[blues music playing]
[flames whoosh]
Making moonshine is illegal.
You can get seriously hurt or you can go to the penitentiary.
Do not do this at home.
[narrator] Tonight on Moonshiners...
[Digger] My God, it still stinks, Amanda.
[narrator] After salvaging three pallets of unsold light beer,
Amanda enlists Digger's help to find one of Popcorn Sutton's long lost stills...
-To turn beer to liquor. - [exclaims]
Burns some hairs off there.
You know, the good thing about Amanda,
she's done this before.
[spitting]
You don't want none of that to touch your tongue ever.
Look at the trouble you started up by stealing our recipes,
stomping on our damn toes.
And you're telling me what I should be running? I don't think so.
[narrator] Former enemies must work together
to face a common threat
from the Maggie Valley moonshine mob.
[man speaking]
-[groaning] -$700?
Man, that's gonna be great.
Hell yeah. Let's get this thing out of here.
[narrator] Against doctor's orders,
a severely injured Josh Owens attempts to engineer his way back to the woods.
[Josh] I'm back in action. We got moonshine to make.
Now to get back at it, which is exactly what I need to do.
[Tickle] This is how we make the moonshine.
All right, let me get over here and straighten out
and I'll show you what I got in mind.
What do you mean what you got in mind?
Well, what I've been putting my brain matter into steaming over.
[narrator] In Cocke County, Tennessee,
feeling less to lose after being diagnosed
with a rare blood disease called CLL,
Digger devises plans to radically expand
his and Mark's outlaw operation.
I mean, this is a wakeup call for me.
I figured out at this point I'm not immortal.
But we got the potential here to building us an empire.
I want us to leave a mark that can't be erased.
I want to get from state line to state line with liquor.
Damn, you have been thinking about legacy, ain't ya?
I want to go big before I go home.
I know with what I got facing me I need some money,
I need more of it for cushion.
I don't know what I'll be a-facing
but I know I got a kid in college
that gotta be took care of first and foremost.
Demand for our liquor has grown so much
that I want to get to the point
that we don't have to worry about,
you know, not having enough liquor to service our customers.
You know, I don't know about you, Hattie,
but I'm just tired of telling people
when they call and want ten cases of liquor
-give us a couple weeks. -Yeah.
What I'm thinking, I mean, we pretty well got East Tennessee
pretty well under control.
So I'm thinking we gotta dig up some boys and make teams up.
We'll have a team here, a team there, teams all over the place,
find people that are rock solid.
Anybody that's in this craft knows it's always been regional.
You know, in a four or five county area, that's where your legacy lies.
Well, I want to have that in every community in Tennessee.
So let them make all the liquor
-and us just be in charge, us be the foremens kind of. -Exactly.
We're gonna oversee production,
we're gonna oversee quality control,
we're gonna oversee distribution and the banking.
So hopefully by the time it's said and done,
we'll have the biggest illegal moonshine operations that the South's ever seen.
I see what you're saying. I understand.
He's talking big time here.
And I'm onboard with that.
Whatever works best for him and his family, that's what's best for me.
What we gotta worry about though now when we do this
the bullseye's on our back a lot more.
Even though we're not physically making the liquor,
we're still the ones that they want to come and get.
[Digger] That just tells us we need to tell these people
if you get caught, you're on your own.
Well, if I'm gonna be in the empire business,
you're the one I want to be in it with.
If we can pull this off, the sky's the limit.
We can only hope.
-Let's go get with it. -[Mark] All right.
[Digger] Mark's onboard.
Now we're gonna kick up dust and we're gonna get as big as we can.
So right now it's time to go check on Kelly and Amanda.
We've got 700 gallons of funky,
unsold light beer that we need to turn into liquor
and we can't do it without a stainless steel pot.
-[Mark] You feel all right? -[Digger] Yeah, I feel like a champ.
[Richard] Look how much stuff they got over here, man.
Got fresh onions, don't they.
[Richard] That ain't helping us find no blueberries though.
-Mmm-mmm. -No.
[narrator] In Haywood County, North Carolina,
after their own turf war upset a powerful underworld shine boss...
Rival shiners Mike, Richard and Jerry form an uneasy alliance
to restore peace to Maggie Valley.
[Mike] You know, for a first run we decided
we were gonna do a blueberry lemonade.
And what's better than blueberries? Everybody loves blueberries
so that's what we decided to do.
-Boom. We got some blueberries. -Lookie here.
Good God, look at that jackrabbit eye right there.
-Wow, that's big one. -That's a big one, ain't it?
How do they taste though?
Oh wow.
That's got flavor for days.
Oh yeah, and they're a little tart too.
-Mm-hmm. -[Richard] Perfect right there.
You know we could do corn liquor like everybody else
or do something that everybody else has had.
Why not start off with a recipe
that nobody else has had yet?
If you succeed in that run, you will set up
because they know, hey these guys makes the different stuff.
Let's call them. Let's get alcohol from these guys.
Excuse me, sir, how much are your blueberries here, buddy?
They're $25 a gallon.
$25 a gallon?
-Yes, sir. -Holy cow.
-I remember they used to be $8 a gallon. -Yeah, me and you both.
I mean, if we bought a good... A good handful,
could you come down a bit on it?
That's wholesale price on 'em.
I mean, I buy 50 at a time. That's what I get is $25.
[Mike] I don't know, man. That's awful steep.
We may get back with you here in a few minutes.
-All right. Appreciate you fellers. -All right, thank you.
-Thank you for coming. -Thank you. All right.
That's $900.
[Richard] Man, that's a lot of money for a mash.
I understand it, but if we gotta make
a good high end damn alcohol, I think we should do it.
Why don't we just run some damn corn
and put some liquor out there and get some money?
I gotta pay Digger. Digger's jumping my ass.
You know, technically you should be paying for it all.
Look at the trouble you started up by stealing our recipes,
stomping on our damn toes.
And you telling me what I should be running? I don't think so.
Just throwing in some old corn liquor, this, that and the other.
-That's cheap, man. -[Richard] Well look--
A dummy can think of that to do.
This is our operation. You're not my partner right now.
Me and him makes the calls here.
And the only damn reason we working with you
is because we absolutely have to.
-I mean, the feeling's mutual. -Well, that's good. Let's keep it that way.
[Richard] This blueberry idea is a crazy idea.
I mean, why are we running the most expensive liquor possible right off the bat?
Tell you what. Why don't you go and see if you can get him down a little bit?
Yeah 'cause that's... That's high.
I'll go over there and give him a talking to and just see.
All right, talk him down.
-Hey, mister. -Yes, sir.
Can I have a word with you in private for a minute?
-Yeah. -All right.
Listen, I'm gonna be rightfully honest with you here.
We turning these blueberries into alcohol.
-I'm gonna just lay it out on the table for you. -Okay.
If I make the alcohol
and I bring back a couple jars,
could you meet me in the middle
and I'll take every blueberry you got over there?
You bring me some of it and I'll go $750.
-You'll go $750? -I'll go $750 for you.
-Well, you got yourself a deal. -I appreciate it.
-Hey, I appreciate you. Let me go tell the guys. -All right.
You know, we're gonna put a lot of money on the line for this run,
for the number one run, so to speak.
-[Jerry] Boy, they look good though. -[Mike] They're pretty.
-[Jerry grunts] -[Mike] Pretty, pretty, pretty.
And you know, prices are through the roof for ingredients this year.
And we cannot afford to mess this one up, that's for sure.
Now the big task ahead for all three of us is how to mash in the blueberries
with the lemons without ruining the blueberries.
[Jerry] $750. We can't afford to lose none.
[upbeat country music playing]
-[Butterbean] Beautiful day. -[Josh] Yeah, it is, man.
I'm just glad I'm getting the hell back to work finally.
I'm glad to be part of it.
[narrator] In Polk County, North Carolina,
after breaking both legs in a motorcycle racing accident,
moonshiner Josh Owens is determined to get back to the woods
to make moonshine with the help of his friend
and former boxer, Butterbean.
So you got a spot picked out?
[Josh] Oh, I got a good spot up here.
It's just gonna be getting to it.
I got a perfect still site in mind.
There's an old trail through the woods off the road bed.
It's an old logging road.
We can get to it. It's a great hiding spot.
As long as nobody knows what we're doing, we're good.
[Butterbean] Well, let's go and look at it
and see what we can do to get you back there.
-Just kind of pull up in there like that. -I gotcha.
-I know what to do. -[Josh] All right, Bean, we're here.
[Butterbean] All right.
[Josh] I see the road's a little worse than...
Than I was thinking it was gonna be.
Let's see what we got here.
Turn this baby up to high speed.
[chuckles] Go, bitch!
I think I-- Wait, there's a rock. Hold on.
You need help? Hold on. Let me help you.
[Josh] If I could ever get going.
There we go. Sorry sack of dookie.
Woah, how you gonna get up that rock?
You gonna flip over backwards on that damn thing.
-[cackles] -[Butterbean] Woah, not that way.
It's kinda going in this way or to that way.
It's not really staying straight
when I want it to stay straight.
[gears grinding]
It's just not working out like I wanted it to.
It's washed out. I thought it was just gonna drive right to it.
[sighs] Josh, listen. This is just not gonna work.
That's not in my vocabulary.
You know, Josh has got legs that he needs to put back together.
If he's gonna be walking any time in the near future, he can't hurt 'em.
Let's just get you healed up better,
and then we'll be able to walk out here with crutches on.
I just remember it a lot easier to get to.
Yeah, 'cause you had two feet.
-Please, just listen to me, Josh. -All right.
No is not in the equation.
I know I can and I am.
Just can't right now, but I'm gonna.
You ain't got a seatbelt on. You're dangerous.
-Am I supposed to wear a seatbelt? -[sighs]
[Josh] I'm in a wheelchair.
[Butterbean] You think they put that seatbelt on there for no reason?
It's crazy ass of you trying to drive up and down the hill
through the creek bed.
[Josh] I ain't seen the seatbelt.
[Butterbean] I'm messing with you. You're fine.
-[Josh chuckles] -[Butterbean laughs]
When was the last time you saw this still?
It's been several birthdays.
It was a big old stainless steel pot
that belonged to Popcorn Sutton.
I think I may see a pinch of it there.
I'd be willing to give $500 for it.
It's not for sale.
[Kelly] Now where is it we're heading to down here?
We're going up here just before you get across the county line.
It's Leroy Shoal's old place.
[narrator] In Cocke County, Tennessee,
hoping to distill alcohol from 700 gallons of light beer...
Damn, this is slow going, ain't it, guys.
-Yeah. -God, my gracious.
[narrator] Amanda, Kelly and Digger need to locate a stainless steel pot
built two decades ago by moonshine legend Popcorn Sutton.
When was the last time you, uh, saw this still?
He's been dead several years now
and it's been several birthdays since I've been over there.
You know, back in the day of 30, 35 years ago,
Popcorn ran across a stainless steel tank.
It came out of a soft drink bottling company
and he thought that'd make a fine pot. Yeah, it did.
And the reason we gotta have that stainless steel pot
is the oil that comes out of the hops
when they're steeped in the beer,
it'll cake up on the side of copper horribly.
And it takes an act of Congress to get it off of it,
pretty much ruins the steel.
So we gotta have a stainless steel pot.
Yeah, I hope that his nephew's still got it.
-[Kelly] Is that him right there? -[Digger] I believe it is.
I'll keep his attention. Y'all load it up in the truck.
[laughs]
All I can hope for is that he hasn't run this old still off to the bank somewhere
or run it over with a tractor.
-What do you know, bud? You remember me? -Maybe a little bit.
Me and your uncle Harold used to run around a lot together.
-I'm Digger. -Okay, yeah, yeah.
I ain't seen you since you was a teenager.
-What are you into? -Well, I was gonna go up here
and talk to you about something
that I sold your uncle Leroy years ago.
It is a big old stainless steel pot.
You know what I'm talking about?
Well, I'm not really for sure if it's still here or not.
I mean, I'm thinking it might be.
If you want to, we'll go look.
-I know pretty close to where it should be. -Let's go look at it.
We're getting off to a good start here.
I guess I got a face you can't get a maybe.
I haven't seen the kid since he was probably early 20s.
His nickname's Lugnut
and that's because he likes working on old vehicles.
Yeah, there's a little small mash barrel right there.
Before he bought that big pot, he used to run a little pot.
Yep.
You know, the last time I saw it, it was a-pumping that liquor out
and old Leroy, he was a-sittin' on a milk crate beside of it
watching it catch them gallon jugs.
There's some corn in there.
[Kelly] And there's been some corn liquor running there.
[Digger] Boy, I tell you, he made a lot of money.
It really helped the family out feeding them back in the day.
There ain't no telling what kind of treasures is in these buildings.
[Lugnut] I'd just about bet there's a snake in there somewhere.
Maybe there's some money in them barrels.
[Lugnut] Well, you feel free to go in there and look around.
I ain't gonna fight no snake for the chance of a quarter.
[Lugnut] I remember it being here at one time.
That might be where it's at.
Another mash barrel and a few buckets.
[Amanda] I'm really hoping this isn't a lost cause.
I mean, fingers crossed that this pot is still around,
but it's been like, 20 years.
Don't think it's in that one.
-That's the smallest room I've ever seen in an old shed. -Yeah.
[door creaks]
[Digger whistles] That one's nailed shut.
That one ain't going to open for sure, is it.
Well, I think I may see a pinch of it there.
Yep, that's it.
-[metal clanging] -Just the way it was 25 years ago.
It ain't changed much over the years.
Oh shoot. Okay, that is enormous.
[Digger] Ain't she pretty.
You know, I hadn't seen this still in better than 25 years.
Of course that's the beauty with stainless steel.
It don't rust, it don't fall apart.
It might get dirty, but you can clean it up.
Now all we gotta do is come to an agreement
on how much he wants for this rascal.
Now back in the day, Leroy gave me $500 for it
and I'd be willing to give that back again.
Well, it's a good high or low.
I mean, it's been here for the Shoal family
-for over 25 years. -Yep.
It's not for sale.
But I'll be happy to lend it to you as long as you want.
You get a little liquor here and there
when you're done with it, holler back.
-Shake your hand before you change your mind. -That'll work.
You'll have plenty of liquor, son. I assure you.
Uncle Leroy'd be proud if he knew this thing was fired back up.
I promise you, we ain't gonna disappoint him.
You know, we all made a lot of liquor on this rascal back in the day.
And I'm pretty stoked about firing this old girl up again.
Now comes the fun part.
Amanda, carry that rascal out there to the truck, if you don't care.
-I'll go let the tail gate down. -10-4.
Just lay it in there gently. [laughs]
The next thing we gotta do is get a good location
nailed down for our still site.
[water splashing]
[Josh] Awesome. She's getting better.
Good job, Reese. That was a perfect dive.
This is awesome, Josh. You got it made here.
I'm staying here in North Carolina
where I'm from at a friend's house.
And they've really been looking out for me.
I'm a lucky man 'cause I got my daughter here,
got this paradise.
But I'm still about to go absolutely ape [bleep] crazy.
I feel like I'm in prison, man, even though I'm free.
But at the same time, how's a man not supposed to feel imprisoned
when he can't go do what it is that he needs to do?
I really thought we'd be able to go to that still site.
That road is washed out a lot more than it had
the last time I'd been in there.
-It just wasn't feasible. -[Butterbean] I wanted to help.
I'm just dying to do it, you know.
Well, what's your plan then?
Well... I think I'm gonna go back to Virginia
and get started back with Henry, Ken and Tickle.
We've been working really hard together.
So all I gotta do is get there and I'm sure I could find something to do,
some bottling or proofing or something.
As long as I can get to a still site
and freaking do some stuff with them guys
and start making some money again.
Now how you gonna get to Virginia?
Well, that's another thing I was gonna ask you about.
Will you do me a huge favor?
[Butterbean] I don't know if I got time to drive you to Virginia right now.
I don't want you to drive to Virginia.
I want you to take me up here to my cousin's garage
and see if we can't move the seat in the van
so I can slide over there and drive around when I need to.
[Butterbean] Josh has got this crazy idea
the second he got ahold of this van he's gonna be driving.
Me, I don't think it's a good idea.
He can barely move his legs.
I'll help you on one condition.
If you promise me you won't do it until I can ride with you
and make sure you're doing it where I feel you're safe.
-Deal. -All right, that's a deal, buddy.
That's a deal.
Get me out of this prison I'm in. I'm ready to go.
-I'll help you. -[Josh] You hear that, Reese?
I can move my toes.
Look, gas, break. Gas, break.
I tell you what. When I was here not long ago,
-you wasn't even doing close to that. -I know it.
[upbeat country music playing]
Hopefully this still site is as good as what my buddy says it should be.
The road is a little rough.
[Amanda] The road less travelled is the one we want to be on.
You know, we're wanting a still site that we can set up and use all year.
We don't want to have to move out of this thing.
We want to make it kind of permanent.
And I got a buddy that's got an old place where he kept his hunting dogs
and he says it's pretty secure, backs right up to the forest,
and there's even a roof and stuff there that we might be able to use.
I believe right here's a good spot.
Let's see where you brought me, Kelly.
[Kelly] There's all kinds of junk.
You know, the good thing about this being like it is,
if they're doing aerial surveillance
then there's been all this crap back here forever,
so they're used to it.
Anything we put won't look out of the ordinary at this point.
[Amanda] You're probably right.
In this industry, we run from the law.
And you don't always want to run from the law forever.
And my dream has slowly become being able to open up my own distillery one day.
Now, I mean, that's a ways away,
but a girl's gotta dream. Right?
So if I can come down here and take on a little bit of extra risk at the moment,
it's gonna help me save up some money,
and maybe one day in the future
I can get into the legal industry
and stop having to look over my shoulder all the time.
You know, I think we need to look
and see if we can figure out where he kept the dogs at
'cause he said that's where the roof is.
Actually, I think I see a roof over in there.
[Amanda] I like that.
I didn't think he had this good of a shed.
-[laughs] -[Amanda] I know.
[Kelly] You know, we could clean this place up
and even homestead here if we want.
[Amanda] We could coop a couple chickens.
[Kelly] We can get some chickens, maybe a pig or two.
[both laughing]
This spot looks beautiful. We can run rain or shine,
and it gives us cover from overhead.
I guess we need to make absolutely sure
we've got water and it's within reach.
So he says it's over to that side,
so let's head that way and see what we find.
[Amanda] We just gotta do a little bit of housekeeping
and straighten up a little bit.
As long as we can get water up to the still site, we're gonna be just fine.
[Kelly] You keep going downhill far enough,
you'll find water in the mountains.
[Amanda] I hear the creek.
[Kelly] Yeah, there's a good pool right here.
[water trickling]
It tastes like good water.
-That's what you want. -[Kelly] Yeah, we'll make it happen.
Now that we have water here, our still site's gonna be functional.
We'll be running liquor in no time.
[Kelly] I guess we just need to get Popcorn's pot.
-[Amanda] All right, let's do it. -[Kelly] Let's get at it.
[Mike] Guys, we got a lot of money sitting back here.
$750 worth of blueberries.
We've decided to mash up blueberries and lemons.
This is gonna be a really risky run here.
But, if we make it happen...
[Jerry grunts]
-[Richard] I told you-- -[Mike] It's heavy.
...there's no doubt in my mind
that blueberry lemonade would sell very well
if we get the flavor right.
-[Richard] Now, we got barrels of mash to do, man. -[Mike] I know it.
And it's gonna be difficult because we gotta mix
the lemon and a blueberry together,
and those two don't even live in the same town.
No, they're two totally different damn fruits, that's for sure.
[Richard] I mean, blueberry and lemon together?
That's a real complicated mash.
I could run a simple corn shine right now
and put a whole bunch of money in my pocket.
I mean, why are we taking this big, huge risk
of going and ruining these blueberries?
I mean, this is stupid.
[Mike] If you mash it all in at one time,
and it don't work out right, you're screwed.
[Richard] And the tricky part is gonna be to find out
how much blueberry, how much lemon we put in it.
-Talking about the ratio between the two? -Yeah.
What if we actually could run it separately?
[Richard] How you gon' do that?
If we mash them separately, where we just got a good lemonade
and we got a good blueberry.
-[Mike] Mm-hmm. -And then we build a pot with multiple sections in it.
So, we can put lemon in one section,
blueberries in another section.
Keep the mash separate in the pot as well.
[Mike] But, you know, they're still gonna marry together
-into the cap? -[Jerry] Yes.
But then, what if we built multiple burners,
and we can move 'em?
[Mike] So, we can control the steam flow.
If you can control the heat, you can control the steam.
That's where all your flavor's at.
You know, when it comes to alcohol,
there's several different things.
If you're looking for taste,
it all boils down to the molecular level.
It's about mixing these via the steam,
rather than running them individually
and mixing them after the fact,
we're gonna get a much better taste profile,
which is gonna command a much better price.
So, if we taste it on the flop
and all we taste is lemon,
we can just take and turn that lemon back
and we can taste it again,
get it to the exact thing we want to right there on the fly.
Hell, that'll work.
[Richard] I don't know about this.
It's overly complicated
and in order to build that still, we'll need two sheets of copper,
and, like, [scoffs] the price of copper is sky high right now.
[Jerry] Ready?
[Mike] Let's get this mash mashed in.
That'll be lemonade in just a little while,
-won't it, Jerry? -[Jerry]Mm-hmm.
This feels potent, it's concentrated, you know?
It's pure lemon juice that we're trying to mash in here.
[Jerry speaking]
You know, lemons are very acidic.
But, yeast thrive on a little bit of a neutral environment.
Now, one of the things that we can add
to bring the pH level up a little bit
is baking soda.
It'll actually neutralize the acid.
There it is, guys, 5.3.
Cool, cool beans.
[Jerry] So, we're ready to move on.
[Mike] Watch 'em fingers. It'll just suck it down in there,
and you won't never get it back, I promise.
We'll have some Richard middle finger liquor.
[Richard] We'll call it Josh Owens' liquor.
-[laughs] -Yeah.
Right through it.
Let's put some yeast and get the hell out of here.
You know, we're coming up with a totally different design
for this pot.
It's a very expensive mash
for the first run of the season.
If it don't work,
it's back to square zero for me.
So Jerry's idea better work
'cause we've got a lot of money on the line and a lot at stake.
[Richard] Let's get out of here.
[Mike] Let's do it.
[Kelly] How close are we?
[Amanda] That'll do then. We'll make it work.
[Kelly] Let it scoot to you.
-There we go. -Perfect.
In order to clean up this beer, I'm gonna do two runs.
I wanna do a stripping run and then a spirit run.
Stripping run is where you're extracting a lot
of the volume of the water and all of the impurities.
What comes out the other end may not be really high proof
or really clean quality.
The stripping run is also a tool for us to eliminate
some of that stale flavor.
And then, a spirit run is where we're actually going to turn it
into something really good.
-[Kelly] You know, I didn't bring a level. -[Amanda] Close one eye.
And you can usually see.
Kelly and I are very different.
We have completely different skillsets, I think.
But, for the most part, we complement each other well.
He's actually really easy to work with.
[Kelly] This thing will cook our beer off,
it'll get rid of all of the bad things that we don't want.
[Amanda] We're making Uncle Leroy proud.
[Kelly] I hope we're making Uncle Digger proud.
Barring any back luck,
this is gonna be our home for the summer,
so we're gonna have our stainless steel pot.
We're gonna go ahead and set us up another 200-gallon copper pot.
And hopefully, we got room, and maybe we might set up another pot or two.
I know typically you wouldn't wanna use a thump keg to do beer,
but I've got a little thump keg that fits the cap already.
So we can just raise it up and--
-Okay. -I mean, a thump keg
-will help with the proof a little bit, coming out. -Yeah, it will.
And the thumper can act kinda like a slop box for us,
because I know when we put the beer in there,
it's gonna foam a little bit.
-Oh, yeah. -So, my plan is to add a little bit of oil in the pot
to try to prevent the foaming.
I thought we're getting rid of oil.
-Well, we are. -[laughs]
-We're getting rid of the hops oils. -Okay.
But, like, any kind of liquid.
-We can use corn oil, um, grapeseed oil. -[Kelly] Motor oil?
-You use motor oil? -Mm-mmm, I wouldn't.
[Kelly laughs]
The plan is we're gonna have, like, tandem stills.
We're gonna have a stainless steel pot for our stripping run
and a good copper pot to do our final runs in.
So Kelly has a really nice 200-gallon copper pot that we can use.
It's beautiful.
She's the pretty pot.
Set that up out of the way for now.
We're gonna set it up so we can run either direction with this thing.
So it'll just be moving the thump keg from one place to the other,
and we can put it right through the same worm.
-Ready to move this out. -[Amanda] Oh, yeah.
-That will sit in there good. -[Kelly] Oh, yeah, perfectly.
[Amanda] I think it's pretty ingenious.
We got the central worm, portable tank...
[Kelly] Yep.
-...dualling pots. -[Kelly] Yep.
So, Josh, what are you gonna do to make this van where you can drive it?
I'm not really sure what to do,
but if I can fix the seat where I can get into the hole there,
I can move my feet, and I got this.
So if we can just move the seat back.
You said your cousin has a garage to do this now?
Yeah, my cousin has a garage,
he got the welder, got all the stuff.
All right.
But, if I don't feel comfortable, you promise me
you're not gonna do it.
I promise you I'll be able to drive.
I gotta test drive it with you, though.
[Josh] All right.
-[Butterbean] Right here? -[Josh] Yep.
[Butterbean] All right.
-[Josh] Cous. -[man] Hey, Josh.
-[Josh] What's up, man? -What's going on with you guys?
I need this seat moved back about six inches
so I can throw my legs over in this hole.
Right now, it's too close to the steering wheel and all this,
I can't really get in and out of there.
I can't bend my knees, but I can move the pedals.
Okay. So we need, like, some kind of bracket
-to relocate the seat. -[Josh] Yes.
-That's what I was thinking. -Let's take a look.
I know I can control the gas and the brake just fine.
And I got the wheel, that means I can drive.
I just gotta be able to get in and out of the driver's seat.
[man] Let's make a bracket.
[Josh] And then freaking attach this to it.
I think that would work, don't you?
[man] I think it would. Let's give it a shot.
[Butterbean] Well, many years, uh, of fighting and injuries,
due to my back problem and hips,
I was stuck in a wheelchair for three years.
Josh has only been there for four months.
But it will drive you mad not being able to get up and go
like you wanna go.
I have just the thing that will help you, I believe.
This is gonna give Josh a peace of mind,
and if he wants to go to the store and go get something,
he's gonna be able to do that.
Hell yeah, let's get this thing out of here.
[Josh] Yep. Already got it. Good job.
So all we gotta do is just basically make a rail
that goes here and here, here and here.
-[man] Relocate the bolt holes. -Yeah.
Think I have something that will work.
Let's try one of these.
Oh, look, that's pretty close.
22, that's perfect.
Let me drill some holes and make some bolts happen.
-I'll be back. -All right, bro.
[Josh] He cut 'em, bored some holes in it,
where he can put the bolt.
It's studs on one side welded to it,
on the other side, the chair actually goes down into the bolt.
That's beautiful.
There we go.
Has some nuts inside the square stock.
And then we bored holes in it,
so you can get the wrench on it.
[man] That will give you your six inches
that you were looking for right there.
And that tightens it down, it's super strong.
We're ready to go.
-[man] Lookie there! -[Josh] Perfect.
[man] Man, it can't get any better than that.
Man, it's gonna be great, too.
-Look, I can get my legs... -[man] Hold it right there, Josh.
...through that perfect.
I'm ready to get in there and try.
[man] All right, Josh, I think I've got your gear.
[Butterbean] Back on the road. Look out.
[Josh] Come on, come on, come on.
[man] You got it.
[Josh] Ah, yeah, I got this [bleep].
[man] Back in the saddle.
[groans]
You're there, man.
[Josh] I'm back in action.
Now, I can drive myself around,
now I can drive to Virginia
and go back to work with Henry, Kenny and Tickle.
Now, I can get back at it, which is exactly what I need to do.
-Is your foot okay? -Hell yeah.
That means I don't have to stay in prison at home anymore.
This is huge.
This is a ginormous step into me getting better.
-You seem like you got it under control. -[Josh] I mean--
I feel safe.
Oh, hell yeah.
Thanks for everything you've been doing for me, man.
-Man, I love you. -I love you back, dawg.
You've really helped me out.
I might have to come back and just ride with you.
-This is comfy back here. -Oh, you're welcome.
I hope I didn't slosh it too much out on the way up here.
[Amanda] You better not have.
It was a lot of work getting it in that barrel.
[Kelly sighs]
[Amanda] Today, we're gonna make a stripping run.
But we gotta haul this beer up to the the still site.
It's sloshing everywhere up this mountain.
[Kelly] My God, it still stinks, Amanda.
I thought that it'd get away from it, while it aired out over now.
Brings me back to my bartending days.
This smells like an old bar drain.
Well, what do you think? Let's get this stuff pumped over and...
-[Amanda] Yeah. -[Kelly] ...get us a fire lit under it.
[Amanda] I just wanna get this flavor out of this beer.
If you give me something that tastes okay,
I can make it taste great.
Can I make something that tastes terrible taste better?
I guess we'll find out.
She's pumping.
We got a few hundred gallons of beer right now,
and the plan is to strip it.
And hopefully, in the stripping run,
we can get rid of some of this terrible smell and flavor.
Well, let's stick this burner in there
and see if we can't light a fire under this thing
since we've got her filled up.
[Amanda] Get it lit.
Thanks to Digger, he managed to find us the perfect still.
It's stainless steel, it's huge,
and it's a Popcorn Sutton's still.
[Kelly] You ready? Light her up.
Let her get burning good.
And now, I get to step in front of it and light that flame.
[Kelly] Lay it in there.
-[flame hissing] -Whoo!
Oh, [bleep].
[laughs]
[Amanda] I burned some hairs off there.
-That was exciting. -[Kelly laughs]
Before we put that cap on, I did bring some oil with us.
Grapeseed oil.
I know the beer is still gonna foam up a little bit.
So the best thing we can do is add an anti-foaming agent,
that's any kind of an oil,
that is gonna sit on the surface of the pot.
Oil just literally breaks the surface tension.
Like, do you have a bowl of pasta,
-and it foams up sometimes-- -I don't like pasta.
If you put a wooden spoon on a bowl of pasta while it's boiling,
-it'll break the pot from boiling over. -[Kelly laughs]
You know, the good thing about Amanda,
she's doing stuff that I'd have never thought about.
I mean, I'm just gonna go along with it
'cause she's done this before.
[Amanda] It's getting pretty warm.
[Kelly] Actually, it is getting warm up there.
It's baked the bread.
It's a slow process, but fingers crossed
that we can make this work.
-Think we're getting closer. -I know.
We're gonna have liquor before very long.
[Amanda] It's running right now.
-[Kelly] Oh, shoot. -[Amanda] It's dripping.
[Kelly] It is, isn't it?
[Amanda] Good job, beautiful.
You know, going into this, we know that the better that we get it to taste
coming out of the stripping run,
the better chance we have of cleaning it completely up in the spirit run.
[Amanda] Well, Kelly, it's flowing pretty good.
We got five gallons.
So, I'm really hoping we've improved this flavor a little bit.
Um, but this is the moment of truth.
All right, Kelly.
[Kelly] What have we got?
I'll let you taste it first.
I'm gonna start having nightmares about beer after all this,
I'll tell you what.
[spitting]
You don't want none of that to touch your tongue, ever.
[Amanda] You know I gotta try it, too, right?
Gotta see what we're working with.
It's kinda like swamp-ass water.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not really confident right now, Kelly.
We gotta fix this before Mark and Digger get here,
'cause, to be honest, I don't even want them to taste this.
I'm kinda worried that we may not be able to clean this up.
I think I hear a truck coming.
[Amanda] Damn.
I was really hoping I would never have to show the stripping run to anybody,
especially not Mark and Digger.
But, of course, here they come.
What's up, guys?
[Mark] Did you get anything good out of that?
[Kelly] Well, we really wasn't gonna talk about that right now.
That didn't sound promising.
-[Butterbean] Yeah! -[Josh] There you go.
[Butterbean] I'll give you a nine and a half.
Dad says ten all the way.
Well, I can't. I'm only nine and a half.
[Josh] No, that's dad.
[laughs]
[laughing] Well, you can't go, you can't go ten either.
Yeah, but I'm counting this as a whole one right now.
-[Butterbean] Okay. -[Josh] Let me see yours.
-What the heck did you do? -[Butterbean] Table saw.
-I cut mine off with a grinding disk. -[Butterbean] Oh!
You got nine and a half, I got nine and a half.
You're the only person with ten fingers here.
[Butterbean laughs]
What's up, guys?
[Mark] Did you get anything good out of that?
[Kelly] Well, we really wasn't gonna talk about that right now.
[Digger] That didn't sound promising.
It's our stripping run, keep in mind.
[Mark] I understand.
[Amanda] I know going into this, we're gonna have
to do at least two runs to clean up this beer.
But, you know, I'm not really sure how much we're gonna be able to improve this.
You can't really get much worse than it is right now.
Damn, it looks like swamp water.
[chuckles]
[Amanda] Oh.
It still has that old ratty, stinky beer smell about it.
And it tastes terrible.
Just like the worst ale.
Just say it tastes like sweet tea.
It tastes like sweet tea, dude.
Damn, that's...
-Hmm. -[Mark] It ain't much better than the beer, is it?
-[Kelly] Not a whole lot. -Yeah.
[Amanda] Back home, if I have a run that's not up to my standards,
it's not a big deal.
I'll just never sell it and make another run.
But, in this scenario, I really have to deliver every chance I get,
because this opportunity they gave me,
it's a golden opportunity.
To work for them and their network, have their market.
There are so many other people that would hop in this spot if they could.
[Kelly] And when we run it the next time,
will it clean all that out through the copper still?
[Digger] It might.
[Mark] It's gonna make the proof higher,
but I don't know that it will clean the flavor out.
What are you thinking, Amanda?
I was thinking if we can introduce fresh grains somehow to it
to balance out that bad taste,
and get it to really taste like a whiskey.
'Cause what we're working with is malted barley.
If you try to override this bad flavor with corn,
it's gonna taste like a bad corn.
And everybody knows what good corn tastes like.
But everybody likes wheat now.
-It's pretty popular. -[Mark] Well, it's popular.
Yeah, maybe.
Wheat's got a nice sweet flavor,
and it could go well with the barley,
if we could clean it up enough on the distillation.
The yeast can eat some of the impurities
-that's in alcohol, too. -[Digger] Yeah.
[Amanda] So, if it's still fermenting,
the yeast might work on this a little bit and clean it up...
-[Mark] Exactly. -...actually eating
-some of the bad stuff in the beer. -[Digger] Yeah.
-It's got potential still at this point, I think. -Yeah.
Any hope for it is better than dumping it out.
Well, we'll run to town, round us up some sugar and wheat.
You know, and just get that pot filled up
with water and get it to heat.
The whole idea of this was to start out with free ingredients
and no fermentation time.
So, we're on the cusp here of, like,
is this efficient? If it comes out really good in the end,
then I could see it being something that you would try to do in the future.
But, we're just gonna have to wait and see.
-[Kelly] See you guys. -[Mark] We'll be back.
[Mike] How far out here, Jerry, is it to be where these guys are?
Uh, there's a little shop in here about four to five miles.
[Mike] I just don't want us to have to pay a god-awful amount of daggone money
for this after all we've just spent on blueberries.
[Jerry] Well, whether you're roofing or moonshining,
if you gotta have copper you gotta have copper.
-[Mike] Gotta have it. -[Jerry] There's no substitute.
It's right here on the right.
Jerry's come up with a bright idea
to build a four-chamber split pot still.
So we need copper.
-[Jerry] Little red building right down there. -[Mike] I see it.
[Richard] Man, this guy sells copper at this place?
[Mike] Yeah, man.
[Jerry] You're in the mountains, dude, this ain't the big city.
-[Mike] Heck yeah. -[Jerry] This is the kind of places
you go to get your materials.
[Mike] Come on now. Let's go get some.
[Jerry] What's going on, fellas?
-[shopkeeper] Oh, hey. -[Jerry] What's up, man?
[Mike] We need a few sheets of copper.
How much you getting on it?
[shopkeeper speaking]
[Mike] $400 a sheet?
Oh, my Lord.
[Jerry] I think that's $800.
-[Mike] $800, oh hell. -[Jerry] For two, huh?
-[shopkeeper] Sure. -[Jerry] Well, we ain't got a whole lot of choice
-at this point. -[Mike] We gotta have it, we'll take it.
[Mike and Jerry] All right, thank you.
[Mike] It's crazy, ain't it?
Wow, $800.
[Jerry] That's a lot of money, ain't it?
-[man speaking] -[Jerry] Yo.
-[man] Hey. -[Jerry] Hey, hey. What's going on?
-[Mike] Hey. -[man speaking]
[Jerry] Doing pretty good, how about yourself?
[man speaking]
[Jerry] Yeah, we got some, we got some bird houses to build.
-[man speaking] -Bird houses, yeah.
[man speaking]
[Jerry] Oh, really?
[Mike] Who are you?
[man speaking]
-Robert Bratton. -[Richard] I know him.
[man speaking]
-Why are you here? -[Mike] Well, now we've had a discussion
with the guy, everything's cool.
[man speaking]
-[Jerry] Oh, my God. -[Richard] $700?
[Mike] Oh boy, I've heard the wind blow before.
[man speaking]
[Mike] Yeah, I don't know about these two right here,
I ain't promising I'll be nowhere, brother.
[man speaking]
[Mike] Yeah, we'll see if I'm there.
[man speaking]
[Mike] You have a good day, sir.
-[man speaking] -[Jerry] Yeah, all right.
[man speaking]
Robert is the godfather of Maggie Valley,
the one who tells everybody what to do here in this little town.
So not only do we have to team up with our bitter enemy
because we caused so much racket,
now we've got to pay up X amount of dollars
just to be here to run.
There's always something in the damn valley.
[Josh] Whoo!
Everybody keeps telling me, "Josh, you're not ready to drive."
What am I doing right now?
By me scoring a bunch of peaches
and being able to drive 'em to Virginia,
that should prove to these guys
that I'm worthy to be back at work.
[horn honking]
[Josh] Here now. I gotta pee.
I'm boxed in here by a bunch of peaches.
Not been able to get that chair out of here, I can't get out.
I don't like this look.
[Amanda] It still tastes like beer.
I know Mark and Digger are not gonna be happy.
Unfortunately, we've gotta pay this operational fee
just to be here to run.
[man] It's gonna take another $700.
[Mike] You full of [bleep].
-[man] I'm not pulling-- -[Jerry] Come on.
[men shouting indistinctly]