[narrator] This time on Moonshiners.
[Mark] He looks like he's gonna dig us a lake.
[Digger] If that spring's still running,
then we'll be in clover.
Son of a bitch.
The real problem we have, we don't have any more copper.
[Digger] Let's go.
Yep. That's Daniel right there.
Me coming here is gonna be good,
not only for Daniel and I,
but for the craft, the moonshine making itself
[Daniel] It's gonna be some awesome, awesome stuff.
[motor revving]
Damn, that's dangerous, man.
All right. About to come down.
He's bat [bleep] crazy.
He's got us blocked. The road is blocked.
[on walkie talkie] Turn your lights off, there's somebody been in her
Oh, [bleep] .
[man] This is how we make the moonshine!
You never did live over here on the family farm, did you?
No, I never did live there, per se.
There's a spring down there, 50 years ago it ran good.
[narrator] In Cocke County, Tennessee, after a captain
with the sheriff's departmen
uncovered their site at English Mountain...
[Digger] Oh, hell.
Son of a bitch!
And it's cut.
Right there, that's not pulled loose.
Somebody sawed at it.
[narrator] ...Mark and Digge
are on the hunt for a new source
of limestone spring water.
You've got a general idea
-of where the spring is, though, don't you? -[Digger] Yeah.
It comes out of an old limestone bluff.
We're headed over here to where my mom grew up.
It's my old family's farm, and it's in my hands now,
mainly because we lost the source for our limestone spring water.
We're getting run off every direction it goes, it seems.
Well, this is it, Hattie Boy.
That's my mama's old homeplace right there.
There is an old spring there.
Now, whether it's running or not,
that's gonna remain to be seen.
[Mark] Oh, there ain't much left to it, are there?
[Digger] No.
This part was built before the Civil War.
It was just a one room cabin with a little loft in it.
I'm rewalking footsteps I walked in as a child,
and my mother walked in as a child.
And that's the old basin they used to catch water in.
If that spring's still running, then we'll be in clover.
It's iffy because springs will dry up for no reason.
Let's walk over here, and look down on it.
[Mark] Is it wet at all?
If this spring is still running,
it could be an ideal location for us.
[Digger] Nope, nothin'.
Let me go right over here and see
if I can get down there.
Back in the day, there was a good flow of water here,
but as 50 years will do,
this spring, it's filled up.
[Mark] What do you think we need to do here, Puss?
It's gotta be dug out?
[Digger] Yeah.
We need somebody
that's got a relatively new excavator
that they wanna screw up.
You know who that is?
-[Mark] Kelly. -[Digger] Yeah.
[Mark] Maybe there's water still underground here,
but, you know, until we get an excavator in here
and dig it out,
uh, we'll never know.
[Digger] Let's get him lined up.
We need to get busy.
[Richard] Man, these Tennessee roads,
they ain't like Louisiana, for sure.
This is Appalachia.
I mean, this is where it all started.
Daniel called me and told me, "Hey, man, come to Tennessee,
make some liquor,"
and I almost jumped in the car
and started driving with no gas or clothes.
That's how happy I was.
Daniel's like a brother.
We met up at Master Distille
in a Tournament of Champions competition.
[Digger] Moment of truth.
Richard, you're the Master Distiller of this flight, my friend.
Congratulations.
-[Daniel] I'm glad for you. -[chuckles]
To come out on top in that competition was, whew!
So coming down here to meet him,
we're gonna bring some tremendous flavors
and some tremendous alcohol to this area.
Yep. That's Daniel right there.
Just to know that Daniel has the capabilities
that he has, and I could come
with a little bit of the capabilities
that I have, we should be able to turn out
a superior product.
-What's happening, brother? -Brother, it's good to see you.
Richard Landry brings a lot of...
A lot of stuff to the game.
See what we can knock out, we might be able
to bring something
up here to the mountains that nobody's ever had before.
One thing about me and you, the reason I know
that we'll work good together,
I'm not scared to try what you want,
and I know you ain't scared to try what I want.
-Definitely not, man. -[chuckles]
I think this is gonna be a perfect spot right here.
[Daniel] This is a old camp.
My buddy Clinton that owns this property,
I told him that we would be setting up here this year,
and making some good shine.
And he said, "Well, if you do, I want some of it."
Well, that ain't no problem.
-We'll give it to him. -He'll get it.
-Let's get her going, brother. -Let's do it.
The still that we've got is a traditional pot still,
like out of the mountains of Tennessee.
It's a pretty big pot.
What do you think, Richard?
I think this is gonna work.
It's a lot of work,
leveling everything up, and...
And getting everything the way you want it.
All I wanna do is us to make some good liquor
and make a good living up here in Tennessee.
[Richard] This is beautiful. Look at this.
[Daniel] We can make us
a good little water supply out of there.
[Richard] So, we need to grab that pipe right there.
[Daniel] Mmm-hmm.
There was a big four-inch pipe,
I knew what they were laying there
because there used to be an old hog lot
over here to the side,
and that four-inch pipe fed water to where
the pigs would have fresh water to drink.
Perfect. It's exactly what we need.
I think that we can dam that up right there,
and we'll be doing good.
It's good, clean, mountain spring water...
[Richard] I'll tell you what, this water is cold.
[Daniel] ...limestone water
running straight over limestone rock.
That will work wonderful, Richard.
There's nothing no better to make moonshine with.
How are you doing there, buddy?
[Richard] I got a big buildup right here.
I'm gonna have to go under it.
I ain't got no choice.
This is really hard work.
I had no clue that this was gonna work like this.
Why don't you come out and meet me on this other end?
'Cause this is gonna get a little thick over here.
Daniel knows what's going on here,
and I'm just pleased as punch,
just be able to learn some of this stuff from him.
I don't do stuff like this in Louisiana.
Moonshiners should never stop learning.
I mean, the second you stop learning,
like Daniel says, there should be
some dirt thrown over the top of your head.
Now, it ain't gonna be long now,
we'll have a good water supply.
[Daniel grunting]
[Richard] Let's go see, man.
[Daniel] You thinking it's coming?
It's got to be coming down here, Daniel.
Oh, yeah, that's water coming out of there.
That's some water pressure.
We had a success here today in two different ways.
We set the still up,
and we got a hell of a water supply in.
[Richard] That'll make some good liquor right there.
I believe it will.
But working with Richard, I'm kind of worried, you know.
Mark and Digger and I have been working together
a long time, and I want the to give me their blessing,
because I want a good relationship
with them in the future.
Hillbilly and Cajun shine.
We could do it.
What's left to do is to figure out
what we're gonna actually mash in,
and we're gonna start going.
We're gonna start figuring out how we're gonna sell this,
where we're gonna sell this, and what we're gonna do next.
Well, let's get out of here, man.
We'll come back and start a mash tomorrow.
[Tickle] Hey, this is a nice stack of lumber right here.
[Josh] That's way too small.
[narrator] In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains
after fire forced the Virginia boys
from their farmhouse still site,
Josh became the focus of an investigation
by the local fire marshal.
Now they're trying to build out a new still site
without breaking the bank.
[Henry] We gotta build another still.
We lost the farm over there,
so we got a whole new plan.
One thing we found out years ago,
traveling on the road will put you in jail,
so we decided to go with
this big, thousand gallon still.
We'll be able to do a bigger mash bill,
and we won't have to be running up and down any roads so much.
You know, this is pretty lumber,
but it ain't near wide enough.
[Josh] Go with a big still.
Know that we're not ever gonna move it or drag it out.
We'll use less gas,
and be able to turn out more liquor.
Hey, y'all!
They call me the King Tut of the [bleep] mountain.
If you want it, you can have the crown!
I look, and it's a mound of sawdust,
must be a hundred feet up in the air,
and who's at the top of it?
Josh Owens.
We'll meet you back at the house.
-[chuckles] -[Henry] What he didn't know was,
there could be ticks, and chiggers,
and everything else in that stuff.
I'd hate to see him in the morning,
what he's gonna look like,
probably welts all over his butt.
[Josh] Climbing the mountain
I got my socks full of sawdust,
and I even got a little bit in my underwear.
I'm a wood freak. I love it
[Henry] Jerry, how you been doing?
Pretty fair. How about yourself?
[Henry] I'm working hard, man.
[Jerry] I don't see no dirt on your shirt.
[chuckling] After today, it will be.
These guys have worked with my family
for years and years and years.
We may look all on that land,
over at the sawmill on their property.
Good people. They keep their mouth shut.
You know what I'm looking for.
Yeah, I got some stuff you can look at.
Y'all wanna head down by that chipper right there.
I'll show you what I got.
Ah!
[Henry] You're talking about these over here, Jerry?
[Jerry] Yeah, I got some two-by-eights right here,
if that'll work for you.
[Henry] That's pretty.
-[Josh] Yeah. -[Kenny] Damn right. That looks damn good.
[Henry] Well, the whole deal now is price, man.
It's gonna be close to $50 a shot.
It'll take you a dozen of 'em to do what you wanna do.
We found some lumber that would do the job,
but the price is high.
My God, last time we got 'em at like, what, 20?
-$15, $20, right, Jerry? -[Kenny] $20.
I'm paying twice for fuel.
I'm paying twice for logs, nowadays.
And things is crazy.
Lumber, it's basically
the same price as gold right now.
Diesel fuels went way up,
cost of help has went way up
so therefore the cost of lumber
has went through the roof.
What if we bring our own trees over here?
[Josh] Can we trade it for some lumber
to build our pot?
Be cheaper than buying lumber from me.
How much would that run?
Really, you're probably gonna be around a third of the price.
Inflation is making it hard on everybody.
Best thing is cut down some trees,
and trade it for some wood
that's already dried and cured for a third of the price.
You've got trees you need rid of down there anyway,
like free.
Free? There was...
There's nothing free about 'em.
I've been nurturing him.
-[Tickle] He went over and took a leak beside 'em. -[Josh laughs]
-That's all the nurturin' he done did. -[laughs]
Henry's got all kinds of nice trees there,
so we're gonna cut one of them things down,
trade it for some lumber to build our still.
We can cut a tree or two and bring it over here.
-[Jerry] That's fine. -[Tickle] Sounds good, man.
-[Josh] Thank you, bro. -[Jerry] Y'all take it easy.
[Mark] Hey, Kel!
We've got our friend Kelly coming with us today,
and he's bringing his little mini excavator.
We've talked him into cleani this spring out for us.
You know, we're really hoping that once he digs down
a couple of feet that, you know,
the spring will start running.
Well, you'uns stay back, so you don't get bushwhacked,
that's all I can say.
He's done got a plan in mind for sure.
[Digger] He done got it in his head,
he's a-going with it.
[Mark] Watch it go.
He looks like he's gonna dig us a lake.
Uh-huh.
[Mark] He's done done more right there
that you would've done in a half a day.
I'm telling you, these shovels is a lot easier to use
when you use 'em like this.
Oh, now, lookee there. See how that freed that up?
[Digger] Uh-huh.
As soon as Kelly gets to digging around there
toward the throat of this spring,
it immediately starts flowing better.
[Mark] Man, look at how much bigger that stream is
now that it ain't got no back pressure on the spring throat.
It loosened up something
that was retarding the water flow.
That's a pretty good stream
coming out of there, baby man.
You know, the water that you see
coming out of this spring right now,
it appears very muddy, and it is,
because we are churning in it,
but, you know, in a few days when all the muddy water
is washed on down the way, I think this water is gonna
outstanding for anything that we choose to do with it.
[Kelly] What do you think?
Well, I think that you understood
our instructions very well.
Yeah.
I've got my pap's old spring dug out,
and if it's as good a water as everybody said it was
over the years, then it should make
some fine liquor.
I'm saying that's five gallon a minute.
We're well on our damn way
to get started making some liquor, I think.
So we just simply gotta figure out
what we want to do to kick our season off,
here at this spring.
You know, we feel like,
that it deserves something special.
Let's get the hell out of here.
Well, I guess it's time to get started.
You know, I show up here today at the still site,
I fire up the still,
and start warming the water up.
Richard was going, this morning, to actually
go get a bunch of cotton candy grapes,
and he and I were gonna mak
a cotton candy grape mash.
[cell phone vibrating]
[Richard on cell phone] What are you doing, Daniel, man?
I'm here at the still site waiting on you.
[Richard] Daniel, this guy was not as good as he professed to be
about trying to get these grapes,
and I can do some stuff,
but we're not gonna have
enough grapes to do a total mash-in.
Sorry to let you down, brother.
Hey, man, it's... it's not really you letting me down.
If... if they said they had 'em
and then you couldn't get 'em, then it's...
It's them letting us down.
I've got a real close friend.
He's got a fruit stand down here on the highway.
Why don't you meet me at that fruit stand?
[Richard] Good deal, brother.
I'll see you in 15 minutes.
All right, brother.
-[Richard] All right. -See you.
[Richard] All right.
We've got to go down to this fruit stand
and see what kind of fruits that my buddy Brent's got.
Beggars can't be choosers.
Whatever fruit that he's got we're gonna get it
and make some good brandy.
Richard not being able to get the grapes,
it's nothing to cry about.
Here we are, the fruit stand.
You adapt and overcome the situation.
If you can't have grapes, you use something else.
-What's going on, Daniel? -What's up, Richard?
We're gonna get with my buddy Brent,
and see what they've got.
I let Richard know right awa
"Hey, man, I'm gonna take care of everything.
We're gonna work through this together."
-How you doing, Brent? -Good. How are you?
[Richard] What's going on? Richard Landry, sir.
[Daniel] These are all friends of mine.
The first thing that catches my eye is just
bucket after bucket of fresh strawberries.
-Where are the berries from? -South Carolina grown.
Probably the best you'll ever eat.
[Richard] I see strawberrie right off, and that,
and that, in the top of my mind, tells me
"Whoa, I can do something with that."
Well, uh, what are you looking for?
I'll buy every one you got.
Maner, I can't sell you every berry I got on this lot,
but I'm willing to work with you.
I mean, I wanna try to make something happen.
Well, can you do at least three bushel?
We can try that.
He's willing to give us three bushel.
The prices on material and supplies
to make moonshine have skyrocketed.
What do you think about two for three bushel.
[Brent] We'll do the three bushels for today.
[Richard] $100.
-You do it for $200? -Yeah. $200.
-Sold. -When a friend needs help, you gotta help him.
-I appreciate it. -Well, thank you.
With the strawberries and all the grapes that Richard's got,
we'll get those mashed in and we'll add the sugar,
and it's... it's gonna make
a killer strawberry grape brandy.
We're gonna make some strawberry jam.
[Henry] There's a good-sized one there, Josh.
Is that about the size we're looking for?
[Josh] Yeah.
Well, we find ourselves in need of a new pot.
The cost of lumber is through the roof.
Henry's got all sorts of nice trees on his propert
so why don't we just cut a couple of them things down,
and trade for some cured and dried wood
at the lumber yard to make our still with?
We can really save a lot of money this way.
What do you think, Josh?
[Tickle] Oh yeah, we can cut that one.
[Henry] I think if we drop it in that field,
it would make it easier on us.
All right.
So, I can climb it and put a rope in it,
and we can pull it back that way.
[Henry] Where you gonna put the rope at?
About a quarter away from the top.
You're kidding me.
Becoming a tree guy, it was in my blood.
I was 11, 12 years old.
I got my first chainsaw.
I was cutting every piece of wood I could find, you know?
It just stuck with me.
All right, we're good.
I don't know, it's just one of those things
I really, truly love.
When you cut trees, sometimes,
you know, they're leaning in one direction or another.
We're gonna have to climb these trees
and put ropes in 'em,
to manipulate 'em where we want 'em to go.
Damn, that's dangerous, man.
[Tickle] I know, and how much would another Josh cost?
Exactly.
When I cut a tree down, I lay the chainsaw to it.
When Josh cuts a tree down,
it's a whole 'nother world of insanity.
[motor revving]
I think it's the highest he's gonna get up.
-[Tickle] That's a long way's up on it. -[Henry] It's a long way's up.
He went up that tree so high.
It didn't bother him one bit tying ropes off,
chainsaw was hanging from his side,
up the tree like a damn monkey,
cutting limbs as he was goin dropping 'em down.
We couldn't believe it.
Josh, how far are you planning on going up?
I'm here. [grunting]
[exhales]
[Tickle] I don't know what kind of knots
he's tying up there, but it must be a good one.
All right, about to come down.
All right. Here he comes.
I'll be damned.
He's bat [bleep] crazy, ain't he?
Look at him.
Ain't no way on earth
I got balls big enough to climb
as high up in the tree as Josh did,
and basically just rappel down.
How do you climb a tree with balls that damn big?
-[chuckling] You're crazy. -[laughs]
I'll tell you what, that takes a special kind of somebody.
This tree is gonna wanna fall all the way across here,
and it's gonna be all down in the woods and stuff.
We're gonna make this thing fall out there
in the field the best we can.
What I wanna do is,
I wanna get the guys out in the middle of the field,
have them on the end of the rope,
tugging as hard as they can
drop the tree.
Take that rope.
Take it out in the middle of the field,
and y'all just pull on it.
When the rope falls, y'all just keep backing up.
And it's safe, you know,
as long as everybody gets the hell out of the way.
And then you just keep a good, steady tug on it.
Josh basically tells us to pull it towards us.
[motor revving]
If somebody trips and falls when the tree is falling,
they'd better get the hell up
and get the hell out of the way, or they...
They're gonna be smashed.
Pull!
He said, "Pull." He said, "Pull."
Here she coming, here she coming.
Here she coming.
Here she coming, here she coming.
If somebody trips and falls when the tree is falling,
they'd better get the hell up
and get the hell out of the way, or they...
They're gonna be smashed.
[Tickle] There she goes.
Yeah, baby! [chuckles]
-All right. -Yes, sir.
[Josh] Fell right where I said it was going to, didn't it?
[Henry] Perfect.
Once Josh gets this tree on the ground,
we really get a good look
at what kind of nice lumber that this is gonna make.
We ought to be able to trade this for some lumbe
to build our still,
no problem.
[Henry] That's it.
Let's get this baby loaded, and get it to the mill.
[Tickle] There's sure gonna be quite a bit of wood
out of them.
Just put it right on there.
Beautiful!
Now, Josh is the only one he with the experience, really
loading logs on a trailer.
Oh, [bleep] !
Damn, we lost that one, didn't we?
Hey, if something don't happen,
you ain't working.
So, when you add us into the mix,
it's just natural
you're gonna wind up losing a log or two.
-There's a couple good logs there. -[Josh] Yep.
Let's just get these babies to the log mill.
[Digger] Well, here's to...
[Mark] Popcorn Sutton.
[Digger] With the fact that we've got
a newly excavated spring,
it's time to figure out what direction
we're going in now.
If it's as good a water as everybody said it was over the years,
then it should make some fine liquor.
You know, it popped back in my mind the other day
when we was talking about Popcorn,
and it's the 20th anniversary of his last run.
I think we need to pay homage to him.
Maybe one last final tribute to Popcorn.
[Digger] We thought maybe we ought to do
a little something to celebrate that landmark.
You remember when Dwight gave us back
those old patterns of Popcorn's?
-Yep. -It was the pattern
-for his piss-pot stills. -Yeah.
Let's me and you build a little copper still
out of Popcorn Sutton's patterns.
Piss-pot refers to the volume of the still,
meaning how many gallons it'll hold,
which ain't many.
You know, back years ago,
everybody had a chamber pot under their be
and in wintertime,
nobody wanted to go outside
to walk to the outhouse to pee,
so they peed in that pot.
That's what people called it. It's their piss-pot.
If we do that,
we need to make a run of liquor
that would piss him off.
Yeah, let's make a run of scotch.
He hated scotch with a purple passion.
[chuckles] It would be funny.
Some people might not think that's much of a tribute,
but we kind of relished in the fact
that we could piss him off.
You know, we've always tried to do
everything to suit him.
-Now we can do it as we see fit, so-- -Exactly.
We'll go up there, and there'll be
holes kicked in that grave
where his legs is a-kicking all the dirt off of it.
The good thing about Popcorn,
he would realize that it was something done in jest,
and he would get over it rather quickly.
Making damn scotch liquor in my piss-pot stills?
Who the hell do you think I am?
Popcorn Sutton?
[chuckles]
Let's finish off these little toddies,
and let's go find them patterns,
and go get us a sheet of copper
and see if we can get it to work.
Yeah, we don't need the copper
if we can't find the patterns.
We know we have 'em,
and we know they're on the third floor.
But, uh, you know,
that presents another problem altogether.
Lord have mercy.
The third floor is a place where everything
in the entire world lives.
I found a box of corncobs.
[Digger] Oh, yeah, I was selling those
during the pandemic,
-when toilet paper was nonexistent. -[laughing] Okay.
We gotta find these damn patterns.
I know we didn't take 'em to my house.
They're up here somewhere.
-Ah, paydirt! -[Mark] You find 'em?
Under one of the stills, that is, the twins,
there the patterns are.
Yeah. That's them, baby man.
Yep. That's the bottom.
This is a...
That's the side.
I think this is the pot body, ain't it?
-That right there is the cape. -The cape.
[Mark] Now that we've located the patterns,
that was the main thing.
Without those, we certainly couldn't build
Popcorn's piss-pot still.
Let's gather up everything here that's part of it.
We know this is.
[Digger] We know this is.
We've got all the parts and pieces
we need to these patterns.
Now, we gotta go procure a little copper.
We're ready to go to work.
Dear Lord, have mercy!
[thuds]
Today we're gonna start building our new thousand gallon still.
We don't wanna be making no more trips in and out
of this still site than we absolutely got to,
so this great big pot,
it allows us to come in fewer times
and still make a whole lot of alcohol.
Put the cut-ins together.
[Tickle] Yeah. There you go.
-Look, you can pull them out, and just we-- -[Henry] We got it, Tickle.
We've built a couple of these stills before.
[Tickle] Have you?
Golly, this thing is gonna be massive.
There are several steps to building a submarine pot.
First, we've got to clamp these sides tight.
[Josh] Come on, Paige.
[Henry] Damn, that's gonna be a big still.
[Tickle] Well, we need to put some boards
across this thing, and patch her together.
What we need now is some oak boards.
Next, we've got to get
our curves set right on the ends,
and get these things cut nice and flush and square.
[Kenny] Take your time with it, Josh.
[Tickle] Yeah, well, he's hardheaded,
but he does a fine job.
[Josh] Talking about me?
-[laughs] -You're talking about him.
[grunts]
Next step is we gotta stand these sides up.
[Josh groans]
[Tickle] Now, that's easier said than done
on one of these great big sides.
Good God!
She's looking good now, boys!
All we gotta do now is wrap this baby.
[Henry] We got a hell of a j with the metal.
I couldn't get the 12-foot piece of metal
to build this sucker.
We're gonna have to add on to this right here,
and I'd like to have Josh to brace it in.
[Josh] You're not wrapping this
with just the ordinary piece of metal
This is gonna take two pieces of the stainless.
We gotta get a good doggone weld across there,
because this sized still,
you're adding a lot of liquid in there,
and that much weight can damn crush this thing like a beer can.
It's gotta be built right.
[Henry] Looking awesome, boys.
The last step is, we gotta mark out for our cap hole,
and we're gonna cut it out with a plasma cutter.
I believe that's it, fellas.
How does it fit, though?
Damn, and it fits perfect.
You know the only thing wrong with this?
It just ain't quite big enough.
[all laugh]
This thing is massive.
But guess what? It's gonna hold a lot of mas
That means it's gonna make a lot of liquor.
Let's make some money for us.
[Tickle chuckling] That's right.
Come on in there, Puss.
You got that door?
Watch this.
-Yeah. -I'm talented as all getout.
Today's the day
that we take Popcorn's old patterns,
and we're gonna build us a piss-pot out of 'em.
We know this is the cap.
[Digger] Yep.
This should be the exact width.
These are just like the Dead Sea Scrolls.
There ain't no more of these patterns
-that have been cut out. -[Mark] No.
All right, let's get our copper laid out.
Well, the first thing we have to do,
we've got to lay our sheet of copper out on our table,
place the pieces where we maximize,
what little waste we have out of this copper.
If we can get that right on the end,
then we can trace it out.
We paid $265 for a sheet of 16 ounce copper.
Four years ago,
we were buying it for less than $100.
[Mark] All right, here's the first cut.
Popcorn Sutton piss-pot.
Take one.
We can't make any mistakes.
I mean, one mistake and you're out nearly 300 bucks.
Well, you gotta remember
who we're dealing with here now, I'm telling you.
Oh, if there's anywhere he can put a whammy on us...
[Mark] Something will go wrong,
'cause I ain't never built a still
that didn't have something screw up.
We know up here what needs to be done,
but after a few years, it's hard to communicate
to these little rascals what needs to be done.
-Whoa, oops, God damn! -There it goes.
Whoo, here we go.
I might have broke a toe.
You know, the old time moonshiners,
they paid somebody to build their stills, Digger.
They may have had the right idea.
And a lot of times, them still builders,
they didn't think anything about it,
to turn somebody in
so they can build 'em another still.
[Mark] You know, we are breaking the law,
we're violating the law,
but we don't see ourself as criminals.
You know, we're just simply doing what we love.
[Digger] That being said,
when we get back to running this year,
we got to be more careful.
We've gotten kind of complacent.
We think nobody's looking at us.
You know, whether it's our years
that we've got on us now,
or whether the fact that we're being dogged,
as strong as we are.
We're pretty paranoid.
You know, we probably let our guard down last season,
and then the sheriff ended up finding our still site
by watching the footage.
If we weren't concerned before,
we damn sure are now.
Yeah, we're not high on the food chain.
They have bigger stuff out there to fight,
but when somebody gets an erection for you,
they're gonna pay you a visit every time they can.
[Mark] I'm gonna hold it here, you mark it.
That's close enough to the top, right?
Yep.
Son of a bitch!
Ahhh!
[thuds]
The hole that I've cut is way too big.
You know what I did?
-Yeah. -I've been marking on the outside of these,
-all day. -[Digger] Yeah.
This I needed cut on the inside
of the line you marked.
The real problem we have, we don't have any more copper.
We got to have more copper to do anything to fix it.
In order to stay true to Popcorn's plans,
we just build another cap.
We can't afford not to finish it.
Then, it's worth nothing.
We spent too much time on it.
We got too much money in it.
Now...
Let's go.
[Mark] A damn 20 gallon still,
we're gonna have $1,000 in. That's insane.
[Digger] That's par for the course for us.
[Digger] He's here.
-Yep. -[Mark] I hope he can help us.
-Good morning, sir. -Welcome back.
[Digger] We came to see our old buddy Kevin Gordon
for no other purpose but
to replace a piece of copper Mark screwed up.
Well, we're back over here kind of very humbly
seeing if we can buy some more copper.
[Kevin] I need to let you know.
I was talking to my supplier,
and copper's went up a dollar a pound more.
Since last week?
-[Kevin] Since last week. -In the name of sense!
Instead of $265 it is now...
$295 per sheet.
Son of a bitch.
Hmm.
Okay. I mean, we gotta do it.
We have to do it.
[Kevin] All right, well, come on back, fellas.
-and we'll get you another one. -Well, let's go get it.
We've decided we would build a little piss-pot still to honor Popcorn
and make a little run of scotch on it
But all things being considered,
it's probably the most expensive tribute
that we've ever made.
-[Mark] Ah, hell. -[Digger] Well, there you go.
[Mark] I can't believe we're doing this
for the second time.
Yeah, but ain't it getting easier every time we do it.
We're in record time with this rascal.
I mean, we're moving on this
Slide that rascal on there,
and I'll get the other pecker hammer.
We've got it put together,
all the seams beat down flat and then locked,
then we gotta cut this hole.
At least you got the right line.
[Mark] Look at that.
-Oh. Yes, sir, Puss. -Oh, hell.
This time we hit it right on the money. It'll solder up beautiful.
Now, the only task ahead of us,
we've got to get us
a fine scotch mash bill together,
and we'll make Popcorn a drink of scotch.
We'll tighten it all up when it's time.
[Digger] We'll get it all together.
All right.
They got some big, juicy strawberries in here.
I'm telling you,
we've got some good-smelling strawberries.
Strawberry grape brandy,
it's something that a lot of people,
I'm sure, hasn't seen in years,
so it's gonna be some fine, fine drinking.
[Richard] But this is gonna do good with that strawberry.
[Daniel] It is what it is, brother.
What do you think about this, Richard?
[Richard] What is that?
[Daniel] That's a stomping stick.
-Yeah, you could stomp somebody with that. -[chuckles]
Let's see if we can make some high dollar stuff
come out of this situation here.
Grapes, when you bring 'em into a ferment,
and then put it in the still,
it offers a level of complexity to it that you can taste.
That's what these grapes are gonna do,
because they're really sweet,
they're really big.
Daniel, that's working real good.
Yeah, that's a lot of juice coming out of there.
You ever tried to make a brandy like this?
[Daniel] I never have.
I've never mixed grapes and strawberries.
I've actually made strawberry brandy before.
Probably, those same customers
that I used for the strawberry brandy?
-Mmm-hmm. -Well, they's gonna like this.
This time of the year is a big time of year
for fruit brandies.
In the winter months they like corn liquor.
If we're gonna make any money around here,
we have to cater to the community,
whatever they want.
You know, really, all you gotta do
is pick it up.
It'll put itself down.
A lot of people that make strawberry brandies,
they're worried to death
about the seeds that's on the strawberry.
"They make stuff bitter."
"It has a bad flavor."
No. No, it don't.
Those seeds that are on that strawberry
is part of where that flavor comes from.
[Richard] God, that smells good!
[Daniel] We'll fill 'em about half full,
and then we'll top it off with warm water,
and stir it in.
Is that warm, Richard?
[Richard] Yes, sir.
[Daniel] Better warm up that mountain water enough
to let the yeast work on it.
You know, this is gonna be some top chef stuff right here.
Lay the yeast to it, brother.
This is magic dust, right here.
[Richard] Coming here and learning some things
is only gonna be good,
not only for Daniel and I, but for the craft,
the moonshine making itself.
That'll do it.
Five to seven days from now,
that's gonna be some awesome, awesome stuff.
I can't wait to see this.
This is probably gonna take a week.
Nothing else to do, but wait,
go and see some of this beautiful country
that Daniel allowed me to be in.
I think we're pretty good right there, Daniel.
I think you're right.
-Damn straight. -Let's stand it up, Paige.
[Paige] All right.
[Tickle] We've got this humongous thousand gallon po
and it's come time to load this thing
on the truck, to get it out to the still site.
[grunting]
-Damn it! -Damn.
That's what I'm talking about!
-[all grunting] -Hey, it's a whole truckload!
Hey, I know what we're gonna call it.
"Tiny."
You're damn straight!
[all laugh]
Keep anybody off of it, okay?
-[Tickle] All right. -Don't let 'em get too close.
-[Tickle] I'll be right behind you. -All right, man.<
[Tickle] This ain't just something you can ride aroun
in the bed of your truck during the day with...
This is really the most dangerous time, too.
Everybody can see this pot now,
...so we're gonna have to take this thing out here
under the cover of darkness.
That's why we're behind him.
We're gonna keep everybody off of him,
and if somebody does look like it's a cop behind us,
I'll just go ahead and start doing something stupid.
You know, I'll be weaving all over the road.
That's the sacrifice you gotta make
to keep the damn game going.
[Paige] Yep.
We're a little bit further off the beaten path
with this still site than we usually are...
Come on back. Straighten it up.
...and that's a good thing,
because it's gonna be a good still site.
All right. Let's do this.
-[grunting] -All right.
[grunting]
Go, stand her up. Stand her up. Stand her up.
-[Josh] Oh, here we go. -[Tickle grunts]
Whoa, whoa. Right there.
-[Tickle] Frame rolled around. -[Josh] A little bit more.
-[Tickle] A little more? -[Josh] Little bit more.
-All right. -Whoa, whoa.
Push it wide.
Perfect.
[Tickle] It looks like it's about two stories tall,
standing there.
[Josh] It's sticking out like a sore weenie.
[Tickle] We're gonna take care of that at first light.
Let's get on out of here.
[Henry] I'm glad we got it down here.
Oh, man.
It was good to get that baby unloaded, wasn't it?
Yeah, man. I'm glad to have her done.
Make some money, baby.
[Josh] I'm ready.
[Henry] What is that?
[Josh] It look like a trailer or something to me.
[Henry] He's got us blocked. We're blocked.
The road is blocked.
What the heck is going on?
What's going on, boss?
[Josh on walkie-talkie] There's a trailer, uh,
blocking the roadway. We can't get out.
[Tickle on walkie-talkie] Oh, [bleep] .
[Josh] Turn your lights off, there's somebody been in here.
You don't reckon somebody saw us coming in here
and then blocked this off,
and then called the law, do you?
[Josh] My thoughts exactly.
Things are looking good, Tickle?
Well, I'd say that about does it, right there, Henry.
[Henry] I reckon I might as well try one more little thing.
I've always wanted a still where I could
put a little winch on it, maybe,
easier to load on a truck.
What are you talking about?
[Henry] Put some handles, and wind it right,
and it'll be easy to load on a truck.
Like this right here. Just wind it.
What do you think?
[Tickle hums "Pop Goes the Weasel"]
Ahhh!
What the hell, man?
I know!
[Henry laughs]
Hey. Oh, we all know.
-[Tickle laughs] -That was a nut.
Lucky I didn't have my hammer in my hand.
-Yeah, I knew you guys were gonna fall for it. -I went and got it!
[Henry] Jack-in-the-box. Josh-in-the-box.
[Tickle] This is a Josh-in-the-box.
[Henry] What is that?
[Josh] It look like a trailer or something to me.
[Henry] He's got us blocked. We're blocked.
The road is blocked.
[Tickle] You don't reckon somebody
saw us coming in here,
and then blocked this off,
and then called the law, do you?
[Josh on walkie talkie] My thoughts exactly.
I say let's walk up here and check it out.
Hey, is anybody here?
[knocking]
Anybody in this truck?
Hey.
[knocks] Hey.
This road is blocked.
There's no way to get around.
They got the entire road blocked, man.
Let me talk to Tickle and them about it for a second, maybe.
I'm gonna guess they recognize the trouble.
They got us... They got us blocked in.
Can't get by.
Who's got us blocked in?
[Henry] I have no idea.
I don't know what to think.
Have we been spotted? Have we been turned in?
All I know is, we gotta creep our asses
back down in the woods,
and try to regroup and figure out
what in the world we're gonna do.
[Henry] We can't get out.
Whether we're here or not, we can't get out.
The bottom line is, if they know we're in here,
we need to talk to 'em.
The only option we got is really to try to ride it out,
and hopefully, we can find out who he is,
and talk to the guy. That's what we need to do.
If I wanted to find out something,
I'd might as well find it out now.
-[Josh] Yeah. -[Paige] Yeah.
-'Cause you know, no mash... -No more mash.
[Kenny] ...and no more equipment.
You want me to go up on and check and see what's going on?
I think so.
[Kenny] I'll be back.
Henry knows me.
If... If it's anybody around I'm gonna find 'em.
I've done it for years. You know what I mean?
He knows me.
If it's anything out there, I'm gonna find it.
[Paige] Hope he comes back with some good news.
[Tickle] Yeah. I hope he comes back.
What, Kenny? Hey, what did you see, man?
I waited a long time inside of the vehicle,
and maybe where I could see him
in different directions, you know,
and back from the opposite way,
you know, all of a sudden, there he comes.
Next thing I know, you know,
hell, he was gone.
I didn't have a chance to talk to him or say nothing.
-You know? -So he wasn't coming down from the mountain there?
No, no, he come from up the other way.
He just come from an opposite direction,
and he was long gone and--
[Henry] Maybe we climb up a little bit more,
just be on the safe side...
-Okay. -[Henry] ...but let's roll with him.
-We're good to go. -I won't be scared to go back in there and try.
The guy came from the opposite side of the vehicle.
He didn't come from the side where our still site was on.
So all in all, that makes me feel a whole lot better.
We're good then.
Let's go home.
I second the motion.
Let's get the hell on out of here.
Seasoned moonshiners has got balls of steel,
and I'll tell you what,
we're gonna take a chance and leave this pot down here,
but we're gonna have to be really careful with this thing.
We've gotta camouflage this still site.
That way, if they are comin down to the woods,
the last thing on earth they'll see
is this thousand gallon pot.
And I tell you what,
it's gonna take some doings to hide this big old boy.
[Richard] If we could get some good brandies
going down here,
man, we could do really good with this, Dan.
I think we can, but I think that we need to start
this partnership off the right way.
So I want me and you to go see Mark and Digger.
I wanna tell them that I'm going out on my own,
and bringing you in as a partner.
Mark and Digger, I want them to give me their blessing
to move ahead with the idea that I've got.
I just hope that it doesn't make 'em mad,
and they say, "You get the hell on out of here."
You know I'm not from here, man.
And to let an outsider
into these hallowed grounds, man?
-Yeah. -I kinda wanna see how they feel about that.
Daniel has a whole lot of respect for Mark and Digger.
I mean, I do, too, and Daniel kind of thinks
it's a really good idea if we come down here and talk to them,
and let them know what we plan on doing.
[Mark] There's old Daniel!
[Digger] Hey, your ear's on fire.
Look what Boone has brought with him.
I didn't know that was a-coming.
I mean, I'm really hoping to hear that these guys are
in agreement with it, because they might tell us,
"Hey, you know, I don't think that y'all
gonna be too good together."
What in the world are you two up to?
This can't be no account.
I've come to talk to you guys, and, you know, I've...
I've been working with you,
so if... If it's all right,
I'd like to bring Richard onboard.
I wanna know that youse are okay with it,
because you helped me when nobody else would.
Are you'uns wanting to kind of do your own thing
or are you wanting to kind of
bring Richard in as a partner with us?
I mean, where are you going with this?
I would honestly kind of like to do my own thing.
[Digger] Daniel, I don't wanna lose you.
I'll be honest.
And Richard, you... You like it?
If it's good up here in Tennessee, you're gonna
come a little more permanent?
I love it up here. This is the mecca.
I mean, this is the motherland right here.
Honestly, the respect, Daniel, that you've always showed us,
the fact you came,
I'd be a sorry SOB
if I did not give you my blessings.
Thank you.
And if you need anything out of us, you know where we are.
[Daniel] Well, I'll be able to sleep good tonight
because I know these fellows is not gonna be mad at me
for wanting to go out on my own.
The four barrel still that you have
where you've been running liquor for us,
take it, use it as you see fit.
We'll give you enough corn, enough sugar
to get them pots sweetened in the first time.
-What about that, Richard? -Man.
I feel like we're giving them a wedding present.
-[Daniel laughs] -I feel like I won the lottery.
They gave us way more than a blessing.
They also gave us supplies to start our first run.
They gave us a still. I mean, that's friendship.
Here's to your all's partnership
being as successful and rewarding
as mine and Mark Wayne Ramsey's has.
[Daniel] I really hope that Richard Landry and I
are able to build a legacy like Mark and Digger has.
-Thank you, sir. -[Mark] Get the hell out of here,
and go get to making some liquor.