[narrator] On a special Master Distiller tournament.
[Tater] [bleep] about to get real, Richard.
[Richard] I hope you realize that, Tater.
[narrator] It's a backwoods brawl for the coveted title.
This will be the best rye liquor they've ever tasted.
[narrator] Four outlaw distillers
battle for their place in history.
-[Amanda] In the game. -[narrator] Amanda,
Richard,
Kelly,
Tater.
[Mark over radio] I found something.
-[Rogers] Here. -Uh-oh.
I believe he's on somebody's trail.
[narrator] Facing real world outlaw challenges.
[Tater] Gotta find me a spot where they can't see it.
[narrator] Only one will emerge as master of the backwoods.
I can't make rye whiskey that smooth.
All right, guys.
Welcome back to the Battle of the Backwoods.
There's only four of you left.
At the end of these challenges,
we're gonna figure out which one of you all
is the ultimate backwoods outlaw distiller.
All right, guys.
[Tim] You built a condenser...
[Amanda] Yeah, this one's tricky.
[Tim] ...and you ran your corn liquor.
[Tim] And at the end of the run,
we eliminated a strong competitor,
Mike Cockrell.
Mikey, that jar right there didn't make the cut, brother.
I'm awful sorry.
Sounds good to me, I'm going home anyway.
[Tim] Now at the end of this run, only two of you'll be left.
Rye whiskey.
It's one of my favorites, I love rye whiskey.
And as you all know,
one of America's oldest spirit,
from The Whiskey Rebellion through prohibition to today,
this is the defining spirit of the backwoods.
You know, I'm looking forward to seeing it.
I like a good drink of rye liquor.
You have two hours to build us your finest mash.
Which is kind of out of the ordinary, but
rye's finicky.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it, guys.
[Tim] You gonna make some Wiggy?
[Amanda] I'm from Pennsylvania.
I make a really good Pennsylvania rye.
[Tim] Cold weather grain.
My name is Amanda Bryant,
and I'm from Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania.
When I think of backwoods, I think of tradition.
It's kind of dying out over time.
So it's really important to me to keep practicing
this method of distilling,
and to preserve the history of it.
Amanda.
-[Amanda] How are you doing? -[Digger] Well, I'm all right.
[Digger] The question is, how are you doing?
I'm doing okay.
I feel really confident going into the rye competition.
Rye is something that I practice quite often.
I think it's one of my best tasting whiskeys, honestly.
You did the Digger method it looks like.
-I did. -We don't put grain in, on flames, do we?
I try not to.
For my rye whiskey mash,
I'm using Danko rye, which is a Polish baking rye,
and Amanda Palmer corn, which is a white and red corn.
And then, I'm gonna use a little bit of a malted grain
just to break down the rye and the corn.
So you got any tricks up your sleeve?
You know, you got some stiff competition
across this board here.
My only strategy is just
-that special rye that I brought... -Yeah.
-...really good corn. -[Digger] Yeah.
And I'm gonna make sure I do my conversion properly.
Good luck, Amanda.
-Thank you very much. -You're welcome.
[bleep] about to get real, Richard.
[Richard] I hope you realize that, Tater.
[Tater] I don't know what day it is.
Ideally,
I'd like to let these grains sit for about an hour
at this temperature, so.
I'm gonna take advantage of it.
No sugar in there yet,
and it's starting to get sweet.
So what's your process?
You're just boiling a little bit of your rye?
[Kelly] Mark and Digger really love apple rye whiskey.
So I thought if we could get a hint of apple in it,
they won't even know what hit 'em.
I'm Kelly Williamson,
from Cosby, Tennessee.
I love everything about distilling, it's the
challenge of making something
that a lot of people don't know how to make.
Sometimes a special liquor,
sometimes the same old stuff you've always done.
-[Digger] Kelly? -Yes, sir.
[Digger] What've you put in this mash so far?
Well, I guess you can see the chunks of apple in there.
Yeah, I've tasted rye apple liquor a lot.
Uh, I realize that you might have a special liking
to a little hint of apple in your rye liquor.
Hopefully, the flavor of the rye will come out,
but it's not gonna be that overpowering spice,
since I've got the apple.
How much rye did you use?
I put some handfuls in it.
So you didn't-- You're just flagging.
-Something like that. -[Digger] Yeah.
I deserve to be master of the backwoods.
That's my liquid sugar.
One of my favorite things to do
is to kind of come in under the radar,
and then shock everybody.
Hopefully, it'll turn out good.
[Digger] See ya.
Ain't nobody can turn down a good Gala apple.
All right, guys, you burned 30 minutes of your time.
You got an hour and a half left.
Make good use of it.
[Tater] Like concrete water.
I'm Tater,
born and raised in East Tennessee.
I'm a backwoods moonshiner.
My rye is probably different than the specs on it
at the distillery.
I make it to what I feel
comes out a good flavor.
And I usually don't have a whole lot of people
disagreeing with me on that.
Tell me about your mash build here, brother.
Well, I've got some malted rye.
[Digger] Mmm-hmm?
I've got a couple handful of yellow corn,
and couple handful of white corn.
My rye whiskey, I think,
is gonna turn out better than anybody else's.
It's just a hands-up, a good, mellow,
just a bit of a bite, like rye should be.
It don't light you up,
or burn your mouth like a pepper.
Just enough rye to it to where you can feel it
and just a little bit on your tongue,
and a little bit to the back of our throat.
I'm just gonna make good damn liquor, which you gonna love.
I think I'm damn deserving...
to win this,
and they better alert the damn dogs
and get ready to go hunt.
'Cause here we go.
Well, I'm gonna move on and check on your competitors.
All right, Digger, you have a good one, dude.
-Good luck, brother. -[Tater] Thank you, buddy.
All right, guys, you're halfway home.
You've burned an hour, you got one more left.
[Kelly] I'm letting it set till warm for a while,
and I'll add just a little bit of water to it.
[Richard] I'mma show y'all boys how the science do it.
How you get a grain to 190 degrees
and you leave it there for 12 minutes
to naturally release those touches
that will turn into fermentable sugars.
I'mma teach you something you can learn,
you know, like yours, it's all good.
[laughs]
Don't feel you gonna stop learning.
If you stop learning,
that mean you looking up from six feet down
and I ain't gonna be there with you.
My name is Richard Landry,
and I'm from New Iberia, Louisiana.
I won a lot on Master Distiller, but
this is a big one.
This is the master of the backwoods.
I'm up against some real stiff competition.
So I gotta up my game.
-[Digger] Richard. -Yes, sir.
[Digger] Tell me about this mash you're building.
-I got 15.6 pounds of rye. -[Digger] Mmm-hmm.
It's enough for a perfect balance.
-It's not gonna be too spicy... -[Digger] Yep.
...but it's not gonna be too weak, either.
For my rye recipe, I'm just gonna keep it simple.
I'm gonna do a basic rye recipe.
Some malted grains, some rye.
My second time ever making a rye.
-Sure enough. -In the 12 years I've been doing this.
I'd rather need rye than have too much of it,
because I can flavor it afterwards,
but I can't take flavor out of it afterwards.
-Good luck, my friend. -All right.
Guys, you're down to 30 minutes.
You better be getting your mash where you want it.
I'm gonna take my time.
'Cause I know how long it takes to make a good whiskey.
I feel really good about my mash build, but
aside from distilling,
and aside from the, you know,
the backwoods aspect of it...
That's a damn good tasting mash right there,
if I do say so myself.
[Amanda] It's a competition,
and all the different challenges that we're surprised with,
it really levels the playing field.
So it could be anybody's game.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
Step away, guys, you're all done.
Yeah, we're gonna see y'all in five days
for the next challenge.
Now get you some rest, you gonna need it.
This one coming up, it's a doozy.
Uh-oh.
[Rogers laughs]
[Tim] Smell like a bottle went through the woods.
-Making a lot of racket over there. -[Rogers] Yeah.
Trying to.
I know what time it is.
I've been through this with Mark Rogers before.
All right, guys, here we are.
You built your mash, but...
that's just half your battle.
Every backwoods distiller needs to know
how to hide his mash,
his still and his other equipment
from the law.
If they find it, you're out of business.
Tickle, tell us all about it.
A key skill for any backwoods distiller,
is hiding their work from the law.
[police siren wails]
[man over radio] There's the law.
[Tickle] A compromised still site
could mean the end to an entire shine season.
Or worse. Time in prison.
Moonshiners use everything available to hide their equipment.
Sometimes, even booby trapping their still sites.
And with the law using drones nowadays...
[man 2] That son of a [bleep] is back, huh?
...you gotta hide your still site not only from the ground,
but from the air.
[Tim] All right, guys, you made your rye mash.
And to add a twist,
we're gonna have eyes on the ground
and eyes in the sky.
Just like the law, we'll be looking at you by drone.
If Mark Rogers finds your mash,
you'll be out of the competition,
and you can't run your liquor.
[Amanda] Having Mark Rogers hunting your mash
is nerve-wracking enough.
But when he has three people helping him with the drone,
which he really doesn't need,
I mean, it doesn't get any worse than that.
We do have some things to help you.
Camouflage your mash barrel,
and you'll have a half hour to hide your mash.
Get what you think you need
to successfully camouflage your mash barrel.
[Richard] Really wanna make it through to run this rye.
So I have to hide this barrel right.
I grabbed from the table some spray paint and some netting.
And the first thing I'm gonna try to do
is try to disguise this bucket,
so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.
'Cause there's a red lid on the top of this bucket
and they ain't got no red in these woods.
[Digger] You paying attention what they getting, Marky?
I am.
Spray paint.
-You can smell that from here. -Yeah.
I got some burlap, I got some string.
I got a bag of leaves, and I'm ready to go.
[Digger] I'm telling you what, though.
Y'all was just like that little rabbit on this first date.
That didn't take long at all.
It's time to get hiding that mash.
You got 30 minutes.
Hide that mash to the best of your ability.
That mean, hide it good.
I mean, looky here.
[Mark] He's coming after you.
Thirty minutes.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it, guys.
[Digger] You got 30 minutes to hide that mash.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it, guys.
[Mark] Well, fellers, you know, this is a mean challenge
we've issued to 'em.
But this is master of the backwoods.
-[Digger] And they gotta master it. -You know.
It's what it is, you know.
Nobody said it was gonna be easy.
[Digger] You wanna compete,
you gotta compete with the best.
-[Kelly] Good luck, Richard. -[Richard] Good luck.
-We gonna need it. -[Kelly chuckles]
Game plan here.
I have reason to be worried.
I know Mark Rogers,
and in the last tournament, he found most of my jars.
[Rogers laughs] Got it. Found one.
There's one. [laughs]
Amanda,
and Amanda.
So going into this,
I know I need to be really careful.
But it's heavy and it's not so easy doing this.
This is trickier than it looks. [sighs]
Like, normally, I'm mashing in one spot,
hide the barrel there.
But I'm dragging a barrel into the woods,
so I hope I can get it far enough in to the woods
that he's not gonna find it.
[sighs]
Well, them's barrels, I mean they're half full.
Well, I mean, they just gonna have to to drag it, that's all I know.
[Kelly] So I let those guys get on out in front of me,
because I had a plan to make my barrel into a backpack.
I'm gonna use my string and stuff
to be able to try to make a backpack
to carry my barrel that way.
You know what they say.
A plan is better than no plan.
Even if it's not a great plan.
That's the easiest way to get through the woods,
is have something on your back.
[grunts]
I don't wanna have to set it down,
that's for sure.
Oh. [grunts]
You got somebody like Mark Rogers
who's gonna be tracking you,
you need to make as little tracks,
and leave as little bit of disturbance possible.
I've done a lot of backpacking in the woods,
but nothing like this.
[groans]
And dragging and flopping a barrel through the woods,
is definitely something that's gonna get you caught.
Forty pound on a backpack with good straps
is one thing.
It's killer.
Phew!
And I thought I was in good shape.
I'm gonna tell you, the only thing that's gonna save 'em,
is there's so many of them going in different directions,
Mark can't chase all of them at the same time.
[Digger] No, and when you cross paths, I mean, that'll even throw a dog off.
[Richard] I'm looking for the perfect hiding spot.
My plan for hiding these barrels,
is to get as far away from the competition
as I can,
try to misdirect Mr. Rogers a little bit,
and pray a whole lot.
I think he wouldn't look down here.
This would be nice.
Mark Rogers is gonna be looking
for the ground to be disturbed.
Broken twigs,
he's gonna pay attention to every little detail.
The barrel stands out like a sore thumb.
There's nothing in the woods that color.
So I just get some spray paint.
Go over it and kind of mask it a little bit.
I'm gonna camouflage this thing as best as I can.
He will never find this.
At least I hope he can't.
I'm trying to make my barrel, where I stashed this barrel
just like the land that was there
before I put the barrel there.
Ain't gotta be pretty, it's just gotta be good.
[Tater] Gotta find me a spot where they can't see it.
Directly maybe behind this hill.
I'm gonna try to find a spot.
Maybe it's gonna be on the backside of a ridge.
And, you know, maybe up against a tree.
You know, stack some sticks so that
I can try to cover up with what I've got.
This looks a lot better out here.
Think I found me a pretty good spot.
There is a little bit of an indention
that's on the backside of this hill.
That better hold it. [sighs]
There's a thicket kinda in front of the trail coming up to it,
so it kind of blocks it out.
Man, if I could just find
a big downed tree.
Somewhere that's turned up, uh, a stump hole.
That'd really help.
[Kelly] My strategy for hiding the barrel,
is I'm really looking for a stump hole or a hole somewhere
that it can get down and blend in it.
I can lay that down
and roll it up around my barrel.
You know, not only am I worried
about Mark Rogers being able to find it,
I'm worried about this drone
these guys are gonna put in the air.
And it's gonna be able to find it.
So anything that you're looking at
from a side view or a top view
that looks like a shape,
they're gonna hone-in on.
Heck, yeah.
There's some little greenery and stuff growing around,
so I lay sticks and some greenery on it.
The key to this is
trying to make sure that the leaves that you got
are gonna be dry.
'Cause Mark Rogers would spot this pretty quick.
Once I found the perfect place,
I did everything I could to camouflage my barrel.
I spray painted it black.
You know, Richard and Amanda, they use, uh, spray paint.
-Oh. -So think about that.
They gonna smell that.
[Amanda] I thought it was kind of risky using the spray paint,
'cause I know it's gonna give off a little bit of a smell.
So I didn't use a lot,
just enough to like, black it out a little bit.
But I feel like it was worth the risk,
because that bright red and blue barrel
was gonna stand out to the drone.
I covered it with mesh tarps.
And then I took foliage and fallen sticks
from all around the environment,
and I just tried to make it blend in.
[Digger] Ten minutes left, guys,
and that includes your travel time back to us.
I think I may be good.
I mean, this kind of looks like a mound.
[Kelly] All I gotta say is as good as Mark Rogers is,
good luck, Mark, in finding this one.
[Digger] Five minutes, guys.
[Tater] Might have to be on top of it soon.
As long as Mark Rogers doesn't follow my footprints,
I just gotta go back real careful.
There's Tater. He's out of the woods.
[Richard] Damn it, Mark Rogers.
[Digger] All right, guys.
Well, now comes the time
that we send our bird dog after you.
Hope you hid it good.
We've got us a drone pilot.
We're gonna be watching Marky from the sky,
looking for your barrels.
[Mark] What's at stake here?
If Mark finds your barrel, you're out.
Hey, you know, it just dawned on me.
By drone we will not be able to see him. Timmy.
Mark him up there on his topside.
-On top of his hat. -Ooh.
Top of your hat, huh?
X marks the spot.
Marky, now this hurts me more than its gonna hurt you.
[Digger] There we go.
Yeah, that'll make you stand out just a skosh.
[Rogers] Yeah.
David, come on in here.
We brought a professional in, gentlemen.
'Cause we don't fly these things.
We don't know nothing about it. [chuckles]
-[David] Got you right here, guys. -[Digger] Cool.
[Digger] We know we can count on you.
-[Digger] Ah, like a red bug. -[Mark laughs]
-He's ready to go. -[Rogers] I'm ready.
[Digger] All right.
You gonna have 30 minutes
to get in there and find us all the mash barrels you can.
-Get with it. -[Rogers] I got you.
[Digger] There you go.
This man is not only a hunter, a moonshiner,
he's been in the woods all of his life.
So if something looks out of place to him,
he's gonna gravitate toward it.
That's dangerous.
[Rogers] Do you copy, Mark?
Hey, Mark, I ain't sure.
Maybe something over about 40, 50 feet?
To your left, might be something.
[Richard] I know what he's out there doing.
He's out there getting me ready to go home.
You ain't gonna get to go home.
He's headed straight to mine.
We got the drone up now,
they've sent Mark in the woods,
and damn if he ain't going straight to my barrel.
[Digger] He's found something right there, I believe.
Nope.
-That's a rock, ain't it? -[Digger] Yep.
[Kelly] Amanda done worked the ground down too, ain't you?
-In case she didn't seem... -[Tater] I know...
[Tater] She's nervous as I am.
[Amanda] Listen, I been here before, man.
[Amanda] This is never a good place to be.
There you go, what I'm seeing's right in front of you.
[over radio] If you don't see anything, it may not be nothing.
[Digger] I believe he's on somebody's trail.
Somebody new.
There you go, Mark.
Go straight ahead right there if you can.
[Rogers] Looks like a big bunch of laurels.
[Digger] Look around to your left.
You should be walking into a laurel there.
[Tater] Oh, I'd hate to lose like this right here.
I'm-- I'd a whole lot rather get beat for my liquor as would like this.
-[laughs] -You have to believe.
You having any luck back there, Mark?
[Rogers] No.
A bunch of signs, hard to follow it.
All right, Marky.
You're half way there, 15 more minutes.
[Rogers over radio] Got you.
[Tim] He just gotta get to it, right?
[Tater] I hope it ain't me.
Seemed like he may be in our kind of,
where I'd hid mine at.
I don't know for sure, of course, I can't see where he's at,
but I'm kinda worried about it.
Look around right there to your left just a tiny bit.
Why can't we follow him just so we don't have the suspense?
Well, number one, you're too lazy.
[chuckles]
I may have found something here.
-Uh-oh! I bet it's mine. -Well...
-[Digger] If you put it down... -[Rogers] I found one.
-[Tater] Uh-oh. -Yeah, if you put it down by some deadfall,
that's yours.
[Tater] Well, I hid mine over next to the highways.
Well, you might be in good shape then.
Did you find something there, Marky?
[Tim] Well, you can smell that.
That stands out like a fart in church out in the woods.
Might oughta start headin' your way back.
-[Tim] He just got one. -[Tater] He just got one.
[Digger] We bet we've found all we're gonna find.
Who have you got there, Marky?
[Mark] I believe that says "Richard," don't it?
[Richard] That says "Richard."
[Digger] I'm sorry, brother,
you proceed no further, my friend.
Well, it's been a pleasure.
You done a good job, I'll tell you that.
-A lot of sign there were, though. -Yeah.
One of the reasons why he found my barrel
was because I spray painted it.
Not only is he an awesome tracker,
but the man's got a sniffer on him too.
Like, he smelled that paint.
-Sorry, brother. -It's all good, brother.
I was so focused on the visual,
I didn't even think about the scent.
It drew him right to it.
-Stay safe, man. -I will.
I didn't get the results I wanted,
but anytime you have the chance to stand around these people
and get all the insight and information that you do...
Well, stay in.
...you don't even have to win, just being here is the privilege.
We may be sending home the best jar,
and we ain't even got to taste it.
You might make the best liquor in the backwoods,
but you also need the skills to not get caught.
Hey, it's a backwoods competition.
-It is. -It's a roll of the dice my friend.
It's really sad to see Richard leaving,
but, more than anything, I just really wanted to run this rye whiskey
and show the judges what I can do.
All right, guys, get on in there and fetch you barrels out.
-[Amanda] Yes, sir. -We got to get to making some liquor.
What if we can't find 'em?
Then you did too good a job.
[Digger] Here we are, guys, Battle Of The Backwoods.
We're gonna find out which one of you all
is the ultimate outlaw distiller.
You made your condenser.
Well, it don't look too pretty, but hopefully it'll work.
All right, all done.
You made your mash, now you need to cook your mash.
Lay it to it is all I can tell you.
All right, guys, rye whiskey.
Rye is a hot market,
and there's a lot of competition
in the backwoods.
We want that rye bite,
but we also want to taste
what sets your rye above the others.
At the end of this challenge, another one of you will be going home.
Three hours, build your stills, run your mash,
get us some liquor on this table before that time passes.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it.
Wait a minute, this is not my mash.
-[laughs] -[Amanda] With the trickery already, Kelly?
You know, I opened up my barrel, I see exactly what I expect,
my mash is ready to run, my apples that I put in has floated to the top.
You know, this is a rye challenge,
so what they're gonna be looking for is the flavor of your rye,
anything that off flavors that they're gonna pick up on.
Ooh!
I don't know everything about all it takes
to make real good rye whiskey,
but I know what it takes to make good liquor,
so I think I've got the ingredients to make that happen.
[Digger] Amanda, she's certainly sharp, I'll give you that.
She's always gonna pull a rabbit out, I'll tell ya that.
My strategy going into the rye run, I'm practiced on this still,
I've done this recipe very many times.
So I'm just gonna try to run it slow as I can with this condenser,
because you don't want to put a lot of heat on the rye,
people say it can make it spicy,
so I'm gonna run it as slow as I can.
We're adding marble. [chuckles softly]
I think them marbles is to keep it from sticking on the bottom, ain't it?
[Amanda] The only thing I'm doing a little bit different than everybody else
is I'm gonna put a little bit, about a tablespoon of butter in my still
because I have no thumper.
I'm running it right to a condenser,
and the lipids or the fats just help from foaming,
and it will keep my mash from foaming over.
She knows her mash ain't finished off,
so she gonna put her some lipids in there to keep that foam broke up.
I used a lot of grains in my mash.
So, traditionally, when you're making a whiskey
there's some type of an oil that they put in the pot keeps it from foaming.
It's like a little bit of extra insurance.
That butter works really well,
and plus, it gives it a little bit of a mouth feel.
Who do you think is gonna come out on top?
My money's on old Tater over there.
Tater's pouring it all over the floor right now.
[Digger] Oh, good catch there, Tater.
That's the only part I forgot.
[Digger] That's almost a rookie move.
Coming into the rye run, my strategy is to try to run it low and slow,
try to keep it, you know, from having as much bite to it as I can have.
Rye's real tricky, especially with this condenser rig.
You know, I ain't run that a lot
so, you know, I'm still learning on that.
All right, all three lit.
We've got three definitely different distillers right here.
Oh, yeah.
[Digger] You know, Amanda, she's nothing but precision.
Tater over there, he's slow and steady,
and he's as backwoods as they get.
Then you got Kelly over there.
He likes to have a good time whatever he's doing...
-so making a little liquor suits him. -Yeah.
[Digger] Now, what Tater's doing right there,
that helps out a lot.
I use charcoal in it just to catch any oils that might transfer over
from where I'm not using a doubler on this.
Rye whiskey, it's always too hot for me.
-[Mark] It can be fiery, can't it? -[Mark] Yeah.
It's fire enough as it is on its own.
It's got that peppery note.
You got to get it tuned in to run it good and cold
where it don't get no fiery nature to it.
Tater's done got his condenser hooked up, capped up, ready to go.
[Digger] He's got his first jar ready to start catching liquor.
All right, guys, you got an hour down,
two more to go.
Come on, baby.
Ohh!
In the game.
[Kelly] Looky here. Boom.
There's another drip.
-Blowin' that steam out of it. -Oh, dang, you better turn that [bleep] down.
Have you turned it way down?
[Kelly] I ain't turned it down yet.
Son of a [bleep] sprung a leak.
Sure as I'm standing here, it tastes just like pure damn water.
[bleep]
Son of a [bleep] sprung a leak.
Sure as I'm standing here.
-[Amanda] Condensation. -[Kelly] It's just leaking the drip.
Taste it. It tastes just like pure damn water.
It probably would at first. It could be just be the condensation.
-You liar. -[all laugh]
[Digger] You may or may not know this about Kelly,
but it don't strain him to lie to a woman.
-He already warned me about that, I know. -[laughs]
Amanda, what are you smelling over here?
I am smelling some delicious rye whiskey.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
Okay. You feel like the corn is what's gonna do it for you?
Well, I got a nice balance of the corn.
And then this specific rye is not as spicy.
-It's got a little bit of sweetness to it. -[Tim] Mmm-hmm.
It has a richer, deeper flavor, the Danko rye,
because it takes, like, 7, 8 months
-before you harvest... -Right.
...and a regular rye that you get today
-is maybe 3 months. -Yeah.
So it's a short time, it only gets 3ft tall,
-and you cut it, and you're done. -Yeah.
So you don't get that rich flavor
-as you do in the Danko rye. -Yeah.
So if these guys do not have Danko rye they in trouble
-because... -I don't know what they brought.
-...because regular rye is just dry and spicy. -Yeah.
-All right, well, good luck. -All right, thanks, Tim.
-Can't wait to taste it. -Thank you.
Smells like fried apple pie.
[Tater] I can smell that apple from over here.
You can smell that? I can, too.
-[Kelly] But this... -Apple always comes off in the very beginning.
-[Kelly] Yeah, and it... -The full, the nose of apple,
-and then it dies off towards the end... -I mean...
-...which sucks. -...a lot of times just running regular clear liquor
coming out of the worm here, you can smell, like, an appley smell
but it ain't got no apple in it.
Well, get my first jar of this off,
and it's super high proof, can't even tell.
You know, it's still running pretty warm
because this condenser is not cooling like we'd like for it to,
but, you know, you can taste it, it's pretty spicy, pretty hot.
It's gonna take a while to run this on down here,
so we're gonna get a few jars out of it
before we get down there where we need to get.
-[Tim] Kelly. -Yes, sir.
How are you in your run?
I'm working on my fourth jar right now.
-I'm probably still in the 120 proof range... -Okay.
-...I would think. -Yeah.
You put some apples in your rye?
Yeah, I did, I put just a little bit of apple in there
just to try to pull a hint of the spice of the rye off
and put that apple in there, and...
I'm gonna tell you right now,
you can go back and report that to the other three judges
that this will be the best apple rye liquor they've ever tasted.
-[Kelly chuckles] -That means your competitors over there
is just wasting their time.
I mean, there's competitors here?
-I didn't realize that. -I know.
It's like you're the only one that's running over here.
-[chuckles] -That's the way I'm looking at it.
[chuckling] Good luck.
-Well, thank you, Tim, I appreciate it. -[chuckling] Okay.
Two hours burned.
One left to get that perfect jar
on this table, guys.
I don't believe that first jar of mine is 90 proof.
[Kelly] It's probably 150 or 60 proof.
No, it ain't got no bridges on it.
[Amanda] Because it's so high proof.
-[Kelly] It's too high to bridge. -[chuckling] Yeah.
-No. -[Amanda chuckling] Yeah.
I believe, if I was you, I'd just turn that jar right there in
-and cut that thing off. -It can be judged well.
-My man Tater. -[Tater] Hey, bud, how are you?
-You still high proof on that same proof? -Uh...
I'm gonna say my extra jar here
is probably gonna have about 120.
-Okay, well that sounds what everybody else is doing. -Just the extra. Yeah.
I mean, I'm mostly rye too, but mine's more malted rye.
-I didn't hear that from the other guys. -Yeah.
-They didn't have a malted rye. -They don't.
You know, mine will have a little bit different flavors than a regular rye
-because it's malt. -That could be...
-And it, and... -That could bring 'em on top.
-Yeah. -Time will tell.
It's gonna be the best one here.
-All right, good luck, Tater. -All right, thank you, Tim.
-Can't wait to taste it. -All right. It's gonna be the best.
All right, lady and gentlemen, you got 30 minutes left.
That's why I believe that's it right there.
I've come in to my hearts now in the end run,
and it seems to have good flavor to it
and I really like it.
I'm probably gonna go with jar number five with it.
It seems to be the best and time's running out.
I've watched Tater. He's polishing that like it's a diamond.
[Tater] I think that I've made as close to the best dry whiskey
as I've ever made.
It meets all my specs for my customers,
and, you know, I'm gonna back my rye pretty good with this.
All right, here's the best jar y'all's gonna get.
There you go, feller.
Five minutes left, guys.
You better be shining them jars up.
[Amanda] I finally got my jar.
I feel like it's the perfect jar
from this run.
-[smacks lips] Ladies first. -Yes, ma'am.
I'm really proud of this taste.
It's probably the best Danko rye that I've ever made,
and I'm feeling really confident about handing this jar in.
There you go, guys.
-Good luck. -[Mark] Good luck.
Thank you very much.
[Digger] One minute, guys.
Jar has got to be on the table.
[Kelly] You know, I never do get a jar exactly where I want it,
but we're gonna have to turn in the best jar I can,
and it's still gonna be a little higher proof
than what I'd like to put out there.
Best jar of rye apple liquor you're gonna drink tonight.
Kelly, good luck. Step on back to your station, clear up.
We're gonna go do our job now.
All right, men, rye whiskey.
Obviously, it's really popular.
And the further north you go the more that you see it
because it's more prolifically grown.
Well, guys, what do yous think?
I think we done good,
but I think right here is my jar
that would have been the best one turned in.
That's what I'm thinking on this one here.
I think everybody did a good job.
-Ladies first. -Ladies first.
All right.
That's a clear jar of liquor, I'll tell you.
-115. -I don't think it's 115.
I'm always, like, super humble,
and I think we're all pretty evenly matched with what we handed in.
-Mmm. -Boy, it smell really good.
-Got a great nose. -It smells good.
That is a rye whiskey nose right there.
And it tastes good.
-Ain't that hot either. -[Digger] No.
That's like a butter smooth.
I'll tell you something, guys, that's 115 proof liquor
that tastes like 95 proof liquor.
That's what you want. It gives off fruity notes.
You'll notice you'll get a peach in there,
and you'll get a caramel, too.
Yeah, it doesn't have the pepper taste.
Danko rye, I'm telling you...
-It's good. -...it don't have the spicy taste
that the normal rye...
I wouldn't have thought that was rye liquor.
I can't make rye whiskey that smooth.
Right, moving on, get old Tater going there.
Tater's is backwoods distillery
as they get.
You get him around a still, you can't hitch him up wrong.
-I'm gonna say that's 100. -It's around 100.
I swear, I think you swapped mashes
with me as much as you've produced versus me this time.
No.
-But now, I did run slow. -I mean, I'm just that much better
-at building the mash. -[Tater] Oh, is that what it is?
-[laughs heartily] -I think it might have been where I run slower.
-You get that malt. -Yeah.
-Can smell it. -Oh, yeah.
-[Digger] Yeah, I get that good malt. -Yeah, you get malt
-right off the bat, yeah. -[Rogers] Mmm-hmm.
-Here we go. -[Tim] Well, I don't know.
It's a little bit different.
That yellow corn
-really puts a different taste in the stuff. -Yeah.
Yeah, I like white corn a whole lot better.
I think the nose is off but he malted his rye,
but the taste, excellent.
-Taste is delicious. -Excellent taste,
excellent proof.
Wouldn't be ashamed to put my name on it
at any time.
Let's have a little look-see at old Kelly.
Dang, that's a clear jar, too.
115 to 20, huh?
-Did you temper at all? -I did put a little spring water in mine
to try to get it down here a little bit.
-Well, I'm smelling apple. -[Mark] Uh-huh.
-[Digger] Uh-huh. -I'm smelling apple.
And that is a high proof liquor
but it hits it like a low proof.
It ain't a bit fiery on the tongue.
Mmm-mmm, that apple is his saving grace.
[Mark] Wow, what are we gonna do here?
That's smoother than any of 'em.
But it hits the palate light.
I mean, I'd be happier if I got to stay
and you got to go home.
I mean, I'm just gonna be honest with ya.
-Oh, yeah, hey, what? -[laughs]
You know, until tonight I didn't know I liked rye whiskey.
I didn't realize how good I liked it until now.
It might be the only good rye whiskey I ever drunk.
[both laugh]
If it keeps coming like this, we're gonna drink more of it.
-Well, let's try yours, our expert. -All right.
-I'm not an expert. -You're a scientist.
-[sighs] I'm a student. It's not gonna hurt ya. -[Kelly] Yeah, you're...
As long as it ain't one of them eggs that have an extra chicken
we'll drink it.
-Kelly? -God almighty...
-I swear. -Damn, we got some competition.
-No, come on, don't... -No, we ain't got no competition.
[chuckles] She ain't got no competition.
-I am stressed right now. -Me and you getting oned up.
-[chuckles] Yeah, it's between me and you, Tater. -This is the most...
One of us is going home.
You can tell that she's Mark Rogers' student.
You can tell the proof's there
from, like, Mark would like it.
Oh, yeah, that's damn 110 proof, or five, anyway.
-If it ain't 110, it ain't worth drinking. -[laughing] You see?
-There you go. -I ain't mean enough to drink with her.
-I ain't either. -Not many people are.
-Loads. -[all laugh]
All three of 'em are excellent.
You know, the thing about it is
if any three of these guys was in another flight individually,
they'd probably win that flight.
-[Digger] Yeah. -Oh, yeah.
We got three really good drinks of liquor in front of us,
but we got to think about which one is gonna bring a profit quicker.
The determining factor is how we feel the marketability of it is.
Just as long as I ain't the one that has to tell 'em.
-As long as one of you does. -No, that's up to you.
-You're the guest judge. That's part of it, boss. -[Tim] You gotta tell 'em,
-not us. -No! [laughs] Who voted on that?
When you signed on the dotted line you did. It was in real fine print.
-I ain't signed nothing. -[laughs]
[Tim chuckling] You're the guest judge.
-You're the guest. We do this every day. -Yeah.
Yeah, you're supposed to be taking care of me.
-I'll look after you. -[laughs]
Let's go do it.
[Digger] We gotta.
[Digger] Come up and get your jars.
All right, guys...
this was three of the finest jars
that have come to the table at one time.
Kelly, I hope you've made good notes,
because I think I've seen you make the finest jar of liquor
you've ever made in your career.
-Thank you. -That's just the plain and simple truth.
I really was optimistic about the apple.
I thought it might just balance that rye out a little bit
where it wouldn't be as fiery.
It's in there, it's on the nose, it's on the palate.
It didn't have that throat punch like ryes normally do.
-Fine job on your behalf. -Thank you.
A little bit high on the proof.
Rye, sometimes, you don't want it too high because it has a spicy note.
But I think when you added the apples to it
that absorbed that spicy note, made it smooth.
So even though you do have about 115 proof there,
it's tasting about, like, 95.
Came across really good. Great job.
-Clear, pretty. -Thank you.
Amanda...
I don't expect anything less of you.
That particular grain that you picked,
it was germinated, it was pollinated.
That's what it was created for,
to make a rye whiskey if used correctly.
-And you used it correctly. -Thank you.
I think you picked the perfect corn to balance it out.
It was sweet, and it just fell right in there with it,
and balanced it out, and gave that such a great finish.
You not only raised the bar, in a lot of circumstances I think you set it.
-And that, right there, is an excellent jar of rye. -Thank you.
Tater, your rye was malted.
Your corns was not malted, I believe on the nose they clashed a little bit,
but that was a fantastic jar of white rye whiskey that you put in our hands.
You asked what proof are we looking for.
100 proof.
There was no question at all. You hit it right on the money.
It's really, really a good jar got the rye taste in it, off the chain.
None of these liquors were fiery
like a standard normal rye,
and, man, I'm proud of you.
I never have liked dry whiskey much.
You just proved me wrong.
I liked every one of y'all's whiskey,
and I'm proud of all three of yous.
I ain't kidding.
As you know, we can't have the ultimate outlaw distiller
unless we cut one from the herd.
Tater, that jar bought you a ticket
to deer hunt tomorrow, brother.
It kinda dropped me down a little bit
to hear that I hadn't won.
-[whistles] -[chuckles]
-Thank you, Tater. -Mmm-hmm.
They didn't say I had bad liquor.
They said I had good liquor, and that's the way I make it,
that's the way it tastes every time.
There you go.
-I'm gonna treasure it. -You did a real good job.
Boys and girls, if you think that was tough you don't even have a clue.
[narrator] Next time on a special Master Distiller tournament...
Final two standing.
You know, you can't too crazy with apple brandy.
Create your water supply to your condenser
strictly with gravity flow.
There we go.
Tastes a little musty,
like, I musty have another drink.