Making moonshine is illegal.
You can get seriously hurt
or go to jail.
Do not try this at home.
[narrator] This time on Moonshiners...
Let's get started.
[Mark] Digger and I were expanding faster
than we ever dreamed we would.
We wanna set the world on fire with something that sets it apart from the crowd.
You better be careful with that 'cause that's Popcorn Sutton's condenser.
-Whoa! -I thought you knew that.
[Howard] A feeder full of grain. If we need more, I got some in my shoe.
Genever was very popular in the Dutch-American colonies.
So it was even enjoyed by Martin Van Buren,
the drunkest President.
They're gonna take us to the berries. Brother, let 'em loose.
[Tim] You shepherd, all right.
We'll just say we'd like for them to ferment.
Oh, okay.
[Mike] If we can get a high-premium price,
maybe our wallets won't feel so dadgum light.
$1,200?
My two idiot partners sold it for nothing, basically.
[man] This is how we make the moonshine!
[Mark] Joe Jackson will be here before we know it, I hope.
[Digger] Yeah, he's Johnny on the spot.
With him military, I'm sure that tardiness...
[straining] is not one of his things.
[narrators] In Cocke County, Tennessee,
pushing west to expand their moonshine empire across the state,
Mark and Digger are recruiting army veteran
and accomplished liquor maker, Joe Jackson...
[Jeff] Nice little bit of hair on that one.
-[Mark] Welcome to the club, brother. -[laughs]
[narrator] ...to lead a new team making both traditional
and untested shine recipes.
We got Joe coming to town. He's a true hero.
Purple Heart veteran
and he's got a work ethic like none other.
These are the type of people we wanna put to work.
We don't want slouchers.
The only thing that I wanna know today, man,
is what still you're gonna put with Joe.
Big Sloppy is the only avenue to go with.
Kelly's got the other twin and the other one is no longer... living.
Speaking of the dead twin,
we ain't seen no form of payment from Mr. Landry.
We have not and it's been quite some time.
That liquor still was loaned to Richard
to make liquor in the great state of Tennessee.
[Richard] Starting unloading this still right now.
We're gonna splash the market up a little bit.
Take over right here in Tennessee.
[Digger] But he took it on the wrong side of the state line.
He commenced to starting a pissing contest
and the next thing you know our still is the victim.
-[line ringing] -[Digger] So with the still being damaged
while it was Richard's care,
that makes it his responsibility
to pay this $4,000 debt.
[Richard] What's going on, sir?
Well, I'm just living the dream.
[Richard] Well, that's what we are all trying to do out here.
There ain't but one thing wrong with my dreams.
-I've got somebody that owes me a little money for a still. -[Richard] Oh.
And I kinda need it.
[Richard] Well, I've been working on it.
You know, I'm working with these guys down here
and they wanna do business their way
and I just can't do nothing down here, man.
Well, we got stuff we gotta do too.
And we can't do it in the absence of money.
[Richard] $4,000 is gonna be kinda hard to come up with all at one time.
By the end of this week, we need something
to show you're gonna take care of this debt.
Are you all right with that?
[Richard] I'm all right with that.
-All right. You reach out. -All right.
Holler at us ASAP, Richard.
-[Richard] I appreciate you guys. -Yes, sir. See you, man.
You know, honestly, if he comes up with half of it
as a good faith gesture, fine.
I'm okay with that.
But put forth the effort
to pay your bill.
Mr. Digger.
-How are you doing there, big-timer? -What's going on?
How are you doing? How have you been?
-Hey, Joe-Joe. Good to see you, brother. -Hey, what's going on?
-It's great to see you, brother. -Thanks for coming.
-Yeah, you came out of the woodwork on me. -Good to see you.
-[Mark] I know. -We done took and decided
we're not going to go knee-deep making liquor, we're gonna be neck-deep.
We're gonna put teams together.
You're gonna be leading one of them teams.
In this game, going all the way back to Popcorn Sutton, you know,
the people right after them are Mark and Digger.
And in this region, they are legacy liquor men.
And having the opportunity to work with them
in this operation, is gonna be a game changer for me.
Am I going to be running with Beaz again?
Well, no Beaz. He's moved up
to nothing but distribution.
-We're planning on putting you with Jeff. -Okay.
Jeff has been a great source for finding ingredients
when we need 'em locally sourced.
[Mark] Jeff Marsh is a working machine.
How do you feel about 10 percent of that end yield?
That'll be fine.
[both] Thank you, brother.
We hope he's up to it.
-Let's go ask him. -Let's get after him.
-All right. -Let's go ask him. Yep, get in on that side.
I got junk or liquor on this side.
[Joe laughs]
-[Tim] That's a long haul to New York. -That is a long haul.
Yeah, I do all the driving.
And I'm here as a mouthpiece to keep you awake, buddy.
[narrators] In Culpeper County, Virginia,
after traveling to New York City, to conduct
hands-on research into a historic American liquor,
Tim and Howard set a course to create Genever,
a juniper-infused spirit
favored by America's most intoxicated President,
Martin Van Buren.
[Howard] Heaven's gates right there, Tim.
I do enjoy being blessed with the opportunity to go to New York,
but there is nothing like these dadgum Virginia mountains
-and these backwoods. -[Tim] Yeah.
Genever is a mix between, you know, whiskey and gin.
Very popular in the Dutch-American colonies.
You know what we gotta do now.
We gotta make Tim Smith Genever.
I think it could appeal to a lot of people.
This could be a big seller for me.
Genever has more of a grain-based mash in it.
It's three times distilled.
All right, so we got three buckets, we need three grains.
And at the end, the last distillation,
we'll just add in juniper berries to it,
which is giving you a gin flavor.
You get the best parts of the gin
and the best parts of the whiskey,
all in one.
The small silo has got the rye in it.
-Small silo is rye? -[Tim] Yeah.
We gotta get that now.
The original Genever from Holland
was two-thirds rye, one-third is a malted barley.
Juniper is added later.
All right, that's one-third of rye.
Now we gotta find some malted barley.
We got some malted barley in here.
You gotta go over in there.
As Genever came over to the US...
and they started trying to replicate
what they was making in Europe...
We have a feeder full of grain.
Listen, if we need more, I got some in my shoe.
...then they learned and found that corn
was more of the grain that's being produced here for alcohol.
This one's got the corn in it.
And as time went on, they started using corn.
I need one-third of corn. Yeah. That's good.
[Howard] Holy moly.
So I think for us to recreate this,
we need to add some corn to it also.
Stop playing around, man.
The recipe that we came up to make
our own version of Genever is pretty simple.
You know, we're just gonna grind up some corn
and instead of having two-thirds rye,
we'll have one-third rye, one-third corn
and one-third of malted barley.
Don't let it clump up.
Oh, I'm not. That's why I'm adding it slowly.
God Almighty. It's like making a cake, man.
-This is a monster mash right here, Tim. -[Tim] Mmm-hmm.
And we ain't even thrown in the sugar or yeast to it.
[Tim] Anyways, we're not gonna put no yeast.
See that malted barley has some enzymes.
That's gonna help it get started.
You know, back in the day, they couldn't just go to the store and buy yeast,
-Let's just really malted barley. -Yeah.
We still got yeast on the grains now.
Malted barley also has enzymes in it
to break down the sugars and get the yeast
and it starts to ferment on its own.
[Howard] So you think we should do this almost au naturel?
Just let the grains themselves
-influence the mash. -Yeah.
We're not gonna cook it,
we're not gonna add no yeast to it.
We're just gonna put it in cold water
and let the magic happen.
Hopefully, we're gonna come close to the flavor
that Martin Van Buren was drinking.
-I think we're good, man. -I think we are, buddy.
Well, I tell you what, we're gonna head to the farmers market, man.
They got all of them fruits
and vegetables over there that started going bad.
[Richard] And what do they do with it?
[Jerry] They gotta do something with it.
I think we could probably score pretty big
if we find the right person.
[narrator] In Haywood County, North Carolina,
former foes, Richard and Jerry are hitting a local farmers market
in search of low-cost, overripe fruit
to turn into high-priced liquor.
[Jerry] Let's see what these guys have got.
-Dadgum sugar babies look good. -[Richard] Sugar babies.
This is the biggest farmers market in the region.
I've been coming here my entire life.
We used to sell grapes here when I was a kid.
-How're you doing? -Hey, great. Yourself?
Doing pretty good. So let me ask you a question.
What do you do with your watermelons when they go bad?
Ah, we just usually, just stack 'em up in the back.
I mean, do you sell that kind of stuff? Or...
I mean, I guess. That'd be... that'd be fine.
I mean, let's take a look at it. See if it's something we might be able to use.
You know, these are just too good
-for what we're needing-- -Too pretty?
-[Jerry] Too pretty and too good. -[Richard] Too pretty.
-Let's just see what you got. -[seller] All right.
If a fruit's gonna sell, it's gotta look good.
It's gotta be appetizing.
It can't be all mushy. Nobody wants to eat that.
This gives us a chance to walk in and capitalize.
-Right here. -[Jerry] This is it.
[Richard] Oh, wow, look at that.
-[seller] So we have... -[Jerry] Man...
We know it's ripe.
[seller] Yeah, it's very ripe.
You got the gnats and everything on it.
[seller] Yep, here we have the, uh, sangrias here.
We got the yellow meat watermelon.
We got the seedless sugar baby.
We got the jumbo cantaloupes.
This is exactly what we need. It's got a real good sugar content
at this point in its life right now.
Now tell me...
how can we get some of this?
[seller] Usually, a hog farmer comes up here
and they take 'em. And in return,
we get some meat.
-[boy] Bacon and-- -[seller] Bacon and sausage...
Oh, okay.
You know, we gotta stay healthy, you know.
Well, I mean, kinda the whole trading, bartering system
I mean, that's been a big thing
-for hundreds of years, you know. -[seller] Mmm-hmm
Um, I like that. I mean, it...
it helps everybody, not just
-Yeah. -you know... you're helping somebody else,
-but they're, in turn, helping you as well. -Correct.
[seller] You have hogs or cows?
Not exactly. What we, um...
we'll just say we'd like for them to ferment over time.
-Oh, okay. -[Jerry] Yeah. See what I'm saying?
-Now we're understanding. -Yeah.
So, I tell you what we can do.
We can be hog farmers, to say for the day
and, you know, we'll bring you a few jars
of some tasty stuff to go with that bacon and sausage.
We'll make sure y'all get some good... meat.
Okay. Now we're talking. That'll work.
[Jerry] Tell you what, this is a big score for me and Richard.
We didn't pay nothing out of pocket for this,
other than a little bit of time, little bit of gas getting over here.
After spending the money we did on the blueberries and the lemons,
for our blueberry lemonade,
these melons couldn't have come at a better time.
We actually gotta get some money in our pockets.
Richard got a hell of a debt to pay.
And me and Mike, we're still trying to recover
from last year not making any money.
We're ready to get in the woods and make some multi-melon moonshine.
-Man, we scored big time on this, didn't we? -[Richard] Score. [chuckles]
[Mark] Oh, there he is coming out of the corn patch.
[Digger] He's growing damn sweet corn.
[Mark] Big Jeff Marsh.
We're trying to recruit teams
and we need Jeff in the worst way
to say, "Yes," because we now have
more demand for our liquor
than we can possibly do on our own.
What brings you to my neck of the woods?
Uh, begging.
-What brings you to my neck of the woods? -Uh, begging.
Now, if you want corn to make liquor out of,
the upper two sections, we've already picked over twice.
We got some really good ears coming back on the third picking
so... you boys are welcome to 'em, if you want 'em.
Well, there ain't so sense pussy-footing around, Jeff.
We'll just rip the band-aid off.
We need a still hand for Joe.
That's why we're here talking to you.
[laughs] I don't know about that, now.
Well...
You're talking about making liquor.
-[Digger] Yeah. -[Mark] Yeah.
-Me making liquor? -Yeah.
But I've never run a still in my life.
I've never made liquor before.
That's what Joe is for.
He'll get you up to speed.
[Mark] We're furnishing all of the supplies, everything.
You just make the liquor.
You don't have to sell the first jar of it, Jeff.
Killer's going to do all sales and transport.
[Mark] If we didn't think you could do it, we wouldn't be here.
So decision's yours.
-[sighs] -I can't very well do it by myself out there.
-I mean-- -[Jeff] How many gallons we talking about?
[Digger] That little... six-barrel still,
that'll make 35, 40 gallon every time that you run it.
So if y'all were running it
two, three, four times a week,
however you wanna stagger your mash,
that's up to y'all.
Sunshine ain't the only thing making me sweat right now.
Being a farmer today is the hardest it's ever been in history.
I have no retirement fund whatsoever set aside.
The figures are mighty tempting.
[Mark] Mmm-hmm.
Are you in or out?
I'm in.
-[laughs] Oh, we'll get familiar. -Thank you, big boy.
I appreciate it.
It'll be worth it, I promise.
I appreciate the trust y'all got in me.
And we're looking forward to it.
[Jeff] I think it's a great opportunity.
Moonshine's a little more riskier than being a farmer,
but I'm willing to take the chance.
He's all yours.
-What you say there... -Well, I was about to get worried about you.
We're gonna get in there and start mashing this in.
Oh, my goodness.
Heck, yeah!
Watermelons!
There might be some a little overripe.
Guess what we paid for this big old box?
How much?
[clicks tongue]
[Mike] Zero?
Hell yeah, buddy.
They give these things to hog farmers
just to feed their hogs.
[Mike] Well, I can tell you by the looks,
we better get it in the barrels now.
Let's go mash these jokers in.
You know, our bills are piling up.
We didn't make a lot of money last season
'cause of the ordeal with Richard.
Now, we gotta try to play catch-up.
So getting some money in our pockets will feel awful good.
[Mike] We got four different types.
Cantaloupes, sangrias
yellow meat, sugar babies...
[Jerry] And hope we've got a still capable of holding four different flavors
so we might as well mash 'em into four different flavors.
[Richard] Might as well do it.
[Mike] Heck yeah. Not mix 'em.
Each one of these melons have a whole different,
you know, flavor profile.
We've got to get us some water going, guys.
[in sing-song voice] Sugar baby!
So we're just gonna do a pretty simple process.
We're gonna split 'em down the middle,
put 'em in our fruit masher...
I got the Melon Masher 3000 set up and ready to go.
...and mash 'em up, add the sugar, yeast and water
and we'll be off to the races.
[groans] That right there, is fermenting right now.
Just a-foaming out of that hole right there.
We've worked really hard this season already.
We've not made a lot of money. We've made some.
It's being split three ways.
With this melon mash, all that stuff was free.
So if we can get a high-premium price
for this alcohol,
maybe our wallets won't feel so dadgum light to us anymore.
[Richard] Finish it off.
-All right. -Let's go.
[Mike] Move on to some cantaloupe.
They ain't good for eating, are they?
-No. For yeast to eat, definitely. -[Mike] For yeast to eat?
There it is. The cantaloupe is in the barrel.
You know, now that we've got all these melons chopped up,
we got 'em in our barrels.
We're gonna get a little additional alcohol by adding some sugar to it.
This could be a win-win for us all.
We could put some money in our pockets.
Richard could start paying off his debt.
Now that we're done with this batch,
we just need to get that other box of melons mashed in
and get it run off just as quick as it gets through working off.
Hey, Howard, what you doing, man?
[Howard] Right here, checking on this mash.
Oh, it's working.
[Tim] Yeah, it's working already?
[Howard] And that's all without yeast.
[Tim] This is a natural yeast.
It's bubbling, it's working, it's running
just like you had put a pound of yeast in it.
That's incredible right there.
If you're happy with that, Tim,
I'm about to knock your socks off.
Oh-oh, what happened now?
I think you'll be thoroughly surprised...
at the berries I've got us, baby. Juniper berries.
I found a tree
that had plenty of berries.
I pulled out my jar,
"Look, Tim. Look what I got for you, buddy."
Look at that. That's a jar full.
What you said you needed.
I think that's gonna work, ain't it?
Uh... well...
You know, you expect some type of reaction there, right?
You know, a little, "Ha, good job, Howie."
Instead, I see his face drop.
They can't be green.
That ain't ripe yet.
You ain't got nothing blue in there. You gotta have blue juniper.
[Howard] So all my activities were in vain?
I give you an "A" for effort, I guess.
The juniper berries, they green as grass, you know.
That's bitter, that's sour.
It's kinda like having a green tomato
versus a ripe red tomato.
I don't know what kind of taste that would come out,
but I know it's not what we want.
But it's okay. I got a source.
Okay, but does he got junipers like this?
Well, no. He has the ripe ones.
You know, while Howard was out catting around all night,
and getting the juniper that we cannot use,
I made some phone calls myself.
And I found out that there is someone in North Carolina
that has what we need.
I think we oughta just
get on the road and go get them juniper.
I'll leave my jar right here
just to hold the fort down, I reckon.
[Tim] Yeah. You may oughta just let me stick to getting juniper berries
'cause, you know, at least, I can tell
-the ripe ones from the green ones. -[Howard laughs]
If you drive this thing, got a little something you need to remember.
It don't have an emergency brake.
[laughs] Hold on to your butts.
Growed up a little, ain't it?
It's growed up a right smart.
Let's check and see what the spring situation is.
I'm taking Jeff and Joe down here, setting 'em up
at our old still site,
but the weeds and the little bushes ain't the problem.
I just hope the water is running out of this spring.
If not, we're going to have to have another still site.
[Mark] It went dry on us last year.
[Mark] Let's check and see what the spring situation is.
It went dry on us last year.
-Push. I see water. -[Joe] That's looking good.
-Oh, yeah. -[Digger] Oh yeah, there's plenty of water.
It ain't dry at all.
You know, you can tell
that this ain't contaminated water
or them little water spiders down there wouldn't be on it.
This is the old spring my Papaw set up housekeeping on.
This is what provided the family water back in the day.
I know it's plenty of good limestone water,
make fine liquor.
Little weeds need to be cut.
We're gonna cut out. It's up to Jeff and Joe to whittle out the still site.
What is this first run gonna be?
What are we gonna make it out of?
Well, Joe, you wanna do something with your...
one of your tried and true recipes?
I have been...
diligently messing with this triple grain
pear mountain brandy that I've been working on
and with that recipe what I've been using
is a triple malted base for it.
So it's malted wheat,
uh, Dingemans biscuit malt
and then malted corn of some kind.
You guys have access to, like, any of that stuff?
Not this time of year.
Our other team has our malting table.
But we know for a fact
Jeff's picking sweet corns,
so we know he's got sweet corn.
And it's ready right now.
-Mmm-hmm. -[Mark] Is that something you'll consider?
I'm all about adaptability.
If it's got the sugar content. You guys...
-have done the sweet corn before, right? -It's got a lot of sugar.
-I mean... -Yeah.
Digger and I used to do a lot of sweet corn.
It's juicy, it's sweet, it's got a good flavor.
That and it's not as hard to break down as dried grains.
It's a little more work,
uh, 'cause you gotta cut it off the cob.
So sweet corn, I'm not big in experience
about using it, but it's game time
and you know, I'm ready for the task at hand, I think,
and I'm gonna get this done.
And we'll go get your pears.
[Joe] Bosc pears, please.
-[Mark] Bosc pears. -Yeah.
They bring like the most delicate pear flavor I've found.
Boys, let's get started.
We ain't gonna get finished if we don't get with it.
We gotta get this cleaned up, Jeff.
[Mark] Weeds need to be cut.
[Joe] Jeff, you gonna check me for ticks after this?
[Digger] Only if you check him.
This is just like a free franchise to them.
They don't have any money invested.
We're putting equipment in their hands,
and they're making money, and we're making money.
But now all this being said, they know the deal.
If the law shows up and they get caught,
they're doing this on their own.
[Jerry] Well, let's go see if this stuff is ready to run.
Today we're gonna run this melon mash.
Holy moly.
[Jerry] That's what I'm talking about.
It's time to pump this stuff over.
As soon as that liquor comes out of that worm today,
I'm gonna start pounding the pavement.
Digger wants his money, and I gotta give it to him.
We're gonna start with the sugar babies.
Okay, now we don't pump.
I don't know.
These hand humps are really nice because they're quiet,
but they can be a bit finicky sometimes.
I'm gonna grab them buckets,
I'm fixin' to start loading mash.
[Mike] It was a good thought, but it ain't working
the way we need it to be working.
We gotta get alcohol in the pot
if we're ever gonna run it.
At least that split is just right where
you can get the mash in each chamber
and pour it without ever hitting the other ones.
I tell you what, we all have our different concepts
and ideas about things.
You can see behind me.
Mike's a... he's an impatient person,
but he's shooting for the money.
-You ready to cap? -Yeah, we can set the cap on
and get this bad boy fired up.
I'm in a hurry.
I want to get some alcohol coming out of the spout.
One of you knuckleheads steal my rag?
[Mike] It's in your pocket.
[Jerry] Oh.
I guess it looks like I'm the one in the big hurry.
[Mike] We're ready to light her up.
[Jerry] Smell the hair, boy. That one gotcha.
I'm not out here for my dad-gum health.
I'm here to make a living.
You know what, we may do things different ways,
all three of us, but we got the same goal at heart,
making money and running this alcohol.
-Don't we? -Absolutely.
We gotta get this melonshine run.
We gotta get it sold.
I don't even like looking at my phone no more.
Every time my phone rings,
I think it's Digger calling me for some money.
I say we try to get this stuff sold today.
Everything should go good.
I think we can afford to start calling some folks.
[Jerry] I'll tell you what, I've got a list.
You got a list, too.
[Mike] My buddy Kevin, he's in town.
I'll give him a shout.
I'm sure he's up to buying something.
We're all three trying to make calls
and texting people to see who can potentially
want this alcohol.
Whoever comes up first, I guess.
Boys, we've got liquor right here.
It's all right, right there.
[Richard] We'll get these heads pitched off, we'll taste it.
[Jerry] Hell yeah, pitch them heads.
[Mike] Hurry, hurry, we're losing alcohol.
I'm waiting on my guy. He's waiting on his guy.
I feel like I'm on the stock market floor.
Making a deal.
[Mike] I'm telling you. Well, we gotta do what we gotta do.
We're running some good liquor, man.
[Jerry] I'm about ready for a taste of that.
Here's the moment of truth.
[Mike] What's she taste like?
Tastes melony.
[Mike] Melony?
[Jerry] I like the way it turned out.
This liquor's top shelf.
There's no doubt in my mind that we're not gonna
have any trouble getting rid of it.
Really get that cantaloupe on the front side
as it kind of starts to dry.
Get that watermelon taste in there.
Got real high.
[whooshing]
You can taste that cantaloupe up front
then a good finish of all your other blends
of melons together.
Gonna get it out of the woods.
Gonna temper it down to 100-proof good drinking.
Hope and pray-tell we get some customers to buy up.
[Jeff] Easy, easy.
Don't want a splinter.
[Joe laughs]
With them hands, how do you even get a splinter?
[Jeff] Hey.
[Joe] I've never ran an operation like this.
It's a huge opportunity,
but there's a lot of risk involved for me.
You got about three inches over here
to the back of the board.
Cool. That's perfect.
Jeff, I know he's a farmer, so he's a hard worker,
but there's a huge difference
between running liquor in the backwoods
and picking corn and feeding livestock.
We have no time to waste.
You know they're going to be wanting us
to run this about two or three times a week.
How many barrels are we going to have per run?
So we'll do six to start out, mash those in.
That's 18 barrels a week.
If we're getting at least 60 gallons,
we're going to be square with the man.
If we get more than 60 gallons,
that's icing on the cake.
I want a lot of icing on my cake.
I like sweets.
-You got a sweet tooth? -You can tell I like sweets.
-[laughing] -I like a lot of icing.
I'm used to this hard work.
Moonshining is hard work,
but I don't want to fail on this.
I do not want to fail Mark and Digger.
I've been given an opportunity here
not too many people's had.
And I want this business partnership to last many a year.
Now, you know you better be careful with that, right?
Why's that?
Because that's Popcorn Sutton's condenser.
-Whoa. -I thought you knew that.
[Jeff] Not really.
That's a touch of history right here.
There's a lot more work to this
than what I thought there'd be.
You always want to stay away
from the wand next to the still.
People kick that wand out of there
and then you get a big fire.
So not all the way in.
[Jeff] I've got a newfound respect
for all the moonshiners in the world.
Being that our goal is to run
twice a week and produce that 60 gallons,
we got to have everything in order.
We've got a big operation ahead of us
and we really got to get going on this.
If that ain't plumb, level and square.
I don't know what is.
[Jeff] I know that everything's on the level.
Everything's fine, everything.
Mark Wayne Ramsey himself is going to be impressed.
We've got the best still site, I think.
Let them do whatever they want to do
with all those other guys.
Well, if we're going to run this stuff
and work ourselves to death,
I want to be number one.
Well, that's the goal.
We've got an opportunity to make a boatload of money.
I'm about ready. I'm about ready.
I just hope we can handle it.
How do you even know this lady, Tim?
I called some people and this lady, she says,
"Well, I got this farm down here.
And we're just getting these juniper berries
off of a cedar tree."
We need juniper berries.
That's the most important thing.
We've got to have juniper.
If not, we're just making moonshine
or a rye whiskey or something.
[Howard] You got goats and chickens.
[Tim] Now, are those sheep or are those goats?
Well, I think there's some sheep laying down, son.
[Howard bleats]
I speak sheep.
Told you.
I think one of them out there looks like you, Howard.
[Howard laughs, bleats]
[bleating]
[Howard] He said, "What's up?"
[Tim] Y'all know any juniper berries down here?
Exactly. We're looking for juniper berries.
This man gets it.
[bleats]
No one around here knows more about this land
than these sheeps and goats,
because they're out here grazing everywhere.
Juniper berries. Talk to me.
What'd they say?
[Howard] They said stick to the fence line
and you'll find your promised land.
[Tim] Mmm.
All I know is get through there before they come.
[sheep bleating]
-Mmm-hmm. -Oh, you... [laughs]
They're gonna take us to the berries, brother.
Let them loose.
Set them sheep free.
Yah, sheepies. Yah.
I'm like a shepherd.
Yeah, you a shepherd, all right.
All of them coming out here.
Come on, my peoples.
All right, Tim.
Don't know that they're gonna lead us
to the berries themselves--
[Tim] We gotta go over here next to the edge somewhere.
There's no trees in the middle of the field.
Gotta find cedar trees.
These cedar trees, they are planted by birds.
Birds eat these juniper berries,
and they sit on a fence line or even a power line.
He poops out the seed. It grows.
This is why you find cedar trees
on a fence line, a fence row,
or along the highway,
wherever there is a power line.
We got berries for days, baby.
You're gonna have to get the prime, premium juniper berry.
[Howard] Tim, I'm gonna show you how to do this.
You can come in here like so.
You shake the berries off the tree.
You know what I mean?
Now, some of these are not as mature as others.
[Tim] That's the one you gotta get.
You can't just rake off all the green ones
and think it's gonna taste okay.
Howard, you just gotta be selective.
We're a little bit early on picking them,
and that's why you got some green, some blue.
We gotta be picking the blue ones.
One at a time.
This whole thing, we got one right there.
I didn't realize how patient you had to be
with juniper berries.
What do you think about it, back in the 1600s
when they was doing this, what else did they have to do?
There's six top shelf, premium juniper berries.
We're doing something special.
Recreating something that
the Dutch came up with in the 1600s,
and we want to do it right. We want to do it special.
Yes, we're gonna put our twist on it,
but the juniper berries, we're not gonna twist this up.
I don't want them to drink no sour Genever.
[Howard] Ooh, I hit the motherlode there.
We need to get back to the farm right now,
figure out what kind of still we're gonna use,
and how we're gonna set it up.
Got enough berries between the both of us
that we can go and pack up shop.
[bleating]
[Richard] Man, I done called everybody in this Rolodex, man.
Yeah, I've done about the same thing, man.
Our melonshine is run, it's tempered.
I've reached out to everybody that I know here,
try to get this sold.
I'm feeling a whole lot of pressure here.
I mean, I haven't paid Digger, like, not one red cent yet.
I mean, he's getting pissed. He really needs his money.
[phone ringing]
[Jerry] Jason, our bootlegger.
What's up, Jason?
[Jason] Hey, Jerry, how you doing?
Aw, doing pretty good, just here in the shop,
working a little bit.
[Jason] You still got some melonshine?
Matter of fact, I still got it all.
[Jason] Yeah, if I can meet you, I can get all of it.
[Jerry] When?
[Jason] As soon as possible, like right now, if you could.
[Jerry] All right, man, you know our meeting place?
[Jason] All right, bud, I'll see you in a little bit.
I'll be there in about 15, 20 minutes.
I'll tell you who we need to call. We need to call Mike.
See if he's had any luck on his end.
See what his thoughts are.
Selling to a bootlegger, we know we're gonna take a hit,
but right now he's wanting to buy it all from us.
Us trying to peddle it out one case at a time,
that's where we could get in some serious trouble.
So a bootlegger getting rid of it
at one time is a good answer.
-[sighs] -[bleep]
He must be out of range, man.
It went straight to voicemail.
And I say we just go meet with Jason,
see what he's talking about.
If it's a good deal, we could put some money in our pocket
and rolling, we take it.
What should we do about Mike?
We can't lose this sale if we can't get in touch with Mike.
He's a bootlegger.
He can go to somebody else and buy some liquor.
We stuck.
We can't wait around, you know.
Mike's not answering his phone.
We got to get all these buckets loaded up.
And we don't want Jason to change his mind,
because this is money in our pockets today.
You thought if he had some kind of good sale or something,
at least called and told us.
He would've said something by now.
Bootleggers always skim money off of the top.
They always lowball you on the price.
I mean, but the benefit of dealing with this bootlegger is,
I'm going to sell everything in one lick,
and we get paid today.
[Jason] Wasn't planning on seeing both of y'all.
-[Jerry] Surprise, surprise. -Yes, sir.
You know, Jerry and I, and Mike, you know,
we working together this year, man.
[Jason] Oh, yeah?
We got some good liquor here, man.
[Jason] Show what you got.
Got something I want you to try.
Something I promise you you ain't never had before.
[Jason] Something I never had before. I like the sound of that.
What is this?
Ooh, it's something different right here.
Something definitely different.
Probably something you'll never
get an opportunity to have again.
Just wait till you taste it.
[Jason] Phew. That's good.
[Richard] We got plenty.
We got you about 40 gallons right here.
[Jason] Oh, that's what I'm talking about.
What's the price on it?
[Richard] We was trying to get something like $100 a gallon for this.
[Jason] Man, you know, I got to get me a good price, man.
I can go probably $60.
Whoo-hoo.
You ain't leaving no meat on the bone for us.
That's a big dude right there. He got to eat.
[Jason] $65?
Nah, I'm thinking maybe $90.
Man, $90 would be good.
Ninety would give us some bologna to eat tonight.
[Jason] Well, let's just cut to the chase.
Let's get it right there right in the middle.
Let's go to $75 and be done with it.
[Richard] $75?
[Jason] Yes, sir.
[Jason] Look, I'm not getting some. I'm getting all.
And that'd be different if I was just
getting a little bit.
Look, money talks, fellas, what you gonna do?
We gonna sit here all day or we gonna make this deal?
Have you got the cash in hand?
[Jason] I got cash in hand, fellas.
You come here already expecting to spend $3600.
[Jason] Hey, look, I already had my mind set on the price.
I'm gonna tell you what,
we gonna bite the bullet this time,
but the next time we gonna need you to put your head
on the other side of that bullet for us.
[Jason] We will. Don't worry.
Let's do it.
[Richard] All right.
You know, it's not the best payday in the world,
but right now it's a payday.
We got the melons for free.
You know, therefore, I'm inclined
to take a little bit less for it,
because we didn't have to pay out on the front side,
so we don't need as much on the back side.
[Richard] I have no problem paying for that convenience.
[Jerry] Oh, Mike's here waiting on us.
[Richard] That's a trip.
There's them suckers are.
It's about that dad-gum time.
Where the hell have y'all been?
Man, we taking care of business.
Business? What kind of business?
[Richard] We was out there in the back of the mountain, man.
[Mike] I've been blowing y'all's phone up.
Can't get no damn body on the phones.
[Richard] Cell phone service.
Man, I've been [bleep]
rubbing a blister on my rear end all day long,
waiting on y'all to show up and calling you,
and can't get nobody.
We've been up mixing yellow and blue, making some green.
-What is this? -It's your cut, $1,200.
$1,200.
What price do you get per gallon on it?
$75 a gallon.
$75 a gallon?
I mean, how much did y'all sell?
Sold all of it.
Sold all of it?
Y'all didn't even tell me y'all was selling it all.
My two idiot partners sold it for nothing, basically.
[Mark] Wow.
-Oh. -Told you.
[Amanda] We're going to come through.
I didn't have no doubts, Amanda.
We need to load it up and get it out to distribution.
20 gallon, or is them 15?
[Digger] No, these are the 20s.
20, 40, 10.
Well, that's 50 gallon, 500 gallon.
No?
-200. -200 gallon.
Your math skills are off the chain.
[all laugh]
Well, I was just excited there, dammit.
-Uh-huh. -Well, ain't nothing wrong
with being a little excited over it.
Well, how much are these 20s and these 10s,
that's 50 gallon.
That's why we all have calculators
in our pockets nowadays, right?
You don't have to be good at math.
I don't even know why I'm friends with him.
[laughs]
[Mike] $75 a gallon?
Oh, my God, man.
I've got a guy on the damn hook
that's willing to pay $100 a gallon for it.
For all of it?
I don't know about all of it.
-He's already committed to it? -What...
I'm not saying 100% now.
No. He agreed to $100 a gallon, though.
Right, but I mean, he could buy one gallon at $100.
Now, this guy's going to frickin' call me,
and I'm going to have to tell him
there's no way I can sell you no more alcohol.
Richard, I can second guess him all day long,
because I'm not too fond of him being on our team anyway,
but Jerry, on the other hand,
heck, I've been with Jerry for four years now,
and he's making these kind of business decisions.
It's just couch change.
I'm infumigated at this point for them selling that alcohol.
So you're telling me you get paid
so much more with $200 more?
Well, the damn work, the effort,
everything that we put into it,
look at your great invention that we built
-to run that crap on. -I understand.
That's going to pay itself over the year.
You know, Mike's pretty upset about the whole situation.
You know, he could've potentially got us
an extra $25 a gallon for it.
But, you know, sometimes in business,
it's better just to go for the sure thing
rather than sitting and holding out.
I know you got to pay your debts off.
-[Richard] Yeah. -But, golly, you got to think about something.
It ain't all about you paying your debt off, Richard.
It's about all three of us.
We all got damn debts to pay, brother.
I wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for Mike.
I wouldn't have a debt to pay or anything like that.
I've got kids to feed,
and I'm gonna get ill when people go to take
money out of my pocket.
You know, I never wanted Richard Landry
working with us in the first place,
especially after all of the stuff
he'd done to us last season.
You know, and now Richard's on my team
making business decisions behind my back
with my partner.
That's what really pisses me off.
There's nothing else we can do about it,
and you can't cry over spilt milk,
and as my grandpa says,
"You can't unscramble damn eggs."
It's done.
I'm going to go find me a couch to lay on
so I can lick my wounds, I reckon.
[Mark] What's going on here?
-[Kelly] Nothing. -Nothing to see here.
We ain't making liquor.
We're just heating up water for the afternoon tea.
That's going to be some good tea or strong coffee.
Ooh.
Digger and I, we're expanding
faster than we ever dreamed we would.
We want to have several teams
producing our signature liquors to where
we can make a lot more of it,
and we can all make some decent money.
[Mark] This all liquor?
-Yes, sir. Yes, sir. -No [bleep]
[Mark] Damn, Amanda.
[Amanda] We've been hard at work.
You know, we made a really good decision
by teaming up Amanda and Kelly.
They've been working really hard for Digger and myself.
We couldn't be more proud of them,
but Amanda is very good at distilling,
and honestly, I think her skills are wasted on repetition.
Well, I believe we're outfitted
pretty good with corn liquor.
We were talking that we wanted you all
to run something special. When we say you all,
we mean you, Amanda.
Kelly is your backup. He'll help you, but...
We want to set the world on fire
with the next new apple brandy.
We want something different,
something that sets it apart from the crowd.
Me and Digger, we've made a little
apple brandy over the years,
and it sold, but ours really wasn't no different
than everybody else that was making it.
-If it's like everybody else's, what's the point. -[Amanda] Right.
Well, we're looking for something we can add
a little extra tariff on the back end
and make a little more money for everybody.
I mean, it ain't something you've got
to source year around,
and Kelly, you know how to get apples.
We've got apples from you for years.
Yeah, I can come up with apples.
That ain't a problem.
But what do you do to brandy to make it special?
-I mean, that's the thing. -I don't know. I don't know.
-That's why we got you-- -[Digger] That's for Amanda to figure out.
That's why we got you two.
So, something special for an apple brandy.
I have heard of a moonshiner
in eastern Tennessee, not far from here.
They did call her Big Haley.
Big Haley, yeah.
She's a legendary moonshiner.
She made some of the best apple brandy
in her day, back in the 1800s.
[narrator] In the 19th century,
legendary moonshiner Mahala Mullins' apple brandy
was in such high demand that even after
being struck with elephantiasis
and bedridden after the birth of her 19th child,
she continued to pump out liquor.
The extreme swelling caused by her condition
left Mahala too big to get out of her own front door
and earned her the nickname Big Haley.
People came from like far and wide to buy her apple brandy.
There must have been something special about her recipe.
Do you know anything at all about this process yet?
[Amanda] The specific recipe? No.
But yeah, I mean, I'm happy to research it
and look into it, see if I can maybe find...
[Digger] Yeah, go for it and see what you can figure out.
Go for it.
I'd like to know a little bit more about her.
Yeah.
Well, they called her catchable but not fetchable.
They couldn't get her out of her house
and they couldn't bring her down off the mountain
to bring her to court.
So, she literally just kept making alcohol.
Revenuers and sheriffs in the town
let her make liquor till the day she died.
[laughs]
It's a cool story.
She was just so big that she didn't leave the house.
And, hence, Big Haley.
And imagine being a woman in the 1800s
supporting her family making liquor.
-Good for her. -Pretty cool, right?
Good for her.
That's what always inspired me about the lady.
If her apple brandy was good enough that
it made it through stories and legends
all the way down to today, then there must have been
something really special about it.
Well, we get this loaded up
and get it moved to distribution.
Y'all can head out and get to researching.
[Mark] You all right, Fat Kel?
I'll be the chauffeur.
You tend to listen a little bit too.
[Digger] It wouldn't hurt you to learn some new stuff.
If we can figure out exactly what she was doing
or get close to replicating her original recipe,
that would make our brandy stand alone
apart from everyone else's.
[Mark] Get busy on Big Haley.