[Digger] All right, guys, here were are.
You're gonna have five minutes each
to get in here, scavenge what you can out of this culled produce,
make us a mash like we ain't never seen before in our lives.
[narrator] Across the country, a handful of distillers
are heirs to a centuries-old tradition.
Some operate on the legal side,
others practice their craft beyond the reach of the law.
Chaos. Controlled chaos.
Yeah, dude.
[narrator] Now they'll face off to earn their place
in America's liquor making legacy.
Down in the backwoods, you gotta work with
whatever ingredients that you have.
[narrator] Using only unsold ingredients
destined for the dumpster.
When you have absolutely no control over your mash build,
that's the test of a true distiller.
[narrator] Three contenders will craft top-shelf spirits.
That looks like the healthiest drink of mash I've ever witnessed in my life.
[narrator] But only one will have what it takes
-to be named... -This is crazy.
[narrator] ...Master Distiller.
We came from fruits destined for the dumpster...
To a good jar of liquor.
Now, as you all know, in our country right now,
it's unbelievable, the waste that goes on.
But moonshiners been taking food waste
and turning it into liquid gold
since before they came to this country.
So, what we're gonna do, you're gonna have five minutes each.
Get in here, scavenge what you can out of this cold produce,
make us a mash like we ain't never seen before in our lives.
-All right, is everybody ready? -Yes, sir.
Hyde, your time starts now.
Get with it.
My name is Hyde, I'm 26 years old,
and I'm from Dawsonville, Georgia.
Hey.
Currently, I am a commercial electrician,
but I am here to compete on behalf of
all the outlaws still out in the woods running it.
My interest in distilling started off because of family history.
My family came over here on the second voyage of the Mayflower,
and ever since we been here, we've been making moonshine.
So, this is the test still.
I'll run a small batch of stuff in this
to make sure that the recipe turns out good, the flavors are good.
Me and the wife really, really like it.
I would say my specialty in distilling is brandies.
Specifically mountain brandies.
I'm pretty confident that whatever I find,
I can turn it into something delicious.
Being on Master Distiller before
opened up way more doors than I thought it ever would.
-Hyde. -[Hyde] Yes, sir.
Good tasting liquor.
We're expecting to hear and see good things out of you, young man.
[Hyde] It's an amazing opportunity to be able to come back and try again
and show the judges what I can really do
now that I'm not constrained by own fear of not being good enough.
I know that I'm good enough to be here.
Now I just need to be good enough to win.
Better pay attention to your time, you're at two minutes.
Is it gonna mess y'all up if I grab more peaches or y'all gonna be all right?
Those are peaches and those are peaches.
Yeah, there's two big--
[Hyde] I'm really looking for peaches.
I've worked them before, I know how it's supposed to taste.
Just my comfort zone.
I've never fermented honey before,
but I know it ferments well.
So, that's coming with me.
And walnuts.
I've used pecans at home to create, like, a buttery mouthfeel.
And I was hoping that walnuts will kinda do the same thing here.
Calling it all done?
I'm good.
[Digger] We'll move along.
All right, Jeremy.
It's your time, five minutes.
Same protocol.
[Jeremy] My name's Jeremy Myers.
I'm 47 years old, and I currently live in Southampton, Pennsylvania.
Right now behind me a 500-liter still.
It's a combination hybrid still, plate still,
but we can also run it as a pot still as well.
Started when I was 16, distilling brandy
in my buddy's grandma's basement.
Was literally just taking grape juice and fermented grape juice
and running to a pretty rudimentary homemade still.
There's a million different ways to make liquor,
so for me that's part of the adventure.
That's part of the fun, is always trying new things.
Winning Master Distiller would be great, because for me,
a lot of this is about the creativity and the fun of all this,
so not that it would validate that,
but it's like I keep on pushing in that direction
and progressing and, and trying new things.
One minute burned, you got four left.
I like using things from the land,
and whether it's fresh, whether it's just about to spoil,
using that, that's to me the ultimate goal.
Minute and a half, Jeremy.
I worked at a farm distillery,
so to be on a farm and distill and see that connection
with the land I think is really important.
[Digger] 30 seconds.
I'm good.
-[Digger] You're good, Jeremy? -I think so.
[Digger] All right, we'll move right on to Kevin.
Kevin, you might think pickings are slim right there,
but I see a lot of good liquor in my eyes.
All right, you've got five minutes as well.
Your time starts now.
Get with it, buddy.
[Kevin] My name is Kevin Ford.
I'm 26 years old, and I'm from Buffalo, New York.
I am a professional distiller.
I do it fulltime, it's all I do.
We run a whiskey innovation program.
So, we're doing a lot of experimenting,
filling a few barrels a month just to see how those barrels go.
I started making booze when I was about 16 years old.
Making a little bit of beer quickly led to
building a little moonshine still on my dad's patio.
I loved everything about it.
I wasn't super great in school.
Not great with formal education,
but I just fell in love with it from the first time I did it.
[Digger] One minute down, four to go, Kevin.
[Kevin] More than anything, I've been watching these judges
since I started doing what I do.
The opportunity to have three legends
like Mark, Digger, and Tim taste this...
...I got chills right now.
I'm trying to get through ingredients.
I'm grabbing things, and at first I'm just doing, like, squeezes.
I'm tasting a couple grapes.
I'm taking a look at that honey,
and seeing what I got to work with.
Try before you buy.
I think what I got is exactly what I need.
I'm all set.
-You good? -[Kevin] Yup.
[Digger] All right.
Well, guys, let's get ready to load this back up
-in the vehicle, head up the back woods. -Sounds good.
[Digger] All right, men, here we go.
We're taking things that otherwise would have been cast off
into a ditch and left to finish rot.
Now it's gonna make fine liquor.
You got one hour to build the finest mash
from these ingredients from the farm.
You'll have five days to ferment,
then we're gonna test your mash
to see how much potential alcohol you could produce.
One hour, your mash has gotta be in your barrel.
That hour starts...
...now. Good luck, guys, and get with it.
Light her up.
There she goes.
Oh, here comes the purple haze.
For my mash, I took 40 pounds of blueberries,
ten pounds of honey, about three, four pounds of peaches,
a few blackberries, a few plums.
I'm super happy with what I... You know, what I got.
Anybody need some extra honey?
Since I got this barrel of sugar over here too.
-I'll take one. -[Hyde] One.
[Kevin] I'd take two of 'em.
-One, two. -Thank you, sir.
[Hyde] Yeah, man.
For my mash, I got a basket of white muscadine grapes,
got a little bit of honey.
I got a lot of cornmeal.
I know I picked last, but fortunately,
the guys were kind to me, so I got everything I needed.
[Digger] Good thing about those peaches being so late right there,
they squish up easy.
Oh, yeah.
Today I am bringing a twist on a brandy.
I'm doing a peach, honey, and black walnut.
With these ingredients together mashed in,
the final product should have the flavor and feel
of something like a peach cobbler or a peach pie.
This is tasty.
Smooth, buttery mouthfeel.
Great on the palate, just super peachy all over the place,
and I'm starting to get really comfortable with how this is going.
Five minutes, gentlemen.
Better be getting the button buttoned up.
-Ready? -Oh. [groans]
All right, here we go.
I believe Kevin's all in.
[Kevin] All in.
-You're all in there? -[Kevin] Oh, yeah.
I'm hoping my yeast finish is dry.
I'm shooting for about 12% alcohol.
It's what I'm comfortable with.
Nice.
[Digger] Three, two, one.
Step away from your barrels, gentlemen,
you are done.
Looking at all these culled fruits that y'all made mash out of,
I see nothing but top-shelf mash right here.
Chase on out, get you a little rest, we'll take care of the rest.
All right, fellows.
-First, Hyde. -Yes, sir.
I don't know what strings you pulled
to get yourself back here, but, uh.
-bully for you. -Thank you, sir.
-Good to see you, old friend. -Thank you, sir.
All right, that mash has had five days to work off.
So hopefully you're where you need to be.
It's easy enough to put your mash together
from a tried and true recipe,
but when you have absolutely no control over your mash build,
that's the test of a true distiller.
Now, guys, we're gonna be tasting your mash for flavor.
And we're gonna use a Brix hydrometer
to measure the density of the mash.
And this is gonna tell us the actual ABV
of what you potentially could make when you distill it.
This will simply determine in what order you will
go into the still house to pick still parts.
So, if you're banking on getting a thumper,
you better hope your mash has worked out.
What we need you to do for us right now
strain us off a jar full of your mash,
bring it up here on this table, and we'll head out and test it.
-Yup. -All right, get with it, men.
Please be done, please be done, please be done.
[sighs in relief]
Crack it open, I take a big whiff,
I smell booze, I smell a little bit of acid,
I smell white wine, and I'm feeling good.
[Jeremy] I'm super happy with what I got out of the mash.
When I opened the drum and, you know, saw the cap,
it felt like it tasted great when I mashed it.
It tastes great right now.
It tastes like a blueberry pastry.
It's still got a little bit more to go, but it's got some hump to it.
Mine is still rocking and rolling hard.
As soon as I crack open my fermenter,
I always check the cap of it to see if I've still
got a lot of fruits floating on top.
And I'm checking the taste to make sure that my peaches have gone sour.
I'm a little worried that it's not done
with all the carbonation that I'm seeing
and all the CO2 popping off,
but if I'm not dead on zero, done fermenting, I'm at least close.
All right.
All right, bud, thank you.
Good rich jar of mash.
-Mmm-hmm, looking good. -[Kevin] Thank you.
[Jeremy] Here you go.
[Digger] All right, well, we're gonna head on out.
We're gonna taste 'em, test 'em.
Then we'll be back to give y'all an order.
Good luck to all of you.
[Mark] Good luck, guys.
Let's go do this, men.
Well.
-Timmy. -[Tim] Yeah.
Let's get with it.
Let's see if that culled produce from the farm made us any alcohol.
Okay, well I think it says Kevin on it.
That's a beautiful, rich mash.
-I wanted to add a ton of grapes for the flavor. -Mmm-hmm.
But I was real worried about the yeast that those had on 'em.
Whoa.
-Damn. -[Digger] That is...
...wall to wall alcohol.
Yeah, I'd say he's pretty well zeroed out.
-[Mark] Oh, it's rich, ain't it? -[Digger] Mmm-hmm.
All right, Digger, his beginning gravity was 1.088.
Well, his potential ABV from where he started
is gonna be right at 12%.
Excellent jar of mash.
-Excellent, excellent. -He did a great jar of mash.
Let's move onto this one, I believe this one's gonna...
-[Tim] All right. -[Digger] It just needs drinking.
-[Mark] Jeremy. -[Digger] This is Jeremy.
I was nervous at first, but I mean, once we got picking,
-I, I felt fine. -[Hyde] Right.
Especially, I was worried you were gonna take
the blueberry, I wanted the blueberries.
Oh, it smells good. Wow.
That makes you hungry, smelling that.
[Mark] Good, yeah, smells excellent.
Still got a lot of sweet in it.
Got a lot of sweet taste.
A lot of sugar still there, we need that.
[Digger] There's a lot more work to be done, where it's a little yeasty.
Well, see right there's where he was starting out at 1.100.
Right, he's right at 10% ABV.
-[Tim] He just needs some more yeast. -We got one more to go.
[Mark] This is our old buddy, Hyde.
[Digger] Buddy Hyde.
I was gonna do peaches and rye,
but since there was no rye in there,
I've with with peaches...
...multiple times.
It's peachy.
It is peachy, yes, sir.
Finished out pretty good too, I believe.
-[Mark] Yeah, yeah. -There's a little sweetness in there, but not a lot.
His beginning gravity is 1.072.
[Digger] He is right at 9% ABV.
He's gonna be all right.
They're all excellent on flavor.
Yeah, they're across the board pretty even.
[Mark] I mean, all the flavor is good.
-Here we go. -[Tim] Here we go.
All right, guys, come up and get your jars.
Digger took you to our friend Kent's farm,
where you were able to pick ingredients from a load of culled fruits and grains
to build your mash with.
And I'm proud of you, you've done a great job.
When we've got three different mashes that are so good,
we don't have a lot to separate 'em,
therefore we rely on the science.
The numbers never lie.
Hyde, your ABV potential is 9%.
Jeremy, 10%.
Kevin, 12%.
So, with that being said...
...Kevin, you're going in the still house first.
Jeremy, you're going second.
Hyde, you're going third. Good luck.
Tickle!
Well, how's it going there, fellows?
What do we got here today?
Well, these guys need a still.
Oh, well, we can fix them up.
It just so happens I know where some still parts is.
Come on with me, fellows.
All right, fellows, y'all have been out to the farm
and picked y'all some fruit, now it's time to pick some still parts.
-Kevin, I believe you are up first, right? -Yes, sir.
Then your time starts...
...now. All right, Kevin,
you should have a still together already.
All right?
[Kevin] I'm going into the still house first to pick parts.
I feel good about that.
All right, we've got a pot.
[Kevin] I know that the muscadines I had in there
were falling to the back,
so I'm hoping that I can bring those a little more
to the front with my thumper.
[Tickle] Let's see what we got.
All right, we have got a thumper.
One and a half minutes left, all right?
We have got a condenser.
Come on, Kevin, you've got this.
Here we go.
-Right on. -All right.
Okay, Jeremy.
You've got three minutes.
And your time starts now.
[Jeremy] We're only doing one run on this.
So, I'm gonna go in a look and see if they have a column.
If they have a column with plates, that'd be great
because we aren't stripping this, we're going straight spirits,
so we'll see whether or not that works out.
You're wasting valuable seconds running in and out.
In and out, and here he is back out again.
You've got a box, Jeremy!
30 seconds. It's coming down to it now.
There's a thermometer.
All right, are you good, Jeremy?
-I hope so. -You are good.
-All right. -[groans]
Hyde, it is now up to you.
You've got three minutes to get your still parts.
And your time starts now.
[Kevin] Getting last pick of the still house is...
...stressful.
[Tickle] Come on, Hyde.
All right.
I am praying to the moonshine gods that there's a thumper left.
That's... I, I could take a pot, thumper, and a worm,
and just the simple set up, and I'm happy.
[Tickle] We've got a pot and we've got a condenser out here.
All right, we've got a thumper.
There's a thumper.
Couldn't have asked for a better situation.
[Tickle] All right, Hyde, your time is done.
[Hyde] Thank you.
All right.
All right, fellows, now that y'all have got y'all still parts,
let's get 'em back in there and see what kind of liquor
y'all can make from that culled fruit from the farm, all right?
All right, guys, welcome back.
You're going to have one hour to assemble those stills.
Make sure that you do put the still together
how you're gonna get that flavor that you want.
There's one run, somebody's going home.
Your hour starts now.
-Good luck, men. -[Mark] Get busy.
Jeremy.
You wouldn't happen to have, like, big thick to big thick, do you got a spare?
-Oh, man. -I got two more if you wanted two.
[Hyde] I've built plenty of stills in the woods.
I've done modular stuff like this.
I'm shooting for just the simple,
Kentucky-style pot still.
Pot, thumper, worm.
I'm just really looking at Jeremy.
He's got a lot of stuff going on.
[Jeremy] I don't think it's a fancy still.
It's just a column still with a plate.
I mean, yeah, maybe it just looks cool
'cause it's definitely different than what the two other guys are making.
Here we go.
She's together.
All right, guys, looks like everybody's ready.
It's easy enough to build a mash
that you're making all the time,
something you're used to with grains and fruits
you've worked with many times before.
Shooting from the hip's a whole lot different.
It throws you a curve ball.
You're gonna have four hours.
Show us that that mash you made
from what you found at the farm
can turn out a good enough jar to keep you in the competition.
All right, guys, remember now,
you only get one run.
At the end of this run, one of your fellows is going home.
Your time starts...
...now. Good luck, men, get with it.
[Kevin] Hello, darling.
I'm gonna say there's gonna be a little peach flavor in there somewhere.
I'm not super stressed about getting enough booze to turn in.
I'm more stressed about how this flavor's gonna turn out.
Now that's gonna make it a little less full, I can tell you that.
He is putting everything that he can find in that still.
Let's get this thing fired up.
Now we're going.
Guys, y'all have burned 30 minutes of your time.
Jeremy's mash is a pretty color, ain't it?
[Digger] Yeah, it's beautiful.
40 pounds of blueberries in there.
[exclaims]
Thumble.
Little aggressive.
For my mash, it was primarily a honey and blueberry.
40 pounds of blueberry in my wash.
I'm definitely gonna get some high-proof liquor out of it.
I'm excited about that.
[Tim] My bet's Jeremy makes the most product.
Yeah, 'cause he's gonna make liquor quicker.
He ain't got near the stuff to heat up.
-And Kevin's putting the solution in his thumper. -Puts that muscadine.
[Mark] There's probably a good market for it.
[Digger] Yeah, it's marketable.
[Jeremy] Oh, I'm seeing a little bit of steam out of this.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's definitely some, some heads.
[Digger] All right, guys, you've burned one hour, you got three left.
[Kevin] I'm just getting ready to hit my condenser,
and I start to get a vapor leak out of my thumper.
I'm struggling a little bit.
So, I'm nervous. I'm sweating.
Without a doubt.
I start to get a vapor leak out of my thumper.
We're gonna try...
So, I'm looking at a jar of oatmeal.
Looking at a gallon of water,
okay, this is what we're doing.
I've not only not worked with a thumper before,
but I've definitely never worked with pasting.
It's just these couple little spots up here.
I can give you a hand.
So, way too much.
-Yeah. -So, like...
-You wanna kinda squeeze it into your union. -Oh.
-Gotcha. -Rather than just on top of it.
[Kevin] All right.
-Thanks. -Yeah, man.
This is awesome. This works great.
I'm telling you.
Us city boys learn a thing or two out here.
[Hyde] Know what I'm saying.
[Jeremy] All right, one more stir and then I think I'm capping off here.
Since his mash hasn't fully worked off,
how hard will it be to peak through that thing?
-He's packed it with that mash. -Yeah, mash.
So, that's gonna bust it up a little bit.
[Tim] But he's got a lot of elevation right there if he runs it right.
[Mark] And don't fill it to the top.
Yeah, he'll be all right.
Oh, [bleep]. I'm at 180 it says.
Wow. Holy crap.
Oh, yeah, that should be getting drip, man.
You're fixing to.
[Jeremy] Let me see if I got it.
Oh, there it is. We good.
[Hyde] There she is.
A lot of blueberry, a lot of caramel.
You caramelizing that honey, your mash worked.
-You gonna drop yet? -[Kevin] Mmm-hmm.
-Do you? -[Kevin] Mmm-hmm.
Hey!
And you didn't say nothing.
I'm looking at the distillate and a huge weight comes off my shoulders.
I give it a taste.
There's a lot of different flavors going on in that mash.
I'm tasting grapes, got a little bit of honey.
I got a lot of cornmeal.
That's just straight up, 100% good corn liquor.
I hope I get some of that honey on the back.
[Hyde] I think once you get into your hearts,
-I think you're gonna start picking that up. -[Kevin] Yeah.
[Digger] All right, guys, you're halfway home.
Two hours left, two burned.
[Hyde] I've decided to crack open my thumper
and hit it with a lot of mashed up peaches.
I'm a gambling man, I'm gonna put all of them in.
[Jeremy] Do it, man.
[Hyde] I can inject my still with this nice, peachy flavor.
And once I really start getting into the good part of my hearts,
I know my peach note's gonna be there,
and it's gonna be there strong.
[Mark] He popped the top off of the thumper.
When you're getting down to this time limit, not a lot of jars.
Do you wanna take the time to lose all that momentum?
[Digger] I mean, it's gonna have to heat all those peaches up.
-That's a bold move... -Yeah.
-...in my opinion. -Yeah.
Moment of truth, let's see how it goes.
I hate this, 'cause it's sort of like
putting nitrous in a car and I... I... you know what...
That's almost cheating except for the fact that it's not.
I just don't like it 'cause I didn't think of it.
I'm only gonna run one more jar,
then everything's done.
I would consider this my tails.
I'm happy with a bunch of the jars.
They're all tasting really good
First hearts cut, I was super high proof.
Second and the third cuts were the ones I liked the most.
So, I think that's what I'm gonna end up, you know, doing something with.
Hit it with, like, just one good shake real quick.
You're up there.
-Yeah. -I'd say you're north of 145 on that.
-[Jeremy] I'd say it's maybe, like, 150 to 160. -[Hyde] Yeah.
-What do you think this is? -[Hyde] Let me see.
Bring it on down the line.
Let the old backwoods boy see it.
-Like 130? -Damn.
[Jeremy] I really like where this is tasting right now.
[Kevin] Reading the bead is a huge challenge.
I'm not even gonna lie about that.
I'm not even gonna try to lie about that.
[Hyde] You're probably north of 130.
-You might actually be around 140. -[Kevin] Yeah.
To be honest, the past few weeks,
I've had a jar of 100-proof shine on my nightstand,
and I've been shaking it while I'm sending emails.
100-proof, that's what I'm looking for.
All right, gentlemen, 30 minutes.
[Hyde] It's heavy tails.
Found it.
Found the tails.
[Hyde] That's straight cornbread.
This jar is exactly what I'm going for.
It's exactly what the plan was.
But that doesn't mean there aren't two better jars on that table.
[Hyde] I'm gonna see where I'm at on this one real quick.
[exclaims]
Holy hell, fire, and brimstone, that is delicious.
I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna kill mine.
I think I'm pretty happy where I'm at right now.
Men, y'all are down to five minutes.
I dunno, I think that's the jar.
-Think that's it? -Ah.
[Hyde] Now that I can live with.
All right, guys, you're down to one minute.
If you ain't got it, you probably ain't gonna have it.
-You good? -[Jeremy] Yeah, I'm good, you good?
-Let's do it. -[Kevin] Let's do it.
[Mark] Bring 'em in here, fellows.
Good deal.
-[Digger] Three good clear jars. -[Mark] Looks good.
We're gonna go do a little tasting.
When we come back, guys, one of you's going home.
Good luck, men, we'll be back after a while.
[Mark] Make yourself comfortable.
[Kevin] That I can do.
Guys, I took 'em up to Kent's and got 'em some culled out fruit,
and, uh, now we got the liquor.
[Mark] Start anywhere you want to, Tim.
I think I'm gonna start in the middle.
Jeremy.
That is a nice, clean jar.
Pretty jar.
It's very high proof.
[Mark] 120.
I really wish I had another day or two
to see that thing finish, too, 'cause it was gonna be
north of 13, almost 14%.
[Hyde] Oh, you would have gotten so much more liquor.
I would've ran this a little bit harder too
-and not, you know, not worried about it. -Yeah.
Ain't that right nice?
Yes, it is.
I'm picking up honey and blueberry.
It's a little bit high.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna put him at 125.
-[Mark] It's high. -[Tim] It's up there.
Can you imagine what kind of flavor it would have
if it was backed off 20 points?
So he has a combination problem.
He has a lot of honey and, and the blueberry,
and then he didn't have the thumper
so he could infuse that flavor the other guys had.
Had he left most of that if not all of that honey out of that blueberry,
he would've had an outstanding liquor.
-He would have blueberry brandy. -[Mark] Yeah.
Let's move on.
Let's try to find one that's a little bit cooler.
Let's go to Kevin.
[Mark] Nice jar.
I believe he's higher.
Yeah, he, he's 125.
Maybe they're looking at they're gonna proof it down on the next run,
but they gotta get through this run first.
They gotta get through this one first.
[Kevin] That first day, standing on the farm,
not knowing what we're in for...
-Yeah, yeah. -...and what came of that,
what booze came of that, what people came of that, what friendships.
Yeah.
It's good.
Smells nice.
Corn liquor.
Excellent flavor.
It, it's real smooth.
The muscadines he put in that thumper worked.
It, it's high proof, but it don't have that fire as bad...
-[Tim] yeah. -...on the back end, does it, Tim?
That's right. He's got high proof,
-and he's got smooth taste. -[Mark] Good flavor.
-I like it. -[Tim] Yeah.
[Digger] I'm getting the muscadine right on the middle of the corn.
Man, it's good.
You know, we've got two fine liquors right here.
They're just both about 25 points too high
-on that proof. -At least.
Well, let's move right along.
[Mark] Buddy Hyde.
Now, his is a little cloudy.
When it was coming out of his worm, it was running right over.
Peaches.
-And he's high too. -[Tim] Yup.
Well, he thinks that's 100, and it's 125.
[Mark] It's high, high proof, it's 100, it might be 130.
I'm gonna bet on 130.
Whoo.
[Mark exclaims]
-Oh, it's hot, ain't it? -It's a little different.
It does have a decent taste, but gosh.
Well, all you need is a lighter, you'll be a flame thrower.
Honestly, I like the flavor of this really, really well.
I like Hyde's, uh, finish of it.
-[Mark] I do too. -A really smooth finish.
It doesn't go away fast.
You get, then you get back into that peach again.
I can tell where Hyde was going here, I can tell that it was peach.
I mean, they all three brought their game.
But, you know, at the end of the day,
one of 'em has to go.
[Digger] All right, guys.
Took us long enough, didn't it?
[Hyde] Yeah.
I took you to a farm, you picked out fruit
that was culled out of the fruit that someone would have sold otherwise,
and you made a delicious drink out of it.
I mean, that's outstanding.
What y'all are looking at right there
are three really good jars of liquor.
But, you know, this part of our job we don't particularly enjoy,
because we end up having to send somebody home.
So, Hyde...
...fine job, buddy.
Good tasting jar of whiskey right there.
You brought plenty of peach into the process.
Only problem I saw out of it is your proofing skills.
-You need to hone them up. -Yeah.
Where do you think you were at?
High.
Yeah, you were north of 120.
I don't hate a high-proof drink,
but, you know, we set the bench mark at 100.
It's not as clear that I would think, like,
a peach brandy would be real clear.
You know, you said you was gonna hot shot it, I believe you called it.
-[Hyde] Yeah. -You opened it up and put your peaches in
after the run had started.
I was concerned with that but honestly, Hyde...
-...great job at distilling. -Thank you.
Now we come to Jeremy.
Where do you feel you're at?
Uh, I thought I was, like, maybe 100, 110.
Yeah, you were a little north of that.
I really think this column set up hurts you.
Because, uh, you know, you still in the same range of proof as these guys,
but I think it kinda cleaned it up.
-Yeah. -[Tim] Maybe it masked some of the flavors.
But I would have rather seen more of the blueberries
stay in there a lot longer and finish out.
But, you know, it's, it's still a good drink.
[Mark] Honestly...
...as clean and pretty a jar as I've ever seen.
-Thank you. -It looks outstanding.
Now we go over here to Kevin.
Corn liquor.
I mean, as fine a corn liquor as we've seen in a while.
I think your, your proof is maybe 120 also.
Uh, the muscadine did help you on the flavor profile
because, again, the high proof, you got that strong bite.
All three of you are outstanding and know what you're doing,
except proofing.
But all in all, across the board, fine job, every one of you.
Splitting hairs. That's the only way we could really come to a decision.
All three of your liquors were that good.
But, uh, two get to stay, and one has to go.
So, uh, we'll just cut to the chase.
Jeremy, that jar bought you a ticket home.
And I promise you, we've not seen the last of you.
Appreciate that, appreciate that.
I felt like I had a really good spirit
and a really good liquor on the table.
And I wanted to move forward, but the number one thing
I've learned about, whether it's making liquor,
whether it's making beer, no matter what is that
if you're not learning, you're done.
All right, fellows, after this upcoming challenge
one of your guys will be named the Master Distiller.
What's gonna happen here for the final step
you will make it your own with a final flavoring.
You're gonna have 30 minutes.
Do your very best, enhance your spirit
with what's available to you, just like you did at the farm.
And turn in your best jar of flavored liquor.
Just remember what we told you last challenge.
Proof and flavor go together.
You get too much on one, you lose the other.
You need a happy medium.
That's all you gonna hear from us.
Your time starts...
...now. Good luck, men, get with it.
[Hyde] Good luck, dog.
[Kevin] 30 minutes...mercy.
[Hyde] Hearing Mark, Tim, and Digger all say
that my brandy's too high-proof.
I probably should have brought it down a little bit more.
So, I'm gonna take some peaches, sugar, honey,
all spice, and cinnamon, and get that into my spirit.
Proof it down a little bit with maybe a little bit of water,
and send it.
[Tim] Both guys heating up stuff.
They all looking like they're going in different directions.
[Kevin] Going into the flavoring round,
I'm really trying to keep it simple.
I have ingredients that I know all work well
with the base spirit and the ingredients I used in the mash.
I'm trying to bring the original flavors
of my spirit to a new level...
...and give them a little more life.
-How you feeling there, bud? -Feeling good.
-Yeah? -How about you?
-Fair to middling. -[Kevin] All right.
This is madness, complete madness.
My hands are shaking from the anxiety.
Now that aspect's taken care of.
I'm looking over at Kevin to see what he's doing,
and I have no idea how he's just sitting there, just...
...slowly working.
Guys, just so you know, you're down to 15 minutes.
Hyde looks like he's concentrating on them peaches,
but he's bringing some walnuts, some pecans.
[Digger] I think that's pecans.
[Tim] Is that pecans he's bringing to the table?
I'm not sure about Kevin here, he's worrying me with that,
is that a citrus fruit or something he's got there?
Orange.
And there comes a bottle of something.
I bet that's vanilla extract.
[Kevin] I have a system.
I have a formula.
And I'm not gonna say that this isn't how I operate
when I'm developing flavored products like this,
which are my bread and butter.
I thrive in chaos.
Three minutes, gentlemen.
[Hyde] How you feeling, buddy?
-Feeling good. -Yeah?
[Kevin] Now it's just a little splash of this, a little splash of that.
What in the world?
They gonna be close to the same color, ain't they?
[Tim] Kevin brought his jar.
Five, four, three, two...
-One. -...one.
-Congratulations, sir. -Thank you, brother.
It feels good to actually put a jar on the table
in the third round, I will say.
Yes, sir.
We'll be back with our decision, gentlemen.
Hey, Hyde.
-Yes, sir. -[Mark] You ain't recently watched
Cocktail with Tom Cruise have you?
Be honest with you, never heard of it.
Really?
You look like you had a little fancy bartending skills a time or two, have you?
I bartended at a couple backwoods parties once or twice.
Well, that don't really require no fancy bartending skills.
But if you wanna flip 'em up there and catch 'em behind your back,
we're gonna be highly impressed.
If it weren't down to the wire, I'd probably try it.
I don't doubt that for some reason.
There ain't a doubt in my scientific mind.
That's all you get.
Good enough.
[Digger] Hyde and Kevin.
Well, I'm gonna tell you guys, coming from
culled fruit that was fixing to be thrown out
in a ditch to rot and be fertilized for next year's crop,
we've come a long way to making two good-looking jars of post-flavored liquor.
All we're looking at here, fellows, is just...
...strictly flavor and a tolerable proof.
All right, here we go.
That does have a beautiful apple juice from concentrate tint to it.
I promise you, the proof's gonna be a sight better than it was before.
-I hope so. I hope it got a little bit more flavor. -Yeah.
I was hoping that the local honey I grabbed
was gonna be something floral,
-something big and bright. -Yeah.
But I open it up, and it's definitely got...
...at least 80% buckwheat in there.
-So, yeah, chaos. Controlled chaos. -Yeah, dude.
Pretty decent right there on the nose.
[Mark] Mmm-hmm, don't smell a lot different than it did.
I get a little honey in there.
Honey is an altogether different taste
when you're using it for post-distillation flavoring...
-Mmm-hmm. -...than it is distilling it.
-Yeah. -I mean, this is not two sweet,
still got plenty of legs under it.
-I, I like it a lot. -[Digger] I like it.
I like it real good.
And I'm telling you though, it's still got some liquor in it.
-[Tim] Still got alcohol. -[Mark] Yeah.
I'm gonna say it's 90-proof.
I would just back you right up on that.
-He listened well. -Well, I think he's listened
-to what you told him, Tim. -Yeah, yeah.
He put some lemon zest and...
...orange zest in there again.
But I'm not getting it.
No, if he put it in there,
-it wasn't enough to make it harsh. -[Digger] Very sly.
But I don't think he hurt it.
-[Mark] No, he didn't hurt it. -Didn't hurt it at all.
-[Mark] Yeah. -I would buy a jar and then go back
when it was empty and get another.
-Well, let's move right along. -Buddy Hyde.
Is there anything you wish you would have had?
I wish I had peach juice.
-[Kevin] Yeah. -Just, just straight up clear peach juice.
If I had straight up clear peach juice,
I could have just dump, heat, spices,
honey, sugar, done, and I would have been...
I would have been sitting back, chilling.
Well, let's see if he pulled a rabbit out the hat.
Well, you know, he told us he was going after that peach pie.
When you smell it...
...you smell peaches.
He distilled peaches, he crushed peaches,
he put peaches in it, I think he did it.
He made it warm.
-Proof-wise, yeah. -[Tim] It's about 140-proof
You know, he did get some more peach flavor in there, guys,
but I don't think he lowered the proof hardly any.
[Tim] But it's got flavor.
Well, he did a great job, I can tell you that.
Well, we came from fruits...
...that were destined for the dumpster...
...to some fine liquor.
[Mark] To a good jar of liquor.
So, you know, to me, all around it's mission accomplished.
They done a good job, both of them.
Both of them did good.
We good here, guys?
-Oh, yeah. -[Digger] I know where I'm at.
Yup.
Let's go.
All right, guys.
First thing I'm gonna say, flavor.
Y'all brought it, both of you.
[Mark] You know, the thing about this challenge was...
...neither one of you got to bring your tried and true
mash recipe that you use all the time.
You took what was thrown at you and ran with it.
And you did a very, very fine job at it.
Hyde, your flavor is spot on.
I'm telling you...
...I see exactly what you meant to do,
and I think you done it.
I think you done it very well.
Hyde...
...you know, you made it further...
...than you had before, and you showed your colors, son.
I mean it.
Toasting those pecans just a little bit
and then running that liquor over top of it,
I think that balanced everything out really, really well.
You enhanced it very well.
It give us a sweetness, but you also kept with some alcohol in there.
Sometimes when you get it too sweet, you lose all your alcohol.
You know, you messed it the opposite direction.
You know, I think it's incredible that you did what you did.
Kevin...
Muscadines, my favorite grape on the planet.
You balanced them out.
Everything was front to back just in the right proportions.
And that little honey, just that little sweet finish.
Fine job.
Now, Kevin, you had some grain, right,
-in the beginning? -Yeah, some cornmeal.
Yeah, you got a good, clean jar,
even though, they, they colored, but it's, it's still clean.
It's clean in its own way.
The flavor was there through and through.
Front to center, sideways and back.
Outstanding job.
All right, guys.
Time has come.
Whoever we tell is the winner, don't get swelled up with yourself,
because it's a fine line.
Both of you brought the flavor.
I can't stress that enough.
I'll just cut to the chase.
Kevin, congratulations, you're next Master Distiller, young man.
-Way to go, dog. -[Digger] Damn fine job.
Way to go.
-Thank you. -Proud of you, man.
[Kevin] When Digger said, "You are Master Distiller,"
hearing those words mean a lot.
I came here for my family,
and I've had a lot of challenges, a lot of hurdles...
...in my distillation career, and it was all worth it.
Go out and share each other's drink with each other.
I want you to see what a choice we had here.
Yeah.
It would be amazing to actually walk out of here
with that title and with those bragging rights,
but going up against two complete powerhouses
like Kevin and like Jeremy, I haven't lost anything.
I just came back, had a bunch of fun,
and now I'm gonna go home and get back to work.
Both of you, congratulations.
Get out of here and go enjoy them jars together.
Let's go, cowboy.