Rich Eggers uses the word "allegedly" a lot. 

He's careful when talking about his whiskey-making days before he had a license to do so.

And he's even more evasive when talking about certain acquaintances who may or may not carry on Carroll County's Prohibition-era tradition of making and selling bootleg whiskey. 

Don't get Eggers wrong, he isn't ashamed of any of this. It as part of the area's rich history that serves as the inspiration for his Iowa Legendary Rye. 

"This is the purest whiskey on the market," Eggers told The Des Moines Register. "These were damn good people. They were not criminals. I want to honor that and the way these people cooked moonshine."

To be clear, Eggers says he isn't interested in concocting some faux connection between his product and that made a century ago in Carroll County's barns and fields. He learned the trade from those who still operate outside the law.

Read the full article on the Des Moines Register website.