[narrator] This time on Moonshiners...
Marshal's been called back, wants to see Mr. Owens.
[voicemail playing] We've learned some new things with Josh Owens.
They wanna freaking nail me for the still site.
I'm leaving the country, dawg.
-[Tim] I'm helping you out. -[Howard] I feel like a transformer.
[Tim] We need some honeycomb and a seal.
You treat these together.
[Howard coughing] You did smoke me.
[Tim] Howard and I've been building a log still
that was built 200 years ago.
Watch out, Tim!
We're gonna put this thing to the test.
[laughing]
Damn it!
[Richard] Today's the day we're gonna take over this market.
I came here to get it going.
[loud explosion]
-What the hell? -Oh!
-How'd this happen? -[bleep]
[Richard] Daniel's gonna kill me, man.
[bottle clanging]
[man] This is how we make moonshine!
[Josh] Let's rock and roll.
Oh, I'm excited. I love some bacon.
Something about being out here in the woods makes it taste that much better.
Crawdad.
I'm just kinda hanging out. Beats the hell out of jail.
Kenny and Henry dropped me off a bunch of stuff. I got some bacon and eggs.
[appreciatively] Mm-hmm.
But I'm still on the run from the law.
I have no idea how long I'm gonna have to hide out, out here.
But while I am out here, my job is to watch the still.
[engine revving]
[Josh] I'd know that truck anywhere.
Every time I hear a car coming,
I'm just dying to see somebody.
I'm hoping it's Henry and Kenny.
And I'm praying it is not the law.
[Kenny] What're you doing, Josh?
It's going, hell-bent, rocking and rolling.
That's a good deal.
We got another project we're working on now.
Apples, man. I got a call this morning,
free apples to mash, enough to load that thousand gallon still with.
We got a whole lot of money invested in this thousand gallon still,
but everything's so expensive, price is outrageous.
Lo and behold! I got a call from a local orchard,
and she's telling me she's got a bunch of apples.
And the season is coming in,
so they need the space.
So she's willing to give me the apples free. It's gonna be perfect for brandy.
They're not the best, but they should be perfect, they should be fine.
[Tickle] Getting to the point, she can't sell 'em?
Can't sell 'em and she needs the storage.
[Tickle] Some of them, they look a little brown and a little bit mushy.
[coughing]
but that is getting to the perfect state for brandy,
'cause let's face it, stuff's gotta break down and gotta ferment.
Lot of money here.
Everybody knows how much I love brandy.
My apple brandy, my peach brandy.
I know that brandy will bring a big price.
-Ain't gonna get mashed in like this. -That's it.
[Henry] It don't get no better price than this, does it?
[Tickle] This gonna make some damn fine brandy.
You know when the bees get to swarming around it this quick.
-[Tickle] This quick. -That might be a good sign.
I've got an idea.
[Henry] Check it out.
-[Tickle] That looks like a garden tiller. -[Henry] It is.
I don't know if it's gonna work. We're just gonna have to try it and see.
[Henry] All right, let's get him off. Let's roll with it.
[Henry] That rototiller's about three foot long.
So we figure if we can take a 55 gallon barrel,
cut it half in two,
and then ease that rototiller right on top of those barrels,
and then drop the apples in,
we should break 'em up real good for us.
-[machine whirring] -[Henry] Yeah, go!
[Henry] To be honest, this is actually doing not bad.
What y'all think of that?
And I can't believe it. I mean, it's actually chopping 'em up
to the degree that we need 'em.
I mean, it's got 'em down to small pieces.
Tickle's a damn genius, buddy.
That's gonna make our day a whole lot faster,
and it's gonna make our mash a whole lot better.
It was a good idea.
[Tickle] They're slick. Ain't no way to hold on to it.
[Josh] I think we got it. Between two of us, we got it.
We got smaller containers, we got smaller buckets.
[both] Ooh, ooh.
[Josh straining] Sit it on the bucket, sit on the bucket.
-[Josh] All right, got it. -[Tickle grunting] All right.
[Tickle] All right.
[Henry] Switch the motor on.
[Tickle] And now it is time to add some water,
and sugar, and some yeast.
Here it goes.
[Tickle struggling] [bleep] Almighty!
That big pump we've got down on the river that's slinging water,
you can mash in seven totes of apples or whatever you're working on
in just a few hours,
and that's what it is all about. The quicker you can get it mashed in,
get that sugar and yeast in it, the faster it's gonna work out.
And it's gonna bring that money to us a lot quicker.
-[Tickle] Nothing to it. -[Henry] Make some money, baby.
-[Howard] Little sweat bee. -Yeah, yeah. Come on.
They're gonna get you, man.
Oh, they're annoying as hell.
[narrator] In Culpeper County, Virginia,
after a defect in their log still brought their run
of a historic whiskey tour premature end...
-[Tim] There's a leak. -[Howard] Damn, we're leaking like a sieve.
[Howard] Good God Almighty!
[narrator] Tim and Howard are searching out a fix
before their remaining mash goes bad.
We're trying to bring this J.W. Dant recipe back to life.
So we gotta think like Dant.
We gotta go back in time,
what resources he would have used and how to plug the still.
We're gonna go meet my buddy, Mike.
He has bees, so if he's got bees, he's probably got some honey.
I'm just thinking about that wax as a sealer.
So just to kinda fill those voids in there,
I think.
[Tim] My friend Mike, hopefully he's got something that we can use.
Not too expensive, it's a natural resource.
And we'll get some more input on this thing.
-[Mike] Hey. -[Tim] Hey.
-[Tim] How's it going? -[Mike] Oh, it's going good.
What're you in the market for?
Well, Howard and I, we got a little project going on,
and we actually need some honeycomb, like the wax.
I'm tryna make a glue,
and we're trying to seal two trees actually together.
Oh, bees make some incredible glue.
-Product called propolis. -Okay.
That's what they use as glue inside of a beehive.
So we might be needing to get into a beehive?
[Howard] Yeah, I see you got the boxes.
We just pop a box...
-No. -[Tim] ...half a bucket or something.
That's their food store, and I like to give 'em
extra food stores to get through the winter.
So how can we get this wax?
Or just honey at this point?
Well, as far as honey is concerned, and wax,
we had a storm roll through here a couple days ago,
took down, like, three trees.
In one of these trees, there was a colony of honeybees.
I had to remove the bees and put the hive out there.
I left the base of the tree. The base is where the hive was,
and it would be perfect for what you're trying to do.
So you think that's got good wax and the comb and all that?
Yeah, I'll show you the tree.
It's up behind my beehives.
They had wild bees in these trees.
You just go on and get the bees out? And say, like, "Come on, bees."
[chuckles] Kinda like that.
I got stung quite a bit, I lost count.
This may be what we need.
[Howard] I'mma be the one doing the loggin' here.
[Mike] Yeah, his sleeves are longer than yours.
Yeah, yeah.
I have convinced Howard to go in this tree and get this honeycomb.
If it stings you, it leaves a marker on you
to tell the other bees, "That's your target."
-[Howard] Oh, God. -[Mike] You can't outrun 'em.
-They'll catch you every time. -They haven't see me run yet, Mike.
[Mike] You just stand there and take your lumps.
This little smoker's gonna calm 'em down.
[Howard] It's kinda, like, they're getting high.
No, it tricks 'em.
They think that they're having a forest fire.
So the bee's natural reaction is to fill its belly full of food
because it thinks it might be moving out.
So, it's--
[Howard] So it's packing up lunch.
It's like packing up, yup. "We might have to go, folks, there's a fire."
This hole right here, this was their entrance and their exit.
This is our lucky day, I feel like.
[Mike] That'll keep 'em off part of your head.
[Howard] I just want you to know that you're the man,
and you are the beekeeper of beekeepers.
I feel like a Transformer.
[Tim] I'm helping you, Howard. I don't know what I'm doing.
[Howard] I'm not being stung right now,
so whatever you're doing is working, buddy, 'cause I'm going in deep.
[Mike] You need a little puff?
[Howard] Yeah, a little puff-puff would help.
Puff-puff pass, y'know what I mean?
[exhales heavily]
[Tim] I tell you what, go in and hole, yeah, down in there.
So what's this bee over here doing? He can't find out where he's going?
I hope he bee-haves, is what he needs to do.
[Tim] He's tryna go in that hole.
[Howard] I know. And I'm in the hole.
All right, here's a little bit more. I'm getting low here, Tim.
I just wanna get away from this daggone log, man.
[coughing] God dang. You did smoke me. Jesus!
Howard did a great job
of robbing this tree trunk and getting out the honeycomb.
[Mike] Heat it up a little, it'll get tackier.
-[Tim] That's what we need. -[Howard] I didn't get stung.
Now all we gotta do now is get back to the farm
and put our still back together.
[Howard] I got honey all over me, I'm a walking bee magnet.
[Daniel] What's going on, Chucky?
I got something I want you to try.
We did a peach-cardamom rum, that was really good.
See you soon.
[Richard] We're gonna get this to market. People are gonna love this around here.
It's gonna have our competition crying.
I didn't come here to play, I came here to win.
I know this bootlegger. I've known him for a long time.
He's got some of everybody around here's liquor.
I think that will be our best option,
go to the big-time bootlegger.
Yeah, let him taste some of this cardamom.
I'm pretty sure people around here are not too used to cardamom.
So, I mean, it's gonna be kinda hard to find a buyer for this
and maybe dealing with a bootlegger with something like this would help.
He knows a whole lot more people than I know, for sure.
He's a big time bootlegger. He passes a lot of volume.
Good, let's do that.
[Daniel] Let's go see what's going on.
He's going to put that liquor on the market.
Once that liquor gets on the market, they're going to go to want it,
saying, "Hey, I want more of that." But the next time,
we'll sell it at a premium.
I believe we can put a big, big dent on the competition.
-[Richard] We here to take over this market. -Yeah.
[Richard] That's him?
[Daniel] Yeah, well, it's either him or a cop, I wanted to tell you.
[Richard] Either way, we're gonna find out right now.
[car door slamming]
-[man] Hello, hello. -[Daniel] What's going on, bud?
-[man] I can't tell. -[Daniel] It's been a long time.
[Richard] Big old fella, ain't ya?
-[man] Hey, how you doing, buddy? -I'm Richard.
[man] Nice to meet you.
[Daniel] We brought you something we want you to try.
[man] You know me, I like that high-quality H2O.
-[Richard chuckles] -[Daniel] Now try that. That right there
is peach-cardamom
-spiced moonshine. -[Richard] Anybody would love that.
[man exhales heavily]
[man] Pretty good, pretty good. Might be able to boot this.
-[Daniel] You reckon? -[man] Yeah.
[man] What profits you talking about?
[Daniel] I don't know, $45 a jar.
[man] That's a little steep, ain't it?
I'm not gonna make any money on that.
-[Daniel chuckles] -[man] I thought we were friends.
[Richard] So all right, what you thinking?
[man] What do you think about $15 a jar?
[Richard] Oh, it was nice to meet you, bro.
[all laughing]
[man] Now come on, we had to start that...
We had to start that with some kind of number.
[Daniel] I mean, 15 a little too low, ain't it?
[Richard] I tell you what, Dan.
If he can help us out,
you think we could do him a deal?
This guy knows everything about what's going on around here.
So I get the idea, let's do some market research.
I mean, if he knows what's selling... [exhales]
...that's the encyclopedia we're looking for.
-[Daniel] $25, that's it. -[Richard] The man has spoken.
[man] We could do that.
[Richard] But we need some information.
We wanna know what you got out there selling.
We heard... I heard you get it from everybody.
[man] Yeah, you know, this stuff, it's really moving.
You have to find out what your competitors are doing. I mean,
this is business.
It's like watching film on a football team,
you gotta know what they do.
Maybe he'll give us a little bit more information
than he should be giving us right now.
[man] This is this mimosa.
[Daniel and Richard] Mimosa?
[man] That... That mimosa
is moving faster,
stronger,
than anything that I sell.
[Richard] This is a good, clear jar of liquor, I mean,
you can't take away from the perfection.
Who made this? Who's that much of a scientist
that's putting that kind of liquor out on the...
on the streets out here.
[Richard] Where'd you get that from?
[man] Guy by the name of Jerry out of Maggie valley.
[Daniel coughs]
Sure enough, it's Mike and Jerry. They did this.
[man] A pretty sharp cat.
[Richard] Lo and behold!
[exhales] Damn, I should have known it was Mike and Jerry.
I mean, those guys are smart
and I know what they're capable of doing.
[man] Them two is pretty hard to beat.
[Richard] You got some wheels turning in my head.
I'm confident I can take this mimosa-moonshine
and make it way, way better than it is right now.
I can make it look better, taste better, everything.
[Richard] I mean this is a good liquor, good guys.
We gonna give you something a little bit better.
[Daniel] Well, Chucky said this is his number one seller.
Y'know, Daniel, I never thought about taking a damn mimosa
and fermenting it and making liquor out of it.
That's different. It's not bad.
You gotta hand it to Mike and Jerry. They made a really good product here.
But I can improve on it.
We can beat 'em. I can one-up 'em.
And I got a secret ingredient that they ain't never tasted around here.
-[Daniel] What's that? -It's a leaf. A loquat leaf.
A loquat leaf?
Yes, sir. Not the... Not the fruit. The leaf.
Honestly, this mimosa-moonshine that Mike and Jerry have made
needs something to balance it out.
And that's what they're missing here.
I mean, that liquor was good, man, but it just had a... Ugh!
Let's put some of that good watermelon in it, that you do.
[Daniel] Well, we can do that.
[Richard] Mimosas and loquat leaves,
those two things together with a nice buffer in between like watermelon...
[whistles]
That ain't never heard of in these parts.
No, I'd like to be there to...
to watch Mike cry. You know, he...
He pitches them little temper tantrums. "What we gonna do?"
-[Richard laughs] -[Daniel] To hear him say, "What we gonna do?"
I hate to have to do it,
but we gonna whoop Mike and Jerry's ass at their own game.
But...
I've got something else I need to bring on you, beau.
What's that?
Well, my wife and the kids and I have planned a vacation.
And...
Starting tomorrow,
I'm gonna be leaving on vacation.
[Richard] I came here to get it going.
I didn't come here to sit down and wait for Daniel to come back two weeks
from fishing or however long he's gonna be.
Let's get Craig down here.
So I call my little brother down in Louisiana.
-[phone rings] -[Craig] Hello.
-Craig. -[Craig] Yeah.
-What're you doing? -[Craig] I'm thinking about my next run of shine.
I need you to come to Tennessee and come meet me.
[Craig] Oh, really? What you got going on up there?
I need you to go get all the loquat you can find.
I just need the leaves. We got a golden opportunity out here.
[Craig] Glad you called me at a good time, man.
I'm putting my shoes on.
Gonna go climb some loquat trees, man.
[Tim] I'm gonna get this burner set up.
We're gonna get to cooking.
Tim, I got the bucket, old buddy.
Oh, wow, so I just get to get all of this,
-you get the bucket. -[Howard] No, just hold on. I'mma help you, man.
Hey, we done did a lot of work.
You know, Howard and I, we've been building a log still
that was built 200 years ago.
[Tim] Oof, it's hot.
[Tim] First time we tried to run it, it didn't work 'cause our seal...
it didn't seal.
So we come up with a plan.
Get some pine needles in first.
Maybe not that, but just the pine needles.
The goal is to make something sticky to go on that.
Honeycomb, wax, pine needles, water.
I think we got all the parts that we need.
All we gotta do is cook this up in a batch.
[Howard] That's all the pine needles.
Heat up the pine needles so it breaks down and makes it more pliable.
[Howard] This right here is bees' glue.
We're gonna put the honey and the wax all together and make a solution.
-[Howard] Ooh. -[Tim] Just put it all in there.
[Tim] The honeycomb is real thick, and wax,
but the pine needles is actually giving it a structure.
Something that the honey and the honeycomb can harden around.
When it cools down, it'll mash together and become one solid mass.
We'll reduce it down into a little something, something.
[Tim] The honeycomb has dissolved right back to the liquid form.
The wax is now inside of that.
So we need to take some out and cool it down to see
what happens when it goes back to the cold state.
I want some of that juice.
Let's see, does it cling together like a concoction.
Oh, you got a concoction going on over here, Tim.
Well, you know, this is getting us right in the period time like the 1800's.
It is a natural resource. If this works,
this is gonna be a perfect, rural, 1800 log still.
And it cooled down here.
Holy! Okay, that's harder than a rock.
-[Tim] Ah! -[Howard chuckles] See? It's definitely sticky.
See what I'm talking about, Howard?
Look at that, it's holding that together like that.
It's looking like glue.
It looks like we've got something we can work with.
[Tim] So I'm gonna put it on just like that, see?
[Howard] These boys went through a lot of work to make some good liquor.
Ladle it on there?
Look at that. Bam!
-[Howard] Tim, that is crazy though, when it dries... -[Tim] Yeah?
...you can feel the wax on your hands.
I mean, like, the water's beading up on my hands, versus...
[Tim] That's 'cause it's wax.
I understand what it is, Tim.
Now, don't run over nobody with that thing.
No, here we go!
That's what tractor buddies do!
Watch out, Tim!
Ah, whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down with it.
Al right, let it go down.
That's what we do, baby!
I think we did good, Howard.
-It's sticking already. -Really?
[Tim] It was really, like, slick.
But, I mean, with slick when I first unhooked the chain. Look at it.
It's sticking already.
[Howard] That is awesome.
[Tim] It is really holding it.
We have just created glue from a natural resource.
-[Howard laughing] -[Tim] You see?
-It's sticky. You can't hardly move it. -[laughing] I can't.
[Tim] Plus, we put those boards inside.
These boards are not just for support,
but to actually keep the honey and the pine needles
from mixing into the mash because we don't wanna mess up this damned recipe.
I could've put some more on this end.
-[Howard] Man, we can double pack this. -[Tim] Yeah.
We're gonna put a second coat on it,
and we'll be ready to run J.W. Dant's recipe 1800 style.
We can finally be running some stump liquor.
-[Tim] We could. -[thunder rumbling]
[Tim] I hear that thunderstorm coming too.
[Josh] Mondays are laundry days.
It's a lot of work but,
this beats the hell out of being in jail any day of the week.
[engine revving]
[Henry] Here we go.
Oh, yeah, that's Henry.
-[car door slams] -[Henry] Josh!
We pull up to the still site.
Here comes Josh up the bank.
He's all grinning now, smiling,
he's got a little color in his face.
Laundry day, huh?
I hate to tell him, we got some bad news to hand him right now.
Marshal's been called back. Fire Marshal.
Bull [bleep].
[Henry] Wants to see Mr. Owens.
[voicemail playing] Hey, Mr. Law, this is Fire Marshal Lee.
Just letting you know that we still have not made
any contact with Josh Owens, the gentleman that was on the lease
at the property that had the fire.
We'd love to make contact with him as soon as possible.
We have some new things that we have learned from the investigation.
Please reach back out to my office as soon as possible, thanks.
[Henry] It don't sound good.
[Josh] The fact that this guy's calling again,
saying that they have some new information
in their investigation,
that they're really needing to speak with me,
and I already know the still site's been compromised.
So it don't take a damn rocket scientist to figure out
they're looking for me because there's a still site down there
they wanna connect the two.
They wanna freaking nail me for the still site.
How long is it gonna be
before they look at your phone records and see that we've talked? Or...
Or bug your truck or whatever,
follow you to wherever you're at and track me down?
[Henry] I'm getting the hell out of here.
That's all I can tell you. I don't know where, what, when or how.
But I'mma figure something out.
-Going back to Carolina? -[Henry] Hmm, somewhere.
[Kenny] You just do whatever you think is best for you
in the turn, in the end, you know.
[Josh] I'm just gonna go out of town for a little bit.
When things cool down and you get better,
you're welcome to come back here and work with us.
-We had took a lot of people on work release and stuff. -[Kenny] That's right.
This is work release?
[Richard] Ho, about time, there he is.
Man, I've been looking for you all day.
[Craig] Man, I've been looking for you half the day.
Man.
Man, we don't have no cellphone reception.
I know.
I'm really excited that Craig's getting the chance
to run liquor out there in the mountains with me.
I mean, it's like a dream come true
for me to be out here and use this water and be running out here.
But to give that experience to my little brother is... That's awesome to me.
-You got my loquat? -Got 'em.
We do loquat leaves all the time in Louisiana.
But it has to be a twist of something
for me to go all the way up to Tennessee.
This is fresh. People down here don't know about loquat.
I'm just anxious to see what comes out of this.
Hell, you got some Tennessee shine for me, huh?
Yeah, that's the real deal. Taste that.
It's their number one seller at the bootlegger.
And you selling mimosa liquor.
It's a little perfume-y.
Little medicinal taste to it.
They stepping on my toes.
I'm the medicine man when it comes to alcohol.
Mike and Jerry made it.
Really?
I gotta hand it to Mike and Jerry. This is a damn good idea.
But I can blow that out of the water.
This right here,
with this and that mimosa,
this is our Appalachian Louisiana moonshine.
We gonna make this mimosa-watermelon-loquat moonshine,
and we gonna beat Mike and Jerry at their own game.
-I hate to make waves, but... -Sssh!
Waves are easy to make when you step in water.
[Craig] Where do we get the mimosa?
[Richard] We gonna find the mimosa tree somewhere around here.
-They got a ton of 'em. -[engine starts]
[Richard] Mimosa, you see? Look how high they are.
Craig, it's everywhere,
but I don't wanna walk on somebody's property out here
and start picking mimosa. That might not be good.
It's all over the place. Look at this right here.
That's on somebody's property.
Oh, look, a whole grove of it up here. Look at that.
When I see water, I'm ready to go fishing,
but this ain't no fishing day today.
[Craig] It's another type of day.
[Richard] It's beautiful, man.
Down there, right here.
Get 'em all.
This stuff is free.
[Richard] The cost of everything around here,
we don't have to spend a whole lot of money, then we can...
We can extend that to our customers.
You see the seed pod?
It's got a lot of toxins in it.
So definitely we don't want nothing of that.
It's serious. It will make you seriously sick.
We just gotta make sure that we get just these little pink flowers.
[Richard] I smell what I was tasting.
[Craig] I'm not tall enough.
I think I might have to get in that creek.
[Craig] First time in the creek, man.
[Richard] It gets deep right there.
You gotta walk around in that stuff.
[Craig] Oh.
Whoo!
God damnit!
-[Richard laughing] -[Craig] Can't stop now.
I'm invested!
[Richard continues laughing]
[Craig] It's funny to you, right, this [bleep]? It's funny, right?
Hey, I never did this before.
We don't even have creeks where I come from.
[Craig] You made me drive 12 hours almost
all the way to Tennessee just to come fall in a creek.
[Richard laughing] It's gonna be worth it though.
And once we put that loquat in this,
man, this is gonna sell off the chart.
It's gonna be something we gonna be making all the time.
[Josh] I really truly thought by coming out here in the woods
and hiding out that I'd be able to lay low and...
It would just die down and go away.
Fire Marshal and Law'll quit looking for me.
But it ain't. It's just a matter of time before I get caught.
I don't wanna go to jail.
Sucks being out here all by myself.
Picking the ticks off my balls.
[thunder rumbling]
The rain.
I'm smart enough to know that it's time that I need to haul ass.
So I text my buddy Chris up.
This guy's like an entrepreneur, man.
He runs all kind of businesses.
We made a bunch of money together helping folks out,
helping clean up around there from Hurricane Katrina and Rita.
Handled thousands and thousands of dollars each other's money
without even having a contract so I know I can trust him.
"Hey, man. I'm in...
a bind.
Please help me get out of here."
[message alert sound]
He says give him 24 hours and he'll figure something out.
If he says give him 24 hours, he means it.
24 hours, he'll have something figured out.
I'll be getting the hell outta here.
It's kinda like my last day in prison.
[Richard] Man, this is lovely out here. Got all the mimosa we need right now.
I'd rather have too much, and not need it than need it and not have it.
This alcohol that we're making was inspired by Mike and Jerry's mimosa moonshine.
I'm just gonna make it way better.
Man, look at this.
[Richard] Yeah.
We on the mountainside,
we got two big stills.
This is Craig's first time coming in to the still site right here,
so, I mean, I'm proud to show him how these guys do it down here.
I could become a mountain man,
skip the gym membership,
and invest that money into making some moonshine.
For me, it's like paying homage
and taking a pilgrimage to the holy land of moonshine.
[Richard] We got some herbal remedies from Louisiana,
and some herbal remedies from Tennessee.
With some water from Tennessee, I mean...
This is a hell of a marriage. I can't wait for the reception.
-[gas hissing] -We'll get as much going as we possibly can.
[Craig] Damn fire there!
I got this screen material, Craig.
We gonna make some teabags.
I'm gonna start out making a base with the tea
with the mimosa and the loquat leaves.
That's what I do when I deal with herbs and alcohol.
I make a tea as my base
as opposed to just using the water.
I think a little bit of this stuff goes a really, really long way.
That's where Mike and Jerry fell short
that they used a lot of mimosa and the taste is overpowering.
So we're gonna do this the right way.
We're gonna cut back on the amount of mimosa that we use
and make sure that we get a...
enough but not too much of it.
And add a little bit of that watermelon,
and see if we could get a better tasting drink than they made.
I like using these tea bags because...
it won't scorch and also, we don't have to go back
and get all of this stuff out of the mash, man.
-[gas hissing] -[Richard] This pot's steaming good already.
Do the burrito method.
You smell that?
[Craig] Smell it. Now it's changing colors already.
I can see instantly that this is working.
Look, I'mma cut 'em up.
You got a big knife. Give me the
slices after you cut it.
[Richard] We need five watermelons in each one of these things.
How much of that juice you getting out of that?
Like Mary Poppins said,
"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."
There's a whole lot of sugar in here.
Let's taste this heat.
Yup, look at that.
It's hot.
Ah, that's a pretty color.
That's all I smell.
I can't smell any mimosa in here.
I don't know if I got watermelon just stuck in my head, but that reminds me
of watermelon.
Yeah, that's pretty damn good.
Now all we gonna do is build upon this.
It's a little perfume-y,
but not to worry,
because we still have to sweeten it up with our watermelon.
Each of these barrels are gonna have 50 pounds of sugar in them.
Then we'll take our hot tea and we'll use that to melt the sugar.
I got a bucketful of hot tea right here.
I'm taking this tea in. We need to get that sugar dissolved in.
Married in with that watermelon real well.
This is a real good merge, I can smell it already.
I think this might be your best idea yet, man, for real.
It took you to come away to Tennessee
to have your best idea yet?
Lord have mercy, pray for this boy.
This is gonna be one of the best liquors,
if not the best liquor that I've made before.
[Richard] That's it for the watermelon.
That's it for the tea.
[Craig] That's it for the day.
[Richard] Now all we gotta do is yeast this stuff in.
Anybody that drinks this shine that we're making right now,
if they drinking Mike and Jerry's shine,
they're not gonna drink that no more.
This is gonna blow Mike and Jerry completely out of the water.
[Craig] Good day in the Appalachian mountains, baby.
[Tim] All right.
Gonna make some log still moonshine.
First time we tried to put our still together, it didn't work too good.
This is some of my extra goo I got here.
Just in case I need to chink it in there.
So we came up with another idea.
We added some pine needle, some honeycomb and honey,
cooked this all together and glued the thing together.
We gonna put this thing to the test.
[Howard] I'mma rub my hand up under here.
[Tim] Push, Howard.
[Howard] You got it?
[Tim grunting] Yeah. Okay.
Why're you laying on the ground?
'Cause I'm pushing it.
[Tim laughing]
You're cracking me up.
Tim, I ain't never seen so much gum
on the side of a still in my life.
I mean, this stuff is tacky, boy.
You know all the hard work we put into this...
-Don't spill the juice, Howard. -I'm not.
Cutting this log out, mashing in, everything that went into this,
it's like the stars have aligned finally.
Tonight's the night of the run. And I'm excited for this.
Second time a charm, first time almost a harm.
-We gotta fill it in better. -[Tim] Yeah.
Howard, you gotta clean your cap off.
-Yeah, just keep getting, though. -Holy moly.
Whatever you do, don't bend that cap.
Oh, she... She good.
[Tim] You got it in the hole?
Look at that.
All right, you gonna hook us up here?
Since this is a log still and we can't put in a fire under it,
we're gonna heat this log still up just like J.W. Dant did.
We're gonna use steam.
He steamed the inside to make the alcohol hot.
[Tim] Sit it down right there.
We're gonna take the copper still
that normally you would use to run the alcohol in,
we're gonna put water in it.
So we're gonna use that as our boiler.
[gas hissing]
[Tim] Here you go, you got fire.
Ow!
The mash has to get to 175 to make alcohol. That's all we need.
The water has to get to 12
to boil to create a steam.
So, you know, the steam's gonna go in,
and the alcohol's gonna come out.
[Howard] Oh, we're getting close to 100 now, Tim.
She's warm.
-[Tim] It's coming through, the steam? -Yeah, I see the steam.
We do have a little moisture coming out of seal.
Well, I think with using the pine needles and honey, and the beeswax,
we've sealed this thing up.
Lot better than the first time.
I mean, this sealer is really holding it together.
It looks like the more pressure it gets,
the tighter it is getting. So right now,
we looking for alcohol.
[Howard] Well, I like was doing. You're adding the dry to the wet.
And it's causing more of a bond.
Tim? We got liquor happening.
I tell you what.
[Tim] At the point when I see it drip out,
I'm really not even thinking about what it tastes like.
[Howard] Change these heads out, for a little bit of heart's about to happen.
[Tim] This was a lot of work
to just get this thing to this point.
I'm just so satisfied
that we made it work.
What's it look like, Howard?
I want the head chef. Is that what he's drinking on?
Well...
You bet it is.
[Tim] I mean that is real special, right there.
I taste that log.
I've never tasted nothing like this.
It has a smooth, good, clean, crisp taste to it.
But really tastes different.
I think that the poplar wood
has taken some of that bite out of it.
Normally, people put alcohol in the wood to age it.
We're actually distilling it out of wood.
But it's high proof, this is really, extremely good.
I mean, this really sets this whiskey apart from anything else.
So I can see why J.W. Dant became so famous in Kentucky
and a rich man.
[narrator] By 1850, Dant's log distilled whiskey
had earned him enough money to trade in his log still for one made of copper
built to last centuries.
However, in upgrading, Dant lost some of the magic of his original whiskey.
You gotta appreciate how much work went into this to make this.
Dant, when he made it the first time, it wasn't easy either.
[Howard] All through your madness, I'm thinking,
"Oh, Tim's crazy little bit about this one." I mean...
We're gonna go back, we're gonna research this, I see where we go with this.
-But at the same time... -I know it's crazy.
...the finished product is amazing.
[Tim] Howard, this is exciting. Who gets the chance to build something like this?
The 80 gallon poplar log still.
We're working off a 200-year recipe,
Kentucky spontaneous yeast.
This whole operation is a first for me,
'cause I ain't never in my life made anything like this.
[Tim] The takeaway of this,
if you're producing alcohol in a process that makes good alcohol,
then you need to keep doing it.
I mean, we're actually tasting something
that's 200 years forgotten.
I mean, that is real special, right there.
We're bringing something back to life.
Just like J.W. Dant did,
we did everything possible we could do
to use natural, authentic resources.
All the way from the yeast to the building the log still,
to running the still, to producing it.
I'm just happy that we made it work.
And I think we did a good job, because right now,
we're producing Dant's whiskey.
[Howard] Ooh, Lord. That knocks your bootstraps off.
[thunder crashing]
[Richard] Our first mash up in the hills of Tennessee, the mountains.
Today's the day we run our mimosa-loquat-watermelon moonshine.
I didn't tell Daniel I was running this run but, I mean,
he's gotta assume I'm not gonna shut down the shop.
Oh, yeah, this cap drop big time.
It's got some alcohol in it.
And the sugar from the watermelon just amplified it.
When me and Richard taste the mash, it tastes like our watermelon shine,
but you can still taste tea, and a little hint of mimosa.
[Richard] We got seven barrels of mash, we got two stills.
Come on, Craig, do your thing.
We got Daniel's pot, and we got Mark and Digger's pot.
We got enough, we full.
Yeah, we still gotta do the other still.
We can pump out a lot of volume with these two pots.
[gas hissing]
[Richard] We got everything going.
Our mash is heating up, our pots are running.
-Hey, you smell that? -Yeah.
-Smell like tea, smell a little watermelon. -I've been smelling it.
-[Richard] Yeah. -[Craig] And...
[both] Mimosa.
-[Richard] Let's cap her. -[Craig] Let's do it.
Man, this is such a beautiful still Daniel has.
All right, peace.
He put a lot of work in this thing.
I mean, everything fits perfectly here.
His soldered joints are impeccable, I mean,
Daniel really, really went out of his way with this.
It's hot.
Enough smelling, it's almost coming.
Me and Richard are sitting here, waiting.
We're feeling pipes to see how far along it came.
So we coming out of the thumper now and into the worm.
This thing's heating up.
I can't wait for this to start dripping out of this spout.
-All right, we running. -All right.
[Craig] That should be running in a little while, too.
[Richard] We got a lot of buckets we gonna be filling up out here.
It's a little too hot to taste right now.
[Richard] First, we start running on Daniel's still.
We're gonna throw some heads off of this thing.
We get to the hearts of this right,
and we can really start to taste things here.
There, I'll get you a big full one.
What's the proof?
I don't even care what the proof is.
Give me my fruit salad.
That's it.
[Richard] This is good. I can taste the loquat,
I can taste the mimosa,
and then we get to that watermelon.
It tastes like a watermelon tea.
Mike and Jerry ain't got nothing on that right there.
Our jar tastes hell of a lot better than their jar.
This is one of the best liquors I've ever made in my life.
[Richard] We gotta start switching our buckets, man.
Our buckets' getting full.
I hate to be my competitor at this point.
[thunder rumbling]
You hear that, right?
Yeah, you beat 'em, boy, you beat 'em, yeah.
We're just over 30 gallons.
We riding high and it starts to rain.
[Richard] Ooh, we gotta get out of here.
[Craig] Me and Richard start scrambling.
[Richard] Shut this down right here.
Can't run a copper still in the rain.
[Richard] Cut this off and get up outta here.
Let me pop this cap too.
Yeah, you just hit it on that in right there.
You just gotta... There you go.
-[Craig] Let it sit right there. -[Richard] Yeah.
Let's put this right there, let that catch what's going on--
[loud explosion]
What the hell? What the [bleep]?
Oh, [bleep], what the [bleep] happened here?
Oh [bleep].
[Tickle] Put a little pepper on it there, Henry.
I've never been to the apple cage.
[laughing]
[Henry] This is funny [bleep].
-Got into it now. -Oh, that was a strike too.
[Kenny] He done dial in on it now.
[Henry] A little change up on you. Gonna smoke your ass now.
Ah, missed that one, This ain't a bat.
[Josh grunting] Hey, quit throwing them at me, damnit.
[Kenny laughing]
I've got him now.
Strike two.
-Two outs. -[laughing]
Bases loaded.
Bottom of the ninth.
Foul ball.
Hit that, little bitch.
-[all laughing] -Strike three!
That wasn't three.
[Kenny] Took him out with the bases loaded.
You wasn't no baseball pitcher.
What'd you say, again?
[Tickle laughing]
[Richard] We got rain, ooh. We gotta get out of here.
[loud explosion]
What the hell?
Oh [bleep], what the [bleep] happened here?
-[Richard] The fire rig. -[Craig] Oh!
[Richard] Man, Daniel's gonna kill me, man! This is Daniel's still!
Daniel's didn't even know I was running this run!
That's what happens when you shut down a moonshine still,
and you don't vent it properly.
The fire extinguished and then that cold rain hit the still.
That was enough to start the system in reverse.
When you can't let air out, you create that vacuum.
That is a rookie mistake.
[Craig] The hell we gonna do now?
We've just made a amazing run of liquor.
Now, all I'm thinking is,
we have to replace this still.
Man, Daniel's gonna kill you for real.
Daniel made this still himself. He loves this thing.
With the price of copper these days, this could be over $3,000 right here.
Oh, my goodness.
I don't know what I gotta do,
but I gotta fix it.
Daniel's gonna kill me!
[thunder rumbling]
[Josh] I'm outta here like a fat kid playing dodgeball.
For a little while, I was feeling pretty good.
I was thinking, "All right, I'm hiding out in the woods.
I ain't got a bunch of responsibilities,"
other than not getting fed properly,
and them not brining me no damn beer.
I've really been kinda in my groove.
But after Henry and Kenny and Tickle gave me all this bad news
that Fire Marshal's still looking for me.
I know it's time that I need to haul ass.
I got on the phone. I text my buddy Chris up.
I was, like, "Man, look,
I need some help. I need to get out of town."
Chris is in the import-export business,
and he said, "Give me 24 hours."
I don't know exactly what the hell I'm getting myself into,
but all I know is I'm getting the hell out of here,
I'm getting to go on an adventure.
[leaves crunching]
[Henry] Come on out here, man.
-What's up? -[Henry] Throwing a lot of stuff here.
[Tickle] Yeah, we brought you some still house.
What you doing with the backpack?
We brought some picnic stuff.
Crackers, and a little drink of liquor.
[Tickle] That's fine loaf bread right yonder.
I'm good. I ain't eating no more of that [bleep] bull [bleep], mm-hmm.
-[Tickle] What you gonna eat? Leaves? -[Josh] Nah.
I'm outta here.
Y'all ain't gonna believe what I'm doing.
Is it a girl?
I'm going to Brazil.
[Josh] Henry, Kenny, Tickle,
they're looking at me like I'm completely nuts.
But I'm telling you right now,
this is gonna be really huge for us.
Brahil?
[Josh] No, Brazil.
You speak Portuguese?
Trust me, it's a good idea.
Why don't he just go back down to South Carolina?
Run down to Pennsylvania county, hang out for a while.
Where'd this Brazilian thing come from?
My friend is in the import-export business.
I called him. I was, like, I'm in a bind, I need to get the hell outta town,
need to [bleep] figure out how I can make some money.
He said, "You know, I'm in the coffee business.
I want you to go to Brazil,
and make a Brazilian coffee moonshine."
He said I was the man for the job and I got to thinking about it.
I am the man for the job.
He wants you to do all this, what about the recipe we got going?
And now you gonna leave us in the middle of it.
You know what to do.
You're a master shiner.
We're still all in business, making money,
I'm going over there, I'm learning some information, I'm getting out of town.
I know it sounds crazy,
but I'm just telling you, this is gonna be amazing.
The fact that he wants to send me over to do this,
I think it's epic.
Now my buddy Chris will have it all lined up, man.
And I'll be freaking brining back a lot of knowledge
and I'm getting to go on an adventure.
And I ain't gotta eat freaking beans and sardines.
You figure out this coffee liquor for your buddy,
and then we'll run it illegal in the woods, too.
Yeah.
I just worry about you going that far to another country.
I'll be fine.
All right, look, if you ain't gonna eat these beans and wieners, I'm gonna eat 'em.
[laughing] Now who's [bleep]?
-You want it? -No.
But what if that's all they like,
what if that's gourmet over in Brazil?
-What? -Beanie, weenies, and sardines.
Oh, boy.
[Josh] I'm in trouble then.
[Henry] What's up, dog?
[Josh] I'm outta here, man, I can't wait.
Hey, Uber, how you doing, bud?
The airport?
[Josh] Yes, sir.
Right now, I'm headed to Brazil.
I'm super stoked about it.
But I'll tell you the truth, I'm scared to death
'cause I've never been to Brazil.
And I got a lot of weight on my shoulders.
And I can't really afford to screw this up.
I can't speak Porkege... Por... Portuguese.
I can't even say "Portuguese."
So I'm gonna be like a fish out of water.
But this is gonna be a huge business opportunity for me
if I could make 'em coffee-infused moonshine.
I'm excited to get there. I've got a long trip ahead of me.
Hopefully, everything will go well.