Call it moonshining 2.0.

The old backwoods tradition is making a big comeback in Georgia. But there is no need for Thunder Road runs any more. Now, booze-making can be perfectly legal.

It’s happening in micro distilleries that have been popping up across the state. They are for liquor what microbreweries are for beer: mom-and-pop shops that make spirits in small batches. With drinks such as “Hellbender”, “Copper Head Sour Mash” and “Bear Creek Sippin’ Shine”, they are not shy about their moonshining roots.

“This is little bit of family heritage for me,” Tommy Williams, the CEO of Independent Distilling Company in Decatur, told GPB’s On The Story. “My grandfather made and ran whiskey in South Georgia around the prohibition era and this is something that he and I really enjoy”.

Williams’ company has recently released its first whiskey, Hellbender, named after a salamander fish that lives in some Georgia rivers.

Williams said he purposely chose to make spirits the old-fashioned way, just like moonshiners used to do in the woods back in the day.

“There are more technologically-advanced ways we could be making our whiskey, but we chose the traditional route, to live the way my grandfather and people like him used to live,” he said.