[narrator] this time on master distiller.
-Rain's coming. -Rain's here.
[narrator] three master distiller champions face
real backwoods elements.
We're gonna say who is really tough.
[narrator] in pursuit of a legendary recipe.
Can nothing stop us
but the rain and the police.
[narrator] popcorn sutton's corn whiskey.
[bleep] watch it.
[narrator] now, three distillers
must use techniques from the past...
This is hard work for real.
[narrator] ...To make a run of moonshine
that lays tribute to one of the all-time greats.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
[narrator] across the country,
a handful of expert distillers are heirs to a centuries old tradition.
Some operate on the legal side,
others practice their craft beyond the reach of the law.
Now, three of the best will throw down at the stills.
You put a whole jar of white sugar in there.
No.
[narrator] judged by shiners who knew popcorn sutton.
Good taste, but I can't be happy about that cloudy jar.
[narrator] and popcorn's wife pam sutton.
Go easy on that, it's got some octane.
And it burns.
[narrator] they'll create their own take on the legend signature recipe...
Never seen anybody do something like that.
[narrator] ...To earn backwoods bragging rights,
as well as a true moonshine relic from popcorn sutton himself.
[man] one of popcorn's signed books?
[music]
hello, guys, I'd like to welcome y'all back
to the competition.
The last competition you was here, you stood out,
you brightened your lights up, and you showed everyone
that you can be a true moonshiner.
But welcome back, guys.
We're here today to honor and pay homage to popcorn sutton,
one of the greatest moonshiners of the 20th century.
Popcorn sutton,
he was the greatest that digger and I knew.
This right here will be second to none.
[narrator] for popcorn sutton, distilling a jar of liquor
was more than a craft,
it was a passion.
It's hard work even making a still,
let alone making liquor.
[narrator] a passion that he shared
with those eager to learn
and ready to work.
I learned from the best.
I ain't bragging or nothing, but you damn sure did.
[narrator] his famous corn whiskey recipe is still ranked
among the most sought after jars.
And now, popcorn sutton's revered whiskey recipe
has been passed down through the generations
to honor the legacy of a backwoods moonshine forefather.
Here's to you, old man.
Damn, popcorn.
What have you got us into?
Today, you're gonna build a mash popcorn's way.
You're gonna run it popcorn's way,
and you're gonna flavor it popcorn way.
With that being said, popcorn didn't generally flavor liquor
unless he had done something wrong.
But you guys are all experts at flavoring,
so we're gonna throw that in there.
And I think that would make popcorn proud.
Bring you very best because what you got at stake is something that's priceless.
It's a personal memento of mine
and a piece of history,
and it's one of popcorn's signed books.
It's his personal book, means a lot to me,
and I hope it, it means a lot to whoever wins it.
Y'all didn't know popcorn. But if you did, you'd know,
nothing was easy and that's just the way he rolled.
We ain't gonna do it easy here, either.
We're gonna make it just like he was here
just to pay homage to him.
So grab your pots. Let's go.
Good luck.
All right, guys, go pick you out a station.
Now, just like popcorn's world,
nothing was easy on us.
Ain't gonna be easy on y'all.
You can see the corn you got has got to be shucked.
It's gonna be up to you to shuck it, shell it, and then grind it.
Now the white corn over here, operator took the liberty to grind that.
If you want yellow corn, you got to grind it yourself.
The easiest way to get it started,
get your ears in your hand,
get them already shuck.
Give that a whirl to get it started.
It works better if you work in pairs.
You can sit here and keep this pumping,
somebody's feeding the ears in,
corn goes in your basket at the bottom.
It'll kick the ear out out here.
So you got a cob and you got your grain.
You got two hours
to get from whole kernel corn to ground corn
to a working mash.
Use that time however you need to.
You got two hours.
Your time starts now.
Good luck, guys.
Go to work. We're about to be shucking corn.
Dustin, you ever done that?
[dustin] ooh, it's been a while, buddy.
Dustin, it's been a minute.
Okay.
[richard] how many times have you done this before, dustin?
My fair share, I'll tell you that.
-Mena. -Yes.
-You shuck corn? -Not competitively.
-Not competitively? -Speed shucking.
You know, dustin's a little faster than both of us.
But he's a good guy, so he might give us a hand when he's finished.
I might spin that wheel for you.
I'm not gonna go slow on purpose to see if you would, but--
[dustin] I'm dustin croy, I'm from lerona, west virginia.
When I was last here and I was named masters distiller,
I won the rum competition.
It's a real, pleasant spiced rum.
Dustin, you're the next master distiller, son.
Thank you, every one of y'all.
Congratulations.
I was here last time.
I've done a lot of different rum runs.
Corn liquor is one of the first things I ever did.
It was years ago,
trying to represent popcorn sutton liquor on his front.
I hope I can really bring what he did to the table.
I hope I can make a great liquor.
And I hope I just make it better than the rest of them.
I gave you a hand.
I hope you knock yours out and we're gonna knock mine out too.
Yeah, we're gonna. I'll tell you what.
That's some good looking corn.
It is, ain't it?
I'm richard landry.
I'm from new iberia, louisiana.
Last year, I won the cherry bounce episode.
Rich, right off the bat,
cherry boom all over your tongue.
You're the next master distiller, my friend.
Congratulations, bro.
Since master distiller, I have really upped the craft.
I've been immersed in this science.
I love teaching this and making sure that
moonshine continues on beyond myself.
Corn liquor is not something that I do very often,
so people that are familiar with popcorn sutton,
and the way his liquor's taste, get them to say
"okay, this is close," or "this is it."
get some oxygen.
Somebody's gonna have to wake me up.
[mena] it's all good.
[dustin] she beat us.
-She beat us. -Yeah.
-Damn hell. -We're scaling.
I'm mena killough.
I live in raleigh, north carolina.
Last time I was here, I won master distiller absinthe.
You did an outstanding job.
This something else.
Mena, you knocked it over the fence.
You are our next master distiller.
-Congratulations. -Thank you so much.
Since the last time I was here, I took a position
in raleigh, north carolina, with young hearts distilling,
working on a hybrid fractional still,
I wouldn't say there is a big change in the amount
of volume of spirits that I'm producing.
But what I am producing is more refined.
I'm really excited to be back.
And I'm really excited to have a new spirit to work on.
This time it's more daunting because getting judged on a corn spirit,
that's the judge's niche is terrifying,
but I'll do my best.
Let me turn for you.
This is hard work for real.
-[mena speaking] -[dustin speaking]
-all right. -[dustin speaking]
[mena speaking]
[dustin speaking]
[richard speaking]
[dustin speaking]
I love cooperation just like in harvesting times,
the community would come together and help each other out.
Yeah.
You using all your yellow?
Or are you using half and half?
Probably gonna do half and half.
[richard speaking]
[dustin speaking]
[richard speaking]
yeah, yeah.
-[mena speaking] -[dustin speaking]
yeah.
I think, we let this run through,
and that'll be plenty enough.
It looks like everybody's beat down.
Nobody's working.
Well, we're taking a breather after shucking all that corn.
[digger] well, that's all right.
What about your battle plan?
How you gonna build this mash, mena?
Tell me a little something.
I believe there'll be more whites
than yellow corn because I didn't have to mill that.
You're welcome.
Thank you so much.
All right, well, continue on,
I'm gonna check on dustin down here.
-All right. -Dustin, what about it?
I'm gonna do about... Probably about a 40-10,
white to yellow.
[digger] well, that's all right.
-Mmm-hmm. -[digger] that'll work.
-Yes, sir. -I'm gonna check that grind, I believe.
We got one corn...
If the corn in the front coarser than the one in the back,
we grind one little finer than the another.
[digger] that's a fine grit. That's okay.
[dustin] mmm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
This right here will not clog up and make a big ball.
[dustin] we teamed up and knocked it out.
That's what you got to do.
-[dustin] yes, sir. -It's tough work.
Well, tell me about your game plan.
What you gonna do on this mash build?
We're gonna disagree like popcorn,
dance like popcorn, and hopefully make something like popcorn.
Yeah, which one of you did you vote out of the group
that gets to be popcorn and come in
and have a fit over what you did?
-Oh, that's me, anyway. -[dustin] yeah.
[digger] yeah. There you go.
[dustin] we're gonna leave it to richard on that.
Well, you all in your haste of getting your grain ready
have added a 20-minute time to your mash build,
so get in there and get with it.
You got an hour and 20 minutes left.
Oh, that thing would have tilted over right there.
My secret weapon would be that I love to cook things
and I can make sure that things that I don't want to taste
are gone before I start my fermentation process.
That's a good idea with that bag.
[richard] and I think it'll work.
Now, dustin, you would usually do something else
to this corn, wouldn't you?
Yeah, I'd cook it...
I'd cook it down, then convert it over, so I get the sugars out of it.
You really just gonna steep it back, huh?
Ain't no point doing it any other way.
If I do it like I do it at home, I steep mine,
so I'll heat my water up when I'm dumping in
my corn in the barrel and let it steep.
Do want to break down that sugar
real good, though.
That's why I'm heating this water up like it.
It's all I need right there.
If I'm dealing with something like a brandy or something like that,
I don't want to get these fine particles into.
So a boiling bag is tolerable to heat,
I mean, I can put that in a pot of boiling water,
and nothing will affect it.
That's the start of something good.
All right. Heat up for me.
Mena, you all right.
[mena] yes, I'm just trying to feel out what I want to do.
This can't take no heat.
Mena, watch yourself.
Mena, be careful with that bag.
This bag can't take no heat.
He burned the bag in two.
This is not a boiling bag.
This was a steeping bag that we're dealing with.
And we did put it on a real hot fire, bad mistake.
Don't let it hit the bottom.
Too late for that.
I feel resistance.
I just worried about if I scorched it.
The bags ain't no good.
[dustin] yeah, they got these cheap old things. Look at this mess.
In my experience, most of the bags were boiling bags,
and I didn't know that there was a difference between
steeping bags, so it melted on me.
Did it burn that bag... That bag, mena?
[mena] it's a little bit tattered?
-[dustin] oh! -[mena] I scorched it.
I'm just like, completely spiraling,
and there's just no way to recover
than mash under those circumstances.
That would have never made a good liquor.
I just knew it was gonna be over.
We had to clean this pot and start all over again within an hour.
Oh, it was bad.
-Oh. -Oh, it was bad.
I didn't want to see him go out like that.
You don't want to come out here and lose
because of the mess up because of the bag.
Oh, man.
[digger] we're an hour in, what's going on?
We got problems.
[dustin] we got some problems.
[digger] what's going on?
[digger] bags blew out.
-Who all scorched. -I'm scorched.
Them two cooked, I'm steeping, so I didn't scorch.
You ain't got no corn in your pot.
[dustin] no, sir, I'm steeping them.
You never use fire with cornmeal like this.
You'll scorch it every time, you steep it.
It's problems.
We faced them all the time in the old days,
you're gonna face them again.
It ain't nothing to get excited about.
Look here, I'm gonna pull an executive decision here.
Y'all get them pots out of here.
I'll get you two more in here.
How much time we got left?
-You got one hour. -One hour.
[digger] you've got enough time to do this.
This is what moonshiners do, they help you when you're in the situation,
when you need something and it just proved to us
that not only does he know what he's talking about,
he lives what he's talking about.
All right, guys.
I'll get these out of here. Dustin,
there's a bag for you over there , and y'all get with it.
Yeah, I don't think I'mma play with that bag.
Man, I don't even like this bag being by the heat.
Well, I know it's going to be more work
at the end to deal with it, but--
you gonna... You gonna let it ferment on the grains?
I'mma let it ferment straight on the grain.
Utterly disappointing, but there was a little bit of solace
that I wasn't the only one that
mistook a boiling bag for a sleeping bag.
Luckily, we were able to reattack the mash.
[dustin] mena, you okay?
I've got her at 160, almost at 170.
I think I'm gonna start pouring it in
and the rest is gonna hit 180, and that should level up.
I'll topple mine at 180 and drop my water at 160, you want to put in there.
That's a damn sugary mist is what that is.
[richard] I got about 30 pounds in there.
[dustin] I got 50.
I smell that over here.
[dustin] how much sugar did you use?
I put about 30, 25, 30.
We ain't got but a little bit of time left right now.
-Where you at? -I'm converted.
You're still pretty hot.
Yeah, I'm real hot.
There's a lot of sweet.
I think you'd be proud of all this going.
I believe everybody's good.
I got 10 gallons of water left to put in that.
You're in business.
Mena, she done cooled hers down.
Oh, you're almost ready to pitch yeast.
If you can put your hand in there and leave it,
that's not uncomfortable, you're ready to rock.
I'm converted. I'm good.
Everybody knows what a boiling bag and a steeping bag is now.
[richard] now we got some instruction in our lives.
All right, guys.
-Thank you for the fun today. -Appreciate it.
Y'all chase on out, get you some rest.
I'll see y'all in five days.
Yes, sir.
Welcome back, y'all.
You made your mash.
Time to go, run that liquor out in the woods.
I hope you brought your raincoats today
because the forecast is for wet and more wet.
Just throws another unexpected element
into backwoods moonshine.
Time's a-wasting, let's head toward the woods.
We're gonna do it the same way popcorn did outside in the elements.
You can see the weather ain't too great.
You got to power through and figure out a way to get it done.
You got four hours to get your run done, run your mash you built.
Your time will start now.
-Good luck, guys. -Let's go to work.
Damn.
Mena, you're in the woods, you're not used to this, huh?
-No, I'm not. -We're in dustin element.
Oh, he does woods, he told me.
[dustin] that is the truth.
I run out in the woods all the time.
Look like home to me.
There we go.
-There we go. -There we go.
Start from the beginning.
Yeah.
[mark] mena's probably a little disadvantage from dustin and richard.
They've ran outside before she hadn't.
-[digger] yeah. -She'll learn you though.
So cool to be able to make liquor
in the spirit of popcorn sutton,
to be able to walk the path that he's walked and stretch outside
of my normal realm of comfort.
Richard,
you know that soft ground, it could tip over.
I'mma keep a good eye on it.
You know how it is. If anything can go wrong, it will.
[richard] that's my middle name.
If it can happen, it will happen.
That's a lot of middle names.
Richard can happen will happen landry.
[richard] that's me.
I'm used to this, I mean, I run outside all the time,
dustin's pretty used to this.
I'm not sure if mena's even ever done this before.
Let's try to level this for her.
Yeah.
First off, now somebody comes over and figured it out.
-Now we talking. -Oh, that might do it.
That feels right to me.
I didn't even register that there would be
different challenges outside of ambient temperature.
Hey, mena, you good over there.
-I'm doing good. -Yeah?
First time distilling out in the elements.
Completely different setup than I'm used to,
but I'm up for the challenge.
Well, hopefully, we can just avoid a little bit of this rain.
-Rain's coming. -Rain's here.
There's no way to keep water off.
Now
we're gonna see who is really tough.
I was just getting into my groove and the skies opened up
and it started pouring down rain.
When you're in a perfect environment,
making alcohol itself is a task.
So when you take the factor of weather
just adds a whole another layer of difficulty.
You're gonna get wet.
Get wet ain't your only issue.
It'll be your job to figure out what those issues are
and do what you've got to do to resolve them.
Part of it.
[dustin] I'm about to hit 100.
You're about to hit 100 right here.
And like 5 degrees up here.
The number one problem we have with rain
is that you're cooling your still down real fast,
so we're gonna have some real serious problems.
I'm telling you, that's gonna take [bleep] forever and heat,
it'll never heat in this rain.
-You got to keep it hot. -We can't.
-I don't-- -it's not gonna happen.
This is not good, guys.
So this is gonna be a whole new experience.
Rain is hitting the helmet and the thumper,
it's making the alcohol
recondense back into the still.
I'm very worried it's gonna be a disaster.
Boy, we are really in the, in the rain.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
Boy, we are really in the rain.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
You've got three hours.
[dustin] keep [bleep] you know how hard it's gonna be
to these things to run.
We're up against the clock, so we're gonna have to deal with the cards
that we were dealt and make the best hand out of that.
Turn your heat up. Turn your gas up.
Turn that gas up. Turn that flame up.
Mena, turn that gas up. And we're gonna turn the heat up.
I had no faith whatsoever, just flying by the seat of my pants.
We got towels in these buckets.
One.
Yeah, and it was now.
If I was at home, I would just shut the still off
and come back and get to it when it was dry.
But we're not afforded that luxury.
[digger] looks like it's clearing up.
[richard] feels good.
Gonna get clouds and hopefully no rain.
[richard] as long as you can get that heat up in this cape,
you're okay.
I believe they're about to get it.
They are.
Your first run outside in the rain.
I love it.
You gonna remember this one.
Been christened.
Two-and-a-half hours, children.
I'mma play this like popcorn, temperature gauges,
I'm not even gonna pay attention to.
I'm gonna just touch it, when I can't touch it.
-I know it's ready. -You know, it's hot.
Once the rain died down,
we got the temps back up, but it's gonna a challenge.
[richard] you can crank that down, boy.
That heated up quick.
[mena] oh, I hear action.
[dustin] how's yours doing, mena?
She's moving on... On up.
I am getting through my foreshots.
Oh. I am running.
That's trouble right there.
I need a coon pecker.
[dustin] hey, richard, come here. Look at this.
You got anything to say, see what's stuffed in into that?
Oh, she put a crystal in.
She stuffed a crystal in there.
[mena] it's a tangerine quartz.
It's got a little curve in it.
No raccoons lost their pecker for my moonshine.
Popcorn will love it.
There's liquor spitting out,
trying to represent popcorn sutton liquor on this run,
I hope I can really bring what he did to the table.
Two hours, guys.
Make minutes count.
-[richard] second one? -Mmm-hmm.
That thing puts out jars fast.
-Huh? -Squirting them right out now.
It was real good clear liquor.
The jar six is right there.
Now we're getting it right.
This is about 120.
It tastes good.
It doesn't burn in your throat.
You can really taste these two yellow and white corns.
It was the perfect combination.
What are you at right now?
[mena] I am on my fifth jar.
I'm starting to get a little sweetness now.
Coming into the good stuff.
Probably looking about 160.
[richard] -yeah, that's high.
But I'm gonna proof mine down.
I was a little worried.
Time's going by so fast
and I just want everything to be perfect,
so I get really meticulous.
Got one hour, guys, tighten them belts up.
Get with it.
I'll turn this one right here, if I need to.
Can nothing stop us but the rain and the police.
Mena, you about to wind it down to one jar?
Yeah, so I have a blend of two jars happening.
I'd like a little bit of tails in my whiskeys
and that was a blend of my jar seven and eight.
I wasn't really happy with the hazing,
but I didn't want to proof up.
I wanted it to... To be something that you could drink right out of the jar.
So I'm just filtering again 'cause I'm not gonna hand over a jar
that has a speck of something in it.
Doesn't look like you're doing all right.
You got the winning jar?
That's right out in my little bucket.
Here it is now.
You got it in there, protecting it.
Well, I was like... I took the cap off let it air out a little bit.
I didn't want any rain. Didn't want to water it down?
No, I think it's about perfect where it's at.
My run turned out excellent.
I love it. It tastes great.
I thought it was a great jar.
Richard. You flame out?
-I'm out. -Jar ten.
Jar ten, that's the tails.
Tails, no, no, no.
Tails flavor.
Jar number nine is lower in flavor.
I'll take it this is the one.
Right there. Jar six.
Good job, rich.
-Thank you, sir. -Really good job.
Boys and girls, your time's up.
Looks like your runs are all done just in time.
Get them all together.
Don't confuse your sweet jar in that, man.
Here we go. Let's roll.
Come on. Let's get out of here.
It's time to get started tasting this stuff.
Richard, he's the closest.
Pretty good, big bubbles, maybe 110.
Finally gonna be a good drink of liquor.
Now there is a little something funky,
about midway through the taste,
-ain't there? -It's like a... A corn syrup.
It kind of hangs out a long time
on the back of your throat fire wise, don't it?
Yeah.
I could not leave the pot open and let the bad alcohol go.
I can control what comes out when I can leave it open,
but I couldn't right there.
Tempering down might make a little difference in it,
but I'm gonna tell you what it is.
-They're running hot. -They're running hot.
Playing them rain spells. They did a good job,
but they didn't have any choice.
He knows he's gonna have to add to this
he couldn't dilute the fruit, so he's proofed it up high.
Dustin, he filtered his.
Whoa, what happened now?
That's low, it ain't high.
We got a lot of pressure on us 'cause we got to live up to their standards.
I mean, they knew what popcorn's liquor tasted
like, let's just hope we turned in
something that lives up to that quality.
We got a jar of tail.
He picked him up some tails and dumped them in there.
I already get that flavor out of that sweet water.
I think he's got a good flavor.
I don't think it's high enough proof,
but I think he's got a good flavor.
It's the most fruity, ain't it?
It's a good, solid base.
He's got something to build on right there.
They can use any of their other jars and flavorings.
Yeah, this ain't a do-all-in though.
I hope they recognize that and go forward with it.
Miss mena.
Here comes the rain cloud.
I think mena brewed her best jar.
Why would you bring a cloudy jar?
Clarity is part of the judge.
[tim] exactly!
She bought a low end jar.
Cooking on the fly,
like that, I did get some clouding
and there was a challenge there to decide.
Like, do I proof it up to clear it
or do I run with the flavor profile,
and that I was guesstimating where I was at.
She put a little tails in it
and she gave a good taste profile.
There's nothing swimming in it.
So she just put a little bit too much water in it maybe.
The jar, it's got some tails in it.
-It's gonna cloud up. -Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
How much one drop of water cloud it up.
Yeah, it's a good taste, but very low horsepower.
-I can't be happy about that cloudy jar. -Mmm-mmm.
I'm looking forward to seeing what we get in the next round.
Yeah, me too.
Well, I'm gonna go fetch them.
Go get them to us.
Welcome back, y'all.
We've tasted, we've deliberated.
Mena, good, tasty drink, corn liquor on the nose,
corn liquor on the taste.
It kind of looks like you blended a little bit
and you had some tails smeared in
one drop of water would cloud it up like that.
For corn liquor that's not really what you want to see
or any clear liquor. And the flavor,
there's nothing at all wrong with the flavor.
Dustin, good, tasty drink done a fine job.
A little bit high on the watermark.
I don't know how you got it so clear at a low proof.
I'm not sure where are you gonna go with flavoring?
Because sometimes when you flavor,
you can dilute your proof even more,
but then you got some more jars to play with.
Yes, sir.
So, I'm pretty sure you'll... You'll figure it out.
Richard, you had some horsepower.
You was getting prepared to dilute yours down considerably I guess.
I didn't see you filter.
It just went straight out the worm, right into the jar.
So when you smell it on the nose,
it's pretty strong out the best six shots it smooths out,
but I think, you're in a good position for your next competition.
You can flavor that particular jar the way you want to
and lower the proof down,
probably for it's really, really good proof.
All right, boys and girls.
Here's the way it lies.
You're going in first, richard.
Dustin, you're going in second.
Mena, due to your clarity, you pulled up the caboose,
you're number three.
All right, guys to the fruit stand.
Tickle?
How's it going, fellas?
All right.
One of these guys has gone and made a good jar of moonshine,
popcorn sutton style.
But they need a little bit of something to add to it.
All right, we'll see what we can't do. Y'all come on with me.
And I tell you, what guys,
that's why you never bring your mother-in-law to this still.
You know, I mean, just being honest.
All right.
We got all kinds of good stuff in here
you ought to flavor y'all's liquor with.
I believe there's a lot of stuff in here that's popcorn approved.
Each one of y'all are going to have five minutes.
Richard, you are first and your time starts now.
I'm a firm believer in too many moving parts creates too many problems.
I just want to give a simple flavor to these judges
'cause I don't want to overcomplicate the matter.
I'm gonna take all of them.
Your gonna take all of the tomatoes.
Are you gonna actually make liquor with that?
-Yes. Yes. -You are.
You're really gonna make liquor with that?
The bell peppers too?
-Some real good liquor. -[tickle] some real peppers.
Green beans and tomatoes.
If you add some onions and then cucumbers,
you cut that up over top of your green beans.
And that's good eating right there.
-I'm good, right here. -You're good?
I'm good right here.
Wow, that was quick because you had four minutes left, richard.
Take your stuff over there.
Dustin, your five minutes,
it starts now.
I didn't come with a plan and the flavor and I said,
I'll wing it when I get there.
There we go.
Dustin has a pack.
-I might get hungry. -[tickle] okay.
He might get hungry.
At least he's thinking ahead.
Damn, you've got something to wash it down.
We have two, didn't you?
We all got to get enough for everybody now.
When I've seen the apple cider in there and the honey,
I felt really comfortable with it.
Got two minutes left.
Your time is running out.
Is he shopping like he's at a store?
He's strolling down the grocery store out.
Don't forget my pie.
Hey, be careful with that pie.
Are you good? All right.
-I'm gonna make it work. -All right, good,
because you was darn near out of time there, dustin.
Well, our last one picking today is mena,
and your time starts now.
You're gonna have to move faster now.
I was inspired by a whiskey liqueur,
so when I saw the classic baking spices,
I grabbed just cloves and nutmeg, allspice.
And when I saw the sorghum, I was completely excited.
It's something that I've been really wanting to work with.
Well, there is corn right yonder,
you can't make good liquor without corn.
I'm gonna fill with the shuck.
Okay.
You do have to shuck that, corn.
I grabbed cherries and apricots,
and I felt like they've complemented
the spices, it like holds it all together.
Are you good? All right.
Well, mena, take your stuff over there.
Now that we've got all our ingredients,
let's get this stuff back to the still site
and see what y'all can do this.
-All right. -Man, I'm kind of hungry.
-You bought that pie, man. -I'm ready to eat now.
All right, guys. Welcome back.
Got your baskets full.
And when it comes to this flavored liquor,
we got the first lady of moonshine right over here.
Who knows more about flavoring than a jackrabbit knows about running.
Pam sutton.
Hey, guys, I'm pam sutton.
I'm popcorn sutton's wife.
I made my own flavors.
I had apple pie, peach, watermelon,
grape and blackberry.
Everybody seemed to like them all,
so we'll see how y'all do.
You've run your liquor like popcorn.
He didn't flavor liquor with anything other than fruit.
He put fruit in there because he liked to eat it himself.
When it comes to flavored liquor, you all got your own skills.
You brought the game, which ain't nothing to sneeze at.
But you know some of you here not to mention no names,
dustin and mena gonna have to do some blending
to get your proof up there because you know
when you do that flavoring, that's gonna dilute it.
Now, richard, your proof is there,
so you may want to just flavor it heavily,
but be careful sometimes,
when you're doing these flavoring,
you can turn it into medicine.
Guys, you got one hour,
build us your best flavored jar.
Take your time, use every minute.
Your time starts now.
Good luck.
[richard] all right, y'all ready?
[dustin] I'm ready. You ready?
[richard] yeah, I'm ready for you to eat that pie.
[dustin] well, I was getting ready, too.
There you go!
[tim] well, you know, all of these guys competed before.
[pam] okay.
And they are all master distillers.
So all three of these guys bring a lot to the table in flavors.
They do.
Okay, mena. What are you making?
I have a southern liqueur flavoring.
I'm using nutmeg and clove and allspice.
I was inspired by a whiskey liqueurs.
It's something that I've been really wanting to work with.
I wanted to make something subtle with apricots
and complemented the spices,
and I had the sorghum instead of cane sugar.
Mena, is this something you've done before or you shooting from the hip?
-I'm shooting from the hip. -Attagirl.
I like it, somebody that works under pressure.
Dustin, what are you making?
[dustin] I'm gonna try to make a honey crisp.
[pam] oh, okay.
I usually use a little bit of apple juice in mine as well,
but I got all cider this time, so I'm gonna try to go with it.
[pam] oh, okay.
It sounds like it's gonna be good.
Richard, what are you making?
I'm gonna make a bloody mary.
It's don't look like nothing you should be doing a moonshine competition with,
but trust the process.
There goes my tomato sandwich.
[digger] I want mine with cheese and mayonnaise, richard.
Sounds like we grew up in the same area.
It just hit me real quick.
Try to do a little quick bloody mary, something simple.
Not too many moving parts.
Not something to complicate the judges with,
something that we can do quick and easy.
[tim] what are you cooking up?
Kind of get a little char on this tomato.
Bet you never had a tomato sandwich like that, huh?
I've never seen that done before.
[mark] he's attempting to flavor moonshine to taste like a bloody mary.
You've got a plan or you just winging it?
My plan is to impress, y'all.
Just keep in mind, I'm a bloody mary connoisseur.
-I hope you like this one. -Me too.
I don't want to be disappointed.
I got a few problems now that didn't exist a little while ago.
-Miss pam. -Yes.
Other than you're loving him to death,
what's the thing you remember the most about popcorn?
Him stalking me before we got married.
He stalked you?
He really did for about four weeks
and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Really?
Finally, he asked me to go to church with him on easter Sunday.
That was our first date and our only date.
We got married three weeks later.
Wow! You got to know a legend.
It was the best time of my life.
We were only together for two years,
but we had more love in two years
than most people have in a lifetime.
He's attempting to flavor moonshine to taste like a bloody mary.
I'm curious to how that's gonna taste.
We're gonna try to make popcorn and you proud.
Well, thank you.
He's trying to influence the judge.
Yeah, he's just... You're trying to show out, you ain't got no plan at all.
Yep.
And it ain't gonna work with pam, I promise.
It ain't gonna work with miss pam.
Nope. She is stone cold.
Well, miss pam, I'mma just keep trying then.
Okay.
Guys, you got five minutes?
Time's drawing nigh to you.
Mena, I thought I saw what was a look of bewilderment
on your face just then?
I was reflecting on a regret that I didn't grab orange.
I feel like this could really use orange,
but I guess I'm gonna move forward and deal with what I got.
Do not worry about what you don't have.
[mena] that looks pretty over there.
I know, right? Hope it tastes good, though.
These guys in here will tell you the truth.
[digger] we hurt your feelings.
Even if it hurts your feelings.
Minute and a half boys and girls.
No!
Get this a little bit harder.
I'm changing stuff last minute,
get a little bit of different flavor
and I put in dark brown sugar.
Much better.
Hoping to outdo everybody else.
But we'll see.
Thirty seconds, guys.
Let me do this.
All right, brother, that's the one.
We'll deliberate a little bit.
We'll come get you. Good luck.
Thank you.
And here comes the hillbilly.
Oh. Go right ahead.
Look it here.
Just in case y'all need a little encouragement.
Thank y'all.
-All right, thank you. -Good luck, guys.
-Good luck both of you. -It's gonna be really...
-He finally got it -warm.
Ain't no way of telling the bead at this point.
So let's just get to tasting and get this over with.
Let's try this one right here.
Dustin.
He's got a few things floating in there.
I guess that's for flavor.
Biggest flavor I've seen him put in there is sweet.
I think he's going for apple pie.
Pam, you get the first shot.
-[tim] I'm smelling honey. -Mmm-hmm.
I smell honey.
It tastes good.
I feel a little bit of burn.
Just a little.
Taste liquor in it, there's alcohol, it gets you to that point.
He said he was gonna make apple pie,
and he brought apple pie.
It's about as sweet as I thought it'd be,
but there's just enough liquor in there to balance that sweet out.
Apple pies are usually are not over 50 proof.
No.
That's a... That's a good drink.
-That's a real good drink. -[pam] this tastes real good.
[dustin] we're all masters at our own craft,
everybody does something different.
Whether you win or lose down here,
you still pick up something to take back with you.
-[digger] richard, richard. -[tim] looks like a lava lamp.
Hey, he was gonna make us something with that tomato.
-This is gonna be really different. -Thank you.
I'm smelling cucumber.
Well, he got some of that pepper in there.
[mark] it's not bad. It's just extremely different.
The only thing it's missing is celery.
He'd had a couple more ingredients
and tweaked it just a little bit,
he'd have been spot on. Wouldn't he, pam?
Little bit more 'mato in,
I think he'd have really been on point.
I'm like you digger, a little more tomato.
But I'm gonna say he's still 90-95.
-Still high. -It's high.
Yeah, he's still got plenty of liquor in it.
-We know what it's like to sit right here. -[dustin] mmm-hmm.
But it's a little different when you're turning in
something that this was their teacher.
We just gave three jars of liquor
to three people that actually know
what his liquor tastes like.
That's more than precious.
Yeah.
Let's move on.
[tim] mena.
Well, she's got a bee laying up in it that
ain't going away.
[digger] ooh-wee, it's right in the middle, ain't it?
She is a botanical expert.
-Botanist. -All right.
Well, this is going to be the surprise.
It was very obvious she was out of time
before she was through.
It's got some kind of root floating in there.
I think, she put ginger in it.
It smells good.
Now that's out of the box.
Go easy on that there, mom.
It's got some octane.
And a burn... A little bit of burn.
-Yeah. -[digger] I hope a good burn.
Good.
It's got the alcohol, that's for sure.
Look at them legs on that things.
That's good.
-She just raised the bar to another level. -Mmm-hmm.
She understands flavors.
She understands what goes together and what don't go together.
I feel really good about my run.
How do you guys feel?
We're about to find out in a second.
I slip them a few dollars, so that might help me out.
What do you think the old man would be thinking about this right now?
Well, now if he was here, I'm sure he would be impressed with everybody
for what they brought to the table
and their enthusiasm of making this liquor.
And I think he'd be proud of all of them.
Well, are we set where we're at?
Yeah. I'm good. You got to go get them.
Like to welcome y'all back.
You showed us that you could be a true moonshiner.
You have that bond and you made that friendship.
All of you did exceptionally well.
What would have really made popcorn proud
was the job you guys did on the corn liquor itself.
But the fact that you guys did your version of his recipe,
he would have been tickled to death.
Popcorn would be proud of all of you.
It's an honor for us to hear that. Yeah.
All right, guys. We've reached a decision.
Mena, plenty of alcohol.
You can probably tell by every one of us' eyes.
It was a good drink, flavorful,
maybe lighten up on one or the other
where the flavors would layer instead of bam,
I mean, they just hit you all at once.
To me, it had just too much alcohol, but it was great.
And I think that apricots,
as they say, it's off the chain.
Thank you.
-Dustin, you hit that apple, you knocked it out the park. -Thank you.
I reckon it was that little bit of
shaking you were doing with some high proof liquor,
trying to pull some of that apple flavor out there, it brought it the ball game.
As far as it's like an apple pie type drink, your proof was spot on.
I figure you're about 50%.
[dustin] thank you. Thank you.
Dustin, like digger said, yours was spot on.
Yes, ma'am. I'm not even an apple fan, but I liked it.
Dustin, honey crisp, top shelf.
That drink is good over ice.
It's good warm in a coffee cup.
-Thank you very much. -Now, richard.
Man, I'm a bloody marry man.
If you'd had a little more 'mato to work with
and maybe some celery salt, you'd have been spot on.
[pam] richard, I agree with that digger said.
If you'd would have put
a little jalapeno pepper in it...
That would have been--
[pam] ...That would have made it perfect.
But it tasted great.
I know where you was going with it
and I think you're right on that money,
especially with the alcohol proof.
Richard, this is the first moonshine
that I've ever drank
that was supposed to taste like a bloody mary.
-You're the man. -Thank you.
Guys, you've heard all the chatter from this side.
But without holding anything else up,
pam's gonna present the prize...
To mena.
-Great job. -Good job.
-[richard] yes, mena. Yes, mena. -Thank you.
I'm so honored, pam, thank you so much.
You are welcome.
[mena] I am a nerd and have a large library of books.
So to have that one
that has had popcorn sutton's hand on it
and his spirit in the writings is just an amazing gift.
-Something else. -Don't get no liquor on that book, though.
It's in a place of honor.
[digger] and you know what you really need to do, miss pam
certainly needs to sign it for you.
Yes. Yes. I would like everyone to sign it.
It feels so good to have the experience of master distiller
not only one time, but two times and to walk away with so much more knowledge.
-I can't say enough. -Good luck.
Thank y'all. Y'all did a great job.
I love you guys.
All right, come on, lover boy.
Let's get you a drink,
so you'll get to lovin' more people.
Damn, I'm feeling it good.
Come on, pam, or I'm gonna you in front of him or in front of me.
Ain't no telling what will happen
if I put you in front of mark.
[pam] I'm tailing.