bathtub gin
From The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
represents the lowest point in our collective drinking shame more clearly than almost any drink. During Prohibition, when Americans were forbidden from purchasing intoxicating beverages, they could concoct rough gin in secret with little more than neutral spirits, water, and essence or essential oil of juniper berries. Though such compounded gins could be more nuanced, especially when made with additional essential oil or botanicals, they both predated and survived Prohibition. Unlike other ersatz spirits of Prohibition, homemade gin remained popular after repeal. “Bathtub” may refer to actual tubs in which gin was sometimes blended or to the only faucet in a home that could accommodate carboys too tall to fit under a kitchen tap.
See also gin; Prohibition, Temperance in America, rectifier (device).
“Repeal of Prohibition in Practical Effect in N.Y.” San Bernardino County Sun, October 14, 1933, 3.
Rowley, Matthew. Lost Recipes of Prohibition: Notes from a Bootlegger’s Manual. New York: Countryman, 2015.
By: Matthew Rowley
This definition is from The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich (Editor-in-Chief) and Noah Rothbaum (Associate Editor).