chartered adj [Folk-etym reinterpretation of charded charred (in its r-less pronc [ˈčɑdəd]); see char v A] Sth, S Midl
1 also charted; In ref to barrels used for aging whiskey: charred.
1930 Morning News (Florence SC) 8 May 1/1, Prohibition enforcement authorities have been cheered considerably by the ruling that bottles and corks of a suspicious nature . . , to say nothing of the little “charted” kegs, may be seized under the section designated “material for manufacture” of unlawful liquors. 1936 Story June 95 wTN, He set him up a great big old hunderd gallon capacity pure copper still and run some of the best doubleback white corn whiskey ever drinked in Neeley or anywheres in West Tennessee as for that. He put it in ten gallon chartered kegs and hid them in hollows and ditches. 1965–66 DARE (Qu. DD29, . . Containers for liquor; total Infs questioned, 75) Inf MS60, Chartered kegs; [OK52, Charred kegs]. 1971 Thompson Coll. GA (as of 1920s), Chartered-oak keg [kæg] . . said to be used to age whiskey in.
2 also charted, charter, oak-chartered; Of whiskey: that has been treated with charred wood, usu by aging in a charred barrel. Cf char v B1
1931 Mt. Eagle (Jasper AL) 18 Feb [5]/4, Times are hard, and awful hard, / When bootleggers can’t have luck. / You can see them drumming on the street, / “I have got some chartered stuff.” 1940 Writers’ Program TN God Bless the Devil 108, Everybody come to know that Ples Haslock was going to win hands down. He always walked off with the gallon jimmyjohn of fine oak-chartered drinking whiskey they give for the prize. 1959 Faulkner Mansion 13 MS, The rich man himself in the house, the warm kitchen, with in his hand a toddy not of the stinking gagging homemade corn . . but of good red chartered whiskey ordered out of Memphis. 1967 DARE FW Addit GA21A, Charted moonshine—moonshine treated with charcoal in some way. It is yellow, while ordinary moonshine is white. 1970 DARE (Qu. DD21c, Nicknames for whiskey) Inf TN53, Chartered whiskey. 1966 Kingsport Times (TN) 9 Nov sec C 1/3, Since pure moonshine is colorless, the retailer approximates the color of legal liquor in a number of ways. “Charred,” “charted,” or “chartered” whisky is made by two methods. The easiest is by pouring it through a container of hickory charcoal briquets. . . In the second method, the inside of a wooden barrel is burned and the excess charcoal is dumped out, leaving a charred coating inside the barrel. It’s filled with moonshine and set aside. . . It comes out a reddish-brown, much like bonded whisky. 2000 Tate Logs & Moonshine 12 neNC, They soaked burned hickory chips in the whiskey to turn it an amber color. It was called “charter whiskey.” 2013 Anniston Star (AL) 25 Aug sec B 1/1, No, he didn’t handle white whiskey. He sold the good stuff, chartered whiskey. He’d buy it where it was legal, sell it here.
3 See quot. Cf char v B2
2005 Williams Gratitude 53 wNC (as of 1940s), Another thing I seen her do was put some white likker in a spoon and strack a match to it and let it burn off some. She called that “chartered” whisky. I think she give that when it’s [= a baby’s] bowels was a-runnin’ off.