Couple finds dozens of bottles of Prohibition-era bootleg whiskey hidden in house
KoB send in this unique story we think you might like. Only thing I ever found hidden in an old house is layers and layers of wallpaper even uglier than the faux wood panelling that we took off the wall. I’m more like Angry Cops and This Old Crack House only finding basement Jesus.
Old homes usually have a couple of secrets hiding behind their walls, but they’re usually not this boozy.
A couple in upstate New York made what they call a “wild discovery” when they uncovered what appears to be an old bootlegger’s supply hidden in the walls of their house. They also say that, upon further inspection, they’ve found hidden compartments with more bottles dating back to the 1920s stashed away.
Nick Drummond, who owns the house with his partner Patrick in Ames, N.Y., spoke with Fox News, confirming that so far, “it’s about 60 bottles actually, and there are more compartments we have to open in the floor. I definitely think there is more to find! Maybe 30% of the bottles are full.”
According to him, they had previously heard stories about the house.
“We were actually told by a neighbor that the home was rumored to have been built by a bootlegger and a German baron,” he said, “and found the story endearing, but took it with a grain of salt. We never thought any part of the story was actually true!”
Drummond explained, “The more we keep digging, the more we’ve found, too! We set up an Instagram account called @bootleggerbungalow, and have been trying to document the discoveries alongside our renovation. Our followers have actually been helping us solve the mystery!”
The bottles date back to the 1920s, CTV News reports.
The excited homeowner also revealed to Fox News that his research has led him to believe that bottles and hidden compartments were used by a bootlegger named Adolph Humpfner. Drummond explained that after Humpfner’s death (which was apparently under mysterious circumstances), secret compartments were found in his other properties and vehicles.
“It’s insane,” Drummond said after relaying the story of Humpfner.
As far as their own discoveries, Drummond says that while he’s not “a whiskey expert by any means,” he does “enjoy a good whiskey from time to time.”
Source; Fox News
Category: YGBSM!!
Seems kinda silly to hide the empties…recycling in the 1920s?
“Maybe 30% of the bottles are full.”
Reusing, likely. To refill as you make more, I assume. Wouldn’t want to leave them out in the open.
Evaporation?
Probably like Coke bottles used to be recycled and reused: a deposit of $.02 per bottle meant you could take it with you and get the deposit back when you returned the bottle. Then the deposit went to $.05.
So recycling whiskey bottle during Prohibition is no surprise.
I assume this fine fellow had his own brew recipe, too. Maybe someone can recreate it with a new label.
That’s how I used to make a little money when I was about 10, give or take. I would walk along the road and pick up the empty bottles that people threw out of their cars and return them for the deposit. Almost every place gave you $.02 a piece, but there was one little store maybe a mile from where we lived that gave you $.03 a piece, so that’s where I returned the bottles I picked up.
I recall a warning on liquor bottles stating it was a
federal crime to reuse them.
I can see the label now. “Clapboard aged for 60 years”
“farmhouse finished”. “A wall of flavor”……
Welp we know that Ol’ Adolph wasn’t a Vet, especially of the Engineer Corps. There would have never been that many bottles of hooch left hidden, well…maybe empties.
‘beans, IIRC I read somewhere that the ban on re-using whiskey bottles came from trying to prevent watering down from a big bottle to a smaller bottle, and controlling the placing of the Tax Stamp at the bottler. Somewhere else was a dig that the law was passed because a group of Kongress Kritters owned a bottle making factory.
Y’all may recall from your history lessons that the 2nd Rebellion in this country was over Whiskey Taxes.
“owned a bottle making factory”
Ball mason jars?
The Ball Mason Jars were only for the elixxer prepared just for celebratory Special Occasions, like National Potato Day, Sir Walter Raleigh Landing Day…. Not for liquor made for just drinking purposes. POW POW POW
Send a sample to a chem lab and have them test it before you drink it. I’ve heard horror stories about what went into the home brewed hooch. Just because it’s in a bottle, doesn’t mean that it’s “bottled in bond”.
Or bring in Alaska Bob to sample to goods.
I imagine he has probably drank up the donation money by now.
He would be down for the task.
Time to get their drink on…!