About Happy Mountain Publications

It was over twenty years ago when the author wrote the Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible and founded Happy Mountain Publications to publish it himself. Eschewing snobbery and excessive technical detail in favor of practical advice and good-old "Yankee ingenuity," the author sought to write a book containing something for everyone from the rank beginner to the experienced Braumeister. Eighteen printings later, the book is still going strong. We are gratified by the success the book has enjoyed, not only in the United States, but also worldwide. Thank you to all the fans of the Bootlegger's Bible who have made the book a success over the years!

About the Author

Old soldiers never die, they just smell that way. Never nominated for sainthood, the author has spent his life in the most "gawdawful" places with some of the most interesting people imaginable. "Making your own" often meant using local ingredients and improvising your equipment. This thirst induced ingenuity produced some amazing and sometimes hilarious results. The characters, recipes, plans and instructions in this book are real, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. The war stories are all true and growing daily.


An ex-Green Beret, Leon came to Alaska in 1973. Assigned to the U.S. Army Northern Warfare Training Center at Ft. Greely where he met his wife Scottie. The crew now includes a son, Leon Jr. studying for a degree in Computer Science and an incorrigible little green bird named Jessie who "punctuated" almost every page of the draft book.


The aim of this book is to explain how to make all types of alcoholic beverages in an easy to understand and entertaining manner. It stresses the arts, not the science, steers you toward using wholesome natural ingredients, rather than chemicals and shows you how to make, rather than buy most of your equipment. It has an Alaskan Bush flavor by virtue of many of its tales and recipes, but the "how-to" information is universal and applies anywhere in the world.