[narrator] On this episode of Moonshiners...
[Tickle] You've been sitting in one spot way too damn long
and that ain't good for any man.
[Josh]
I just broke my only propeller off.
And it's probably gonna start getting dark.
[Digger] Hatty...
we've got a problem.
We are infested with weevils.
We got to figure out a way that we can kill them off and save the seeds.
[Howard] Damn! We're leaking like a sieve.
[Tim] Be careful, Howard.
[Howard] We'll lose everything.
Shut it down, let's start over.
Back to the drawing board.
God Almighty!
[Tim] What happened?
[Tickle] This is how we make the moonshine.
[Mark] This one ought to be about ready to put on the drying rack.
It's pretty close.
-Oh, yeah. -Yeah.
We're all in on our triple malted grain.
It's a standard recipe,
but now we're bumping it up a notch by malting all three grains.
[Digger] Dry that, grind it,
-put it in a barrel. -Yeah.
-Well... -Let's get some of that barley and get with it.
[Digger] My buddy Ronald got a little farm on the outskirts of the county
and he got some barley that he was going to use for cover crop
but failed to do so.
So, we bought what he had left
at a bargain. We're keeping production costs down
and we can pass that on to our customer.
Hatty...
We got a problem.
[Mark] Oh, hell!
[Digger] We are infested with weevils.
Look at it Hatty, they're up and under everything.
They're all over the top of this and they're under this and
they're over here.
I promise you, they're in every one of these damn bags now.
Damn!
We yank the sacks up and we're looking at them
and they're spreading like wildfire.
They're like, "We are at the damn golden crown."
And we go in when they come out of the bag,
they get fresh grain. Look at it.
You know what weevils do. Don't you?
They eat the damn middle of your grain out.
[Digger] They eat the goodie of your grain out.
We can't sprout them when they eat the endosperm out of there,
so, these damn bugs are our enemy right now.
There's going to be viable grain in there that will germinate.
I mean, they can't get to all of it this quick.
We gotta figure out a way that we can get rid of these bugs,
kill them off and save the seed.
What will kill them and won't kill our grain?
We can... might fog 'em, one of them foggers.
It's worth a try. You've got one of them?
Oh, yeah. I keep them.
I do my house all the time.
Let's take that bag of corn,
-see what it will do. -[Digger] All right.
You know, corn is basically still the cheapest of the three,
so, we decide to practice on the corn.
If we ruin it,
that's not as big financial loss to us as say the rye or the barley.
Are you ready to put that lid on it?
Oh, you ain't [bleep].
[Mark] Whoo!
Having some weevils in our grain.
Yeah. You don't want them,
but if you have a few, it's not the end of the world.
You know, you just mash them in.
They don't put off any adverse flavor.
They don't create a issue at all.
But it's a different ball game now that we're using this grain to malt.
We have to actually sprout it.
If they eat too much of the goodie out of it
then it won't sprout.
If it doesn't sprout, we've produced no malt.
[Digger] They're coming right down through.
They're trying to get out of there and they're dying down here.
But you know what?
Well, I can only imagine what it's going to do to the people
we sell liquor to.
Oh, hell.
We didn't think that all the way through, did we?
Maybe it won't saturate that grain too bad but...
it can't be good for human consumption.
Do not apply when food is present.
Exposed food should be covered or removed.
-Mmm. -[Mark] Do not use in greenhouses
where plants are grown for food.
-That's enough said. -Yeah.
Bad idea.
This is. Yeah.
You know, we can't-- we can't use this.
We can't take a chance on hurting someone or making someone sick.
I'm not willing to take that chance.
All I know is, Hatty, we got to figure out something to do
to kill bugs that don't kill people in the liquor.
What really amazes me is how fast that they can decimate a bag of grain.
I mean, we have to figure out a way to kill them all before weevils destroy the grain.
Well, let's go up to the store and get us some bologna sammies.
While we're heating it I'll talk to Dr. Google.
All right.
[Digger] You know, the best thing about bologna?
[Mark] It ain't got no weevils in it.
Well, everybody gets a center cut.
Well, getting to be about time we change this camouflage off here.
At least add some more green to it
'cause right now it's sticking out like a sore damn weiner.
It went from looking like great camouflage, it look like it grew there
to like... what the hell killed all that?
[narrator] In Franklin County, Virginia,
with Josh having spent the last eight weeks hiding from the fire marshal,
Tickle and the Laws, need to find a way to boost his spirits
to have any hope of increasing production of their own.
Brought some dinner.
Your truck makes so much racket.
I hear the squeaking and the rattling
of the tailgate and the bed.
Mate, we're heard you was using poison oak to wipe your ass.
We brought you some toilet paper.
[Josh] You didn't bring no real food.
You brought me some saltine crackers.
We thought you was going fishing and outdoorsman.
What happened to the fishing and hunting that you've been doing?
Josh is still living out here at the still site
and I tell you what, these--
these woods ain't been kind to this boy.
I just can't believe you won't bring me a [bleep] hot meal!
We'll bring--
Give us a second. You gotta listen to us.
-All right? -I'm going down to that.
[Tickle] You've been sitting in one spot
-way too damn long. -[Henry] Too long.
And that ain't good for any man.
Since you've been here, grains, it's getting almost impossible to find,
gas prices so high, we're going to do some trading.
What are we trading?
Liquor, man, for grain, sugar, everything we need.
[Tickle] Everything has went through the roof with all this inflation
and so we're going to use our moonshine as our currency.
Right up this little river right here
there's a farmer that's willing to trade grain for moonshine.
[Henry] Hey, what's that boat you got back at the house?
I-- I got a freaking long tail shaft yaw boat.
How much water does it take to float it?
It will freaking go over just about anything.
Mud and freaking all kind of [bleep]. It's a mud motor.
The way he talks, I'm not even sure that this boat actually even goes into the water.
It's like it floats an inch over top of it.
[Henry] We've got a farm down the river.
So, if you make it to the farm,
we'll have the grain and stuff down there.
Switch the liquor out and bring the grain back.
[Tickle] If we can make this work in this river, you're using minimal fuel,
and this river is a whole lot more discreet than this road.
Doing this dead drop by boat is by far our best and safest option.
One, this river, it's not patrolled,
there's very few people you'll ever see out here.
If anybody does see Josh,
they'll just think he's a fisherman.
And two, Josh is going nuts out here in the woods
and this will give him something to do.
You're confident in your boat.
It'll go with hardly any water.
Well, get ready to make some money.
We're going to make some money, man.
[Henry] Make some money and we'll get you out of this hole.
[Tim] So, Howard, let's get a light.
Let's see about this mash.
[narrator] In Culpeper, Virginia,
Tim and Howard are on the verge of recreating a nearly 200-year-old whiskey
that made Kentucky teenager, J.W. Dant a distilling legend.
Oh, that's where it Dant's.
We're going to do the Kentucky Dant side by side on that one.
[Tim] It's been a long time.
It's a lot of work, me and Howard's worked on this thing,
just recreating J.W. Dant's original log still whiskey.
[Howard] Why am I getting five gallons at a time and you get one gallon?
[Tim] 'Cause I'm older.
You know, Mr. Dant, his recipe,
and then his log still distilling method,
that combination tastes so good that everybody bought it
and it made him money.
And that's what I'm all about.
This thing looks like a Bloody Mary.
How much are we trying to run?
[Tim] About half of it.
We created the spontaneous yeast from the corn, barley and rye from Kentucky
and we mixed it with our Virginia corns and barleys and rye.
[Howard] It fits.
[Tim] All right. Look, get some paste and paste it up.
We got this still put together and there's two logs on top of each other.
And we gotta paste it together,
you know, seal it up as best we can and get ready to make this run.
See, that's getting real sticky.
But that's what you got to get it.
You got to get it like glue.
The kind of stills that I get to run with Tim
that are copper or maybe a submarine pot or whatever it may be,
we don't use the amount of paste we are currently using.
But this log still, there's so many cracks
and so many possibilities of failure,
we got to make sure everything is seated and ready to run.
[Tim] I think we're gotta put a strap on here.
[Howard] Put it right across that top.
[Tim] All right. That's on me.
Since this is a log still and we can't put in the fire under it,
we're going to put steam into this thing that's like 350 degrees,
you know, it's going to create some pressure in there.
Warning.
Do not try this at home.
But there's no safety valves on it,
there's no gauges on it.
I mean, I've seen metal stills blow up.
If this log still explodes,
splinter's going to fly everywhere and who knows who it's going to hit.
I don't want this log still to blow up.
[Howard] All right. Let's throw steam through this bad boy and see what happens.
All right. Here we go.
What's it doing?
-It's bubbling. -Okay.
[Howard] Tim, you hear that?
[Tim] So, a still, the way it operates is,
you know, the pressure builds up inside
and the vapors gonna go to the least resistance.
This is a log still.
So, there's a lot of ways that the alcohol can seep out,
especially the grains in the wood and the cracks in the wood
and stuff like that.
I want those vapors to come out that worm.
Yeah. We got alcohol coming.
Yeah. Definitely alcohol coming.
[Howard] See, we do have a little leak right here.
[Tim] I can fix that.
It's coming out right there.
So, you just patch it.
Just like a pizza baker.
Creating more pressure.
[Tim] That's right. Got to go somewhere.
See, it's starting to come out over here now.
Three to five minutes.
Whenever we run liquor, she's right there.
-I smell alcohol. -I smell alcohol.
I was about to burp.
[Tim] Oh, that's a leak right there.
-[Tim] Let me cut it-- -[Howard] Oh, no. This ain't good.
[Tim] Let me-- Let me cut it back a little bit.
[Howard] Damn! We're leaking like a sieve.
Damn good liquor we're losing.
We're losing everything. Tim, this is an epic fail.
Let's start over.
Back to the drawing board.
-God Almighty! -[Tim] What happened?
[Howard] We're losing everything. Tim, this is epic fail.
Let's start over.
Back to the drawing board.
-God Almighty! -[Tim] What happened?
Something all over it.
Paste all over me.
-Here... here's some water. -No. I'm good. I'm good.
God dang! I'm all right, man.
Just let me cool down for a second, please.
[laughs] That's all-- It's all over you.
-[Tim laughs] -[Howard] Damn
-still regurgitated. -[laughs]
[laughs] What are you painting, Howard?
Steam is 350.
When this comes out and it hits you, it is dangerous.
Howards got some tough skin.
Uh, that's the only thing I can say.
Because it will take your skin off.
[Howard] The paste should have held.
No. That's a lot of pressure in there.
That's why we got them straps on.
We got to do something different.
Right now, I'm going home.
You're a mess, this a mess.
This is a really mess.
You're a mess.
[Howard] Tim, you can't just leave me.
[Digger] Hatty, I don't know what the resolve is.
Gas is going to kill people...
-Yeah. It might. -...and at best even give it enough flavor like fuel.
I wonder if we could heat it.
I wouldn't think a certain amount of heat would hurt the grain.
My mee-maw used to microwave her potting soil
that she'd sprout or 'mater plants and stuff in.
[Mark] What was the purpose of that?
[Digger] Killing parasites.
-[Mark] Really? -Yeah.
So, you're saying, we microwave this grain.
We can try it at 30 seconds at a time.
We ain't got nothing to lose at this point.
A minute or so in the microwave may be enough to kill them.
[Digger] I don't know if microwaving's the answer but let's get with it.
[Mark] I know one thing, fogging wasn't.
If you put alive anything in a microwave, it'll kill it.
Other than a cockroach.
I don't know why them cockroaches are nuclear proof
but they seem to be.
Well, let's just put them in there without any corn in it.
-[Mark] And see what it does to them? -[Digger] Yeah.
[Digger] What do you say? Ten seconds first?
-[microwave beeps] -[microwave whirring]
[Digger] I can't see them.
I don't know if they're dead or not.
If they're not climbing the walls anymore, they're dead.
[microwave beeps]
I see a few moving.
It killed probably about 99 percent of these bugs.
[Mark] Hit some grain with some bugs in it and see how it acts.
[Digger] All right.
Well, you know, there's no doubt a microwave is a weevil killing machine.
I want a boatload of bugs.
But we've not introduced any grain in the process yet.
[Mark] It'll probably take more time now.
-[Digger] I'm gonna go with 30. -Get to it.
[Digger] It's going to be bareback ridden.
-[microwave beeps] -[microwave whirring]
[Mark] You might hear of the sounds bugs popping.
Well, they should have stayed out of the grain.
Now, if this works, it's going to take a long time to microwave all that grain.
-[microwave beeps] -[Mark] Well, let's see what it does, though.
Nope. There's still a kicking in there, Hatty.
[Mark] Well, that wasn't long enough.
It ain't gonna get as hot in there with that grain in it.
Do a whole minute.
[Digger] All right.
[microwave beeps]
Which you say is the longest? A microwave minute or a treadmill minute?
Treadmill minute by far.
[Mark chuckles] I don't know, if you're awful hungry,
it takes forever for that minute to go by, you're heating up your 'taters.
-[microwave beeps] -[microwave door opens]
Oh! If they ain't dead, they've missed a hell of an opportunity.
Look how mushy it's made that.
[Digger] Yeah. I mean, it's... it's made it sticky.
[Mark] That can't be good for that corn.
No. There ain't nothing can live through that.
Look up Dr. Google here.
Here is the effects of microwaving on garden seeds.
Zero second. Zero second bean seed sprouted on the fourth day.
Thirty seconds. 30 second bean seeds
sprouted a day after the zero second seed beans did.
One minute beans seeds have not sprouted at all.
It seems to be that the microwave radiation killed the seeds.
So, by killing the bugs, in essence, we're killing our grain, too.
Obviously this is not a viable plan, you know.
We just stand a better chance trying to find someone with a walk-in freezer
but there ain't nobody whose got a walk-in freezer who's going to obligate it
-to a mealy bunch of bug infested grains. -Bug infested grains.
Well, that's going to be in a store
-or a restaurant or somewhere. -Yeah.
This is not the answer to our weevil problem.
We're going to find a new method
before they have destroyed all of our grain.
[Tickle] Hold it, son. Hold it.
We're gonna load some of our shine up into Josh's boat
and Josh is going to find the marked spot that's on this river
that's for a dead drop.
[Kenny] That went about six inches too far.
[Henry] I need a rock to go on it.
Maybe the front tire.
[Tickle] Maybe it might not be a bad idea.
[Josh] I don't know, man.
[Tickle and Kenny] Watch that damn thing.
[Josh] Oh! God! No!
You son of a bitch. I'll kick your ass.
[Tickle] Damn, Josh.
[Kenny] It smacked him right there in the nose.
Damn, brother.
-[Josh groans] -[Tickle] You all right?
I don't know. Is it crooked?
[Kenny] It smacked him right there--
It was always a little crooked, wasn't it?
[Kenny] It bust him right there in the nose.
-[Kenny] Pull it down there. -Ow!
[Kenny] Oh! There you go. That's [bleep].
[Kenny] That looks a whole lot better.
I think you straightened it. What do you think, Henry?
-[Kenny] I believe one more jerk will get it. -Let's pop him one more time.
[Josh] So, these guys want me to haul this liquor down the river in my boat
and trade it for some grains.
And I'm all about it 'cause my boat's awesome.
It's a long tail, you know. I can drop the prop in and out of the water as I want it.
This thing will go in places normal boats won't go.
It's pretty amazing.
[motor revs]
This is a river running motor,
a swamp motor.
It's made for doing this kind of [bleep].
You can see it will go in just about anything.
I just went through that right there and it ain't about four inches deep right there.
That damn boat floated on the air over the water.
This boat's gonna do it.
Josh shouldn't have any problem.
Should be smooth sailing for him going up and down this river.
All right, boss.
Where you want me to put that in here?
Put all that weight up in the front.
[Tickle] Josh is going to drop off 30 gallons of shine
and pick up 250 pounds of corn.
Now that might seem like the farmer's getting a better deal
but we've got the promise from the farmer
that when we need more corn, it will be there.
[Henry] You know what to look for when you see that big bucket
hanging on the edge of the river.
Right where that's at on the other side of the tree, there's a hole dug out.
Just get the grain out.
Throw the liquor in it.
It's already there. I've done talked to the guy.
He said everything's all ready to go.
So, you don't have to worry about it not being there.
All right, boys.
-[Tickle groans] -All right, Josh.
Whoo! You all right?
Don't fire it up yet.
[motor revs]
Oh, [bleep]. Oh, hell.
Damn it!
[clangs]
[bleep]
That's some [bleep] on the propeller.
I just broke my only propeller off.
I didn't bring another one. I don't know why I don't have another one.
And it's probably gonna start getting dark.
[Josh] That's all she rote on the propeller.
I sheared that baby right the hell off.
Caught it on a rock.
I guess I wasn't paying it close enough damn attention.
The only thing we can do is just keep on our mission.
I'll have to find me a stick or something.
Breaking the propeller off a boat, it's gonna make this trip a damn nightmare.
But at the same time it just feels so good to be out of the camp
and be out doing something.
I don't care if I gotta paddle upstream all the way.
I'm gonna make this happen.
Besides, there's no way I'm gonna let these guys down.
Most people would just give up right now.
They'd just say, "To damn hell with it."
But not this old boy.
I ain't a normal failure.
No is not an option.
[Mark] That's precious commodity right there.
[Digger] Yes, sir.
[Mark] This microwaving process,
it kills the bugs but it destroys our seed.
Put most of it toward the middle.
That way we can see when they're leaving.
[Mark] But in Digger's research,
he finds out that weevils can't tolerate heat in excess of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
So, another idea presents itself.
It's getting warm quick, Digger.
Look how they're coming up.
[Digger] They better if they know what's good for them.
Heat rises. So, if we get it under this stainless steel table,
it's going to make a hot plate out of this.
And it should get it just hot enough
that it'll kill the weevils and won't damage the grain.
See any action over there yet?
[Mark] Yep. Looks like they're moving off and leaving.
I hope they die.
Uh, I guess it's like we are when we're walking across the sand on a hot beach.
Weevils get to moving a little faster.
It's warming up on them,
so they're trying to get the hell out of there.
Their feet are burning.
Poor little fella.
-[Digger] Here. -[Mark] Oh, yeah.
[Digger] I believe it is killed.
[Mark] You know, after just a short time
it seems to be working pretty well.
Seeing a lot of--
[Digger] Uh-oh.
-[Mark] Let's look at this. -[Digger] Nah. Hell, no. This ain't gonna work.
Look at that.
That ain't no... That's scorched. That's burnt.
That ain't worth a fiddler's fart.
Sure enough, it's-- it's roasting up on the bottom,
it's turning black.
We've killed the bugs.
-We've killed the corn, too. -We've killed the corn, too.
[Digger] You can take a handful of scorched corn
and ruin a whole run liquor.
[Mark] What the hell we do now?
[Digger] Well...
I say...
we put them in our mash barrels,
throw some dry ice in there and clamp them son of a bitches off.
What's dry ice gonna do to them, freeze them to death?
As it evaporates, it turns into carbon dioxide.
Well, you know anything that's a breathing, living creature outside of the water,
it relies on oxygen.
I'm thinking we just deprive them of oxygen and they'll die.
A dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide.
-I didn't know that. -And it don't go to liquid when it melts.
It goes straight to gas.
So, that gas and it's heavier, and it'll go down.
Damn, if it don't look more promising to give up
but I ain't gonna let a bunch of weevils kill me and my liquor production.
Let's go to the store and get us a block of that dry ice.
Is that a damn weevil crawling on me right there?
No. That's head lice.
[Tim]
Last night was a disaster.
We fired this log still up,
next thing I know once the steam gets the temperature,
it starts blowing out the side.
I mean, it about blew my legs off.
-[Tim] Good? -[Howard] Yeah. You good.
[Howard] We're gonna pull the top on this thing
and see if we can iron out the problems.
You can see the holes.
You got that hole there.
Hole there.
I don't know how we're going to fill that gap.
You think the problem is on this one or a problem on that one?
[Howard] This looks...
less true... than this does.
I feel like this surface area is a lot smooth.
Right now we're looking at both sides of these stills that we've cut out of this log
and it's not going to match.
We need to create some kind of gasket that's going to take up the space.
You know, we could put ten straps on it, it's still not going to work.
[Howard] What can we get out the woods
that will take care of this gap?
We gotta think in terms of back in the day,
and when they were in 1800's, making this log still
they didn't have a general store they could run to.
[Tim] Back in the day in 1800's
they had to make something to seal this.
They just went out maybe foraging for stuff
that, uh, they could cook down or I don't know.
But we need to put something that's going to fill this gap.
-Remember when we learned tap trees make maple... -Yeah.
-...and we get the syrup out there. -Yeah.
Something like that gummy.
But we don't have maple trees.
We got plenty of pine trees, though.
Now I think you're on to something, my brother.
They're sticky as I don't know what.
We get the pine needles because all the sap infuses into the pine needles...
-Mmm-hmm. -...lay them across here...
-[Tim] Mmm-hmm. -...fill the gap.
Then we can squeeze it in.
Well then, all we gotta do is run across the property here and find...
Well, that's-- that's a problem.
There's no pine trees on the property.
But I tell you what.
Art, you know Art that works in the shop?
-Art, we could use a little help. -[Art] Yeah.
-We could use some help. -[Art] Yeah.
Grab that thing and push it up to us, will you?
Art has nothing but pine trees at his house.
We'll just go over there,
get some pine needles off a pine tree...
-and we're good. -Why don't you just give Art a call
and see if we can come up and get some of these pine needles?
Well, I already knows he's out of town.
-So, you wanted to go incognito... -[Tim] Yeah.
-..."thief mode" on pine needles... -[Tim laughs]
...rob him blind and he'll never know the difference?
Well, he'll think some animal came through and stripped the tree.
He'd probably tell me about it.
He'll say, "You know what?
I came and looked at my pine tree
and all the pine needles were stripped off of it.
I don't know what happened.
What kind of animal would eat pine tree?"
Oh, my God, Art,
that is horrible.
I know. You should set up a camera or something.
-Yeah. You need a trail cam. -[Tim] You know, you need a trail cam.
'Cause it could be like the unknown creature out there.
[Tim chuckles]
Now, you're telling me that's that dry ice in there.
There ain't no oxygen in that cooler.
[Digger] I don't know.
I ain't in there.
[Mark] It's really sad that something that's just smaller
than a gnat, little-bitty thing like a weevil
gets the best of two big, old boys like me and Digger.
I'm for putting a little pillow on each one of them's head
and smothering them out.
I don't know nothing about this stuff.
I don't know. Let's get us a big bag of hit off of it if you want to.
No. Not if it will kill you.
So, we're going to put some weevil infested corn into a thurmonster,
uh, put some dry ice in there with it and lightly screw on the cap,
and we'll see what happens.
Look how it's a smokin'.
That's CO2 coming off of that.
I think that dry ice is going to be the best avenue to go.
As it dissolves, it goes straight from a frozen solid form,
bypasses liquid and goes straight to gas, CO2 gas.
[Mark] And this won't hurt the grain.
I mean, the seeds in that big seed bank,
they're cryogenically frozen down to what, 300 degrees below zero, liquid nitrogen.
[Mark] I don't know.
Oh, yeah. There they come.
CO2 is a heavier gas than... than oxygen.
It'll permeate down through the grain,
boom, I believe we'll kill them rascals.
Here, where it stops.
That must be where oxygen's at.
Hatty, I do not see another bug wiggling.
Non-wiggler, non-wiggler, non-wiggler.
That one there, he just free fell.
And he just quit wiggling.
[Mark] By God, I believe it's killing them, too.
There ain't no doubt in my scientific mind, it has.
I don't see a wiggler nowhere.
Well, if it's that easy, we can do this on a big scale.
-[Digger] Yeah, sure. -[Mark] We can do this a barrel at a time.
After a short period of time, we see no weevil activity inside the thurmonster.
We got to do this on a great big scale.
We've got more grain if we can say grace over we've got to exterminate these bugs in.
Oh, damn!
[Digger] So, we're going to get bigger barrels in here,
fill them up with grain, throw dry ice in there,
cap them up, walk off and leave them and let them die.
As this starts gassing off and sublimation is taking place,
it's just kind of a swap out.
It falls down, when in turn it pushes up on that column of oxygen rich air
and pushes it out through the gasket.
Well, you can tell when the humidity is high,
that dry ice, it smokes like mad, don't it?
Done is done is done.
If we're lucky enough, we've caught this problem in time
before they have destroyed all of our grain.
-Just leave it do its thing, I guess. -[Digger] Yep.
[Mark] Let's see if we've killed any damn weevils, poot.
All right.
[Digger] I don't see a weevil on top.
They're usually climbing up the sides.
This corn here looks really, really good.
Oh, hell, yes.
So, now that we killed the weevils...
[Mark] Let's see if this corn will malt, puss.
...we need to see how much damage they've done,
make sure our grain will still sprout.
So, we've got to get us some corn,
get it soaking, get it out on the table and make sure it will sprout.
I ain't seeing not one critter crawling.
[Mark] Little pour.
[Digger] Look at the critters floating at the top.
Look at the damn dead critters are floating to the top.
You can't see them until you hit them with that water
and damn they don't-- they look like salt and pepper.
I didn't know there's that many in there. Did you?
They're still the same amount of weevils that there was when we started
but fortunately now they all appear to... to be dead.
None of them wiggling though.
There ain't a damn one of them wiggling, boss man.
Honestly, if this won't malt,
I don't know if the other ones that were weevilly will but...
-we'll have to try each except our grain, yeah. -We'll have to try, man.
[Mark] If we see some sprouts in a few days,
then, yes, this has been a success.
Let's give it a chance and let it do what it's supposed to do.
If we don't see any sprouts in a few days,
it's been a failure. A complete total failure.
I know one thing, I will have to give you an attaboy for the carbon dioxide.
[Tim] You know, getting a bunch of pine needles and forming a gasket,
and then squeeze them together, I think this is a great idea.
All right, Howard.
Art's got to have some pine trees over here.
[Howard] I got the bucket.
[Tim] You know, this is a first for me.
I've never harvested pine needles.
[Howard] Oh, Lord.
-[Howard] What a wonderful little place he's got here. -[Tim] Yeah.
Well, Howard and I, we're walking around Art's property,
you know, there's a lot of stuff here.
He got a boat with a back porch on it.
You don't reckon he lived in that, do you?
Art, he had told me one time his son was living in one of these boats.
That's kind of braggin' rights.
I mean, he can go to school and tell everyone,
"Hey, I'm living on my own boat.
I got my own place, got my own bedroom and everything."
I mean, that's pretty neat.
I mean, that is a nice boat.
[Howard] In the 50's it was. I'm sure.
We got abandoned boats, broke down vehicles,
Willie Nelson's tour van.
Yeah. I ain't going up in there, man.
You ain't gonna come back.
If you do, you'd come back with malaria or something.
I mean, I don't know what Art does.
I think he's just like a pack rat of all things big.
[Tim] Well, we gotta keep going. We gotta keep going, huh?
Well, he got a pine tree right here. Little one.
But I'm thinking...
I mean, what if we cook this stuff? It may make something.
[Howard] Mash out the-- the resin, so to speak.
Think about it. If we take this and we cooked this up,
then we put a layer of this on it,
and then squeeze it together with enough straps,
the natural resin from this...
That'll fill and seat the hole.
I'm getting this sticky stuff on my hands.
You know, this is like the pine rosin, I guess you want to call it.
So, I think we may have something here that's going to act like a glue.
So now we got this needle, it's going to take the place of this void,
and then we also got an instant glue.
Let's get the needles. Just the needles.
[Howard] Yeah. I'm just robbing needles. I ain't taking no branches.
[Howard] Well, Tim we're back at the Ponderosa.
I'm just a little nervous on how you plan on extracting this sap.
[Tim] Most time when you want to get something out of something,
you heat it up, cook it.
We started by just trying to sit these things together
and doing it old-fashioned way by putting the right paste around this two pieces of wood
and clamping it down with the straps.
That didn't work too good.
So, we've got these pine needles.
You know, we need to put them like in a skillet or something,
heat them up, and I'm thinking that the sap will release.
And then we can put that between the two surfaces
and it's going to make like a glue seal.
I'm thinking.
Yeah. If you line it up like that across there...
you can pack it that way, long ways in that gap.
[Howard] But I think if you boil it down like you said
it'll extract some of them oils and the rosin.
I understand.
I was just thinking that if we put a piece of wood inside here,
now we got a groove.
You sleeve it.
Give us a backing board right here to stack these against.
[Tim] Yeah. So, it don't fall off.
'Cause I can see us now trying to put that on top and the thing falling.
Now if it falls off it goes outside. It don't come inside.
We need to make a box inside
because if we go putting this together and lining it up,
some of the pine needles may slide off.
You think this is going to work for us?
[Tim] Better than what we had.
[Howard] We should have thought about this the first time.
[Tim] It will allow us to pack it in there.
See, I ain't got to worry about it falling out, you know.
You want to boil it, see if anything comes out of it.
-[Tim] Mmm-hmm. -Makes like a type of paste, a pine paste in essence.
[Tim] Getting a bunch of pine needles
and putting it all the way around a whole layer of blanket around it,
forming a gasket.
And then squeezing it together, I think this is a great idea.
Turn it on.
Well, I'm thinking if we put this thing in a pan or skillet, warm it up,
I believe some of that sap would come out of the pine needles,
and then it'll make the needles bond together.
-[Howard] It's dripping something out. -[Tim] Mmm.
Oh, they're turning brown, too.
Look at the color coming out of them.
[Tim] Smells like pine needles.
What in the world are we doing now?
It's tacky. Look.
[Tim] Hmm.
It's more a little rubbery.
-But it's-- -Maybe this is how they invented rubber.
It's not really making it a glue.
You know, I want it to really bond together.
And I was thinking that more sap would come out.
But this is not happening.
-I don't know. -What's it doing now?
It's losing its tacky. I think we're gonna have to pour water in it, huh?
[Tim] This is not going to work for us.
[Josh] I can't imagine this son of a bitch would be this far.
He told me it wasn't that far.
We've been a long way.
It feels like miles.
And there's no way I'm going to let Henry down.
I'm gonna make this happen,
so I'm gonna go down here,
I'm gonna pick his stuff up and drop his stuff off,
get the [bleep] boat back.
I'm scanning the banks, I'm looking,
I'm freaking oaring, I'm paddling.
Bugs eating me alive, pitch black dark,
I got a flashlight, I got one of my lights on my boat trying to die.
Like, we're going through hell.
I was supposed to be in here before dark.
Now I'm trying to find this stupid damn thing in the pitch black.
You'd think a bucket be easy to spot.
There's a freaking basket hanging from the tree.
That ain't no damn bucket.
Someone's been going up and down this field.
Here it is, right here.
Sure enough. It's right there in kind of like a hole on top of the hill stashed away.
We make the exchange,
and then it's down the river.
[sighs] Finally.
Now I got to get my ass back down the river.
It looks totally different at night time.
And night time will play tricks on you,
you think you're somewhere and you ain't.
Or you think you ain't somewhere and you are.
-[Tim] It looks like this is a rock, right? -[Howard] Yeah.
[Tim] Check this out.
-[Tim] Look at this. -[Howard] It looks like a king's throne.
Bam! Bam! Look. Look.
This rock is like, it's got to be placed there.
I don't think it grew out of the ground there,
and it has like a perfect seat in it.
I mean, this could be like a monument, you know.
[Howard laughs] It's a nice rock.
You try that. I mean, it feels good.
You put your butt cheek right in there.
Huh?
[Howard] Yeah. I could sit right here all day
and watch the grass grow up around all my mini...
bits and pieces of junk, it looks like.
Wait a minute. That's not junk.
He's got like a lot of nice, interesting stuff here.
He's got a porch with no roof on it. I like that.
Well, I mean, maybe he hadn't finished it yet.
[Howard] I guess that's a pergola. [laughs]
[Tickle] There's somebody on a boat.
It's been hours since Josh should have been back
and we don't hear no motor.
So, something is definitely wrong.
-[Henry] That's sure enough him. -[Tickle] Yeah. That's him.
He's got a stick and he's just pushing his boat along
like he was over there in Venice in Italy.
So, you made it.
-[Josh] Damn! -[Tickle] Would happened to your engine?
-[Tickle] Why isn't your engine running? -Damn, man. Look.
-[Tickle] What? -[Josh] Look at this bull [bleep].
I tore the prop right off of this thing.
[Henry] But you know one nice thing looks awful promising?
[Tickle] You got the grain.
-[Josh] I wasn't coming back empty handed. -[chuckles]
I've been through hell, trying to get this mission completed,
but I got it done.
-We got you some steak, we got you some brandy. -Oh, [bleep].
You ain't gotta tell me but once. Where's it at?
[Josh] One thing about Josh Owens,
I have a "Never freaking take no for an answer" kind of attitude.
That's just who I am.
[Henry] Right here, boss.
We got some steak sauce right here, too.
-[Henry] That will do, won't it? -[Josh] Mmm-mmm.
[Henry] What do you think of that?
That's some of the best steak sauce I've ever eaten in my life.
[Henry] Yeah. It's homemade.
[Tickle] I'll tell you what's in my damn liquor recipe
if I tell you what's in this sauce.
But let me ask you this.
If you had a couple of props...
that you can have with you,
maybe your trip could go a little bit better,
you think we can keep doing this?
Yeah?
[Josh] This is definitely doable.
[Henry] We made our first delivery and got our grain for the next run. Finally.
-[Tickle] Yes, sir. -[Henry] Something's coming our way.
[Howard] I think that water brought out the sap in it,
and once we now we cooked it off, we're to a little standstill.
Does it feel as sticky as it did?
No. Not really.
As we're cooking this down, the pine needles is getting less sticky.
I think we need to, like, pour something on it.
This is not going to work for us.
We've got to get something that's going to make this adhesive.
You know what I'm thinking?
To rob a beehive.
Look, I'm not talking about the honey.
I'm talking about the beeswax.
But I'm highly allergic to honeybees.
And I'm not trying to die over your moonshine.
[Tim] I'm not using the bees.
I just want the honeycomb with the honey on it. That's all I want.
I mean, I don't want the bees.
You want to use the actual cone itself.
It's not... it's not so much about the honey,
-its more about the cone 'cause of its wax. -[Tim] 'Cause that's wax.
That's wax. Get a wax seal on there.
There is local beekeepers that have this stuff.
I'm sure we can buy it.
They'd probably want you to work half a day
to help them get it, probably.
The guy that's the most highly allergic to bees in the world
probably needs to be working with the beekeepers--
-But can have one of them atropine things. -That would be expensive.
-I know all about. -[Tim] EpiPen.
We can have one of them on site...
-Oh, we will. -...in case.
Truth be known, I'm not allergic to bees.
I could care less about bees.
I just don't want to get stung.
[Tim] There's no way you're going to get the honey without getting stung.
If I got a beekeeper suit on, I won't.
They may get in there.
So, I'm thinking if we use wax,
uh, from the bees and mix that with some pine needles,
they will become some kind of sticky mess
and I think that would bond it together.
-Let's go find some honey. -This has been the daggum most tedious,
-time consuming... -Well, we gotta get
everything together, you know.
...liquor log I've ever made in my life.
[Tim laughs]
[Mark] Well, let's see if we've made malted corn or damn a mess.
You know, a couple of days have passed now.
You know, we're going to check and see if this corn, if there's any sprouts.
It smells a little sour in here, don't it?
That'll make good liquor, though, the way it's smelling.
There's a large part of this corn that was damaged by these weevils
and will not sprout.
But by and large, we're hoping that the majority of it will,
and, uh, if it does,
you know we're back in business.
If it don't, it's... it's back to the grain store.
Looky, looky, puss. Plenty of sprouts.
Wow!
[Mark] I guess the stars all lined up right
or the Moonshine Gods smiled on us
but we see sprouts.
[Digger] Way more of them have sprouts than don't.
Yeah. Probably 70 percent or better.
But I know what we got to do.
[Digger] We got to get it over there immediately.
It's time to-- it's time to kill it 'cause we don't want them getting any bigger.
They just have to sprout a little bit.
You don't want them to get great big because then they eat up the goody
that you need for fermentation and to convert into alcohol.
When we transfer it to the drying rack
-that'll stop any growing. -[Digger] Yeah.
That fan will kill that too fast.
We've got more barrels in,
so, we'll start storing our grain in there.
That'll protect it from any further weevil damage.
What do you think if we just maybe go into the damn exterminating business
instead of liquor making business?
You know, it probably be a damn sight easier.
The ones that didn't sprout,
they'll make a fine cap and they'll offer up flavor.
Had we lost all that, that would have been a damn sword to the heart.
-You know, we was in it very reasonable. -Yeah.
If we'd had to toss all this out...
-And bought fresh. -...bought fresh,
and our whole client base could have looked for a price increase.
We outsmarted the weevil.
[Digger] We got to get more soaking.
So, now that we've got this malting process,
we're going to keep going, sprouting, drying, grinding
and, uh, time to get started making this triple grain legacy liquor.
-[Mark] Let's get with it. -[Digger] Let's get with it.