Anyone making moonshine is risking time in jail or serious injury.
Do not try this at home.
[narrator] This time on Moonshiners...
[Henry] Josh should be here any minute now.
[Tickle] Well, he needs to hurry up.
We done got this one full.
We're gonna be delivering over 500 gallons of Moonshine in multiple junk cars.
[Josh] I don't see anybody.
I think we're good. I hope we are.
[man] Hey, man, what's going on?
Are we gonna use the corn or the stalk?
Who cares about the corn, Tim?
We are here for the stalk.
[Tim] Oh, yeah, it looks good.
-It tastes great, Tim. -I like that.
Normally, rum is made from sugarcane and molasses.
But there's sugar and cornstalk too.
Well, I think we need to taste it.
-Are you ready? -Damn right, I'm ready.
I've been waiting on all this for weeks.
How the hell are we gonna condense alcohol without water?
[Jerry] As long as we can get enough surface area,
make enough holes in it,
then the air can cool it enough.
Ah, crap.
-We got steam there. -Oh, we got steam.
[Jerry] We got money flying in the air right now.
[man 2] This is how we make the moonshine.
Do y'all know what y'all would like to eat yet?
I would like a country ham and two eggs.
The country ham here is really good.
-It's especially country today. -Oh.
-All right. -[Tickle] It really is.
[narrator] In Pennsylvania County, Virginia,
under the cover of the grand opening of his new restaurant...
I'm gonna do the Mike sample platter.
[Tickle] Mike sampler platter.
Yeah, well, you get a little bit of everything.
[narrator] ...Tickle finds himself torn between two full time jobs.
It's all business in the front and bootlegging in the back.
[Tickle] Well, Henry, where's Josh at?
-He's gotta come take his thing. -[Henry] He's on the way, man.
[Tickle] 'Cause we ain't gonna get so much in this one.
Today is the day we're gonna really kick into high gear
our bootlegging operation with multiple vehicles.
We're gonna be delivering over 500 gallons of moonshine
in one day in multiple junk cars.
[Paige] Man, looks like y'all busy.
[Tickle] Yeah, it's busy as hell out there.
As soon as I get this loaded, I gotta get back in there.
Carol gonna be done kill me.
I'm staying out here too long.
We've got a crazy system worked out here
where we can keep this shine moving constantly.
We've got a little black two-door car in here.
We're gonna fill that thing up with shine.
Josh is gonna come in,
and he's gonna bring a big ole van in here
on a tow truck and drop it off.
While we're filling that with shine,
he's gonna take the black car,
he's gonna go deliver it.
After he delivers that,
he's gonna go pick up this old white Chevy Malibu,
and he's gonna bring it back.
[Henry] Josh should be here any minute now.
Oh, well, he needs to hurry up and come on.
We done got this one full.
In the end, he's gonna bring 'em all back here,
and we'll do it again.
[truck beeping]
[Josh] Out of all the years of running liquor,
this is definitely one of the safest ways
I've ever hauled moonshine.
[Henry] You get a whole lot of liquor up in there?
[Josh] Yes, sir.
[Josh] I mean, come on, tow truck is an emergency type vehicle.
Unless you're doing something super stupid,
you're not gonna get pulled over.
And if you do get pulled over,
the chances of 'em climbing up there and looking in that piece of junk
are very slim.
[Tickle] Now, let's see what we got here.
-You heard of the mystery machine, right? -[Tickle] Oh, yeah.
This has been the love making machine.
-[Tickle] Damn, Josh. -[Josh] I love this thing, man.
[Tickle] I don't know no woman getting naked up in this thing.
-[Josh] Tell me this thing ain't killer, though. -[Tickle] Ah.
Check that out, Big Dog.
[Tickle] I see it. They's doing it in the water.
That's bad ass.
This van's probably got crabs.
I need to get back in there and check on this restaurant
-before my wife kills me. -You better, man.
Place is packed.
[Tickle] I'll be back in a little bit.
-Y'all run into anything, give me a holler. -[Henry] All right.
[Tickle] Josh is gonna take the black car.
Henry and Paige, they're gonna have to keep loading this van
while I go pay attention to this restaurant.
I know Henry and Paige have got their hands really full.
[Carol] Your order's ready.
[Tickle] My order's ready? I didn't order anything.
But my name is on that sign.
And if people don't see me, they're not gonna be happy.
[Carol] No, the, the order you took is ready.
-[Tickle] Oh, the order I took is ready. -[Carol] On the top.
Now it's really gonna be hard to manage
both my moonshine bootlegging business
and the restaurant.
But if I can pull it off,
it's gonna be a win-win for both situations.
And which table is this?
It's the order you took.
Oh, okay.
-[Carol] You got it? -[Tickle] Yeah, I got it.
[Tim] Bring it right out. Right here.
There you go. Come on.
All right, pop the hood.
Let's see what's going on in there.
[Howard] Golly, man.
I'm the one with truck problems.
You act like you in a hurry.
Guess what? I remember how to open the hood on this truck.
[Howard] Of course you do, this is your truck.
-I bought it from you. -[Tim] Yeah. Yeah.
[Howard] All right, so, look, my check engine light came on.
I don't know what could've caused it.
Well, the check engine light mean it, it picked up something.
[Howard] All right.
-Well... -All we gotta do is take this battery cable loose
and that'll reset the, the, the light.
All right, well, let...
-Then you won't have to... -Let's reset this, there's no problem.
But I've got, I've got bigger news here
-than just ... my vehicle... -[Tim] What do you mean, what do you mean bigger news?
For once in my life,
-I took the time to do by myself... -[Tim] Right.
-...my own due diligence to research something in life. -[Tim] All right.
[Howard] I've been drinking a little rum lately.
I've been on this little...
I knew it had something to do with drinking.
I know, it always does.
But great ideas come from drinking.
I was reading back in the 1700s during the Revolutionary time...
-[Tim] Mmm-hmm? -...that molasses wasn't available?
[Tim] Right.
-And, and... -So, how, how'd they make rum? They didn't have molasses.
So, what they did was they used cornstalks.
What do we have here in Virginia?
Cornstalks.
We can extract the sugars or whatever juices--
So, instead of making corn liquor,
or you're gonna make cornstalk liquor...
Yes.
There's not a backwoods style of rum right now.
Why not give the world something from the past to bring to the future?
This is an article I got
that tells us everything about cornstalk molasses in Randolph County.
That's in Virginia, buddy.
This is revolutionary, right?
-[Tim] They took cornstalk molasses and made liquor? -[Howard] Yes.
Normally, rum is made from sugarcane and molasses.
But there's sugar and cornstalk too.
You know, I'm always looking for,
you know, forgotten recipes
and some of these things that we can bring back to life from history.
If we can bring that back and we create it,
I can make 'em work today.
[narrator] Before the Revolutionary War,
rum was the most popular spirit
in the American colonies.
But when the fighting broke out,
the British blockaded colonial ports,
halting the import of Caribbean molasses needed for rum production.
As rum makers scrambled to find an alternative source of molasses,
New Haven, Connecticut distillers Jacobs and Israel
tried cornstalks.
The most plentiful agricultural byproduct in America.
After several attempts,
they finally extracted enough molasses from the spongy stalks
to produce a convincing rum.
Nevertheless, their groundbreaking product was soon outmoded
as the New Republic's taste shifted to whisky made from domestic grains.
And cornstalks once again, remained in farmer's fields to dry.
[Tim] So, how...
I'm, I'm picking up what you're putting down.
But the problem is that corn is out of season right now.
See, that's the beautiful thing about this, Tim.
That's what I was thinking.
Why not take that cornstalk to standing...
-[Tim] Mmm-hmm? -...and turn it into a viable option here?
Maybe cornstalk molasses.
[Tim] I've never heard of it.
It's cornstalk rum.
But, you know, it's, it's very interesting.
It doesn't cost me a thing. It's just cornstalks.
So, we're gonna think of something that they throw away,
and if it comes out, we win.
If it doesn't come out, I haven't lost anything.
Since it's your idea, you cut the corn.
Tim, I'll chop all the corn all day long.
-Okay. -All I wanna do is try to make a true backwoods rum
and bring it back to Virginia.
[Richard] How the hell are we gonna condense alcohol without water?
[Jerry] Well, the whole theory is you gotta dissipate heat somehow or another.
So, I figure as long as we can get enough surface area
where that steam can travel slowly,
then the air can cool it enough.
Well, whatever it takes,
we gotta do it and do it in a hurry.
[narrator] In Haywood County, North Carolina,
Mike, Jerry and Richard have just four days
to deliver $2800 of berry shine
in time for a wedding.
[Richard] We ain't got enough water here to put out a campfire.
[narrator] But the creek at their still site ran dry.
Now they must come up with a novel way
to distill four barrels of mash
into high proof liquor
without a steady supply of cold water.
[Jerry] The whole idea is, like, we have a piece of pipe
will go, go through like this.
I've never created alcohol without using good cold water.
[Jerry] Once it comes up through it,
then it'll, it'll go out to each one of the coils.
We have to have this by the day of the wedding.
I mean, this can ruin our reputation.
We're literally up a creek without a paddle.
Without water, in this instance.
[narrator] To condense hot alcohol vapor without cold water,
Jerry proposes building a four foot column
to mount on top of their pot.
Then attaching eight coils of copper tubing
to the sides of the column.
At the bottom of each coil, they'll mount a catch jar.
As they heat the mash to 172 degrees Fahrenheit,
alcohol vapor will rise up the column
into the copper coils,
radiating the heat into the surrounding air.
If enough heat is dissipated,
the alcohol vapor should cool enough to condense it into liquid
before it reaches the open ends of the coils
leaving gravity to pull it back down into the catch jars.
[Richard] In theory, this should work.
But we have to see if we have enough surface area
to turn our alcohol vapor back into a liquid.
[Jerry] Here's the tubes we're gonna stick through these things.
These are gonna be pointing down
just like this right here.
So, the steam will come around and it'll go up these holes.
As it starts to travel around those coils,
it's gonna have more and more surface area
to be able to condense.
Once it starts condensing and rolling back downhill,
and we'll be able to collect it.
[Mike] Every idea Jerry has works on paper.
But not even Jerry knows if it's gonna work
once we get it out there.
[Jerry] There you go.
-[Richard] The condenser cap. -[Mike] Pretty much.
[Jerry] One thing's for sure.
If we're doing this without water,
we're gonna need a whole lot of coil.
Typically, your most common condenser coil
is gonna be about 25 to 30 feet long.
Oh, that's curious.
Whole roll back here to the table and cut that off.
We're gonna make eight of these coils.
They're, they're gonna be a little bit shorter,
but they're gonna be eight of 'em.
In reality, once we're all said and done,
we're gonna have about 117 to 120 feet of actual length of pipe.
Like five times more than a normal condenser.
Just like any other condenser,
the ends are open.
But the air should cool with no problem
before the alcohol vapor comes out of the top.
Let's start at the top and work our way down.
What do you think?
It's like everything else that we've built.
It's got a lot of tiny, intricate pieces to it.
There's jars everywhere, there's valves everywhere,
there's coils running everywhere.
We have utilized every piece of surface area
that we possibly can to condense this alcohol.
So, we're hoping this works.
If it don't, it's back to square one.
That's the end of it.
It looks good, don't it?
-[Jerry] You done a good job. -But is it gonna work?
There's a lot of money riding on this whole daggone thing.
Not just the build,
but you know, the mash that we've got to run up.
This has got to happen, and it's got to work properly.
It's ready to rock and roll, man.
Let's get her to the woods.
[fire crackling]
The beautiful thing about this restaurant
is it's a family restaurant.
Not only is it friendly for families to come in and eat,
but families running it.
Carol's working here,
our daughters are working here.
All right.
And who's back here washing dishes?
My mama.
Okay, so I just do this?
-Boy, that's hot. -[Lois speaking]
It's wonderful working with my mom.
-[Lois speaking] -I guess I could, couldn't I?
For one, I always know if I need help on a recipe,
where can I go?
The person that taught me.
Ain't that what your dishwasher's for?
-[Lois speaking] -Oh.
-Okay. -[Lois speaking]
On the other hand, if I need to be put in my place...
-This is the way I like washing dishes. -[Lois speaking]
...I know who's gonna do it.
Hey, uh, Mama?
-[Lois speaking] -I got something I gotta go take care of
out in the shop.
What?
Uh, but Mama, I just--
No, Mama, I got something.
I'll be right back in just a minute, all right?
I, I've got to run to the shop.
I'll be right back, all right?
[Lois speaking]
[Tickle] Well, Mama, I'll be right back.
-[Lois speaking] -[Tickle] I will.
-[Tickle] How's it going, fellas? -[Paige speaking]
[Tickle] Are we taking this side right here?
-[Henry] Yeah. -[Tickle] All right.
-[Henry] Looks like he get it up under there. -[Tickle] All right.
Oh, man.
-All right. -[Tickle] All right, Henry.
It's gonna be good. [indistinct]
Might have to go in the side door.
-You have to, to start going in the side door? -[Henry] Yeah.
All right, I'll start taking 'em around.
I've got this great big bootlegging operation going on
right beside my restaurant.
[grunts]
This might not have been the best idea.
If somebody happens to notice
that this truck is pulling in and out,
in and out with different vehicles
at multiple times,
this could be a recipe for disaster.
Fellas, I hate to do this, but I gotta run back in there.
[Henry] All right.
[Tickle] I, I told Mama I wouldn't be gone but a minute.
-[Henry] Yeah, we got it. -[Tickle] All right.
This place is hectic today.
Thank y'all.
[Henry] Tell me, Paige, it's going smooth, man.
Really smooth. I really like this.
[Josh] We've been hauling a lot of liquor,
moving some cars.
And it looks it's all we're doing,
is hauling cars
and doing something 100% legitimate.
But we're making a lot of money,
and we're doing it very incognito,
right up under everybody's nose.
[truck beeping]
I have three major deliveries to make today.
First, I gotta take the black car, drop it off.
Two, I've gotta come back and pick up the van,
which they were getting ready
while I was hauling the black car.
Three, come back with the Malibu,
get it loaded, haul it and drop it off,
and then big payday.
[truck beeping]
-[Howard] Look at all that cornstalk molasses, baby. -[Tim] Yeah.
If we can use the cornstalks that are available...
-[Tim] Yeah. -...I think we can make something.
I mean, at least try.
[Tim] For Howard,
it's a little bit unusual for him to bring a recipe to light.
And especially something that I've never heard of before.
And I think it will really create an interesting flavor.
So, I'm gonna run with Howard.
Uh, I mean, I'm gonna support him.
He'll support me if I had a crazy idea.
[Howard speaking]
I see that everything looks dry.
But this corn is still absorbing water, y'all.
Hey, Tim. [groans]
-[Tim] Huh? -We talked about "out of season."
We've got edible corn here.
You see that?
[Tim] That's pretty corn.
That means there is flavor in these stalks, huh?
I know I'm right about something, Tim,
-for once in my life-- -So, are we gonna use the corn or the stalk?
Who cares about the corn, Tim?
We are here for the stalk.
[Tim] I'm not sure why the corn is still standing,
but it's got some nice ears of corn on it.
So, maybe there's some moisture still in the, in the stalks.
-[Howard] Tim? -[Tim] Yeah?
[Howard] Look at this for a second.
You're worried about those being dried corn.
But check this out here.
Feel that.
That's where the molasses comes from.
That's got moisture in it, that means absorbing.
It feels like a sponge.
[Howard] When I open it up, It is really moist inside.
I'm seeing that there is a lot of pulp here,
that it's possible to make a corn style molasses.
I mean, I really feel like we have something we can work with.
And this is a perfect example of don't judge a corn by it's cob.
-Buckle up, baby, it's the law. -[beeping]
[Tim laughs] Yeah, we don't wanna be breaking the law.
[beeping stops]
You know, rum is nothing that we made in the backwoods.
No one talks about making rum where I'm from.
But if I came out of the woods
with something that was called a rum
made from cornstalks, I mean, it could be the new thing.
[Jerry] It's almost too high for you right there, Mike.
[Mike speaking indistinctly]
You know, we got this four-berry shine,
It's due for this wedding in a few days,
and this is a real big deal for us.
This waterless condenser, we don't know of anybody that's ever tried this.
This is something we have to have right now.
We got this deadline. We have no water.
We've got to make this happen one way or the other.
[Mike] Oh, you gonna act like you're taller than I am or something.
-Very stretching. -[Richard] Right.
-Cotton? -[Mike] It's pretty enough.
[Jerry] It's pretty, that's for sure.
[Mike] You know, this waterless condenser's
got eight different coils on it.
A hundred and seventeen feet
with eight jars hanging from it as well.
-We gotta put some mash in it and... -[Richard] Yep.
[Mike] ...see if we can't get it going on.
This has gotta work.
We've got four different types of berries
in eight different barrels.
[both] Whoa.
[Mike] Raspberry, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.
This is a very expensive mash,
and we only have so much of it to go around.
Fingers crossed, we got a lot riding on this.
My trust is going in Jerry.
It's either gonna go up in smoke
or it's gonna work.
[Jerry] Let's light her up.
So, we all got a lot riding on this.
But myself, I feel like has even more.
You know, I've convinced these guys that this will actually work.
But we'll know if it works if we start seeing liquor in these jars.
-[Jerry] Yeah. -[Mike] That's right.
Mike's trusted me over the years
to come up with some crazy things,
and we've had pretty good success of making things work.
And I feel like this is gonna no different.
It's just now gotten to the T in that one.
Oh, [bleep], we got steam there.
[Mike] Oh, we got steam, buddy.
-[Jerry] Ah, crap. -[Richard] We got steam.
-[Mike] That ain't no good there. -[Richard] No.
We got steam blowing all over the place.
-[Mike] This ain't good, Jerry. -That's money.
[Jerry] Man, we got, we got money flying in the air right now, right now.
[Mike] Too much.
We got mash in here that we're wasting, man.
I realize that, I understand that.
This is disheartening, man.
I'm looking up at this thing.
That's our product,
that's our expensive berry mash.
That's the customer's.
Everything's just going up in smoke.
Well, we better shut it down and get the hell out of here.
The damn birds are getting drunk.
[Jerry] Wait, wait. Hold on a second.
Guys, did you happen to notice something?
A little bit of a breeze come through just a second ago?
How it just, like, it stopped steaming...
-[Mike] It started condensing. -..and condensing.
-[Jerry] Look at that, man. -[Mike] That is starting to fill the jars up.
Just that little bit of air, a little bit of breeze, man,
is, is making that thing condense.
All of a sudden, a breeze comes by
and the leaves starts moving, the trees starts blowing,
starts right back to condensing.
We're this close. We're close to having it.
But we can't make the damn wind blow all the time.
[Jerry] Well, I mean, we can.
I mean, I think I know a way we can actually,
put us some fans on here.
[Mike] Gotta have electricity.
Yeah, you do. You got to have power.
Let's run back to the shop.
I got, I got some little, little, uh, Hobby Fans in there.
Get 'em installed, I like that.
We need to figure out something.
Right now, we need to kill this thing
and quit wasting our mash.
-[Jerry] We go to the shop and get this done. -[Mike] Let's get it.
Well, Phyllis, kind of our last resort here.
[Mike] And it, by God, better work too.
[Jerry] This waterless condenser,
this is something we have to have right now.
We got this deadline. We have no water.
We've gotta make this happen one way or the other.
All we gotta have is just a little bit more airflow.
You know, I'm thinking if we just put one motor
and one fan on each coil right at the top,
and we're blowing the cool air from above down onto it,
I think that's all we're gonna need.
We've only got a few days left to get this done.
So we're gonna fix us up some fans and make this system work.
[Richard] Where are we gonna get the electricity from?
We're gonna put this on a bunch of batteries?
We could. But I think it'll be very costly.
And we'll be changing batteries all the damn time.
You ever heard of the Peltier cell?
So I come up with an idea to use the Peltier cell.
As long as you can keep one side of it hot
and one side of it cold,
it will actually move electrons and produce power.
And these are, like, a volt and a half per pad.
-[Mike] Okay. -[Jerry] Got eight motors,
but we're gonna need 16 of these things.
So we got plenty of heat off the still.
The idea is we're gonna take and put a motor
and a propeller on each coil.
It should be able to move enough air keep this thing cool.
We'll heat this little block of metal up,
before it rips into the heat of our still.
This heat sink is gonna keep the one side cool,
and this is gonna be our warm side here.
We've got a big heat sink with fins on it on the outside.
Keep it cool to be able to dissipate the heat
via the air.
We'll have that heat on there.
Told you it'll work. [laughs]
How is that even possible?
[Jerry] Moving electrons.
So Jerry's gonna take at least 16 Peltier cells
and bolt them together
and then stick it to the side of the still column.
It'll generate power to make the fans work.
Keep enough airflow going around
this waterless condenser system that we've got
to create good alcohol.
Let's go get it hooked up.
We ain't got no more damn time to burn.
I know that.
-[Howard] Tim! -[Tim] Howard!
The season just changed overnight.
Today is not your typical rum weather.
Didn't know it was gonna rain and get cold like this.
It's almost like snowing.
[Howard] But this is backwoods Virginia style.
So we're gonna make rum today regardless of the weather.
I'm just glad we got that corn before the rain came.
Well, it might have gave it a little more moisture.
Might have even absorbed a little more sugar.
Well...
that's what I was thinking about last night.
You see what I got?
Uh-huh.
I got a pot of water cooking.
Instead of squeeze it out, let's cook it out.
This does not feel like a-a true rum Caribbean style here.
I'm just thinking about what works.
In order to make this corn stalk molasses,
traditionally, he started oppressing it.
Rolling and extracting the flavors and juices from the corn stalk.
[Tim] I don't think you're gonna get much juice out of the stalk.
We should cook it down.
That way, we get all the juice that we can, possibly in it.
All the sugars, the starches.
Everything's gonna come out into the water.
And then we'll take this and put it in a-in a barrel to ferment.
-All right. I like the way this is going. -Okay.
All right. I'm gonna get the truck. I'll be right back.
[Tim] Howard would've got a press
and he would have tried to press
the juices out. You know, like a traditional rum.
There you go. Come on. Come on.
But, you know, with me,
coming from the backwoods, uh, moonshining,
we cook the corn to get starch converging
so we can get all the sugars to release.
So we-we gotta get this out here.
This stuff here you don't need.
-[Howard] Oh, that's the good stuff. -And an ear of corn.
You can shell that up. Yeah.
-Shell it. Shuck it and shell it. -Shell it. Shuck it.
A lot of these stalks have corn on them.
You want to put the whole thing in the pot?
No. Here.
See this? Look.
And they're-they're really nice ears of corn.
So I'm thinking we'll just enhance the flavor more.
All right. Get your cutter.
-Uh-huh. Uh-huh. -Uh-huh!
Come on in there Get in there.
-[Howard straining] -Just-just cut it.
I'm getting... I'm... It's getting cold out here.
You're getting tired. Is that what you're about telling me?
I'm not getting tired.
-I'm just... -'Cause there's no way you get tired.
-I'm the one doing all the work. -I'm not getting tired,
you're just taking too much time.
You know, looking at these corn stalks,
I wish they was a little bit greener.
I ain't worried that it won't make a decent amount of alcohol.
You know, I think we need some sugar.
We're gonna have to add some sugar.
And if you want rum taste, we've got to put brown sugar.
So we're not gonna be able to yield
what we need just off the corn stalk.
We're gonna have to add something.
[Tim] I mean, I don't... I don't think so, Howard.
[Howard] Corn stalk molasses.
It's only corn stalk.
[Tim] Put a little bit in there.
[Howard] But with Tim's spin on it,
brown sugar's gonna give the pop we need
to actually make something that tastes like a regular rum.
I'll tell you what, Tim.
We got something right here. We've got a concoction.
I smell the sweetness.
-I smell the corn stalk. -Yeah.
[Howard] I smell, like... It's amazing.
[Tim] I think I'm good to cut the heat off.
[Howard] That's what we're looking for right there, right?
-You want all this to break down and come out of it. -Yeah. Break it down.
[Howard] What's next then?
[Tim] I would dump it in the barrel.
Let it cool down.
Sprinkle a little yeast on it.
Let it work.
[Tickle] All right, fellas.
-So we got another one. -[Henry] Yup.
[Tickle] Yeah. If it keeps going the way it is,
we're gonna have to have a junkyard out here.
We had a really rough start to our season this year.
With Josh being hurt
and Kenny being out of commission,
that set us way back.
But now the restaurant's going
and it's bringing in money.
And our bootlegging operation,
well, we've got that in full swing, too.
I just hope we can keep both of these things going together.
All right. Went in.
Everything been going all right with these transports?
Oh, my God, dude, this is phenomenal.
In the past, we went through a lot of great lengths
to be able to make liquor, hide liquor, haul liquor.
This roll back and the junk cars,
it's just done right up under everybody's nose. It's great.
Hell, yeah.
[Tickle] All right.
We've got one out and one in.
I'm gonna have to go over there and check on everything.
Make sure it's running smoothly.
-Keep it rolling. -But I'll be back as quick as I can, all right?
-Take your time, man. Take your time. -All right.
[cell phone ringing]
[Henry] Hello?
-[man on phone] Mr. Law? -Yeah.
[man] Where's my stuff?
What you mean where's your stuff?
It should be there. I should have been there an hour ago.
-You been there? -[man] Uh,
been here all day.
Let me call you back in a few minutes.
What the hell?
Give Josh a call here.
[line ringing]
Somebody's got it.
Our man don't have it.
[line continues ringing]
-[Josh on phone] Hey, buddy. -Josh.
Listen, man.
The guy that we made delivery to
just contacted me and said that, uh, there's no vehicle there.
[Josh laughing] Yeah, right, man. It's there. I promise.
The black car. The man's called...
[Josh] I just told you everything's like it's supposed to be.
Well, it should be there.
Where'd you take it to?
Went to 38, Doe Run.
No. 68.
You need to get over and get that vehicle.
If the landowner found it and saw the liquor in it,
the law could be waiting on you when you get there.
-[Henry] Josh, did you hear what I said? -[Josh] I did.
[Henry] All right. Be careful.
[line disconnects]
[Mike] Damn, these fans better work, Jerry.
Don't like tea.
[Jerry] I got faith in them, man.
You know, the last time that we done this run, this water was condensing.
We needed just a little bit more airflow.
So Jerry's come up with the idea
to install some fans on this thing.
I feel good about it. I mean, we've got a system that's
very unique.
And the way the system works is you have to keep one side hot,
which we've already got and put it against the still,
and the other side just needs to be cool,
which I've got a big heat sink.
We're just gonna sandwich all this together.
Once it heats up the heat sink should keep it cool
and the system should work.
[Mike] All I can tell you is this mash
has got to be run off today or it's gonna miss the wedding.
What side we want this on?
-The back side? Okay. -It goes on the back side over there.
So we've got eight electric fan blades
that we're gonna install on each coil.
Man, it looks like we're trying to build
a CB talking tower.
-[Jerry laughing] -With all these wires.
But I'm thinking these little fans may have just enough airflow
to actually make this thing condense alcohol.
You know, even on the hottest day in the summer in South Mississippi,
if the wind blows, you're gonna get cooled off.
Same concept right here at the still site.
Do or die time. Fire in the hole.
[mimics explosion] There it is.
This has got to daggone work.
If it don't, we are up the creek
without a paddle, that's for sure.
You know, right now we're watching everything with an eagle eye.
Our plate's starting to get pretty warm back here.
This thing's getting hot.
I'm hoping these fans will start up at any second
and, you know, this Peltier system
will actually work.
It's starting to drip, guys.
The first few drips we're getting,
they're starting to come out kind of blue.
We're not worried about this being discolored at all.
This is just the heads.
This is what we expect in a brand new system.
It needed to be cleaned properly,
and that's what it's doing right now.
Come on, fans.
Time to get movin'.
You know, just like last time here,
everything's heating up,
alcohol is starting to drip in the jars.
But these fans are not working.
That one's steaming.
Damn, it's steaming out all them sons of bitches now.
You just can't see it.
You know, if all these fans don't start turning,
the steam is gonna go up through the air,
just like last time.
The plate's getting hot like we anticipated it.
But it heated up so slow,
it's allowed everything to get hot
before these things actually started working.
The damn fans ain't working.
We got less than 24 hours.
You know, we may never get to sell liquor in this daggone town again
if we don't make this order for this wedding.
This is a small place.
What the hell are we gonna do to make it stop steaming up?
[insects trilling]
[Josh] We done dropped the doggone car off at the wrong spot.
Hopefully, nobody hasn't seen anything or...
chances are, though, that's very slim.
Henry calls me, tells me that
the liquor is dropped off at the wrong place.
I'm sick.
My biggest fear about all this is I'm gonna pull up
and the cops are gonna be there.
If I pull up
and there's nobody around, nobody saw it,
and I can load it back up,
we're gonna be good.
But who knows what's gonna happen?
I don't see anybody.
I think we're good.
I hope we are.
Luckily, there's no cops.
It don't look like anybody's been here.
[whirring]
It looks like I got by this one
by the skin of my damn teeth right here, buddy.
I'm telling you right now.
We're gonna get it, and we're gonna run.
[whirring]
[man] Hey, man.
What the hell is going on?
What is this piece of crap?
I was wondering the same thing.
I was wondering why in the world was I dropping
this piece of crap off at such a nice house.
But they called me a while ago
and told me I hit the wrong address. So...
here I am, picking it up, I'm moving it.
-My apologies. -[man] Man, get this piece of crap and get out of here.
[Josh] Apologize, man.
From now on, whoever the buyer is,
they're gonna have to be there
to make sure that the frickin' product
is where it's supposed to be.
Even if I don't gotta talk to them,
they just come out and wink their [bleep] eye at me or something.
Whatever it might be.
I'm never gonna allow this to happen again.
[Jerry] All right, guys. Moment of truth. Here we go.
Let's see if this works.
We're bypassing the Peltier system,
and hooking a battery straight to the fans
and hoping that works.
[Richard] Keep your fingers crossed.
[Mike] Whoo-hoo!
We got daggone fan power, baby!
Boom!
Jerry hooks it to the battery. These things are turning.
They're running wide open.
We're happy as all get out.
But, you know, the thing that I'm thinking about is,
is he gonna move enough air to keep this rig cool enough
to keep it condensing down into these jars
without going up into the air.
That's a lot of wind coming off of there.
All that does is keep that air moving around them coils,
and we're gonna be in good shape.
Hey, y'all, we're dripping, right there.
-[Jerry] Sure. -We got alcohol.
We're starting to fill up our jars with alcohol.
We dumped all of our heads out of the jars,
screwed them back on.
The alcohol is nice and clear.
It's getting into the jars now.
Fingers crossed. I'm hoping we get through this whole run.
It's cooling good. It's condensing really good.
[Mike] Them jars is filling up, guys.
This thing's working the way it's supposed to now, baby.
The true test, though, is...
how this tastes.
I'm going to tell y'all something right now.
That's the best berry fruity brandy
I believe we've ever made, son.
But it definitely needs tempering down.
It's high proof and you can taste the berries in it.
The flavor is just incredible.
I had a real strong, like, almost like
a blackberry taste on the front side of it.
This four-berry brand we produced
has turned out to be top shelf.
I think that's gonna be a wedding specialty, right there.
Oh, man! Somebody's getting pregnant tonight!
[all laughing]
Me and the guys knocked it out of the park.
[Mike] We got it going on now.
With this system we built, you can run liquor without water.
This opens up a whole lot more possibilities.
You know, the good thing is, we're gonna keep being able
to run this still site, stay here,
and keep on running the rest this season.
Let's kill this son of a gun, get the heck out of here and go make some money.
You know what? We've pulled this run off.
We've got 20 gallons of alcohol to go temper down
to get to our customer.
You gotta hand it to old Jerry.
He comes up with a lot of crazy ideas.
They may not work right at first,
but he keeps piddling with it,
by God, till it does.
[Jerry] Let's get out of here.
[Mike] Let's go make a payday.
[Richard] Let's go make some bows.
Fellas, what are we doing around here today?
Anytime I'm dealing with any kind of flavors,
I call my man, Howard.
You have tasted
probably whatever alcohol has ever been produced in the world.
It's called alcoholism on the slide,
but I mean, whatever you want to... how you want to deal this.
Howard drinks all the time.
Smells like passion fruit.
I feel like passion's in there.
Passion fruit?
He's a secret weapon here.
-That's a little butterscotch-y. -Butterscotch?
I mean, is that lard?
He knows really what's out there.
He knows what people are drinking.
Mmm. This one smells naughty.
This right here smells like bad decisions on a Friday night.
Only problem with this bottle,
I'mma have to do something to earn it.
-[exclaims] -I knew that was gonna happen.
Okay.
[Tim] We only broke one bottle.
Not too bad.
I mean, we did want Howard here.
So was that a good bottle or bad bottle?
[Howard] It was a great bottle at one time.
[Josh scoffs] Who the hell parked in the damn way?
Some son of a bitch done pulled the truck
right in the way of the garage, and we can't even pull up
to get the car. I don't get it.
[horn tooting]
Right behind that door is a Malibu.
Loaded down with shine, ready to go.
And I'm waiting to be able to get in
to be able to haul it and drop it off.
[horn tooting]
Come on, man. Damn!
[horn tooting]
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Boss man, I got 100 people in there.
We gotta lay off that horn, man.
First of all, whose truck is in the way?
Why is it blocking the door?
Second of all, where's Henry and everybody at?
Josh, I-I don't have an answer.
Just lay off the horn, and give me a minute.
-All right? -I'm just trying to get her done and be gone.
I know, I know. Me, too.
-All right? All right. -[Josh] Right on.
I have a restaurant packed full of people.
Now I've gotta try to figure out whose truck this is?
I've got enough to contend with.
Yeah. We're not really working on trucks anymore.
I'm just using this mainly as storage.
Turns out this guy's truck was just giving him problems,
and he thought this was a working shop.
[engine starts]
This could pose as problems in the future.
[truck dings]
-All right. -[brake hissing]
He said he was just trying to get his truck worked on.
Thought he could kill two birds with one stone.
[Henry] That was a close call.
Hey, on the bright side, he said he loved the food.
-That's good. -So you got a few dollars off of it?
Yeah. I at least got that.
[whirring]
It was one thing to be using this
while this restaurant wasn't open.
But now that this place is so busy,
it's just too many eyes around.
You got that back chain up?
-All that stuff ready to go? -Yeah.
My wife and I have put everything we've got
into getting this restaurant open.
Our entire life is invested in this.
I've got to pull the plug on this operation.
Henry, this ain't gonna work, man.
[Henry] It's not gonna work?
It's too hot right here.
There's too many people right here.
Damn, Tickle, we've got a lot in it, man.
We've got two guys. They know where to come
to make the delivery for our liquor.
We've got the vehicles set up.
I mean, I thought it worked smooth as hell.
I mean, it was a great idea
until I got this restaurant open.
I've got 100 people in there
in the parking lot full, waiting to get in.
What if that guy came up and looked in here
and saw y'all loading the car?
-What... What... -No matter where he goes, it's gonna be what ifs.
I mean, I get that, Henry, but you got to look at it from my side.
I've got everything I own in that restaurant.
If I lose that, I'm probably gonna lose my wife.
We put a whole lot of work in this operation.
You know, I like it. It's really working out real well. But...
the bottom line is, this is tickles building.
If he wants us to move out, we've got to move out.
We're just gonna have to come up with something else.
[Howard] Tim, I'm pretty confident in this right here, man.
I think everything's gonna come out perfect.
You know, today's the day. We gotta check to see if this mash came through for us.
I hope everything pans out like it should
to prove Tim that I could do the research
and bring a good recipe to the plate.
[Tim] Oh, yeah.
-[Howard] Look at that. -[Tim] Looks good.
Looks good. Smells good.
-[Tim] Smells good. -It tastes great, Tim.
You can taste the actual corn stalks. Flavor's there.
[Tim] I mean, that's a very unique flavor.
And if it tastes this good,
just imagine what it's gonna taste like when we distill it.
What type of still you think we should run for this?
Well, I'm thinking about that sotol still.
You know, this still, it's a Mexican style still.
It was a still that we built
to make a rum called sotol from Mexico.
Sotol is a plant-based mash.
This is plant-based because we're using corn stalks.
So it's the same process, I think,
and I think it would go well.
Well, let's get this still and get to goddang operating.
When making a rum, you've got two things going on.
You want that rich, deep flavor of the rum.
And also, you want that alcohol.
You want some power behind it.
When you drink some rum, you get the feeling.
You get the effects from it.
-Don't lose it, Howard. -[Howard] I ain't losing it.
-All right. -[Tim] Get it. Watch it. Get it under there.
The sotol still actually will double
or even triple that alcohol volume there.
So when it comes out,
we're gonna have flavor, and we're gonna have fruit.
Let's get this thing fired up.
[Howard] I'm almost done over here, old buddy.
I've got to seal it up.
[Tim] We got the still all set up.
We got the mash in the still.
We got some heat under this thing.
Right now it's time to just see what happens.
Well, think about it, Howard. It is actually like a cap,
and another cap, another cap.
So it's actually redistilling.
That's real important because it's raising the proof.
I mean, we may be looking at 110, 115 proof coming out.
Howard, we got liquor running.
[Howard] Yes, we do.
[Tim] I just can't wait till we get through these heads
-so we can taste it. -[Howard] Yeah.
So, you know, after this, we'll use the old filter
and built it for the next jar.
This corn stalks was almost dried out.
They didn't have any juice in them at all,
but because we soaked them in the water,
I mean, we getting corn stalk liquor.
I mean, this is incredible.
Howard, look at that.
-And feel it. And I can smell it. -[Howard laughing]
That brown sugar's coming through
-just like it was a rum made from molasses. -Yeah.
[Tim] Howard, let's do a switcheroo here.
[Howard] Well, I think we need to taste it.
[Tim] I think we do. Are you ready?
Damn right, I'm ready. I've been waiting on all this for weeks.
Huh?
-Howard, we got something right there. -Let-Let me try.
-I mean, this is good. -I understand.
-I don't know. I-I mean... -Just hold on here.
Hold on. Let me make sure it's right.
I mean, I made a whole lot of liquor in my days.
I never ever would've even thought
that this would've came from corn stalks.
I mean, it's corn liquor. It's rum.
It just tastes good.
-Oh, God. It's smooth, too. -[Tim] Yeah.
-No burn. -No.
No one's ever tasted anything like this, Howard.
If they have, they dead.
[laughing]
People are just going to go crazy over this.
I mean, I'm crazy over it right now.
This has such a unique flavor profile.
I did not imagine that this taste
would come out of some corn stalk.
So you believe me now?
I do believe in you.
And I believe we got something we need to take to the market.
I'm pretty proud of myself for finding this recipe.
It was him that came back and kind of found all the solutions
and extra additives and make this actually turn into something great.
But we can't take away from the fact that it was my idea.
[Tim] We got something to work with right there.