"Applejack is better than football for getting people out of the house," said Albany Township Historical Society President Jon Bond. The headquarters in Trexler was standing-room-only 20 minutes before the program was to begin.

The Oct. 20 program was presented in three parts: a video covering some applejack brewing in 2000, the scientific aspects by George Megerle, and a skit.

A backdrop painted by professional artists Bond, Dan Christ and Eric Claypoole sold at the end of the evening for $675, with a promise the artists would sign and install it.

Bond said applejack brewing was not only illegal but dangerous. The Allemaengel area, now covering Albany Township, Berks County, produced a great deal of apples, so it was a good way to use them.

The process started with hard cider - cider that was stored until it fermented, he explained. Homemade stills turned the cider into liquor.

Abe Lincoln was known to provide a room, meal and pint of hard cider for 50 cents. Robert Laird provided the brew to the Revolutionary War soldiers. The Laird family still has cider license No. 1 in New Jersey.

The brewing crew, John Robertson, Jon Bond, Stanley Bond, Chester Robertson and Jim Brett, picked apples alongside the roadway in 1999.

The apples were cut and crushed. The cider drained into a container. It takes 50 gallons of cider to make three or four gallons of applejack.

In the spring 2000, the hard cider was taken to the Pine Swamp.

"A supply of wood has to be ready," Irwin Hamm explained. "We almost burned that shanty down. The first run provided 90-proof applejack."

Proof is double the percentage of alcohol, so a drink with 40 percent alcohol is 80 proof. If the cider is run through the still again it may be 160 proof. At that point, a couple shots could kill a person.

Megerle began his presentation by saying brewing is a good way to get arrested, blow yourself up or maybe burn down the house.

A chemist and engineer, Megerle said he would provide more information than anyone would want to know.

Yeast is added to the sugar from the apples, he explained. The yeast degrades the cane or sucrose sugar and turns it into glucose.

Copper or galvanized kettles can be used but not if you are going to drink the hard cider.

Copper leads to a white crystaline solid that is deadly. Either metal can lead to arsenic or cadmium, also deadly, but for distilling any material will do.

Up to 18 percent cane sugar can be added. An airlock in the jug pushes the liquid from one bubble to another and gives the carbon dioxide a place to vent while keeping out oxygen. If the process goes too far, the product turns to vinegar.

If a gallon of sweet cider is put to the side and, in a week, it will begin to turn with the wild yeast. Adding yeast changes the sugar to alcohol.

The condenser has to be kept cool, said Megerle.

Throw away the first 2 percent and get rid of the nasty stuff, Megerle said. The last 40 percent is mostly water. Three and one-half to 19 percent alcohol vapor in the air is explosive.

During prohibition, which ended Dec. 5, 1933, people were licensed to make medicinal alcohol.

Megerle ended his talk by saying he has given them a good enough reason not to make alcohol.

Hamm was the author and announcer for the skit. The actors were Josh Robert as Luke; Jim Brett as Mammy; and Jon Bond as Jake.

Hamm said they took a cue from Thornton Wilder whose "Our Town" play used little in the way of props but the scenes were described.

He began with a 360-degree tour of the Allemaengel - the mountains, the low hills of Schochary Ridge, the creeks and villages.

"Go back to 1931 when Prohibition began," Hamm said. "The Depression had started in 1929. The bank in Kempton was a casualty. The price for crops plummeted and applejack became a cash crop."

The skit then began with two guys, Luke and Jake, having picked eight bushels of apples.

As they brought them home, Mammy was looking for the boys. She wanted to cook with the apples and told them to leave some for her when they put them in the ground cellar.

Mammy said they had promised not to make any more applejack but they said they were so she chased them down the hill with a frying pan.

"We made it for medicinal purposes only," they told her. "We can sell some to Applejack Benny."

Mammy takes a sip and the boys ask if she is feeling better.

Ultimately, the group was arrested for complicity in making applejack. Their sentence was probation, during which time they have to teach the history of the Allemaengel.