Icelandic Moonshine Now Available On Store Shelves

MBL reports that the brewery KHB of Borgarfjörður eystri in East Iceland has released a new take on an old Icelandic staple: moonshine, better know to locals as landi.

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Landi is typically not sold in stores, but is made by homebrewers and sold by word of mouth. It has a reputation for potency, as similar moonshines around the world also do. While brewing beer and wine at home has become a hobby of many Icelanders, the brewing of hard spirits such as landi in a home setting is still illegal and can result in arrest.

Because of landi’s reputation as hard-hitting liquor you drink more for the effects than the taste, it would seem an unusual choice for an established brewery. Owner Helgi Sigurðsson admits landi does not have the best legacy.

“Landi does not have a good reputation,” he says. “Many have tasted it and get chills just thinking about drinking it. But you have to taste this. It’s not like the old landi. It’s incredibly good.”

Helgi said the recipe for their landi is based on a recipe from a veteran distiller from the area. With some minor tweaking, KHB was able to create a moonshine worthy of store shelves.

In case you were worried, this moonshine is not exactly as potent as moonshines typically are. While home-distilled moonshines tend to be very high in ethyl alcohol concentration, sometimes almost entirely comprised of the compound, KHB’s landi is at a much more manageable 38% alcohol by volume, putting it on par with any other hard spirits you might find on the shelves.