[narrator] On the brink of an all-new season
of Moonshiners,
America's legendary outlaws risk it all
to meet for a kick-off summi
like you've never seen before.
It's the rise of the shine economy.
America is facing one of its worst
inflation crises in history
and the cost of making liquo
is reaching record numbers.
Shiners must create innovative
new recipes and techniques
to produce high-quality liquor,
stay ahead of the competition,
and avoid the law.
When it costs us more to make liquor,
you can't raise your prices so much
and still keep your customers.
[narrator] Facing an unprecedented threat of arrest,
one shiner goes on the lam.
I learned how to make Brazilian moonshine
called cachaca.
I almost didn't even wanna come home.
[narrator] Innovator, Amand brings breakthrough science
to the most old-school traditionalists.
They're really stuck in their ways.
But it's a good thing because they're preserving techniques
that have been forgotten over time.
[narrator] Mark and Digger find themselves
in the crosshairs of a police captain,
hell-bent on putting them behind bars.
Is it getting too dangerous for you guys?
I love him to death
but I don't wanna go to jail with him.
[narrator] Plus, as law enforcement heats up
which outlaw has what it takes
to survive in jail?
Shiners are about to find ou
in a round of Tickle's Jailbird Match game.
What did you say, Josh?
Beating some ass.
Josh's was a twofer.
[laughter]
[narrator] Josh, Digger,
Mark, Mike,
Richard, Amanda,
Tim, and Tickle,
sit down with executive producer Matthew Ostrom
and lay it all on the line.
This guy found a ram pump. What does that mean?
He didn't just find a ram pump.
-He found our ram pump. -He found our ram pump.
My hind end rode up so tight,
you couldn't got a straight pen in it
with a sledgehammer.
[narrator] It's all coming up here
on the all-new Moonshiners Season 12,
Kickoff Summit.
Welcome to the Moonshiners Season 12 Kickoff Summit.
I'm Matthew Ostrom,
the executive producer of Moonshiners.
Guys, thank you very much for being here.
Glad to be here, Matt.
Season 12, gentlemen.
-Season break. -Great. Crazy.
-It's insane. -Who'd a thunk it?
[Matthew] Who'd have thunk? Well...
-I mean really. -[Matthew] Good stuff.
Whether we are paying more for groceries
or filling up our gas tanks,
the inflation crisis is affecting all of us.
But for moonshiners,
cost increases are hitting every step of the business.
Corn, copper, propane, gas.
You do the math.
Moonshining is America's original small business.
But thanks to these guys,
it's also America's most resilient.
It's the rise of the shine economy.
All right, guys.
So how has the inflation crisis affected moonshining?
It's affected everything.
And when it's affecting everything,
it's affecting making moonshine
'cause fuel, parts for your vehicles,
basically you gotta build the still.
You gotta come up with gas,
you gotta come up with propane to do some soldering,
everything has went up.
Everything that's involved in the liquor-making process
has taken the hit bigger than anything is what--
Just about... Just about anything, really.
And if wanted to change oil in the truck,
I couldn't get an oil filter for it.
-Couldn't even get a filter? -Couldn't get a filter.
And this is a common thing, you know?
[Matthew] Yup.
Yup. So what's the biggest challenge?
One of the biggest challenges we face is
when it costs us more to make liquor.
You can't raise your prices so much
and still keep your customers.
[Digger] Exactly.
And so, one of the biggest challenges
that I can say that...
And Josh, you can attest to this,
that we've had is keeping our prices down,
finding innovative ways,
whether it's going out and getting your fruit
and all that yourself,
costs a whole lot less if you pick it yourself.
Right. It's forced you guys to innovate.
-Mmm-hmm. -Copper's quadrupled.
-Oh, yeah. -[Matthew] Right.
Yes, coppers went through the roof.
Jars, if you can find them, they're doubled.
-Yeah. -Right.
Honestly, we're washing jars.
We get 'em back every chance we can.
You know, people are bring us back a case of jars.
-[Matthew] Yup. -We'll knock some bucks off their liquor.
Are you guys worried about the quality of your shine?
None of these guys,
I know 'em all and I know 'em well,
and there's none of 'em that will sacrifice
their quality to save the dollar.
What's the biggest change you've had to make
because of this season's prices?
We've really had to look back to the past.
What did the old timers way back in the day do?
Say, when they were going through it
through the Depression
-or whatever? -Sure.
And really take pages out of their books.
And it might be a little different
than the way we've always done it,
but these ways work.
[Matthew] Sure. Okay. All right.
No question, inflation is on fire
and all of our shiners are feeling the heat.
But there's one shiner
who has his own unresolved issues with fire.
Let's take a look.
Cow mighty dang!
-Phew. -Josh,
just tell everybody here what happened.
Just remind us all.
I know everybody thinks I burned this house down,
but I did not burn this house down.
I did not burn this house down.
I will say it again. I did not burn the house down.
-What happened, Josh? -I don't know,
a hundred percent what did happen.
But we've all been kind of studying on it
and the best we can come up with
-is an electrical wire. -Electrical.
It's just awfully odd that I was out back with fire.
It is what it is. I didn't do it though.
I swear to God, I didn't do it.
When Henry, Kenny and myself left there that day,
I was pretty sure Josh said something
about renters insurance and asked to borrow my Zip up.
[laughter]
You know, I don't know how that plays into anything but--
But why is the fire marshal coming after you, Josh?
I should've never put my name on the lease.
I knew better when I did it,
but I was just so gung-ho
to get this still site up and going.
So, I mean, I know a little bit about this.
You've basically been on the run, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I've been on the run.
I've been hiding out. I've been...
They've been looking for me.
They've been coming by Henry's,
knocking on the door.
They've been calling around, they've been asking questions.
So let's take a look at that.
Are you with the fire department?
Yeah. I'm with the fire marshal's office, you know.
So I figured I'd just come out and try to inspect
and try to figure out what went on here.
Josh Owens, does that name ring a bell to you, sir?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know Josh.
Do you know where he may be?
-Where we could get a hold of him? -No.
What's up?
scared the hell out of me
coming down in here to lock you up.
[Josh] I'm having to stay down here.
The house burnt down.
I lost my place to live.
Looks like the fire marshal' looking for me.
Probably the police.
[Henry] There you go, just keep pulling it.
Tell you what,
[Josh] you're gonna see that, baby.
[Henry] Yup.
[Josh] We'll leave this as where I go in and out at right here.
I ain't exactly excited about all the ticks and bugs
but it's better than being in jail.
Beats looking through bars, huh, Josh?
Damn straight.
-[Tickle] Phew. -So, Josh,
you've been living on the run, right?
-[Josh] Yes, sir. -What is that like?
I'm an outdoorsman.
I loved the outdoors and going camping is great.
But when you got to live outside,
it's not as much fun.
If I'm living in a tent, I'm living in a river.
And then Henry insists on feeding me.
He calls it stillhouse food.
So what is still...
what's exactly is stillhouse food?
He told me, he said, "Josh, man,
I brought you some surf and turf."
Sardines and Beanie Weenies.
[laughs]
Things got so bad,
you had to leave the country, right?
Yeah. And I'm having to keep a low profile.
We're gonna get into that later.
All right, Richard, you're at the big kids' table.
-Yes. -[Matthew] Well done.
You've made it.
You've also decided to team up with Daniel this year,
which was a big decision, right?
Yes, it was.
All right. Well, we have a sneak peek of you
and Daniel working together.
Let's take a look.
The still that Richard and have got is a traditional
pot still like out in the mountains of Tennessee.
It's a pretty big pot.
All I wanna do is us to make some good liquor
and make a good living up here in Tennessee.
[Richard] We got to get this out of here.
It's about the rain.
All right, let's go. Last load.
Oh, my. What the [bleep]?
Oh, [bleep].
Man, Daniel is gonna kill you for real.
-Oh, well. -Sucks.
That ain't no still no more.
Richard, what happened to the still?
I turned off the fire,
gotten distracted by my little brother.
It was raining outside.
It was a perfect storm for this to happen.
The still cooled down real, real fast.
And... [makes sound]
And that's Daniel's prized possession, isn't it?
-That is Daniel's baby. -Was.
That really puts a partnership to the test,
-wouldn't you say, guys? -You know what?
Daniel Maner is a different kind of gentleman.
He was highly pissed.
Highly pissed, but he never swung one time.
-Okay. -Not once.
So, you know, there's a long-standing feud
between Mike and Daniel.
-Mmm-hmm. -Let's take a look.
That's the multigrain liquor
that you've been selling around here.
Hmm.
Is that right?
That might be. Hell, I don't know.
I don't appreciate you selling,
you know, around to my customers,
and that's exactly what's happened.
-Hmm. Hmm. -Hmm.
You feel like you're stepping right into the middle of that?
I do. I do.
I inadvertently stepped into a battle.
Did you realize what was happening
when you stepped into it?
I didn't think it was gonna be like that.
I really didn't.
It wasn't a choose-sides type thing,
but it was... it was made known that,
"Hey, I don't... I don't mess around with this person.
I think you should steer clear."
I don't really know all that really happened, you know?
Sure. And then Mark and Digger,
you gave Richard and Daniel
your blessing to be in your area, right?
-Of course we did. -[Matthew] Yeah.
Now, doesn't that inadvertently take money
out of Mike's pocket?
Not my problem.
I got a million problems, but that ain't one of 'em.
[laughter]
All right. There's a lot more kickoff summit to get to,
including our reveal of Mark and Digger's
major troubles with the law.
You don't wanna miss it.
[narrator] Coming up, Mike and Jerry take
tradition and heritage to a brand-new level
by hiring a moonshining prodigy.
-Sutton? -Yeah, boy.
Any kin of old Popcorn?
-[man] That's my dad. -Hell, pa.
[narrator] Plus, our shiner must think like Tickle
when we play Tickle's Jailbird Match Game
Congratulations. You thought like Tickle.
Oh, no. That's, you know...
[narrator] And Mark and Digg face a new season
with a police captain hot on their trail.
He seems to be making it his personal vendetta
to get us off this show or whatever he's after.
[theme music playing]
[Mark] What the hell is this?
Whoa! Jesus!
We're looking around
and I hear Mark give out a little squall.
Where in the hell this casket with Popcorn in it come from?
A fan.
I tell you, we're gonna come up here one night late
and he'll be walking around here.
Like Chucky, hope he ain't got a butcher knife though.
Tell him bye.
Bye, Popcorn. Close him up.
Damn.
Welcome back to the Moonshiners
Season 12 Kickoff Summit.
I'm the executive producer, Matthew Ostrom.
Last season was the roaring 2020s for shine.
And the economy and liquor sales
were through the roof, right, guys?
-Yeah. Right on. -Mmm-hmm.
In order to make this season shine economy work,
our shiners need to dive deep into their playbook
by leaning on heritage and old traditions.
Let's take a look.
I got us some of that damn expensive corn here.
What he hit you for it?
$25 a bag.
Hell, you say.
We paid $10 last year.
We're gonna do something to alleviate this problem.
[Mark] Don't you burn the barns out that thing now.
I'm trying to figure out where the gas goes in.
[sighs] Son of a bitch.
Yeah, this is bull [bleep].
[Tickle] I don't know what the hell
we got ourselves into.
[Mark] Yeah, I'm done.
[man] I knew it was crazy.
Oh, man... [laughs]
You guys are planting corn.
You're going from shiners to farmers.
Yeah. Very poorly, I might add.
Yeah, let's call that a bad decision.
[Mark] You know, and I don't really know
what we was thinking.
All right. What were you thinking?
We've save--
It ain't easy to work on that.
We've saved $25 a bag, you know.
[stuttering]
We just... There was a lot of stuff we didn't think though.
Came to find out $25 for 50 weight of corn
-ain't a bad price, right? -Ain't so bad.
Turns out it's a pretty good deal.
-[Digger] You know? -[laughter]
So why is heritage and tradition
so essential during an inflation crisis?
You know, during the Great Depression
in our area,
people really didn't know there was a depression
until a politician from Washington came through
and told 'em
because nobody had anything, you know.
You didn't have any more than your neighbor did.
And you couldn't sell that damn corn at the market
but you could turn it into liquor sell it.
Exactly. You know, everybody had a bag of dry corn
and starve to death
but if you turn it into a jar of liquor,
you could barter for something, so,
you know, tradition and heritage plays
an important role in every part of the economy
in this country of ours.
Sure. And, Mike, what about you?
Are you doing anything
you never thought you'd be doing?
Yeah. You know, I'm trying to think outside the box.
I'm doing a lot of foraging this season and stuff.
You know, medicinal plants,
stuff that don't cost me any money.
Just tell us a couple of the ingredients
that you've been using,
because I think these guys would be really interested to hear.
I know there's one that is really inventive.
Well, I mean, I think the one that tops off
that would blow everybody's mind
on actually using,
and if enough people was to do this
and harvest this actual plant and vine,
they can help it get away from the south a little bit,
which is kudzu.
-[man] Oh, hell. -[Digger] Yeah, that... Damn
[Mike] That means kudzu vine
That'll turn people against drinking.
-[laughter] -It's very medicinal, man.
It helps with a lot of ailments
and blood pressure and stomach cramps.
There's one health benefit that kudzu has
that a lot of people don't realize about.
It fights alcoholism, Mike
so, you might know that'll actually
run your drive customers out.
Yeah, I don't know if you got a point or not, Mike.
But I'mma be honest with you,
if it works and it's good for you,
you've got a never-ending supply of liquor.
[Digger] He's right. It won't kill you.
It just don't taste wonderful.
All right. Mike, you and Jerry
have a bit of a surprise this season.
You've decided to add a partner.
[Mike] Yup. Let's take a look.
Nice meeting you man, my name's Solomon.
-Solomon? -Sutton.
-Sutton? -Yeah, boy.
Uh-oh. I got us a guy with a Sutton last name.
Any kin of old Popcorn?
Yeah. That's my dad.
Your daddy? Hell, pa!
My dad was Popcorn Sutton.
As Bubba says, "I'mma make some licky today."
He ran liquor out here a long time,
up on Hemphill and all over Maggie Valley.
The biggest question is, "Can you work?
-Do you want to work?" -Oh, yeah.
All right. So, Mike, you decided
to bring in Solomon Sutton, Popcorn's son.
How did that come about?
Well, as a matter of fact, Jerry actually knew the guy
and introduced me to him.
And, you know, we've been thinking anyway,
we might need some help or what have you,
and who knows?
You know, this kid may be able to bring something to table
that me and Jerry don't know nothing about.
You know, some really old technique
that he learned from possibly his dad
or somebody in the Sutton family.
But, I mean, as of right now, he's doing good.
He's a damn good grunt worker for sure.
Maybe he can... he can show us something.
Maybe he can be a good part of our season this season.
That sounds good.
What do you guys think about
Mike working with Solomon Sutton?
I know Solomon, but I'm not around him a whole lot.
But if he's anything like his daddy,
he's gonna prove to be right difficult.
Yeah. Most definitely.
You know, he's not a bad kid. I mean, I'm good with it.
Yeah, that's Popcorn's boy for sure.
I really like Solomon.
I think a lot of him.
But now I'm not going to say
that he won't prove difficult at some point.
Speaking of Popcorn Sutton,
Mark and Digger, you guys have made a piss pot still
in honor of Popcorn Sutton.
Let's take a quick look.
-You got that door? -Watch this.
What time does this all get out?
Today's the day that we take Popcorn's old patterns
and we're gonna build us a piss pot out of it.
-We know this the cap. -[Digger] Yeah.
This should be the exact width.
These are just like the Dead Sea Scrolls.
There ain't no more of these patterns to be cut out.
All right, gentlemen,
can you explain what is a piss pot still?
In Popcorn's eye,
that's anything under one barrel of steel,
50 gallons.
But what does it mean to the moonshine world?
They... You have these original patterns, right?
You know, it's like a lot of things.
I mean, they probably they don't mean,
uh, cup full of warm piss to somebody else
but, you know, they're priceless heirloom.
Me, I wouldn't take a million dollars cash money for it.
Oh, now that's a lie.
[Digger] Well, I'm hoping somebody would offer it.
I'll throw the bull [bleep] flag on that.
Yeah, but, dammit, you blew your half.
I was gonna give you half of it
if somebody offered it.
Oh, he wouldn't take a million dollars.
-There you go. -[laughter]
Okay.
All right, guys, it's time for a viewer question.
Here we go.
At Jill's Sports Car asks,
"What's the one job you thought you wanted
but realized you didn't?"
-Damn. -I think we stumped him.
I thought I wanted to grow a corn crop.
-Yeah. -[laughter]
I wanted to be a delivery driver one time.
Until that first delivery and that dog came out.
Well, you know,
I mean, you ended up making deliveries.
Just not... Just not for the Postal Service.
All right. There's plenty more of the kickoff summit to come,
including Mark and Digger's big reveal.
You don't wanna miss it.
You know, this season,
we got some competition in town.
We've got Richard Landry
trying to sell liquor in our territory.
It ready to run?
Oh, yeah, tastes pretty damn good.
But we've got Popcorn Sutton's son.
He may be an ace in the hole for me and Jerry.
He's been taught the old way
which is nothing wrong with that.
Might wanna pay attention.
[Solomon] Oh, it's running.
You got liquor, brother.
Got a little spitting going on that,
you wanna take my pecker and stick in there?
A what?
-Pecker. -[Sutton] Yeah.
I was about to use this stick right here.
Put that pecker in.
It's good luck sticking your pecker in it.
Oh, God.
[theme music playing]
Welcome back to the Moonshiners Kickoff Summit.
I'm the executive producer, Matthew Ostrom.
We are getting closer to revealing
what happened to Mark and Digger
that never happened to any moonshiner in 12 seasons.
But first, making moonshine takes a lot of work
and ingenuity and creativity.
Three of our shiners are taking innovation
to the next level this season.
All right. I would like to welcome
Amanda to the table.
Thank you.
It's very nice to have you here.
It's awesome to be here.
Amanda, you're kind of the scientist
of the group right here.
Let's take a look and see what you're up to this season.
I always wanted to try distilling on the grains.
So what I started doing at home was,
I take glass marbles
and I put them in the bottom of the pot.
The marbles work as an agitator.
It reduces any risk of scorching
throughout your whole run.
[Mark] I don't know anywhere to get any marbles.
I ain't played with marbles since I was in school.
And I wasn't in school much.
[Matthew] All right, Amanda,
clearly you're doing some fun stuff.
Tell us about what's going on
with these glass marbles in the still.
So everybody likes to ask about the marbles, right?
It's just a really easy, simple way
to create a cheap agitator for the pot.
You know, you can throw a couple of glass marbles
in the bottom of your still.
And when it starts to simmer,
they rotate along with the alcohol.
And if any solids ever get to the bottom,
it's always gonna constantly agitate them.
It keeps mass from scorching or sticking to the bottom
-and scorching, right? -Yeah. Yeah.
So colonial distillers used to use hay
and they would line the bottoms of their pots with hay.
But this is more like a Japanese kind of technique
where they actually put the marbles in a teapot
and it helps the pot to heat up faster.
Because Mark and Huck, I would say,
are like traditionalists, right?
-Yes, very much so. -So, what's it like working with
two traditionalists then?
It's great.
I wouldn't rather be with anyone else than them
because they're really stuck in their ways.
But it's a good thing. It's a good thing
because they're preserving techniques
that have never been recorded,
you know, things that have been forgotten over time.
So I'm learning from them and I'm learning
why people have continued to do these
old techniques for so many years
and what that can bring.
Sure. Okay.
And Tim, I know you did
a little innovating this season,
-so... -Yeah.
let's take a look at what you're up to.
[country music playing]
There you go!
We prepped the logs and built a cap.
If we can just roll it over.
Now it's time to put this thing together
into an actual still that can make liquor.
So this is gonna be like the cap,
-like that. -Oh, that way?
And put the condenser, barrel sitting here.
Uh-huh.
And you catch it coming out over there.
Well, looking at this log still,
starts to make you wonder,
"What's the flavor this moonshine will taste like?"
I mean, it's going to have to bring out
the essence of the wood and that popper is going
to pull over into that shine
I'm excited to see how great it's gonna to taste
when it comes out that worm.
And voila!
We have something that looks similar to a still.
You know, when you get back, you look at this thing,
it's a still.
-So, Mike... -Yup.
you and Jerry this season
are kind of like the MacGyvers of Moonshiners.
I gotta say, you're coming up with all sorts of crazy things
that we've never seen before.
Yeah. You know, me and Jerry,
we try to come up with different ways
to keep building something cool that works.
And this year, he dreamed of a steamer still
to do inside the woods.
And then we built an actual condenser
inside of our still,
and we actually put in cubes,
that way we can run our steam,
heats our mash without any scorching.
We have no mash piles whatsoever.
It's all inside this pot,
time gets through running,
you just kill the fire under your steam vessel
and walk away.
Let's just take a look at what you've been up to.
[theme music playing]
My God. That's it right there on the bottom, brother.
Me and Mike finally got the heat exchanger done.
We got the piece, two sheet of copper together.
We're actually gonna make a tube out of it
and then slide the heat exchanger into it.
Let's do it.
We're all but home-free now.
Sung as a bug in a damn, damn rug.
[Mike] There's nobody else out there doing
what me and Jerry does.
[Jerry] We better take this sucker to the woods, man.
[Mike] Yes, sir.
Yeah, buddy.
That little gentleman's heavy, son.
All right. You guys are all so impressive
and you are all masters of your craft.
Can't wait to see what you guys do
this coming season. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaking of masters of the craft,
there's a new season of Master Distiller.
It's coming to Discovery.
Little sneak peek right now.
[man] You all are about to participate
in the toughest challenge we've had
on this show to date.
Are you finding anything?
[man] Savory spirits.
Nashville hot... chicken.
[man] We've never had the families compete.
This is kind of like a polygraph test.
[man] Legal versus illegal.
[man] Firefighter challenge.
[man] This is what converts me.
Catch on time.
[man] And off the chain.
[theme music playing]
All right. It's gonna be an amazing season.
Looks great.
As former contestants,
what advice would you give viewers
who are thinking about competing on Master Distiller?
I would definitely say that
if someone's practicing the craft
and they have an interest in it,
you might not think that you belong
in a competition,
just go out and do it.
Just do it, you know?
Because I didn't think I belonged here.
I got here.
I started competing and I realized
that's... It's inside of you.
You know, just come out.
Put your skills to practice and do what you do.
And then next thing you know, you're in the woods
-with Mark and-- -I know, right?
Best prize ever.
[laughter]
Who would have thought that we would win,
let alone win, but to be invited
to the other side of this?
-Who would have thought? -You guys earned it.
-Yeah. -I mean,
that's nothing but skills.
All right.
We'll be back with more kickoff summit.
Stick around.
[narrator] Coming up.
Outlaw Josh flees the country.
[Josh] I don't have any ide
where the hell I am right now,
but I know I'm somewhere in Brazil.
[narrator] Then, a round of Tickle's Jailbird Match Gam
you don't wanna miss.
Gentlemen, what are your answers?
Someone's butt.
[laughter]
-I'm sorry. -How do you know
when it is your turn to judge somebody's butt?
[narrator] And later,
a police captain presents a clear and present danger
to Mark and Digger's livelihood,
and their freedom.
You guys are in the middle
of a real cat and mouse with the law.
Probably a good description,
but we're not the cat.
[theme music playing]
Welcome back to the Moonshiners
Season 12 Kickoff Summit.
I'm Moonshiners executive producer,
Matthew Ostrom.
Right now, the US is in the middle
of one of its biggest inflation crises
in its history.
Crisis for supplies keep going up,
but so does the presence of the law.
Let's take a look and see
what these guys are up against.
I just got back to Virginia
and the first thing that Henry tells me
is the fire marshal's looking for me.
The whole time he's talking, all I can think about
is have they found the still site?
[suspenseful music playing]
[Josh] There it is right there.
Oh, my God.
Oh, no.
Our whole site's been destroyed.
This can't be [bleep] happening.
Okay. All right.
So, Josh, who do you think is messing
with your still site?
I mean, it only makes sense if the law is looking for me
and my still site has been blew up.
It only makes sense that it's the law.
Sure. And then, Tickle, well...
-you got any ideas on this? -Well, you know,
it makes good sense that it was probably,
you know, most likely the law.
Somebody else comes in on your still site
and just happens upon it,
a lot of times what they'll do is they'll steal
all the copper out of it,
you know, what's valuable that you can recycle
and make some money,
especially now with inflation being the way it is.
But to destroy it all, it only...
-It'd be too much work. -makes sense it was the law.
Right.
And don't they tell you to never go back
to the scene of a crime?
Yeah. You're taking a big risk
but my curiosity would have been up to...
I would probably done the same thing but--
I didn't go right back in there.
-Right. -It was weeks later
before I went back to check it out.
But listen, I say it's a bad idea
but I would've done the same damn thing.
So Tickle, what do you think about Josh's strategy
to lay low
and just avoid, avoid, avoid?
A wise man once said,
"It ain't nothing illegal until you get caught."
But if you know you're gonna get caught,
yeah, avoid it at all costs.
Sure.
And you went to a very extreme
-in your avoidance. -Absolutely.
And we have a little bit of a sneak peek.
Check out what Josh did.
[rock music playing]
[Josh] I don't have any ide where the hell I am right no
but I know I'm somewhere in Brazil.
Chris told me you can ride some bikes.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[man] What do you say about these two here?
[Josh] Those are awesome.
Chris wanted me to come down here
and find the perfect coffee bean
to mix with alcohol.
We're definitely on to something.
It don't get no better.
Josh, you literally left the country.
-I sure did. -[Matthew] Okay.
I got a job and I went on a mission.
So why Brazil?
Well, because I've got some business partners
that I've went into a coffee business with.
And they asked me to go to Brazil
and find the perfect coffee bean
to mix with alcohol.
The only problem was, it just didn't last long enough.
It was over in a blink of an eye
but I learned how to make Brazilian moonshine
called cachaca.
I found so much that
I almost didn't even wanna come home.
-It was amazing. -[Matthew] I guess so.
Okay.
Let's change gears here for a second.
With many of our shiners' freedom on the line,
we thought it would be helpful
to get a little advice from an expert on jail.
Hey, yo dudes.
[laughter]
It's time for Tickle's Jailbird Match Game.
Gentlemen, we all know
Tickle has done some time in jail,
so we decided to come up with a game
where we asked a series of questions to Tickle
about the dos and don'ts of being in jail.
Shiners, the goal is to match
Tickles' answers, okay?
Hmm.
In order to win,
you have to think like Tickle.
That's impossible.
-[laughter] -Very. Hey.
Yeah.
-Let's see. -[laughter]
All right. First one, here we go.
In jail, if you want respect from your cellmate,
you should give him blank in return.
What did you say, Tickle?
I said respect.
Respect.
What did Mike... say?
An ass whipping.
[laughter]
Josh, what did you say?
Jailhouse moonshine.
Both good ideas except
not the right answer.
Okay.
If someone is blanking you in jail,
you should just take it like a man.
What the hell?
God, man.
Come on now.
Y'all ought to know the answer to this one.
Tickle, what did you say?
Or trying to.
Beating you up.
Mike, if someone is blanking you in jail,
you said?
-Bullying. -[Matthew] Bullying.
-Very good. -I think I'd give him bullying.
-Yeah? -I think I would too.
Okay. What did you say, Josh?
Beating some ass.
Ah!
Also, I think that's appropriate.
Josh's... Was a twofer.
-Twofer. -[laughter]
That's not exactly what I meant.
[laughter]
There we go. Next one.
Tickle says it's the biggest cause of fights in jail.
If it's not your turn,
you should never touch blank.
Tickle says it's the biggest cause of fights in jail.
If it's not your turn,
you should never touch blank.
It's not your turn.
Pick.
[chuckles]
Okay. Here we go.
What do you got, Tickle?
What should they never touch?
-The TV. -[Matthew] The TV.
Oh, my God.
The TV.
Yup. Gentlemen?
What are your answers?
Someone's butt.
[laughter]
-I'm sorry. -How do you know
it is your turn to touch somebody's butt?
Well, I don't know.
I've never been to jail like that.
-No-- -I've never been...
-[Matthew] Okay, gentlemen. -in jail like that either.
But they did let you guys watch TV.
-Damn. -I never been to jail
like that either where you take turns
touching everybody's little butt.
I've never been to jail like that either.
[Matthew] All right. Hold on. Let's see.
-I don't write that... -[Matthew] Let's see how Josh--
I ain't touching no dude's butt.
-Let's see how Josh does. -I don't know.
-Desperate times calls for... -[Matthew] Jail--
desperate measures.
A phone or window.
I said the jail nurse, the phone, or the window.
The jail nurse, the phone, or the window.
That is not a television.
You got me okay.
The TV.
-I don't know why-- -Final...
question.
If you find yourself in an inmate's blank,
you better be invited.
[country music playing]
If you find yourself in an inmate's blank,
you better be invited.
Tickle?
Jail cell.
-[Matthew] That is-- -[Tickle] Because if you...
if you have not been invited in there
means you're in there to steal something.
Yup.
Let's see what Mike said.
-Bed/space. -[Matthew] Bed space.
That's in the cell, right?
I'll take that. Okay.
And bed. Bed.
I feel like... Congratulations.
You two... have thought like Tickle.
Oh, no, that's screwed up questions.
That was a set up question is what that was.
[laughter]
All right. Coming up,
we are going to reveal Mark and Digger's
world of trouble.
Don't go away.
[Mark] Our pumps on run down around this bend.
Oh, hell.
This ain't good at all.
I see the end of the pipe.
But at the end of that pipe there ain't no ram pump.
Son of a bitch!
[theme music playing]
All right, guys.
I want you to all write down one prediction
for season 12
but it can't be about yourself.
[Digger] Oh.
Digger, let's start with you.
-Josh bleeds. -[Matthew] Josh bleeds.
[laughter]
Son of a bitch.
Okay, Mark.
Someone will get busted.
Oh, your confidence level ain't too high.
No, no, I admit it.
Tickle?
They gonna make some liquor.
All right, Mike.
Someone may go to jail. Let's hope not.
It's gotta be somebody else this time.
I didn't done it too many times.
Tickle's done with jail.
Well, you are used to it.
Josh?
That no one else loses a finger.
-There you go... [laughs] -He's thinking about you guys.
-Bless his heart. -[Digger] I hope.
-I'll take that. -Yeah.
I hope the first one is the biggest negative.
[laughter]
At least I'm good for something.
I'm sorry.
[theme music playing]
Me and you both had people betting against us
making it to 30.
[man] Bet my life.
[laughs]
Oh, hell fire.
You know, I see something out of the corner of my eye,
then over my shoulder, boom, on the bar...
a ram pump from our still site.
God Almighty.
I figured he's dogging our ass.
Welcome back to the Moonshiners
Season 12 Kickoff Summit.
I'm Moonshiners, executive producer,
Matthew Ostrom.
We're about to reveal what happened
to Mark and Digger
that could end their moonshining career for good.
All right, Mark and Digger,
you guys are in the middle
of a real cat and mouse with the law.
It's more like a headache and heartache
-in my words. -You know, honestly, yeah,
cat and mouse,
probably a good, good description,
but we're not the cat.
And we're not really fast masters either.
-[Mark] Right. -Yeah.
-We move slow. -It's...
-[Matthew] Sure. -you know, we...
-[Matthew] So it-- -really got a target on us.
It really started last season, right?
It did. In fact,
we have had run-ins with our city law
with our Chief of Police Marie Shields
and ran us out of town.
And which we were more than happy
to comply with that.
That was at the very beginning of last season...
-[Digger] Yes. -right?
That was in your garage space?
-[Mark] It was. Yeah. -And I guess we thought,
"Okay, we had a little run-in.
That's gonna be the end of that."
So I just... I blamed it on,
"Oh, we're just getting too complacent."
But we've been on a whole
another complete different officer that...
-[Digger] Yeah. -is very intent on his job.
He's a dog with a bone at this point.
So the end of last season,
you got pulled over.
That's different than the officer
that gave you trouble at the beginning of...
-[Digger] Yeah. -the season last year?
That... This is a detective
with our local sheriff's department.
-Okay. -And he seemed to be making it
his personal vendetta to get us off this show
or whatever he's after.
If you remember last year,
Digger and I had a... had barrels in the truck.
-That's right. -And Daniel was actually
going to Nashville with a load of liquor.
We was driving in front of Daniel
when he pulled us over.
And when we both pulled over,
he told Daniel, he said, "No, I'm not after you.
I'm after them."
He told him get on down the road.
"And you go on down the road."
So Daniel drove off with the liquor.
We didn't have anything in the barrels.
-Sure. -And my thinking is
that when he saw what actually happened,
you know, it left him with egg on his face
and I got...
-He means to get even. -Sure.
And I think this season
in the first episode,
you guys had a real rush
with the same officer, right?
We did in fact.
Yeah. It was...
Man, me and Digger, we was in our
favorite place in the world at the bar having a beer,
thinking nothing in the world was wrong.
Not even thinking about making liquor that day.
And out of the damn blue,
I mean, it just...
We got the sails took out from under us.
So this guy found a ram pump,
so what does that mean?
He didn't just find a ram pump.
-He found our ram pump. -He found our ram pump.
We knew it was ours just as soon as
he threw it on that bar.
And if you think that your heart won't sink
from that moment on for probably three hours,
I could feel my heartbeat in my ass cheeks.
My hind end rode up so tight,
you couldn't got a straight pen in it
with a sledgehammer.
I mean, we didn't know what to say
and what made it so bad.
We... He just walked in, set it on the bar...
-Never said a single word. -never said a word with us,
turned around and left.
I mean, we knew immediately.
So, does that mean you guys are caught?
Our biggest problem is you.
And although we don't think
making liquor is that big a deal,
in some people's eyes, it still is.
But the old adage, you do wrong,
so long you think it's right,
that may be where we're at in life.
Is it getting too dangerous for you guys?
I love him to death
but I don't wanna go to jail with him.
-[chuckles] -[Mark] Oh, no.
No, I don't wanna go to jail at all
but, you know, the thing about it is,
this officer is... He's onto us
and he's not giving up.
[Matthew] Okay.
I just hope I don't break out in handcuffs.
All right. Here's a little taste
of what to expect.
[Digger] I'll pump this high-dollar gasoline
about as I hate to.
[machine beeping]
[siren wails]
[Digger] Oh, hell.
David Robertson, the detective.
What's going on today, everybody?
[Digger] Well, popping little of this high-dollar gasoline.
You gotta go get that feed ground up for 'em chickens.
Hey, Mark, come on over here, buddy.
What's going on, cap?
Look like it's getting to no good today, are you?
No, sir, we're not.
Been pretty hot out too, ain't it?
[Mark] Oh, yeah, it's a little hot.
[Digger] It's been miserable.
It's about get real damn hot, boys,
so you better get ready for it.
We unhook that trailer, we'll pull up
-and throw these back there. -Off we go.
We just found out that Detective Robertson's
out of town for an in-service training,
couldn't be a more perfect time
to do a run on Big Sloppy.
Detective Robertson,
he is probably one of the sharpest officers
we've got on our department here.
If Detective Robertson was still in town,
we'd never consider making a move like this.
It's too bold.
[Mark] [bleep] There's your hide-a-key.
[Digger] I ain't got no hide-a-key.
Well, what is it?
[Digger] It's a tracking device.
-Uh-uh. Ain't no way. -It is.
Well, how in hell do you think David Robertson knows
everywhere we're at all the time?
Okay.
Well, that's our summit for tonight.
I wanna thank all our shiners for being here.
Get ready for a brand new season of Moonshiners.
I'm Matthew Ostrom.
Till next time.