-[Amanda] Smell good? -Smells like rotten apples.
Yours smells like pickles, if you want me to be honest.
[narrator] This time, on the special Master Distiller tournament...
[Digger] Better bring your A-game.
This is for all the marbles.
[narrator] ...only two outlaw shiners remain.
Pray. Pray hard.
We ain't got time. We'll pray later.
[narrator] Bringing all of their skills
to an authentic mountain still sight.
Any backwood distiller
has got to run off of a mountain stream.
[Amanda] I don't know why I'm here in the cold creek
when he's down there by the warm fire.
[narrator] ...to make a benchmark Appalachian liquor.
[Kelly] Now what's she doing to cheat?
[Amanda] Hey, this is a competition, right?
[narrator] As four legendary judges
decide who deserves the title
of master of the backwoods.
Tastes a little musty, like I musty have another drink.
[Digger] Here we are, guys.
The final two standing.
At the end of this next challenge,
we're gonna find out which one of the two of you all
is the ultimate master of the backwoods.
And that gets you bragging rights,
which is outstanding in our world.
But it also comes with a little something else.
This little rascal right here.
-[Tim] Wow. -[whooping]
As a reminder of that recipe you can hang your hat on.
-Here we go. -[Amanda] Mm-hmm.
[Tim] Now you built your own condenser.
You ran your own corn liquor.
And you hid your Rye mash
from the best tracker in the world, Mark Rogers.
But you got one more challenge to do.
You're gonna have to build us an apple brandy mash.
And you're gonna have to run it.
Sounds easy, right?
It can't be that easy.
[Ramsey] Here's the hitch.
You're gonna have to run your still
directly from a mountain stream.
You know? And it's gonna take some real
backwoods ingenuity, guys, to make that happen.
Tickle! Tell us about it.
All over Appalachia,
if you found a stream or a creek,
you'd find a still running liquor.
Using ingenious rigging, physics, and chemistry,
backwoods shiners harness
the waters of these springs
to make their famous moonshine.
And our distillers are gonna do that
at a legendary spring for making liquor,
English Mountain.
Any backwoods distiller
has got to run off of a mountain stream.
You got your work cut out for you,
and I believe I'll stick around for that.
[Digger] So, as you all well know, we can't have no apple brandy
if we don't have no apple mash.
So y'all come with us.
Marky's gonna guard the trophy
and the rest of this liquor,
we're gonna go build some apple mash.
All right, guys, come on in.
All right, guys, here we go.
Down to two.
When it's all said and done, there'll only be one
that's named master of the backwoods.
You know, when it comes to an apple brandy,
you've got three discriminating palates up here.
You know, for mine and Mark,
it's our life's blood, our Rye Apple.
So, that being said,
better bring your A-game.
This is for all the marbles.
If you can't make apple brandy,
you really ought not to be in the woods.
You know, any moonshiner knows
apple brandy is where your money is at.
You can make grain liquor any time you want to.
Apple brandy, you can't.
You got to make it when you can get the apples.
I really look forward to tasting it.
Both of you are backwoods moonshiners,
and you know the value of a good apple brandy.
At the end of this contest,
one of you will be named
the master of the backwoods.
Both of you know
your liquor's made right here in this mash pot.
It's not made in that still.
That still's only the catalyst to get it out.
You can screw it up in there,
but you got to have good mash before you get good brandy.
You're gonna have one hour
to get that mash built and in your barrel.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it.
Everything I've overcome,
I'm very proud of myself at this point,
but I have to make the perfect brandy.
So I'm still pretty nervous.
[Ramsey] Did he use cider as well?
-[Digger] All cider. -All cider.
And I'm sure it'll be outstanding with all cider,
but we never did that.
It's just water and apples and sugar.
[Kelly] You know, it's just me and Amanda now,
so we're gonna see how this one turns out.
It's for all the marbles.
I got this. [laughs]
[Amanda] So, in my apple brandy,
I used all apple cider in place of any kind of water
and a variety of apples,
and then I just mixed cane sugar
and dark brown sugar together for my sugar.
Good combination.
-No, no water. -No water.
No. She's gonna bring all apples.
[Kelly] Going head-to-head with Amanda is insane.
She and I are kind of polar opposites.
She's so precise about everything she does,
and I'm just kind of sling it here
and go there and do whatever.
[Amanda] I only have an hour, so...
The less volume of water I have in here, liquids,
the quicker my apples will cook
and the more they'll break down.
[Ramsey] You know, we know to watch Amanda.
Now, the other side of that coin,
there's no telling what Kelly's doing.
[Digger] Kelly is a different animal, man.
[Amanda] Kelly Williamson is like the unknown here.
Kelly's really easygoing, right?
So, I overthink everything, and he's just like, whatever.
And I don't know what kind of competition he's gonna bring.
[Tim] He used liquid sugar.
Is liquid sugar the same amount of sweet
as granulated sugar? I don't know.
It's sugar that's been taken down to be refined,
but it's not quite been crystallized yet.
[Kelly] My mash build for apple brandy
is a variety of apples and cider.
And then just sugar and yeast.
Hopefully, this is gonna turn out to be good.
I shredded my apples for hope that they would carry through a little bit better
and work off a little better.
And I thought the finer that they were,
the better that they would work.
Well, they're better after you've had them in the cider.
[Ramsey laughs]
[Amanda] Apple brandy, it's something that I do every year.
I feel pretty comfortable running an apple brandy,
mashing it in.
Just waiting for these apples to get real soft
and start to break down.
Then I know I can throw them in my mash.
All right, guys, you're halfway home.
Thirty minutes burnt, thirty minutes left.
-[Tim] Hello, Kelly. -[Kelly] What's up, Tim?
[Tim] You only got a few apples floating around,
and it looks like they've been eaten.
And the rest of it looks like they've been shredded up.
I shredded them up. That makes it easier,
you know, for the yeast to break it down.
And you don't have to cook them as long.
You can work this in pretty quick.
We're on a little bit of a time crunch here.
Yeah, you only got an hour.
Yeah, so,
needed to get it hot and cool quick.
And, you know, I've only used liquid sugar.
It's already liquefied, so I didn't have to get my mash
as hot to be able to put it in there,
to break down the granular sugar.
I hope that's an advantage. I don't know.
Well, Kelly, you know, your time's getting short.
Uh, I'd recommend putting that in that barrel
and getting the yeast started as fast as you can.
-[Kelly] I'll do 'er. -All right, good luck.
-[Kelly laughing] Thank you, Tim. -All right.
[Kelly] Most yeast is good to like 110.
It'll kill it to 110.
And it works good anything above 75.
I'll stir it all in in a few minutes
once it's all soaked up good.
And I think we're done.
All right, guys, you got 15 minutes.
You better be getting them buttons buttoned up.
-Amanda. -What's up, Tim?
[Tim] Well, it looks like you done put it in the barrel already.
-[Amanda] I did. -[Tim] Is this the first time
-you're doing apple brandy? -[Amanda] No, sir.
-I make it all the time. -[Tim] Make it all the time?
You got a certain kind of apple you got there?
[Amanda] Yeah. Granny Smith green apples are the best.
-[Tim] Mm-hmm. -But I like to put some Red Delicious in there, too.
-[Tim] Okay. -So I mix them.
That way, if it comes out in the brandy,
you'll get sweet and sour.
I think you're the first one I've heard put red apples in.
[Amanda] All the different types of apples
-taste a little bit different. So... -[Tim] Mm-hmm.
If I can pull any of it out,
it'll hit your whole palate and taste like an apple, you know?
-[Tim] Okay. -[Amanda] You know, you can't get too crazy
with apple brandy.
Otherwise, you'll say it's not apple brandy on me.
Well, I don't know, man.
You pulled some tricks out before,
so you never know what you're gonna bring to the table.
You'll like it. I promise.
-Bring you A-game. -Always do.
-I can't wait to taste it. -Nothing less. All right.
-All right. Good luck. -[Amanda] Thank you.
I know one thing. That's the slowest dadgum spigot
I think I've ever seen.
Five minutes left.
If you ain't done, you ain't gonna be done.
[Tim] You know, Amanda, you know, in the first competition,
she always had something, she brought out a little...
I don't want to say trickery,
but a little bit of technicalities in there,
-you know? -You know, the first time we met Amanda...
-[Tim] Mm-hmm. -...we watched her work,
you know, Frank,
he named her "The Professor,"
and we watched her work a lot of times since then.
She said she's learned a lot from Mark Rogers.
-[Ramsey] Oh, I'm sure. -She said she learned how to make a mash in ten minutes.
Maybe I need to go spend a little time with Mark Rogers.
Evidently he's a good teacher, huh?
Damn, this is taking too long. I just gotta dump this stuff.
[Ramsey] I'm gonna be honest with you.
I wouldn't pick any one above the other right now.
They know what they're doing,
and we're in for a treat.
All right, guys. Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four,
three,
two, one.
Step away from your barrels. Y'all are done.
Y'all head on out. We'll tend to it from here.
All right, let's go.
Thank you.
[narrator] Coming up, in the tournament finale...
My biggest fear is that I just want them
-both to function. -Yeah.
[Amanda] Now stop talking and get to it.
Oh, there's a hole in the hose.
Two holes.
It means we're gonna need more water pressure.
-How about another hour? -No.
[Ramsey] Amanda, Kelly,
welcome to what is probably
the most difficult challenge we've ever issued.
Your challenge is assemble your still,
create your water supply to your condenser
strictly with gravity flow,
no pumps, no electricity.
You know, you can work with what we've supplied you with,
or you can use anything here in nature that you find.
[Tim] Not gonna be easy.
But if you're gonna be a backwoods distiller,
this is what you gotta do.
I mean, you gotta set your still up on a creek bank,
you gotta get your water source,
and you gotta run your liquor.
Mark Ramsey and myself have run liquor on this spot
with gravity flow water.
So we know for a fact it can be done.
We've got a pretty good task ahead of us.
It's gonna involve a lot of black pipe.
The biggest problem is there's
such a gradual flow downstream.
There's just not water pressure
sufficient enough to make this work.
Let 'er go!
We're gonna see right here.
There it goes.
Son, that's a heck of a stream.
Been from Maine to Spain, still beats all I ever seen.
Now, it's a chore.
It wasn't no fun, but it can be done.
You got two hours
to get your water established to your still site.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it, guys.
We got a water source and tools.
-A reservoir. -[Kelly] Reservoir if we need it.
Let's go scout the creek.
-What do you think? -[Amanda] Yeah.
We gotta get the water running out of this spring
into our condensers to make everything work.
It is a challenge to work in these conditions
in cold water.
[Ramsey] Don't matter how you look at it,
what you do or you don't do,
now, water don't run uphill
-on its own, does it? -That's right.
[both chuckle]
The first thing we do is kind of just
walk the spring, see our elevation,
and spot out a good spot
of where we want our hoses to land.
Since we're basically working off the same water source,
it'll probably benefit us if we work together a little bit.
[Kelly] I agree with you.
You know, me and Amanda are in a competition,
but that really don't matter right now
because neither one of us are gonna compete
if both of us don't have water.
Two of us can probably do this pretty easy
and a lot quicker than if we kept trying to do it individually.
[Amanda] Once we get the water running, you're on your own.
[Kelly] Well, I'm fine with that, too.
So to get running water to our condenser,
we gotta be able to get upstream far enough to be able to push the water
in a volume that'll get it to our condenser
and flow through there to cool this liquid.
[Amanda] I know with those lyne arm condensers,
we're gonna have to get as much pressure as we can here.
[Kelly] The good thing is there's plenty of flow.
So right in here is where I was looking
that we needed to be for elevation.
[Amanda] Yeah, that's definitely
the highest point in that tier up there.
[Kelly] Watch the slick rocks, Amanda.
[Amanda] Oh, I saw it. That's why I'm letting you go first.
[Kelly] Everybody knows that water runs downhill,
so it's a challenge to be able to put some pressure
behind your water to get it to flow
at the speed you need it to.
How much feet of hose do you think we got?
We might as well just use it all and go up as high as we can, right?
Yeah, if we can come to right there...
See how the water's bubbling out
-right beside the white pipe? -[Amanda] Mm-hmm.
[Kelly] That should give us enough pressure to build in the hose.
What do you think if we just go ahead and bring one hose?
-Just see how much we got? -[Kelly] See what we got.
If that doesn't work,
there's no need in doing both of them the same way.
-Right, right. Yeah. -And then we can figure out
-what we need to do from there. -All right.
I say we start uncoiling that as quick as we can.
[Digger] Guys, you burned 30 minutes.
Got an hour and a half to go.
I don't know how much experience you've got
with that old black plastic hose,
but I know it sucks trying to use it. [laughs]
[Amanda] I've used it before.
But I know when it's cold,
we're gonna probably have to heat it up.
You know, we're under a time restraint is the problem with this.
Oh, yeah. That sounds good.
This stuff's hard to deal with on a hot day.
[Amanda] Especially when it's been coiled up like that
-for a while. -[Kelly] Oh, I know.
Maybe just lay the hose over here, hold it right here,
and I'll pull it across it and heat it and flatten it out.
We've got to work with pipe that's been coiled up in 20-degree weather.
This may be the most time-consuming part of the whole deal, Amanda.
[Amanda] Let's hope so.
So we've got to heat the pipe enough to be able to unroll it
so that we can get it to lay out flat.
You know, this is not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
This heater really helps.
It's not gonna let water run through it
if it's all curled up and humpy.
Good with it?
[Amanda] Yep.
[Digger] Kelly's got the work ethic. He'll get with it.
Amanda's got the knowledge, you know,
to figure out the physics on all this.
[Amanda] I don't know why I'm here in the cold creek
when he's down there by the warm fire.
I got the wrong job.
The only thing that they're really battling that's against them
is the elements.
Ooh, it's cold.
It's cold out here. It's uncomfortable.
But we didn't choose this to come in here when it's hot.
You can cool off laying down in that branch.
You can't warm up nowhere right now.
Okay.
Right. That's all on this pipe.
We'll have to straighten another one.
[Digger] You're halfway there, guys.
One hour burned, one hour left.
[Amanda] I say we can get them right in here.
[Kelly] Yeah, I agree.
[Amanda] All right. Now, hose number two.
[Kelly] Yep.
They've got plenty to work with, though.
-They have. -They can just get 'er down here.
-[Kelly] Yeah, that'll work, too. -[Amanda] Nature's hammer.
Hopefully, this will be enough that we don't need
to put a reservoir up there,
but we'll see how the condenser functions
when we just hook these up.
[Ramsey] What's going on over here, guys?
How you doing?
Well, not super high pressure.
[Ramsey] Now let me ask you something.
You've got water established to here.
-[Kelly] Yes. -So you're just trying to get it
-to your condensers? -[Kelly and Amanda] Yes.
[Kelly] We're trying to get it to the condenser.
We're gonna test the condenser to see if we've got
enough water volume and pressure that way.
Hopefully, we don't have to go back and build a reservoir.
Oh, you ain't. You ain't building no reservoir.
You're just trying without it first.
-We're just getting water down here at the moment. -[Ramsey] All right. Okay.
So if this one will work...
We'll run another one then.
You just run another right beside of it. It's the same and...
-We'll be pros for the second one. -[Ramsey] Okay.
I got you. I feel you.
And if it don't work,
then we're gonna back up and work on a reservoir.
You don't need that with time constraints.
Yeah. How about another hour?
No.
Pray. Pray hard.
We ain't got time. We're just gonna run it.
-[Ramsey] Okay. -[laughing] We'll pray later.
Take this in and go ahead and screw it
to that condenser if you want to.
I'm gonna say if we can shoot water
two foot an hour, we're good. [chuckles]
-How's it looking, Mark? -Well, Marky,
they've got water down here. You know,
I don't know that they've got enough volume
to run both condensers,
but now they've managed to get water down here.
[Kelly] You get it?
We've got water in the second hose?
It's hooked up. It's just...
I don't feel like it's enough pressure.
It's not a ton of water pressure.
Yeah, I've done this a lot of times.
Sometimes it's hard to get
the right amount of water, what you need.
[Ramsey] If they got to try to fill it with a reservoir
in their allotted time here,
-now they're gonna be struggling. -[Digger] Yeah.
[Amanda] Right. That's not a ton of...
My biggest fear is that I just want them
-both to function. -Yeah.
I know that there's not a lot of water pressure.
And these lyne arm condensers really need to stay cold
in order to work properly.
All right, guys. You've got 20 minutes left.
Y'all got your water rolling?
Y'all in good shape?
-We've got to increase the heat out here. -[Kelly] Mm-hmm.
So I know we have to run them hotter,
which means we're gonna need more water pressure,
in my mind.
All right, guys. You've got 20 minutes left.
We think we're gonna build a reservoir
with what time we've got left.
Better get with it. You're down to
-19 and a half minutes now. -[Kelly] Okay.
[Amanda] Let's stop talking and get to it. [chuckles]
You know, with the condensers we've got,
it's not an option to have a trickle of water.
We've got to have a good amount of water coming into these things.
-Let's just... -[Amanda] Hook this thing up down here.
[Kelly] Yeah, completely.
[Amanda] Where do you want to place these holes?
Even though we're outside,
we're still running steam in there.
We've got to turn it into cool enough liquor
that it'll be palatable.
[Amanda] You get more pressure
-the lower on the bottom, right? -[Kelly] Yeah, I agree.
It fills up, so you've got the weight
of the water in the barrel that's creating pressure.
We'll just do two out of the same one.
I think they're playing it smart.
They've chose to go ahead and build the reservoir.
Anybody knows the taller column of pressure
you've got going down,
the more you're gonna build down here.
[Ramsey] I think if they're coming out of that reservoir,
they can actually put a lid on it,
and it won't stop up on them.
Yeah, that ain't a bad idea, what they're doing.
-[Digger] Yeah. -In case the pipe did stop up, you know.
What if a leaf gets in the hose that's feeding in?
You ain't supposed to think that far ahead.
[both laugh]
[Kelly] I'm thinking between here and the big log that's down,
it should give us enough elevation.
We can put it up,
and we still should have flow into the barrel.
Aren't they gonna need more pipe
-to do this reservoir? -[Digger] I believe they've got it.
[Kelly] You got water there?
[Amanda] Yeah.
Seven minutes, guys.
It's basically crunch time.
We have to hook up this reservoir
and get it flowing back to our still site,
'cause we're running out of time.
Oh, there's a hole in the hose.
Two holes.
The hoses that I run into the reservoir,
I realize that there's two holes in it, and it's leaking.
[Digger] Kelly, you got two minutes left.
Amanda, bring me the duct tape real quick.
[Amanda] Sounds good. I'll go grab it.
Coming.
Let me see. Duct tape.
We got to patch this up as quick as possible.
[Digger] Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three, two,
one. You better have water.
[Amanda] This should definitely be running now.
Yeah, that's it.
It seems to be flowing the way it should be.
[exhaling] Okay.
So I think we did a good job. Mission accomplished.
[Ramsey] All right, guys. Looks like you got water.
You better hope so. You're out of time.
[Tim] All right, guys. Apple brandy.
In the mountains of Tennessee,
one of you is gonna be master of the backwoods.
All said and done, time to get into that run.
-You ready? -Yep.
[Digger] All right. You got three hours.
Your time starts now.
Good luck and get with it, guys.
[Amanda] Wow. This looks, like, so nice
and dark from all the apple cider.
Did you use all apple cider in yours?
[Kelly] Yes.
[Amanda] Me too. And I did a bushel of apples.
Now, they worked awful good together
getting that water going.
-[Digger] They did. -But now this is where the ship
hits the sand now.
-This is business now. -[Digger] Yeah.
Great. So I don't got to talk to him? Cool.
[laughs]
[Kelly] You either talk to me or listen to me. Pick one.
[laughs]
-[Amanda] Good point. -[Kelly chuckles]
Well, that's a pretty mash she's got right yonder.
You think Amanda's got any apples in there?
[Digger] Six or 20. Maybe 200.
[Ramsey chuckles]
[all exclaiming]
[Amanda] Oh, really?
[Ramsey] Rookie mistake there.
[chuckles]
Just gonna stop and take my time,
'cause now that means I'm rushing if I didn't check that.
Calm down, Amanda. It's gonna be okay.
It'll happen to the best of us.
[laughs]
[Amanda] Deep breath.
My mash definitely worked off like I hoped it would.
After using this type of condenser a few times,
I'm starting to get the hang of it,
so I know how fast I can run it.
And my plan is to just run it a little bit warmer in the beginning,
slow it down towards the end,
and pull that really good sweet jar of hearts out.
[exhaling] Okay.
[Kelly] Apple brandy.
Flavor through and through in that bucket.
[Ramsey] But he didn't put any apples in his.
He strained some off the top.
[Kelly] You know, I open my barrel, look at my mash.
Pretty happy with it.
Looks just like I thought it would.
It's got a pretty good taste to it,
so I think that we're gonna be fine.
I think I'm gonna only do
10 or 12 gallons.
Since we're outside, I'm a little leery of
being able to heat up.
[Amanda] Yeah, I'm going for a little above the halfway mark myself.
My marbles will actually help me run a little bit more heat
and heat the pot up more quickly.
Who'd have thunk it?
[Kelly] Now what's she doing to cheat? [laughs]
[Amanda] Hey, this is a competition, right?
I need every advantage I can get.
[Kelly] It'll be hot in a hurry.
[Amanda] There we go.
That'll be perfect.
[Kelly] Perfect.
[Amanda] In you go.
[Digger] That right yonder, I promise you,
is some of the best water on the planet.
It's been proven so by people
that's got a way better palate than I do.
[Amanda exhales]
[Kelly] It's flowing decently. I think we'll be okay.
[Amanda] Yeah. I'm satisfied with the water,
I think, for now.
I feel like your burner
is way hotter. Mine's not really hot.
-It's not? -[Amanda] Mm-mm.
It's barely... I don't even... It's not even...
See, you're already, like, 100.
Mine's still at 60 degrees.
All right, guys. You've burned an hour. You've got two left.
[Amanda grunting] Rags.
So it's really cold.
Um, my propane tank was freezing up a little bit
as I'm trying to heat up the still.
And we only have three hours to do this,
so I've got to get my still up to temperature
and start producing that liquor
and run my heads off as quickly as I can.
Oh, look at this I found.
I'm just gonna wrap it around a whole bunch.
You know, there really ain't nothing no better
than making liquor outside.
It's just a little inconvenient.
-A little effort, ain't it? -Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you something.
This cool air blowing and stirring that wind,
that'll keep them pots cooled down some.
That wind hits that, too,
you can watch the stream change.
Go from a little stream to a drip, won't it?
[Rogers] Yeah.
-[Amanda] There we go. -[Kelly] Easy.
[Amanda] It's gonna get hot in a minute.
All right. I guess that works.
You know what we're not gonna be able to do now?
We're not gonna be able to look at our flame and adjust it.
But once they get heated up, I guess we can remove it, right?
[Kelly] You can adjust it by the stream.
I mean, you don't have to necessarily look at the flame.
I know. I just like looking at the flame.
[laughs]
Already filling up jars?
No. I'm just making sure they're clean.
You don't want to put perfect liquor in a dirty jar, right?
[Kelly] Perfect liquor?
Right. Yeah.
Are you gonna make anything less than perfect liquor?
'Cause...
-I usually... -[Kelly] Well, no. Then in that case,
-no. I guess I'll put... -[Amanda] ...try not to.
-...perfect liquor in perfect jars. -[Amanda] Mm-hmm.
[Kelly] I want my apple brandy to be a good
right on the spot of 100-proof.
I want it to have a good, smooth flavor.
I want it to be good on the nose.
I want it to be good in the middle.
I want it to be good all the way through.
I want to impress the judges with it,
because I know Amanda's bringing her best.
Oh, look at you.
[Kelly] Still wants to stay warm.
You know, when you're in a controlled climate,
you can kind of make everything work the way you want it to
and not have a lot of variables.
But when you're out here, you know,
once the breeze kicks up
two or three mile an hour,
you're talking about not being able to heat your still up.
[Rogers] Yeah.
[Kelly] You know, once the sun changes angles in the sky,
you're talking about a difference there.
So everything that you do outside is a challenge.
Are you gonna patent that idea too, Kelly?
'Cause I might steal it before you get the patent on it.
Just saying.
[laughs]
[Kelly] I smell apples.
[Amanda] Do you? It must be yours,
'cause your temp is up a little bit more than mine.
I'm still at, like, one...
I'm almost at 120.
[Kelly] Damn, I'm at 142.
[Amanda] I could see it coming out, the steam.
-You got water going to it? -[Kelly] Mm-hmm.
That's steaming a lot.
[Kelly] Yeah. Well, I'm gonna have to turn it down.
[Amanda] Yeah.
You know, I had my still cranked up wide open
to start with to try to get it hot
and build in some pressure.
And right off the bat,
you know, I got steam.
You know you got to dial it back down
as soon as we get the heads off of this thing and try
to get it dialed in to run good liquor.
[Amanda] Damn, you're already at 150.
[Kelly] I'm telling you.
-Putting your coat on that. -[Amanda] I'm putting my coat on there.
That's a good idea.
You can see they took them jackets off
their stills and put them on, because once that
sun drops over that mountainside there,
it's gonna start getting cold.
[Ramsey] When they put them jackets on,
-it's nice and warm, isn't it? -[Tim] Nice and warm.
Well, I promise you.
Like getting a warm blanket out of the dryer.
I'll tell you a secret. Don't do the inside.
Fold your coat
and lay it aside,
so this outside is tougher than the inside.
Did this?
No. Take it back off.
-And do this. -[Amanda] Oh.
That way your inner liner is not what's
-taking the heat. -My coat's not as big as yours.
Well, you used the sleeves.
You've got them tied in a knot.
Wait a minute. What do you mean your coat's not as big as mine?
[both laughing]
-[Amanda] I meant nothing by it, I swear. -[Kelly laughs]
[Amanda] Mine started running. Okay. Perfect.
Now I can turn it down. Catching up.
I'm gonna let mine run up here just a little bit for a little while.
-I'll run a jar or two out and see what's through. -Yeah. I just don't want
all my vapors coming out like that.
-[Kelly] Mm-hmm. -That's a little bit much.
Well, that's the heads cooking off.
-[Amanda] Yeah. -[Kelly chuckling]
[Amanda] Smell that, though.
That's what apple brandy's supposed to smell like.
Smell good?
Smells like rotten apples.
-[Amanda] It does not. -[laughs]
Yours smells like pickles, if you want me to be honest.
[laughs]
All right, guys. You're down to one hour left on your time.
I hope you're getting you a good jar.
[Amanda] Gotta get my charcoals.
-Charcoal. -[Tim] Yeah.
She's got the charcoal filter going there.
[Digger] Ain't a thing wrong with that.
She's got 'er tuned in just right
and had no problem with the water source.
[Amanda] This is a craft that I love,
and my goal is to carry it on and absorb as much knowledge
as I can from as many different people as I can
so I can pass it on to other people.
[Kelly] Oh, it's not terrible high.
[Amanda] Well, that's good.
[Kelly] It won't take long to run into the hearts.
I think my proof started out around 120,
so that's fairly low
for this kind of mash, I think.
I may be behind the eight ball here.
[Amanda] I usually look at the beginning of my run,
how much proof I have on those first jars and, you know,
how the proof is falling off throughout the run,
and I can kind of guess which jar I'm gonna want to pull.
So I'm really looking to get down to jar number seven.
I feel like that's gonna be my closest
to that perfect 100 spot.
So, that's my goal.
Get to jar number seven,
hand in that perfect jar.
All right, cool.
Hello, Amanda.
-How you doing? -[Tim] How you doing?
Well, I always feel in my element by a still,
and the running water doesn't hurt, you know?
So you got hot and your still got cold,
-so you put your coat on your still? -[Amanda] Mm-hmm.
The liquor needed the coat more than I do right now.
-Okay. -[Amanda chuckles]
So how's your still going here
with your condenser running outside?
[Amanda] It doesn't feel as cold as it did inside,
but I know the air is a lot colder,
-so... -[Tim] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Now, how's your proof going?
My proof's holding pretty much like I expected it to.
-[Tim] Yeah? -[Amanda] Yeah.
[Tim] You got some 100-proof jars?
I'm almost at 100-proof. I'm getting there.
-Yeah? -[Amanda] But I will have 100 pretty soon.
[Tim] I mean, as long as it finished fermenting, it finished fermenting okay?
I think so. Yeah, the proof held good.
-The mash tasted good. -[Tim] Mm-hmm.
I think I'm getting a good flavor off of it.
-Okay. -Feeling pretty comfortable.
Well, you know, this challenge is the master of the backwoods.
That's why we got you in the backwoods.
You got to feel it.
-I'm feeling it. -[Tim] You're feeling it?
If I wasn't feeling it before, I am now.
[both laugh]
[Tim] All right.
-Well, good luck. -[Amanda] Thanks, Tim.
-[Tim] Kelly. -Yes, sir.
-[Tim] Hell, you got yours duct taped on it. -Yeah.
I wanted it to feel warm.
I'm keeping my coat warm.
It's like preheating an oven.
Well, you look like you got a clear jar.
[Kelly] Yeah. Everything's running clear.
It's looking good.
Now, as your apple's coming through,
you got enough proof? Did it finish fermenting?
You know, I don't know.
I'm just gonna tell you I'm gonna turn you in
the best jar of apple brandy you've ever drunk.
-[Tim] Mm-hmm. -[laughs]
Sounds good.
I mean, it looks like you got a plan together.
I can't wait to taste it.
-Thank you, Tim. We can't wait for it. -[Tim] All right.
Ten minutes.
You better be shining up the jar and getting it ready.
It's still over 115 or higher.
Yeah. That's the jar I'm waiting on.
[Kelly] You tasted your jar number four?
[Amanda] No, I just tasted this one.
It doesn't have a real strong nose,
but it's like sweet, a little bit apple.
My proof is still holding pretty strong,
and I'm down to, like,
less than ten minutes of the run.
So I'm literally trying to pull the very last drops off of my still,
and then I'm planning on just tempering it a little bit with spring water
just to get it right at 100.
I'm looking at the bead, and it looks like it's about 110 still.
This is a brandy, so,
I don't want to go too far below 100,
but I know it's gonna be hot,
so I need it to be less than 110 this time.
Um, so, I'm just gonna temper it down
with a little bit of spring water
and get as close to 100 as I can.
Hot liquor is not good in cool liquor, but it's okay.
I'm still pretty high proof.
And this jar three is getting to smelling like it's got tails in it.
[Amanda] But it's really clear.
[Digger] Three minutes.
If you ain't found that sweet jar,
it probably ain't in there.
That ain't much over 100.
You got to taste it. You got to do it by taste.
That would be my best suggestion.
Whatever tastes the smoothest,
whatever tastes the best.
[Kelly] You know, time's running out.
I just needed the right jar at about 100-proof.
I'm ready. I think it's pretty good.
I've got the jar I'm gonna turn in.
I'm fixing to put my coat back on.
I was hot from running up and down the...
-Creek. -...the creek,
but now I'm getting chilly.
Oh, yeah.
[Kelly] Don't that feel good and toasty, though?
-[Amanda] Mm-hmm. -Pre-heating your coat's not a bad idea.
After coming this far,
you know, I really do want to win this thing.
I really do want to be the master of the backwoods,
'cause I just like to prove to all these guys
that I have the same skill set that they do.
I can do anything they can do,
and sometimes I can do it better.
[Digger] All right, guys.
Ten,
nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four, three, two,
one. Right down to the wire. I mean,
took every second you could get.
I don't blame you a bit. That jar
is the warmest thing I've felt all day.
[laughs]
Guys, we're gonna take these two jars.
We're gonna sip and sip and sip,
and then we're gonna deliberate
and try to reach a decision.
We may have to sip a little more because it's pretty chilly,
and ain't nothing knocks a chill off better
than a good jar of apple brandy.
Good job. You know, you made your run,
you turned in your jar,
and you haven't got arrested yet.
[Ramsey] Just so you know,
it's been an honor to watch yuns do
this backwoods challenge.
And very shortly, one of you guys
will be named master of the backwoods.
Good luck to both of you.
Let's go drink 'em.
-Let's go. -[Digger] I think we should.
We'll send for you when we get a decision made.
[Amanda] All right.
[Tim] You know, think about it.
In the beginning, we had contestants like Mike Cockrell.
We had Richard. And even Tater.
I mean, these guys are the backwood moonshiners,
-especially this region. -Yeah.
And now, we've ended up with Kelly and Amanda.
I'm proud of Kelly. I mean,
he's obviously absorbed some of the things we've tried to instill in him.
But Amanda, you know, I don't cut her out at any contest.
I taught her everything I know.
You've done a damn fine job.
[laughs]
[Ramsey] You know, Kelly's worked really hard
the last couple of years.
He's improved his skills.
Kelly does know what he's doing.
Well, this proves it. Now,
whether he knows what he's doing enough
to win this challenge, we don't know yet.
That remains to be seen.
Master of the backwoods, girl.
Master of the backwoods.
-Cheers. -Cheers.
[Ramsey] Apple Brandy.
Final challenge.
Amanda and Kelly, you know,
they've fought a hard and tough road.
[Digger] The conditions we put them in,
I mean, it couldn't be any more uncomfortable.
When it first started, they was like an old team of mules.
-They was hitched up and working in unison. -Yeah.
But now, I'm telling you,
when the water got established
and the still started heating up,
the whole dynamics changed.
[Ramsey] They fought a hard and tough road,
but at the end of this challenge,
well, one of them is gonna be the master of the backwoods.
Well, we ain't gonna know until we get started,
so we might as well go.
And we always say ladies first.
[Tim] Amanda's apple brandy.
Good clear jar.
Now that is a fine bead.
Yeah, boy. That's dead on 100.
-Well, it looks good. -[Ramsey] It looks good.
[Tim] Let's see what it tastes like.
[Kelly] I think we had a good day.
I definitely have.
There's no place I'd rather be than, like,
listening to the stream and...
Oh, I thought you was gonna say listening to me.
-[laughs] -Nice try.
Definitely an apple coming through on the nose.
[Tim] Yeah, smells like apple.
[Rogers] It's apple.
-It's apple brandy. -It's apple brandy.
And that's a good apple brandy.
It's kinda high, though, ain't it?
It's a little hot on the back end.
It's not high-proof.
It's just got a little fiery note to it.
I like that delicious aftertaste.
It's got a real good aftertaste.
It tastes a little musty,
like I musty have another drink.
-[Rogers] That's right. -[laughs]
[Ramsey] Let's see what Kelly's done.
That's a pretty jar of liquor, and clear.
That's right on 100 too.
Might be a little north, but not much.
Both of their bead reading skills is good.
[Amanda] It was really cool that we worked together to get the water flowing.
Well, you know, I mean, we almost had to do that,
'cause we could have individually struggled
against one another on that one,
and us teaming up made sense.
-Yeah. -[Kelly] This is the backwoods challenge.
Everybody knows that backwoods people help one another when they need it.
I'm gonna say he pitched his yeast
while that mash was still getting hot.
Stressed it.
[Ramsey] It's a good drink.
I like it. I'm not crazy about the nose.
It's got a wicked nose.
Honestly, it's way smoother than Amanda's.
It's really, really smooth to be that proof.
Because he's north of 100.
[gags, coughs]
[all laughing]
-It's got a nice dryness taste to it. -I like it.
[Digger] I like it a lot.
[Tim] We do have something to think about.
We've got a dilemma.
I guarantee you if we opened up a jar
just like we sitting in here, drinking,
we'd wind up drinking both of them tonight.
[laughs]
[Digger] I can go either way.
[Tim] This is the master of the backwoods challenge.
This is not like the regular contestants of Master Distiller.
But we have to judge them on the table the same way.
You know, what does it taste like?
What does it look like? What does it smell like?
What the proof is? The clarity of the jar.
And I think that leaves us with just one option.
Let's go name a master of the backwoods.
[Digger] Welcome back in, guys.
I'm gonna tell you, what we put you all through,
it was the triathlon
of the homemade liquor world.
You came in, run corn liquor,
you built your own condenser,
you run us some rye whiskey,
which was really, really good, by the way.
And then you went to the spring
in the coldest time of the year
and brought us some fine apple brandy.
So that being said, Amanda,
apple brandy, the way it's supposed to be.
Just about the perfect proof.
I'm gonna say you're right there on the 100 mark.
Flavor.
Apple flavor up one side and down the other.
Had a great nose. Had a great palate.
Lay it on your tongue and it'll let you know you're drinking some liquor.
Thank you.
You had three different types of apples
and two different types of sugar
and then apple cider.
But it did give a complex flavor.
Outstanding job making it on the backwoods.
Thank you.
Kelly.
I'm really proud of you.
You know, look how far you've come
in the last couple of years.
That's a fine jar of liquor.
Very clean, clear jar.
Proof is where it needs to be.
Kelly, you got a good jar of liquor.
I'm proud of you.
Thank you, Mark.
The only negative I can come away with,
just had a little off nose.
-Hmm. -[Digger] But the flavor was there.
-Fine job on your part. -Thank you.
Well, guys, this is where it all ends.
Kelly, we took you in on our team.
We thought for a little bit we were really just
bangin' our heads on a block wall.
-[laughs] -[Digger] And it stuck.
And we're proud of you as we could be.
Just like you're proud of your own youngins.
Amanda, you showed up here a contestant.
And I've watched you come into your own.
You came in here and you were so down on yourself.
You'd kicked yourself in the butts
many different ways.
And us knowin' the whole time watchin' you
that you had all the skills.
But I don't think you would have
become what you've become had you not
kicked yourself in the butt that much.
I can't find any more pleasure in that
than anything in the world.
All of the emotional feelings thrown out there,
there can only be one master of the backwoods.
That's a big deal in itself,
just bein' able to brag about it.
But keep in mind,
we got the best trophy we can afford.
[laughs]
And all that being said...
Amanda,
you are the master of the backwoods.
-[whooping] Girl! -[Digger] Congratulations.
-Great job. -Oh.
Thank you, guys.
Winning this tournament,
getting the title of master of the backwoods,
it really means a lot to me.
This is really precious.
I'm tellin' ya, I couldn't be any prouder if I'd won it myself.
[Amanda] People think that because I'm a girl
or because I am self-taught
that I can't distill in the backwoods,
or I can't hack it with the likes of these guys.
But I can. And I've proven that today.
So I'm very proud of myself.
Queen of the backwoods.
-[Ramsey and Kelly laughing] -[Digger] Number one.
I'm just always super grateful
anytime I get to come and compete.
I never come into this expecting to win.
I just wanna be here to compete.
So winning is just like the icing on the cake.
Now y'all chase on out here before we get too emotional.
Let's go drink your jar of liquor.
-[laughs] -Hell yeah. All right, let's do it.