[narrator] This time on Moonshiners...
All right. I'll just get a couple nails in it.
This is a still we've never built.
I need this still to come together quick
and I need this still to come together right.
There's a leak right here on the corner.
[Henry] We got a major leak over here.
Damn, that thing's gushing.
[Amanda speaking]
Why would we not be searching for the next big thing?
This is what we do.
-What'll it taste like? -[Amanda] No, don't.
They can make you sick if you eat them raw.
We wanted a fresh new brandy in their catalog.
I'm hoping she's found it.
It's a fish, then get it.
I've got a big order.
So I've come up this idee,
take it down the river.
How this thing ain't got no steering, Mark?
You can't steer it.
You just going around in a circle.
5:00.
This is a problem,
a big problem.
[Digger] This is how we make the moonshine.
[country music playing]
[Mark] Would you like some liquor?
[Digger] We would love some liquor.
[narrator] In Cocke County, Tennessee,
with moonshine season near its summertime peak,
Mark and Digger's outlaw operation
is producing upwards
of 300 gallons of liquor a week,
giving them freedom to innovate.
That's 120 gallons of liquor.
That's what we wanted.
Outstanding, guys.
You know, we've got a surplus
of just everyday liquor.
-Yeah. -So, you know,
maybe we need to explore some new recipes.
If we can find the next split brandy,
which is a combination
of grains and fruits that pair well together,
we're going to pull out all the stakes on it
and see if it's gonna go over, if it's gonna be a flop.
Why would we not be searching for the next big thing?
This is what we do.
Guys, you've just worked really hard.
-I'm proud as hell of you. -Well, thank you.
But we still want you to work a little harder.
We need to come up with something different,
keep people fresh.
These grain fruit recipes are selling awful good.
Won't y'all just land on another fruit?
Anything but strawberry or blackberry.
Of course, we don't gotta drink it.
We just ain't fans of blackberries ourselves.
Whenever Mark and Digger give me the opportunity
to come up with a new recipe,
I get pretty excited.
So last year,
someone brought to me my great-grandfather
had a couple recipes
of different fermentations that he was doing.
[Mark] Your great-grandfather?
My great-grandfather.
And I didn't even know about this.
There's an elderberry recipe
that actually calls for two parts raisins
and one part elderberry and then rye.
It's a good choice because the sweetness of the fruit
balances out with the spicy of that rye.
The people in our region, they know the scarcity
of these elderberries.
Well, that'll ring true with them
when it comes time to put this on the market.
You pair it up with the fact it's gonna be a limited run,
that gets people's mouths watering a little bit.
[Kelly] What does an elderberry actually taste like?
-It's tart. -Tastes like a blueberry,
except it's... Like you said...
-[Amanda] Yeah. -it's a little more tart in them.
-Elderberry. -I don't reckon I've ever had one.
-They're little bitty. -[Amanda] Yeah.
And they're really, really good for you.
They're, like, super food.
You know, as far as my personal experience with elderberries,
I've had a little wine.
I've had jams and jellies.
These berries are expensive and hard to come by.
I don't even have a clue
where any damn elderberries are.
[Digger] I don't either.
Amanda, there used to be a woman,
bring my mama a gallon of elderberries
and a gallon of huckleberries every year.
And she always said she went up on Max Patch.
-It's just a mountain bald. -Okay.
You gotta go on past Lemon Gap,
past the Rattlesnake Campground.
Well, we can go up through the gulf to get there.
We can go out of Harmon's Den.
And if we can get enough together
to do a decent sized run...
I think you owe it to your great grandpa.
You know, there's no doubt in my mind
that this would be a good selling liquor
if it turns out good,
simply because of the rarity of the elderberries.
We can go look, and I like riding in the mountains.
We wanna find that next big thing.
You know, like we tell everybody,
the best jar of liquor ain't been made yet.
So, we're still looking for it.
[Amanda] I'm excited.
I think it's gonna be really cool.
Yeah. There we go.
[narrator] In Rocky Mount, Virginia,
after getting reprimanded by his wife, Carol,
for mistakenly ordering $1,800 worth of blueberries
for their restaurant...
[Carole] This is not okay.
This is a lot of money.
They perish quickly.
We can't be making huge mistakes like this.
[narrator] Tickle turns to his outlaw partners
to construct a traditional deadman still,
to quickly convert the costly fruit
into profitable blueberry brandy.
[Tickle] What do y'all think about that?
Man, it's nice. I like that.
Now my wife, she's pretty upset
that I made this big mistake with the blueberries.
I told her I was gonna handle it.
But now if I have a problem
and I can't come up with this money,
something goes wrong,
boy, I got to think my wife's not gonna be happy at all.
Henry, I ain't never built one of these deadman stills
you're talking about out.
What does that even look like?
Maybe six feet in length,
maybe three-foot wide,
two and a half foot tall, something like that.
It goes back to my ancestors before prohibition.
I see why they call it a deadman still.
It's basically a rectangle box.
Look like something you'd bury somebody in.
Yeah. Let's get some milling done.
[Tickle] All right. Let's get these logs rolling.
Now with not a lotta money for materials,
I'm gonna pull my sawmill up here to Henry's.
He's got some timber that come down
where he cleared some of his property.
I'm gonna take that timber
and I'm gonna turn it into lumber.
[saw whirring]
[Tickle speaking]
And we're gonna get enough of it
where we can build us a still.
All right. Number one.
All right, Tickle. Keep them coming.
We use white pine. We build our stills.
We never use poplar,
'cause poplar would crack on you.
We never use oak.
Oak just will not swell
just like that white pine will.
A lotta people say, "Oh, my gosh."
You see big gaps in it,
but you throw that water to it
and swell it up, and it'll hold water.
It'll hold mash.
Henry, you reckon that's gonna be enough?
I think so, Tickle.
I mean, I think this will make one side.
This next will make another side,
and that should leave enough for the top.
All right. Let's do it.
You know, I've got a lot riding on this.
This is a still we've never built.
I need this still to come together quick
and I need this still to come together right.
-All right. -Let's get this stuff unloaded, guys.
[Paige] This seems built.
[Tickle] Because when the mash is ready,
you've got to run it.
Hey, Paige, this is your grandpa's clamps.
Yeah. Them things are a good 100 years old, man.
Moonshiners are the salt of the earth, man.
Things are always tough for moonshiners.
You can't use brand new stuff all the time.
You gotta go out and salvage stuff.
You gotta come up with different ideas.
If you can't get metal, what do you do?
You build your still out of wood.
You tell me that don't look like a coffin.
Why don't y'all just get a couple nails in it.
You know, a lot of these guys, they want to use screws
to nail their stills up.
Screws don't hold up.
You gotta use nails.
If you don't, when you get weight on that still
and pressure on it from running it,
it'll push those screws out.
You got to use those long nails.
Mmm-hmm. Beauty.
I just hope it can swell enough by the morning
because I need to run it in the morning.
-All right. -If we leave it overnight,
we'll get it done.
[Tickle] Everything about this whole process
has been a big rush.
By tomorrow morning, it'll be full.
Yeah.
[Tickle] This is an old-time still.
We've never used one of these.
We've never built one of these.
So, it's really up in the air on what's gonna happen.
See what happens in the morning, it's all we can do.
Boy, I tell you what, it's dangerous being on the road.
Big load of liquor, so many checkpoints nowadays.
Yeah. If we can just make it
to where we're gonna get her in the water,
I think we'll be in the clear then.
-[Huck] Yeah. -I think.
[narrator] In Graham County, North Carolina,
with nearly 100 gallons of liquor to deliver
to a client 7 miles downriver,
outlaw shiner and reluctant bootlegger, Mark Rogers
and his partner, Huck,
prepare to test the makeshift paddleboat they built
to complete the sail.
Oh, I'll be glad to get this load delivered.
I'll tell you that.
I just hope everything goes
-smoothly. -Me too.
[Mark Rogers] We're on our way to launch it the first time.
I've got a big order this year.
This feller told me that he'd take everything I could make.
But the problem is
trying to move that much liquor down the road
and over the mountains, through the woods.
It's hard to get it there without getting caught,
taking a chance.
So, I've come up this idee
to mill me a good stout raft,
put all of it in it,
and take it down the river.
If anything goes wrong,
we're dead in the water.
And the only way... One way to find out,
put it in there and try it,
we'll see what our boat's fixing to do
right here.
Yeah, this boat's a whole lot heavier
than I was figuring on.
We had to put a extra floor in it.
We got her stuffed slap full of liquor.
We got six boxes down each side of the floor.
Every jar we can get in it,
a case or better in each box,
it's gonna be heavy.
It's got me worried how good it'd float.
[sighs] Let me unhook this wench, now.
Here we go.
[Huck] If this fails, I don't know.
There'll be liquor scattered everywhere.
It'll be in the bottom of the river.
I don't know.
It's gonna be a long winter.
It's gonna be a... It's gonna be a blue Christmas.
Now, let's hold it there a second.
Let's watch him and see if it sinks.
[laughter]
Yeah. Well, she's afloating, ain't she?
We shoved her into the water.
That boat float.
Sort of surprised, but I'm glad it did.
Are you ready to see how it works?
I reckon.
I feel a little better.
Ready to try her out down the river now.
[boat engine revving]
All right, see how she do.
[boat engine revving]
[Mark Rogers] It's a-pushing.
It's a-pushing good.
[laughs] Woo-wee.
That's the best sail I've ever had.
Now we're chugging.
We're doing something.
Turn right away and see if it turns.
Just lay her all the way over.
[Huck] It ain't steering too good, though, Mark.
-It ain't? -No.
Dadgummit.
How this thing got no steering, Mark?
We're gonna have to do something.
I don't know what.
You can't steer it.
You just go around in a circle.
Well, that's all he's a-doing.
I'll tell you what, this rudder is useless
as tits on a boar hog.
Now that's useless.
Our stern ain't working worth a dime.
Uh-uh.
Well, we built this big square boat
because we want it to float good, you know.
But it hurt us on our steering it.
That boat is so heavy.
Once that weight gets started,
takes a long time to get it started back the other way.
When did that bootlegger say?
-5:00. -5:00?
That steering's really got us messed up.
And time is really important to us right now.
If we can't get out of here, you know, in time,
that bootlegger's gonna be gone.
Then the sale's over.
This is a problem, big problem.
I have to do something, man.
[Amanda speaking]
-I hope. -If we don't find any elderberries,
we are not making any elderberry split whiskey, that's for sure.
Kelly and I are heading to the top of the mountain
in his ATV.
The whole idea for this quest
is make the next best split brandy.
Mark and Digger signed off on an elderberry rye,
so all that's left to do is for us
to score some elderberries.
We're looking for a shrub
and they're, like, bright purple.
When they get really ripe,
they're almost like a dark purple,
like a black color.
Elderberry, it's like a tart fruit.
They're really sought after for all different kinds
of medicinal things.
It's a rare precious commodity of a fruit.
So combining elderberry and rye together,
I think this might be exactly what Mark and Digger
need to try out.
Is that elderberries?
Is that what that is?
It's... That's just a flower.
Yeah, I don't know what that is
but that's not an elderberry.
We're up here based on Digger's recommendation,
but I have no idea when the last time
his source found elderberries here.
I think that we should try to go up a little higher.
Hang on.
[Amanda] I had researched on my phone
what elderberries look like.
They're really small little berries
and they basically grow in this, you know,
umbrella-shaped bunches.
Back in the day, my great-grandfather
must have been to find elderberries in the wild
and he was using them to ferment.
So if he can do it,
I should be able to too.
Well, I'm gonna let you wander down in the snake den.
Awesome. Thanks.
Yeah.
These are pokeberries, Kelly,
-not elderberries. -[Kelly chuckles]
We are basically stopping to look at anything
that looks purple.
If my great-grandpa is looking down on me,
if you're up there, man,
can you please just point us
in the direction of some elderberries?
Please.
For me to think that I could just
cover the ground of an entire mountain
and hopefully find these elderberries,
maybe I was a little ambitious.
Just gonna try not to break my neck here.
Is that them?
Those leaves, it looks like
what the elderberry plants look like but...
We've been looking for quite some time
for these elderberries.
And off in the distance,
I see this river.
There's a purple droopy-looking plant
that looks like it might be elderberries.
There's big clusters on that.
-[Kelly] Are you kidding me? -[Amanda] Yeah,
it's just directly here hanging over the river.
And they're ripe. Wow.
I can't believe we just found elderberries right now.
This is the first elderberry plant we come across.
Thank God there's a lot on here.
Here, you want me to get it?
Oh, wow.
They are not really edible in their raw form.
Elderberries have something, like, cyanide,
which can be toxic if not cooked properly.
Look at them all down there.
It's like the Holy Grail.
All of this work we've been through
and I can't even taste the elderberries yet.
So it's gonna be really interesting
to put these into a spirit
and see what comes out.
Elderberry rye, here we come.
We're sitting ducks right now, Mark.
We're just going around in circles.
-He said 5:00? -5:00.
Dadgummit.
The bootlegger's supposed to meet us at a certain time
in the third cove down the river.
What do you think?
[Huck] I don't know but that ain't gonna work.
[Mark Rogers] We've got to come up with something
to steer this boat.
I don't know what to think.
Do you?
I wonder if it steer it better from the back.
-[Huck] I don't know. -I'll tell you what I can do, I can try.
We can take it off and put it in the back,
see if it's steering better.
First time I tried is putting the rudder on the back.
Let's try something.
That front sure ain't working.
Let me see if I had hit that paddle.
I'm just trying to hold it, see if it would steer it.
If it would, I was gonna move my brakes
and everything to the back.
The handle will be sliding on you, Mark.
-You know what I mean? -Yeah.
[Huck] Yeah, we're scrambling now
and we realize we needed that rudder on the back.
There's just no way that we can fix that now.
We're on the water and we're going down the river.
Let me try something with this paddle.
If you'll steer it, I'll see if I can guide it
with this paddle.
See if it will.
-If I drive it? -[Mark Rogers] Yeah.
-Power him up. -Power him up.
[engine revving]
Land [indistinct]
There we go.
[Huck] That's not working, Mark.
It's turning it some, ain't it?
Better than it was.
As usual, everything I do is always a hard way.
Only way to steer it is to paddle.
Just gonna have to paddle to get it that far
down the river.
We got it going now,
maybe we'll be okay.
We're moving along pretty good.
[Huck] Right now, running behind.
I don't think the bootlegger would wait on us too long.
You know, we gotta get on down the river.
Now, I believe we're in business.
I'll look like Popeye, like, I get done with this.
You'll have some muscles.
[country music playing]
All right. I took your screen.
-All right. -[laughter]
I am so relieved.
Today is the day that we're gonna run
this blueberry mash and you know what?
That puts me one step closer
to refunding my bank account for my restaurant.
Oh, yeah.
-Looks good. -Mmm-hmm.
I'm sure it does.
Now, the mash,
I'm liking the way it looks.
I'm tasting plenty of alcohol in it.
You know, on a normal basis,
what I would do is give this plenty of time to work off.
I'd give this still plenty of time to swell up.
But you know what?
Right now, we're running on the fly
and we're doing what we gotta do
when we gotta do it.
Dead man's chest.
[Henry] Almost looks like a casket.
I hope this thing's swollen up enough, man.
And we just got this together
and threw the water in it.
And it's been sitting all night.
Once we put your mash in
and throw the cap on there,
it's gonna start putting pressure back,
'cause it's gotta push that steam
all the way to the thumper.
So only thing we can do now is hope
that it's tight enough to hold this mash.
[dramatic music playing]
[Henry] Yeah, baby, fire in the hole.
[Tickle] You know, I wonder what my employees would think
if they knew the payroll was sitting right here in this pot.
They'll probably be awful nervous.
[Tickle] They... Yeah, they might be
awful nervous, huh?
We're starting to get some of these heads off of it.
You're steaming your water out of this dirt over here.
I hope that's not leaked.
Yeah, this is just the water in the dirt.
That's all that is.
You know, everything's looking good,
everything's holding tight.
But now, as everything starts getting hot,
that's when the pressure of the steam starts building
inside of this still.
-Keep your eyes open. -[man] All right.
[Henry] Get your rag, get your knife.
Get a little bit of paste in your hand.
Anything at all if you see
the slightest little bit of steam, plug it.
There's a little tiny bit of a leak right here
on the bottom in the corner.
It ain't no whole lot to worry about
but I'm gonna chink it just to make sure
it don't get any worse later on.
[Henry] Tickle, Tickle, we got a major leak over here.
[Tickle] Gushing out over there?
God.
[Henry] Tickle, Tickle, we got a major leak over here.
[Tickle] Damn, that thing's gushing.
Now, when you're running submarine pots,
it's common to find a few small leaks.
But now, this dead man still
being just about all complete wood,
we're finding a bunch of leaks.
I think I got this one stopped, Henry.
Well, you better get over here and fix this other one.
Oh, you got another one?
I got another one leak right here,
this shooting out pretty darn big...
-How big? -between the metal and the wood.
We got the fire under this baby,
lo and behold, that's when everything
started going crazy on us.
A leak here, a leak there.
Paige, he's working on one end,
Tickle's working on another end,
Kenny he's on the front side.
I wonder how many holes we plug so far.
I don't even wanna talk about it.
We're gonna lose a lot of that darn liquor.
And we if we lose that,
we're not making any money for Tickle.
I think I got this one stopped, Henry.
-[Henry] Good. -I just hope we don't have
any more problems.
I can't afford to lose none of this.
-I think you got it, though. -I think that's got that.
I'm gonna fire it up a little bit, she's coming off.
[Kenny] Yeah, you can turn them on up there.
I have to say, this still might've needed
a little more time to swell.
Man, I'm glad you saw that.
You know, I knew it might bite me in the ass,
sacrificing time for speed, and you know what?
Right now, my ass feels like it's been chewed on.
I don't see no more leaks, and that's a good thing.
That's a good thing. Not losing any damn more liquor.
You know, it's kinda crazy we have one little small leak
and the next thing you know,
all hell breaks loose.
Looks like we finally got all the holes plugged
on this deadman pot.
And that's fixing her up.
Yeah, you getting a little drip here now.
[Tickle] Our next step is get this stuff running.
And I tell you what, I can't wait to taste it.
There she goes.
-[Henry] Getting cool, innit? -[Tickle] Yeah, man.
Yeah, there goes. Look at her now.
-She's a-going now. -[Henry] Yeah, baby.
-Let's see what you got. -Mmm. Well, you know what?
I know it's still high proof
but I can taste the blueberry in there.
Oh, yeah. You can tell just exactly
what we got right there now.
[Paige] Yeah, once the proof comes down
on that stuff a little bit, we might have something.
-Yeah. -For real.
I'm... Boy, you know, I'm hoping so.
About the only thing we can do now
is let this start running
and see exactly how much liquor we make
so I know how much product I got to sell.
What is she looking like?
-Oh, yeah. -[Kenny] Hell, yeah.
-Good, huh? -Mmm-hmm.
Good bead on that.
Paige, remember that if you're gonna get top dollar,
you just gotta have a very high bead on,
it's gonna be high proof.
Gonna give you the honors.
Let's see.
-It smells like blueberry. -[Henry] It smells good, man.
-I'mma give it that. -[Henry] Smells good.
Smells good. It smells good.
[Kenny] Pass some of that over here.
Whew. I don't know if I really wanted to pass that jar.
[laughter]
[Tickle] I ain't gonna lie to you.
[Kenny] A good sign, man.
[Tickle] This blueberry worried me to death
but it made some good brandy.
[Henry] Tastes like blueberry pie.
This blueberry brandy, I'll tell you,
it kinda exceeded my expectations.
It turned out really well.
You can really taste the blueberry notes in there,
and the alcohol in it is extremely smooth.
I should have no problem selling this.
15 gallons.
I'm a whole lot happier now
with what it could've been.
[Henry] Absolutely.
Well, let's get it loaded up
and see what we can do about selling it.
[Henry] Yessiree.
-[Amanda] Howdy. -Hi.
So this whole elderberry mash-in
is totally research and development.
This is what an elderberry looks like.
[Mark] Yup.
It's gonna be a learning experience for all of us
because we're all trying to get the hang
of how to mash in an elderberry.
-What do they taste like? -[Amanda] No, don't.
You can't eat the elderberries. Yet.
They can make you sick if you eat them raw.
What are we doing with 'em then?
[Amanda] So we gotta cook 'em.
When we mash them in, they'll be safe to consume.
Well, we'll help him smash this in.
-Well, let's do it. -Yeah, let's get at it.
Now, elderberries have a toxin in 'em
that has to be denatured through boiling.
You've got to get these berries
up to 212 degrees, bare minimum,
and hold it there for about 20 minutes.
You can't just pick these off now and eat them.
You'll be stuck somewhere
with minus two rolls of toilet paper.
Yeah, I think if we cook these in the water,
they should just come right off these stems here.
[Digger] Well, we can shake 'em in the water.
I'm trying to make sure that we get all the stems out.
I don't want them to impart
any kind of a weird, bitter flavor,
and it's just not something that we want in our mash.
[Digger] Nervous, are you?
Smell that higher?
[Amanda] A little bit.
-Look at the color. -Look at this.
Well, it's red. It's a pretty color, ain't it?
Yeah.
Your hand's gonna be that color for a week.
-You know that, right? -Yeah.
You look like you're down coloring Easter eggs.
We start cooking these berries down.
It's a really pretty color.
Hell, I think we need to run with them raisins to it.
We let 'em boil hard,
then we dump in all the raisins.
So the recipe called for a one part elderberry
and two parts raisins, so that's what we got.
As soon as we put them in, we turn the fire out.
These raisins will sink right into the bottom,
and with all the sugar that's in them,
they would scorch.
They would stick to the bottom.
[Amanda] That is hot.
Look at 'em.
They're down to getting unwrinkled.
Raisins are kinda like
the backup team for the elderberries,
so they're there to bring more sugar
and more fruitiness to the party.
50 pounds of grain, 50 pounds of sugar.
We're gonna go heavy with rye in this mash.
Essentially, it's gonna be about 50% rye,
so I got a really, really nice malted rye
to help bring out a sweet, buttery flavor.
I'm hoping that the rye
can go along with the fruitiness
of the elderberries and these raisins,
and they're just gonna meet each other right in the middle
and complement each other nicely.
Well, it's a pretty color, ain't it?
Mmm-hmm.
You can really see how translucent it is
when you... When you see through it.
When we're pouring it.
You can't tell nothing about it down in that bucket.
-I know. -Look how pretty.
Kelly starts bucket-brigading
over this hot mash mixture into the sugar.
It's smelling phenomenal.
This malted barley is really bringing a nice aroma.
[Digger] Fire it up.
[Mark] You know, I think you made a good choice
on the malted rye instead of just rye.
-[Amanda] Yeah. -[Digger] Mmm-hmm.
As far as East Tennessee goes,
this right here is a classic split brandy.
-[Mark] Hello. -That's damn good.
You know, the malted rye will have a spicy peppery note
with a little light earthy tone
that that malt then brings around,
so it should balance out
this really sweet berry really well.
-It's too hot to pitch yeast. -Yeah.
That'd just kill that yeast immediately
or stress it to no end.
I like it. I'm happy with it.
I like it too, Amanda.
You know what I think Pop would say?
-[Amanda] What? -[Mark] Good job, girl.
[engine revving]
[Mark Rogers] I believe this boat pushes
a little to the left all the time too.
[Huck] Yeah. We might have it out of line a little.
As long as we get her delivered, I don't care.
We're on our way down the river.
We can get rid of this big order right here
without no problem.
We should make it pretty good this winter.
You're doing good, Mark.
If you get tired, I'll swap out with you.
[Mark Rogers] One good thing, we ain't seen nobody.
Not getting cold, that's the main thing.
That's it.
We're burning a lot of time on account of this steering
to getting down the river.
We can't waste no more time.
That bootlegger, he might not wait on us long.
Well, I hope it don't rain on us,
it's looking cloudy.
Yeah.
[Huck] Just keep a-doing what you're doing.
Well, we have to watch.
A lot of big rocks.
There's some big ones sticking up right there, Mark.
[Mark Rogers] Yeah, I see it.
You gotta watch for old trees that's fell.
You don't wanna run into them.
Get tangled up and maybe tie your boat up
or something like that with a big load of liquor,
so you have to be real careful.
Let you get it back over this way a little.
[Mark Rogers] Yeah, I'm trying.
We've got lots of liquor
and a lot of money in this boat.
We run that thing around too solid, boy.
I tell you it's gonna be bad.
[Huck] Mark, Mark, Mark, get it to the left.
-Hurry, hurry. -[Mark Rogers] The left?
[Huck] Go to the left if you can.
We've got a big rock coming up. Hurry.
It's gonna be close.
Harder, Mark, harder.
Paddle, paddle.
[Mark Rogers] That's as far as I can go.
Mark, get it to the left. Hurry.
We've got a big rock coming up. Hurry.
Harder, Mark, harder.
Paddle, paddle.
[Mark Rogers] That's as far as I can go.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Huck] You're doing good. You're doing good.
I think we're gonna miss it, though.
You're doing good.
-[Mark Rogers chuckles] -Woo.
Woo. That's close.
[Huck] Well, I'm proud of you.
We don't wanna get tangled up in a mess like that.
It's like smooth sailing.
We're about there.
Around that third bend, ain't it?
-Boy, we gotta go in. -Yeah, down there.
Five o'clock.
We're supposed to be up ahead of that holler down there.
I hope he shows up.
The bootlegger is supposed to meet us
at the third cove down the river.
There's a little trail right there.
He said he'd meet us right there.
[Huck] That's the holler, Marky.
[Mark Rogers] Yeah, it is.
We'll hope we can get her in there.
Well, it's narrow and shallow, Mark.
-We have to be careful. -It is.
[Huck] I need to move,
get over to the right just a little bit.
I can see the bottom right here.
You see him, Mark?
[Mark Rogers] Yeah, I see him up there.
-[Huck] You see him? -[Mark Rogers] He's here.
[Huck] Yeah, I see him now.
Looks pretty solid right there, don't it?
[Mark Rogers] Yeah. Well, we're on the ground.
That's as far as we can get.
Get this over with, Huck.
[Huck] I'll be glad when this is out of this boat.
-There we go. -[Mark Rogers chuckles]
All right, Huck. I guess you can just hand 'em to me
and I can see if I can go to carrying 'em to him.
We put her in there as far as we could get her.
I'm just gonna have to carry it to him.
That's a lot of carrying, all them jars.
It's a hard way of doing things.
[Huck speaking]
[Mark Rogers] It is.
-Taste it? -[man] Yeah.
[man speaking]
[Mark Rogers] Yeah.
[man] Man, that's smooth.
I'd say 100 gallons, that's a lot of liquor.
That's a lot of unloading.
[Mark Rogers] Boy, that's deep.
Water ain't, but the mud is.
Every step, I was getting deeper
and I had to make a lot of trips.
[Huck speaking]
[Mark Rogers] They're slick.
It's gonna take a while.
You talk about hard, that was hard.
[man] Here's your money, Mark.
[Mark Rogers] We appreciate it.
We gotta get out of here. Thank you.
I'm glad this rut is over with.
That was a hard trip, but I'm feeling good.
We got rid of the load
and me and Huck's got a little money in our pocket.
Only thing left now is just get on down the river.
[Huck] Heading home.
[Mark Rogers] Got a pocket full of money.
Whoopie-doo! Land to it.
[Huck] We're good to go.
[upbeat country music playing]
[Kelly] All right, Amanda.
[Amanda] [sighs] Ready to strain some mash?
I reckon. I am.
[Amanda] Ooh, that's a pretty mash.
[Kelly] Mmm-hmm.
Tastes good.
Checking on our mash, the cap fell.
The fermentation looks like it worked off perfectly.
And it tastes really sour
and there's some booze in there.
[Kelly] Oh, yeah, look at that pretty color
on this elderberry.
[Amanda] That is so freaking awesome.
You know, this elderberry mash is worked off.
It's ready to run.
[Amanda] Precious cargo.
[Kelly] Today is the day.
We're gonna gather everything up we need,
get this stuff in the woods, and run it.
[Amanda] I'm excited to see what it's gonna taste like.
I definitely feel a really cool connection
with my great-grandfather right now.
[Kelly] All right, Amanda.
Time to run elderberry rye.
[Amanda] I feel like, in a way,
I'm paying honor to him
and keeping his memory alive.
I could take a little bit of this back to my grandmom
and let her taste what her dad might have made.
He kept these recipes,
so they must have been near and dear to him.
So the fact that I have them and we're recreating it,
it's near and dear to me now too.
Pretty convenient to have two guys
that pretty much have any kind of distillation equipment
you could ever want.
We're gonna set up a 50-gallon
little research and development still
that Mark and Digger lent us.
It's gonna be perfect to make the split brandy on.
Oh, man. That one smells just as good as the other one.
It does.
[Kelly] You know, we may get a good yield out of it.
It may have more alcohol content in it than we think.
I've never heard of anybody having elderberry moonshine,
so this is gonna be rare.
And with a split brandy deal on it,
it should bring a premium price.
Let's fire her off, Amanda.
Wait a minute. Go ahead and cap it.
You know, this small pot,
even though we've never ran it,
just setting it up is a little different.
Perfect.
You know, it's got the clamps on it and everything.
This is gonna be easy-peasy.
It's pushing. You can smell it strong.
-[Amanda] Yeah. -I can smell it.
when I walk back down here while it goes strong.
Right away, it smells really fruity.
I can smell that elderberry coming through.
It's just in the air.
-Oh. -[Kelly] Look at that.
We got liquor. Okay. I'm gonna adjust this--
Now is when you need to let it down.
How much you wanna toss?
Is that enough?
Ooh, Goddamn.
That's strong rocket fuel, but I can smell
that berry in there a little bit.
[Kelly] You know, the thing about it is,
if this small batch is a hit and we need to,
we know to start looking early for elderberries
and where they're at.
And now that we know what they look like,
we'll be able to find 'em a little better.
All right, here goes nothing.
Oh, my God, that's amazing.
Thank you, great grandpa.
-Give me-- -To Bill Fisher, man.
You gotta try that. Woo!
It's just like, holy crap, that is like, no burn.
It is way better than I thought.
There is rye up front
and you get the whiskey, right?
Like boom, it's a sweet, savory rye whiskey.
But on the end, it gets super fruity and complex.
Oh, my God.
It just keeps getting better.
Better and better and better.
This liquor is just
something that I've never tasted before.
It really tastes kinda like grape jelly with a kick.
Your great grandfather would be so proud
to be sitting right there, drinking that with you,
-knowing that you ran that. -I believe it.
I'm super grateful that my great grandfather
saw all the good of this recipe
and thought to preserve it.
And just it was able to come down
through hands into my hands
so that we can make this recipe today.
I'm excited to take this to Mark and Digger
and show 'em what we did.
That is some really good [bleep] right there.
[dramatic music playing]
All I can say, if my payroll is due, Henry,
I gotta get this stuff sold.
[Henry] You know, I got a guy
that sold a lot of peach brandy to.
You know, he didn't take no 15 gallons or anything,
but he would take several gallons every year.
He's got the money. He's definitely got the money.
[Tickle] Get me in the room with him,
and I'll do with my damnedest to sell it.
This blueberry brandy, it turned out really well.
I've really gotta get high dollar out of this.
Now, I could probably get rid of it
in courts here and there,
but I don't got time for all that.
I've gotta get my money back off of these blueberries
or my wife's gonna kill me.
[Henry] Here we are, Tickle.
This is it. Check that house out, man.
[country music playing]
Looks like he's doing all right for his self.
[chuckles] Told you. I told you.
This buddy of mine, every year he throws a big party.
I'm talking a big party.
He's got this huge mansion and all.
You know, money is no problem for him.
If I talk him into taking this blueberry brandy
for his party,
we should be able to sell it and sell it quick
and get a lot of money out of it.
You hit him one side and I hit him for the other side.
Of course, all of us know that
most people's got a pile of money.
They like to sort of squeeze you a little bit
and try to get that good price out of it,
so we might have to squeeze him back.
[Tickle] It's gonna be all right.
-Bryan! -Henry, how are you?
What's up? Great. How you doing?
-Long time. -Well, that's been a while.
I'm good. Thank you.
This is my friend of mine, Tickle.
-Hey, how you doing, boss? -[Tickle] Well.
[Bryan] Is that what I think it is?
Yes, it is.
Come on in for a sec.
[Henry laughs]
[Tickle] Hell, you jump... That's what I like.
-[Henry] There you go. -[Bryan] Have a seat.
What we got going, Bryan?
It's a whole lot different
than what I brought you before,
and that's blueberry.
And have a little sip of that.
It's about 110, 115 proof.
I know how you like it good and high.
-Smooth. -[Henry] Even different.
You're not gonna find it anywhere else.
Nobody's making it.
[Bryan] Sign me up for a few jars.
I'd be happy to grab some.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We can't.
We need to get rid of 15 gallons.
-Whole 15 gallons? -[Henry] Yeah.
I'm trying to get rid of it all in one shot.
Yeah, 15 gallons is a heavy lift.
What are we... What are we talking price-wise?
I kinda need about 200 a gallon.
[Henry] 200 a gallon, we're looking for.
That's a heavier lift.
[intense music playing]
They were hard to find.
What do they taste like?
-[Kelly] You ain't supposed to eat them. -[Amanda] Nope.
When I was a little feller,
everything you picked, you eat,
including your nose.
They got a little bit... A little of cyanide in it.
What it is, they're a little bitty berry.
But for their size, they got a big old seed.
In comparison, probably like a little peach seed.
Really?
[Mark] What do you mean they got a big old seed?
-That's [bleep]. -They do.
They're about... They're about half a seed.
[Mark] They ain't got no damn seed down there.
[laughter]
[Digger] Right there.
[Mark] I believe you're full of crap.
That's why they nicknamed it the seed tick
because it looks like a tick, it looks like a seed.
See, there you are making that [bleep] again.
I ain't never heard them call no seed tick.
[laughs]
[Bryan] 15 gallons at 200, 3K.
I mean, I'll be honest, it's a great product.
I like it, tastes good, but I got...
We gotta come up with another number.
And, you know, Henry, I got that big party every year.
Right.
Usually about 300, 400 people show up.
I think this would go really well with it,
but I can't go 200 a gallon.
[Henry] Well then think different.
[Tickle] Well, now imagine this,
you're having your big party
and everybody comes in.
What kind of brandy they never had?
Blueberry.
I promise you for years,
people are gonna be talking about,
"Hey, you remember that party?
When you... The one with the blueberry brandy?
Oh, my God, that was wonderful."
Don't you wanna have a liquor that they've never had before?
Listen, I mean, look, the product's good.
-[Henry] Right. -But we got to...
I can't do 200.
All right, listen, you take every one of them.
You take the whole 15 gallons.
What about 150 a gallon?
Yeah, that's $50 off a gallon.
15 gallons still a lot,
but I'll tell you what, I'll hit that.
2,250.
[Henry] Good deal, man. Good deal.
-Sounds great. -We appreciate that.
We really need to move this.
I am so glad Henry found this guy,
and he bought every speck of this blueberry brandy.
Now, it wasn't quite the price I was hoping to get for it,
but what it was, it was enough for me to make my money back
on the blueberries and get a small profit.
I'm glad the salesmanship worked.
[Henry laughs]
[country music playing]
[Digger] Well, Kelly's as usual.
He's a little late.
Well, that's all right.
If that elderberry split brandy's in the county north,
then it's worth the wait.
Amanda and Kelly are on their way
with that elderberry rye
that's Amanda's grandfather's recipe.
And I'll have to say, I'm ambitious to taste it.
-Up jumped the devil. -[Mark] Up jumped the devil.
There he is.
[Digger] We think that our two staples,
the hazelnut rum and the rye apple,
may be getting a little stale as far as sales go.
You know, we wanted a fresh new split brandy
in our catalogue,
so I'm hoping she's found it.
[Amanda] I present to you my great grandfather's
elderberry rye.
Check it out there, Hattie boy.
I wanna make sure it's a top-shelf liquor.
We damn sure don't want pond water at this point.
Damn.
Man, that is outstanding jar of liquor.
It's a very unique flavor.
It's really good, smooth across your palate.
The elderberries tones down the spiciness,
if you will, of the rye.
Boy, it ain't fiery at all, is it?
Hmm.
Boy, that rye is good on the nose, that malt,
well it helped it out tremendous.
It ain't got no burn on the back end.
That's why we were able to leave it
a little bit higher proof.
[Kelly] Pretty mean proof, 110, 115.
That right there is some fine liquor.
Well, that's knocking on the door
of anything we got out there.
[Kelly] Now, here's the question I got,
how much we selling a jar for and who we gonna sell it to?
Normally, we sell our split brandies,
for instance, our rye apple for $25, $30 a jar.
Honestly, I wouldn't be a bit ashamed
to ask $50 for that jar of liquor.
Hell yeah.
You know, the thing about it is,
this is always
gonna be a limited edition every year.
You know, given the fact that these elderberries
are expensive and they're hard to come by,
that kind of puts it in a limited production.
But that's not a loser.
When somebody sees limited,
they're willing to pay a little bit more
because they think nobody else can get it.
[Mark] But what we got? Five gallons?
[Kelly] Yup, roughly.
[Mark] Okay, that's a thousand bucks.
[upbeat country music playing]
I'm gonna tell you what, Amanda, your papaw,
he already knew what we just figured out.
Yeah, I guess he did.
If there's one thing I gotta say about my great grandfather
is that I'm pretty proud of him today,
because he came across decades of time
from a whole another realm to bring me this recipe.
Let's unload it and get on our merry way.
This is the reason that we have different teams.
They bring new insight into an old profession.
Great job, Amanda.
[country music playing]
Them blueberries, I was real worried right off,
but payday has arrived.
I've been in the doghouse for a whole week now.
Let's see if we can't go make this woman happy.
That's the main thing, right?
Guess what, honey?
What did you do now?
-[gasps] -There you go.
Hmm, very fancy. Where'd you get that?
That is for the little teeny-tiny mistake
I made with the blueberries.
You mean the truckload of blueberries?
That is more than what the blueberries cost.
-Okay. I-- -So we're to the better now.
-Yeah. -What do you think?
I appreciate that.
[Tickle] I made up for it.
This will help with payroll.
And thank you, honey.
I think we should go celebrate.
Oh, we can celebrate later
but we ain't celebrating with this.
This has to go into the restaurant, honey.
-[Tickle] Oh, yeah? -Yeah.
How are we gonna celebrate?
And you need to go
and finish your brisket.
I did the brisket, so how are we gonna celebrate?
Honey, go finish your brisket, please.
-[Tickle grunts] All right. -Stay focused.
-All right. -Thank you.
[narrator] Next time on the mid-season finale
of Moonshiners.
[Mark] We got someone in mind
that we think that we could work very well with.
[Digger] Yup, that's him.
[Mark] A guy named Bruiser.
[Digger] Bringing somebody into your operation
is a huge risk.
If they've got the law on their tail,
then they can lead 'em right to you.
This is his final test.
If he flunks this one, he flunks all together.
-[man 1] Green. -[man 2] Green?
[man 1] Yup. Go, go, go, go.
I took it upon myself to go get a GPS tracking device,
plant it on Mark's truck,
see where he's going at all times.
They're still hanging in right there
at that dadgum creek, buddy.
I hear something, Huck.
Well, what is it?
That looks like a drone, Mark.
[Mark Rogers] Making it so [indistinct]
[Huck] I don't know. It could be.
Oh, crap, dude.
[man] What the hell just happened?