serving facts) | Spirits distilled from corn — read the neck |
| Ole Smoky Blue Flame | 64% / 128 (olesmoky.com product + serving facts) | Unflavored; grain and cane on the product page |
| Ole Smoky Apple Pie 70 | 35% / 70 (olesmoky.com product + serving facts) | Flavored jar; not a 5.143 floor |
| Ole Smoky Apple Pie 40 | 20% (olesmoky.com serving facts) | Lower-proof flavored SKU; read the neck |
| Ole Smoky Peach (serving-facts 20% row) | 20% (olesmoky.com serving facts) | Flavored jar |
| Sugarlands Silver Cloud Tennessee Sour Mash | 50% / 100 (sugarlands.com product page) | Commercial sour-mash jar; read the class line |
| Sugarlands Appalachian Apple Pie | 25% / 50 (sugarlands.com product page) | Flavored; recovered 50% unused |
| Sugarlands Root Beer | 35% / 70 (sugarlands.com product page) | Flavored jar |
Drink math, not a still
NIAAA December 2025: 1.5 oz of 40% is one standard drink. At 50% that pour is 1.25 drinks. At 64% it is 1.60 drinks. At 35% it is 0.88. At 20% it is 0.50. Drunk-math is math, not a challenge. A 750 mL at 50% is about 21 drinks; at 64% about 27. Flavored jars under 40% are not “weak moonshine class.” They are whatever TTB class the neck already prints, often a specialty or flavored row.
Recovered 2022 Saint Luna 50% and Copperfish 40% were not fetched on official pages this run. Unused. Recovered Sugarlands Apple Pie at 50% contradicts the official 25% / 50-proof product page this fetch. Unused. Recovered Ole Smoky Apple Pie at 20% matches only the 40-proof SKU; official also prints a 70-proof / 35% Apple Pie. Sugarlands Jim Tom Hedrick’s Unaged Rye 50% appeared on a products index this search; the dedicated product URL was not opened as a clean lock. Unused as a table row.
Corn whiskey can be unaged and still be whiskey under 5.143. That is why some legal clear jars look like folklore shine and still print a whiskey class. A flavored apple or peach jar at 20–35% is usually not trying to be that row. 5.151 flavored spirits, if that is the class, bottle at or above 30% — a 20% Apple Pie 40 is then a specialty or another labeled class, not a whiskey floor. Read the neck. We will not invent a “moonshine must be 40%” statute to match leftover whiskey.
Leftover moonshine-vs-whiskey already says the mason-jar font is not a TTB class. This page only adds fetched commercial ABVs. Ole Smoky serving facts also list many cream and fruit SKUs at 17.5%. Those are not a federal shine percent and they are not in the table unless we needed another flavored lock. Unused as extra rows. No home still. No “how much to drink.”
What we will not print
- No federal moonshine percent. No invented illicit-still ABV.
- No home-distill steps. No still how-to. No “XXX jug” as a class.
- No table row we did not fetch on an official commercial page.
- No #1 ranking. No 2026 MSRP. No shop overlay.
Sources
- 27 CFR 5.143 / 5.142 / 5.151 this fetch — whiskey, vodka / neutral spirits, flavored spirits. No moonshine type.
- https://olesmoky.com/products/white-lightnin; https://olesmoky.com/products/blue-flame; https://olesmoky.com/pages/servingfacts this fetch.
- https://www.sugarlands.com/products/silver-cloud-tennessee-sour-mash/; https://www.sugarlands.com/products/appalachian-apple-pie/; https://www.sugarlands.com/products/root-beer/ this fetch.
- NIAAA December 2025. Leftover /moonshine-vs-whiskey/ already treats moonshine as not a TTB class.