The History of Moonshine in Arkansas — And Why It Still Matters Today
Published by Crystal Ridge Distillery | Hot Springs, Arkansas
Moonshine has a reputation. Backwoods stills. Midnight runs. Mason jars passed between strangers who knew better than to ask questions.
That reputation isn't entirely wrong. But it's only part of the story.
The full story of moonshine in Arkansas — where it came from, why it thrived here, and what it means today — is a story about family, survival, and a craft that refused to disappear no matter how many laws were passed against it.
At Crystal Ridge Distillery, we don't just tell that story. We live it.
Where It All Began
To understand moonshine in Arkansas, you have to go back further than Arkansas itself.
The tradition of small-batch distilling came to the American frontier with the Scots-Irish settlers who poured into the Appalachian Mountains and the Ozark and Ouachita highlands throughout the 1700s and early 1800s. These were people who had been distilling grain spirits for generations in Scotland and Ireland — it was part of their culture, their economy, and their daily life.
When they arrived in America, they brought the craft with them.
Corn and rye grew well in the highland hollows. Water ran cold and clear from mountain springs. The knowledge was already there. It didn't take long for distilling to become part of the fabric of frontier life across the South and the Ozarks.
The Whiskey Rebellion and the Move West
In 1794, the federal government tried to tax distilled spirits for the first time. The response from frontier farmers — who depended on distilling as a way to convert surplus grain into a transportable, tradeable commodity — was swift and angry.
The Whiskey Rebellion was put down, but the resentment it created never fully disappeared. Many distilling families simply moved further west, deeper into the frontier, away from federal reach.
This is part of the story of how distilling culture made its way into Arkansas. Families followed the ridgelines and the river valleys, carrying their copper pot stills and their recipes with them, settling in the Ouachita Mountains and the Arkansas River Valley where the terrain and the water were right.
Moonshine in the Ouachita Mountains
The Ouachita region — running from central Arkansas into eastern Oklahoma — became one of the most significant moonshining areas in the American South.
The reasons were practical. The mountains provided cover. The hollows and creek beds hid stills from view. The hardwood timber fueled the fires. And the spring water — cold, clean, mineral-rich — produced a spirit that serious drinkers recognized as something special.
Moonshine wasn't just a luxury out here. For many families, it was an economic necessity — a way to turn corn and grain into cash money in an economy that didn't have much of it. A bushel of corn might bring a few cents at market. Turned into whiskey, that same bushel was worth several times more.
The law, naturally, saw things differently.
Prohibition and the Golden Age of Moonshine
Moonshining in Arkansas predated Prohibition by over a century — but Prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933, turned it into something much bigger.
With legal alcohol suddenly unavailable, demand exploded. Every small-town doctor, businessman, and ordinary drinker who wanted a bottle had to find one somewhere. The moonshiners of the Ouachita hills were ready to supply them.
Hot Springs, Arkansas — already famous for its thermal waters, its horse racing, and its gambling — became one of the most wide-open towns in the South during this era. The city operated under a tacit understanding between local law enforcement and the operators of illegal establishments. Illegal liquor flowed. Nobody asked too many questions.
It was a complicated, colorful, and deeply human chapter in Arkansas history.
After Prohibition — A Craft That Survived
Prohibition ended in 1933, but moonshining didn't. Legal distilling resumed, but heavily taxed and regulated. For the families who had been distilling for generations — who saw it as a craft and a heritage, not a criminal enterprise — going legal meant surrendering something that felt like a birthright.
Many kept going. Quietly. On back roads and in hollow valleys, the stills kept running well into the second half of the twentieth century. The craft survived not because it was profitable — the legal market made that harder — but because some families simply couldn't imagine stopping.
It was in their blood.
The Bradley Family — Seven Generations in Garland County
The Bradley family's connection to distilling runs deeper than most.
Lawrence Bradley IV — Crystal Ridge founder Danny Bradley's ancestor — served in the North Carolina Militia during the Revolutionary War and made his way to Arkansas before it was even a state, settling in Garland County in the early 1800s. He died here in 1828. His descendants never left.
Seven generations of Bradleys have called this same stretch of Arkansas home. They farmed it, built on it, raised families on it, and watched the land change around them — including in 1953, when Lake Ouachita rose behind Blakely Mountain Dam and swallowed the family's home community of Buckville beneath its waters.
They stayed anyway.
When Danny Bradley founded Crystal Ridge Distillery, he wasn't starting something new. He was picking up a thread that had been running through this family for over two centuries — a tradition of craft, of self-reliance, and of turning the grain and the water of this particular ridge into something worth sharing.
Danny Bradley at Lawrence Bradley IV's grave
The First Legal Distillery in Hot Springs
Crystal Ridge Distillery holds a distinction that connects directly to that long history — we are the first legal distillery in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In a city with a moonshining tradition stretching back before the Civil War, in a region where families distilled in secret for generations, Crystal Ridge opened its doors at 455 Broadway and did it all above board — licensed, taxed, and proud of it.
It felt like the right way to honor the craft.
Today we make 14 moonshine flavors, an Arkansas Vodka distilled 10 times, and a line of ready-to-drink vodka cocktails called The Pack — all from the same building, using the same pure Hot Springs water that has made this region famous for over a century.
The still has a name. His name is Patrick. He's 250 gallons of copper and wood, and he sits in a building that was hand-built between 1910 and 1920.
The history is all around us. We just turned it into something you can taste.
Why Moonshine Still Matters
There's a reason moonshine has had a resurgence in American culture over the last two decades — and it's not nostalgia alone.
People are drawn to things that are real. Craft spirits made by real people in real places, with a genuine story behind them, offer something that mass-produced liquor simply cannot — authenticity.
When you sip Crystal Ridge moonshine, you're tasting a spirit made with Hot Springs water and the knowledge of a family that has been rooted in this ground for seven generations. You're tasting something that connects directly to one of the most distinctly American traditions in our history.
That's what moonshine has always been about. Not the lawbreaking. Not the mythology.
The craft. The family. The land.
We're just the latest chapter.
Mulekick Moonshine
Come Taste the History
Free distillery tours run throughout the week at Crystal Ridge Distillery. Our Moonshine Experts will walk you through the full process — from grain to Patrick the still to the bottle in your hand — and tell you the story of how we got here.
Tastings are $10 and include our full moonshine lineup, Arkansas Vodka, and The Pack RTD cocktails. No reservation required.
Tasting Room Hours:
Hours subject to change — call us at 501-627-0722 or follow @crystalridgedistillery for the latest.
Monday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Thursday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Friday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Sunday: 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Tuesday & Wednesday: Closed
455 Broadway St, Hot Springs, AR 71901
Crystal Ridge Distillery — the first legal distillery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Seven generations of Bradley family craft, rooted in Garland County since before Arkansas was a state.
The Pack Is Not a Seltzer — And That's the Whole Point
Published by Crystal Ridge Distillery | Hot Springs, Arkansas
Walk into any liquor store in Arkansas right now and you'll see an entire wall dedicated to hard seltzers. Slim cans. Light flavors. Low calories. They all look the same, taste roughly the same, and promise the same thing — a light, fizzy, mostly inoffensive drink that won't slow you down.
The Pack is not that.
Not even close.
Let's Start With What Hard Seltzers Actually Are
Hard seltzers are made by fermenting sugar or malted barley into alcohol, then filtering it heavily and adding carbonated water and artificial flavoring. The result is a low-calorie, low-flavor drink that's more about what it doesn't have than what it does.
No base spirit. No craft. No story.
They're designed to be easy to drink and easy to forget. For a lot of people, that's exactly what they want. And that's fine.
But if you've ever cracked open a hard seltzer and thought — this tastes like flavored air — you're not imagining it. That's by design.
What The Pack Actually Is
The Pack is a line of ready-to-drink vodka cocktails. Available in select flavors. 9% ABV. 12 oz cans.
Every single can is built on a foundation that no hard seltzer can claim — Crystal Ridge Arkansas Vodka, distilled 10 times for ultimate purity.
That's not a marketing line. That's the actual process. Our vodka goes through a proprietary 10-step distillation that strips out methanol and impurities, leaving behind a spirit that is exceptionally clean, smooth, and — most importantly — actually tastes like something.
When you use a vodka that good as your base, everything built on top of it tastes better. The flavors are more vibrant. The finish is cleaner. The entire drinking experience is on a different level than a fermented sugar water with a flavor packet dropped in.
The Difference You Can Actually Taste
Here's the simplest way to understand the difference between The Pack and a hard seltzer:
A hard seltzer is flavored alcohol. The Pack is a cocktail.
One is a commodity. The other is a craft product made by a family distillery that has been refining its spirit for years.
When you drink our Arkansas Mule, you're drinking a real Moscow Mule — ginger, lime, and 10x distilled vodka — in a can. When you crack open a Razorberry Splash, that bold blend of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries is working on a clean vodka canvas that lets every layer of flavor come through. When you pop a Watermelon Wave, the fresh juicy sweetness hits differently than any seltzer because there's a real spirit underneath it — not fermented sugar water.
That's what a real cocktail does. It balances. It layers. It delivers something more than the sum of its parts.
Hard seltzers don't do that. They can't — because there's no spirit underneath.
9% ABV — Here's Why That Matters
Most hard seltzers come in at 5% ABV — roughly the same as a beer.
The Pack comes in at 9% ABV.
That's not an accident. That's what happens when you build a drink on real vodka instead of fermented sugar water. The alcohol content is higher because the base spirit is stronger and more refined — and because we're not watering it down to hit a trendy low-calorie number.
You're drinking a real cocktail. It behaves like one.
One or two cans of The Pack is a real drinking experience. Know what you're picking up, drink responsibly, and enjoy every sip of it — because at 9% ABV on a 10x distilled vodka base, every sip is genuinely worth enjoying.
The Pack
Select Flavors — Each One a Real Cocktail Concept
This isn't a lineup of vague "citrus" and "berry" flavors with nothing behind them. Every Pack flavor is a real cocktail concept executed in a can:
Arkansas Mule — A classic Moscow Mule built on Arkansas Vodka. Ginger. Lime. Clean finish.
Piña Colada — Coconut and pineapple. Tropical, rich, and ready to go anywhere.
Sunrise Sipper — Citrus and cream with a warm, bright finish. The one that makes any hour feel like happy hour.
Twist O' Lime — Crisp, clean, and citrusy. The no-nonsense option in the lineup.
Black Cherry — Deep, bold cherry flavor. Rich and smooth with real depth.
Southern Cream Soda — A grown-up version of a childhood classic. Sweet, nostalgic, and smooth.
Razorberry Splash — Our proudest Arkansas original. A bold blend of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries that tastes like it was made specifically for this state. Because it was.
Watermelon Wave — Fresh, juicy watermelon flavor on a clean vodka base. Peak Arkansas summer.
Lemonade — Classic lemonade. Simple, bright, and exactly as refreshing as it sounds.
Select flavors. All built on the same 10x distilled Arkansas Vodka that we've been perfecting right here in Hot Springs.
Made in Hot Springs, Arkansas
This matters more than it might seem.
Crystal Ridge Arkansas Vodka — the spirit that powers every can of The Pack — is made using pure Hot Springs water. Hot Springs, Arkansas has been famous for its naturally pure water for over a century. Presidents came here for it. Athletes trained here for it. People have been traveling to this ridge to drink this water for longer than Arkansas has been a state.
We use it in every bottle we make.
When you drink The Pack, you're drinking a craft spirit made with legendary Hot Springs water, distilled 10 times, by a family that has been in Garland County for seven generations. That's not something any national hard seltzer brand can say. Not one.
Where to Find The Pack
The Pack is available at over 300 liquor stores across Arkansas. If your store doesn't carry it yet, ask for it by name.
And if you want to taste every flavor before you commit to a favorite — come see exactly how it's made. Visit us at 455 Broadway St in Hot Springs, where The Pack is available for tasting in our tasting room and you can take a case home the same day. Our Moonshine Experts will walk you through every flavor and help you find the one you can't put down.
Tasting Room Hours
Hours subject to change — call us at 501-627-0722 or follow @crystalridgedistillery for the latest.
Monday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Thursday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Friday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Sunday: 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Tuesday & Wednesday: Closed
The Bottom Line
Hard seltzers have their place. But if you've been reaching for them out of habit — or because you didn't know there was something better in the same cooler — it's time to meet The Pack.
Real vodka. Real cocktail flavors. Real craft from a real Arkansas family.
Select flavors. 9% ABV. Zero apologies.
The Pack — by Crystal Ridge Distillery, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Crystal Ridge Distillery is located at 455 Broadway St, Hot Springs, AR 71901. Call us at 501-627-0722. Follow us @crystalridgedistillery for new releases, events, and the latest from the ridge.
How Moonshine is Made: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Crystal Ridge
Published by Crystal Ridge Distillery | Hot Springs, Arkansas
Most people have heard of moonshine. Far fewer have seen how it's actually made.
At Crystal Ridge Distillery in Hot Springs, Arkansas, we pull back the curtain every single day. Our free distillery tours take guests through the full process — from specially ground grain all the way to the bottle in your hand. But if you want to know what to expect before you visit, or you're just plain curious about the craft, here's an honest behind-the-scenes look at how we make our moonshine.
A Little History First
Moonshine has a complicated history in America — and in Arkansas especially. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, distilling spirits without a license was illegal, which drove the craft underground. Families passed down recipes in secret, often distilling by the light of the moon to avoid detection. That's where the name comes from.
The Bradley family knows this history well. Seven generations of Bradleys have called Garland County, Arkansas home. Our roots in this region go back to before Arkansas was even a state. When we built Crystal Ridge Distillery, we weren't starting from scratch — we were picking up a thread that runs back more than 230 years.
Today we operate as the first legal distillery in Hot Springs. The craft is the same. The secrecy is gone.
Step 1: It Starts With the Grain
Every batch of Crystal Ridge moonshine begins with grain — specifically ground grain sourced from a company in North Texas. The quality of the grain matters enormously. Cheap grain produces a harsh, unpleasant spirit. We take this step seriously because everything that comes after depends on it.
The grain is milled and combined with water to create what distillers call a mash — essentially a grain porridge that will eventually ferment into an alcohol-rich liquid.
Once the mash is prepared, yeast is added and fermentation begins. The yeast consumes the natural sugars in the grain and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide over several days.
This is the quiet, patient part of the process. There's no rushing fermentation. The yeast works on its own timeline, and a good distiller knows to let it. The result is a liquid called "distiller's beer" — low in alcohol, high in flavor compounds, and ready for the still.
Step 3: Meet Patrick
Crystal Ridge Distillery
This is where things get interesting.
Our still is named Patrick. He's a 250-gallon copper and wood still — one of the most distinctive pieces of equipment you'll see on our tour. Copper is the traditional material for moonshine stills for good reason: it reacts with sulfur compounds in the spirit during distillation, removing off-flavors and producing a cleaner, smoother result.
The distiller's beer is loaded into Patrick and heat is applied. Alcohol vaporizes at a lower temperature than water, so it rises first through the still's column, travels through a condenser, and emerges as a high-proof liquid — raw moonshine.
The distiller's job during this process is to make careful cuts — separating the "heads" (the first runoff, which contains harsh compounds), the "heart" (the good stuff, which we keep), and the "tails" (the final runoff, which loses quality). Only the heart goes into the bottle.
Step 4: Flavoring and Proofing
Crystal Ridge moonshine comes in 14 flavors — from classics like Apple Pie and Peach to bold originals like Maple Bacon and Peanut Butter. Most of our flavored moonshines are bottled at 70 proof. Our unflavored Mule Kick comes in at 120 proof — not for the faint of heart.
After distillation, the moonshine is proofed down to its target strength. Then the flavoring process begins. Each flavor is developed to complement the base spirit rather than mask it. The goal is always balance: you should taste the moonshine and the flavor together, not one without the other.
Step 5: Bottling and Labeling
The final step happens right here in our historic building at 455 Broadway — the F.C. Stearns Warehouse, hand-built between 1910 and 1920. You can see the original brick walls, the old fire doors, and the bones of a building that has stood for over a century.
Every bottle is ran through our automated production line.
Come See It For Yourself
Reading about it is one thing. Watching Patrick work is another entirely.
Our distillery tours are free, take approximately 20 minutes, and run on a regular schedule throughout the week. No reservation required — just show up. After the tour, stay for a tasting: $10 gets you a guided sampling of our moonshine, Arkansas Vodka, and The Pack RTD cocktails led by one of our Moonshine Experts.
Tour Schedule:
Monday: 2:00 PM
Thursday: 2:00 PM
Friday: 2:00 PM & 5:00 PM
Saturday: 2:00 PM & 5:00 PM
Sunday: 2:00 PM
Tasting Room Hours:
Monday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Thursday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Friday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Sunday: 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Tuesday & Wednesday: Closed
We're located at 455 Broadway St, Hot Springs, AR 71901. Call us at 501-627-0722 or just walk in.
230 years of Bradley family craft went into building this place. We'd love to share it with you.
Crystal Ridge Distillery is the first legal distillery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Free tours, $10 tastings, 14 moonshine flavors, and an Arkansas Vodka distilled 10 times. Visit us at 455 Broadway St, Hot Springs, AR.