spud juice

n. an alcoholic drink secretively made in prison from fermented potatoes, other vegetables, or fruit. Subjects: English, Crime & Prisons, Food & Drink, Slang

Editorial Note: A similar prison-made beverage is pruno.

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Citations: 1945 James Doherty @ Lansing, Mich. Chicago Daily Tribune (July 25) “Hint Convicts Got Night Off to Kill a Man” p. 8: Intoxicating liquor, called “spud juice,” was manufactured on a large scale in the prison. 1985 Elmore Leonard Stick (Jan.) p. 63 @ (Aug. 1, 2002): They sold shine made from potatoes, spud juice at ten bucks a gallon, or let fruit juice stand till it turned and drank that. 1991 Scott Walton Baltimore Sun (Md.) (Aug. 11) “Sports in prison serves as a way to keep inmates under control” p. 13C: All 31,000 inmates locked up in Michigan’s 32 prisons seek an outlet of some kind. For some, the outlet is drugs smuggled from the outside or alcohol—"spud juice”—ingeniously distilled from vegetable peelings and concealed in cells. 2001 Rosalyn McMillan Flip Side of Sin (Apr.) p. 36: Spud juice was made in a five-gallon bucket with two large cans of tomato juice, four pounds of sugar, one tablespoon of yeast shaken up in a small container of hot water, and roughly three gallons of water.…These days the inmate didn’t have time to hide the brew for nearly two weeks. The new spud juice took merely forty-eight hours and was 90 proof. It was just like imbibing vodka and tomato juice.

Posted 3 Apr 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend