Rotgut

Details
Towns like Phoenix, Tucson or Tombstone may have been able to import the finest whiskies and wines, but most of the whiskey consumed in the small towns and mining camps of the Old West was rotgut. Redington was no exception.

This rotgut whiskey wasn't aged and had an extremely high alcohol content with high fusel oil, using grain and corn of dubious quality or molasses as a fermentation base. Saloon owners were notorious for cutting good whiskey with turpentine, water, ammonia, cayenne, and even gunpowder. At the Tiff and Tawny Saloon, Maeve MacKenna was tasked with making this mixture.

Rotgut may also have been called by names like Tanglefoot, Forty-Rod, Tarantula Juice, Taos Lightning, Red Eye, and Coffin Varnish.