It's right up here we're gonna stage.
My boy jake is gonna come through here any minute.
He's gonna stop at that driveway. He was there every week.
He's put extra stuff on the truck.
You'll know what package you can grab, you'll see 'em there.
You've got less than a minute.
He's gonna drop something off,
run up there, get your package, run back.
Then we're gonna head back to the shed.
-Sounds good. -Remember, run.
Don't be just doddling up through there.
-He don't wanna know nothing about this. -Sounds good to me.
-He's gonna get a full jar of liquor for his absentee. -That sounds good.
Let's fire ahead.
Here a jar of liquor will get you to do what a $100 bill won't.
[all] yeah.
[digger] go, go!
Heck yes!
Nicely done!
All right. We're gonna go back to the shed and it's gonna be like christmas.
-All right. Let's go. -Let's go.
[opening theme music playing]
[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.
Wow!
[narrator] now, three of the best moonshiners have reached an all-time low.
These are hard times.
-You know, we've only got what we got. -Turnips.
Have you ever had sardine liquor?
[narrator] judged by a jury of their peers,
they'll go head-to-head in an uphill battle.
[mike] and we got liquor boys!
[daniel] I don't believe it's worth a damn.
I's thinkin' 'bout pourin' it plum out.
[narrator] to overcome backwoods moonshining obstacles...
It's always a hard time, even in the good times.
[narrator] and create a triumphant jar of liquor.
Wow. That's good.
[digger] come on in and get your stations.
Here we are.
Time to get busy.
You brought your own mash with you,
hope your brought your pocketful of ingenuity too,
'cause we're gonna throw a curveball here, after a while you're gonna love it.
Go run your signature bash,
then we're gonna do a little something different with it.
You're gonna get your bragging rights if you win,
but then we got a prize that's pretty well a rare commodity right now.
You get two dozen brand new, never-used mason jars to fill up with liquor.
[tickle laughing]
you know, we've always heard the hard times makes the best shine.
Daniel, you and mike, you both come from a long line of liquor men
that made shine in some of the hardest times
that this great country of ours has ever seen.
Tickle, you've done some hard time.
You had to learn how to make a little liquor in the hoosegow.
So whether you got a bad harvest
or you got a problem with your supply chain,
if you're gonna make any money making liquor,
you've gotta work what you've got.
Even if it fell off a back of a truck.
All right, guys. Time to dig in. It's christmas morning.
Now, while you open it, I would suggest
might wanna be putting your plan together in your head.
You can use some of it in your thump keg
or put it in mash, do whatever you wanna do, that's up to you.
We just want a tasty jar of liquor.
But, don't hear no grumbling.
Times is hard, you gotta use what you got.
-[mark] that's scary. -[digger] get with it.
Turnips.
Brown sugar.
An onion.
-You got an onion? -[tickle] I got an onion.
I don't know what in the heck that is.
Caramel corn.
That almost look like some kind of pepper jelly.
That'd be right up my alley.
I don't know what I'm gonna do with turnips.
Hey, fellas. Have you ever had sardine liquor?
We may have got the wrong packages.
-[laughing] -man. Digger's buddy ain't my friend.
I ain't sure what that is.
I'm steven tickle and I'm from a little town called danville, virginia.
Let's swap them jars out and see what we got.
You know I've been making liquor for a long time.
Ah!
And I fell on a lot of hard times myself.
I've been on the top of the mountain and I've been down in the valley.
I've been out here running wide open, free as a bird,
and I've been locked up like a jailbird too.
Turn around and face me.
And that has taught me a lot.
When times get hard, that forces you to look around.
Really get imaginative.
All right.
And use what you got.
Hard times forces you to do hard work.
Oh, look. I got some cinnamon rolls.
Yeah? That's good yeast, ain't it?
Yes, sir.
Lookee yonder.
-What did you find? -Peanut brittle.
[chewing] oh, I'm down for that.
Whatever you got is leaking.
The tops on my radishes,
but I'll throw a little salt on them and we'll have a snack.
My name is mike cockrell.
I've been up here in tennessee for about 15 years now.
And I'm from south mississippi.
Oh, my god!
Being a moonshiner is hard times.
They've stolen everything I got!
$3,000 worth of damn copper.
It's gone.
Don't have nothing left.
It's really, really hard.
We're going through grain shortages, jar shortages, sugar shortages.
I just had to think back to my family history.
I'm living proof of hard times.
Fire in the hole!
The bread on the counter wasn't always fresh.
I wasn't about to go hungry.
So I'd eat me a stale piece of bread.
This right here is where the magic happens.
I know how to use what I've got.
What you got, mikey?
Pickled plum.
A plum? That might be good something that you can post flavor with.
-I got a jar of honey. -Honey come in good.
What you got there, boone? Taters.
-[mark] pineapple. Oh, that's good. -Ohhh.
-[daniel laughing] -that's a step in the right direction.
-What is that? -That's some kind of jerky.
-Give it a try. See what kind it is. -Let's see here.
It's fine.
I'm daniel maner from sevierville, tennessee.
Uh-oh. We ain't got no water.
There's a hell of a lot of people that think making moonshine is easy.
It's not that easy.
Just another setback. Just something else to drown the slush like today.
Not everybody can do it, but over the years through hard times and trial and error...
Good god!
...I think I've got it nailed down to an art.
Boy, that thing smells so good don't it?
And when hard times hit
that is the knowledge that I use that drives me and pushes me forward.
I've always said the bucket that I carry don't have a hole in it.
So if I pick up knowledge or advice,
I'll remember it to the day I leave this world.
Well, I don't know what we can do with all this stuff.
-[tickle] I'll tell you what. We can eat good. -[mike] yeah.
Just so you know, if it's something that you can't make liquor out of,
we always like a good snack.
Well...
I had on my mind, soon as I seen this pack of sardines
I'mma put them in thump cake, 'cause I know you'uns is gonna taste it.
[all laughing]
-thank you. -Beyond tasting it, we gotta judge it. I mean...
[mark] and you got some strange liquor-making ingredients.
[mike] I'd say we do.
-[mark] mr. Mike? -Yes, sir.
What all you come up with, our boss?
Well, I've got a can of strawberries, cherry hard candies...
Cherry juice is what it smells like.
And some cherry jam.
A lot of cherry stuff.
So it looks like I'm going cherry, strawberry, plum.
You've got a lot of good things there for post flavor.
Stevie ray, what have you got going on over there?
I'm gonna say this is a can of fruit, 'cause it's got the pull tab on it.
But I don't know.
I'll tell you that's what's scary is 'em cans with no labels on 'em.
Looks like it went bad three years ago.
-[mike] oh! We got you some peanuts! -I got peanuts.
So now, I think I know exactly what I'm gonna do.
What I'm thinking is...
Almonds, peanuts, and peanut brittle, go into the thump keg.
Maybe afterwards a little caramel coffee,
sweetened up with some honey, served with a nice cinnamon roll.
And actually, I have had your almond liquor before,
so you've got something familiar to work with.
Them daniel is still opening cans.
[digger] he look like he'd been in the salvage yard
of the dumpster, back behind the grocery store.
Mr. Maner, looks to me like you the one
that really garnered up all the unlabeled items.
Well, I could go two different ways.
I've got pineapples and pineapple juice.
And I've got apples.
I could make a fruity drink.
Or I've got bacon jerky, and I've got tomato juice.
-[all] ohhh. -Tomato juice?
[tickle] I'm seeing bloody mary coming around there.
Yeah, it ain't gonna be a bloody mary, it's gonna be a bloody maner.
[laughing]
boys, you is thinking you can work with that?
It's hard times, man. Gonna work with what we got and go with it.
You ain't got no choice.
[mark] all right, boys. Good luck to you.
All right, guys. Looks like you got some nutritious stuff here.
You know, if you don't mix it in with the shine, at least you can eat it.
And all three of you really...
All of it is right, right up your, as digger would say, your wheel horse.
[whispering] wheelhouse.
-What you wanna call it? -House. Not wheel horse.
-[laughing] -it's up your wheelhouse.
You heard what's happening. Time to make us some liquor.
Whoever wins this, gets to steal an ingredient
from somebody else to flavor his liquor.
Now it ain't nothing personal, it's just business.
You gotta do what you gotta do when times are hard.
Four hours. One tasty jar of liquor.
Time starts...
Now.
Good luck, men.
Mmm-hmm.
Wow, [bleep].
I formulated a plan real quick.
I put some peanut brittle them boiled peanuts,
and almost a whole quart of almonds over in my thumper.
And I was gonna run my liquor right through that.
And flavor with caramel and coffee.
You know, you gotta work with what you got.
Mike, you thinking sardines would be good in thump cake?
Hell, I'd put 'em in there.
That'd be good, won't it?
[tickle] parsnips over here, you can throw in there with 'em.
-[daniel] make a hell of a garden salad, won't it? -Yes, it would.
If I would have had some brown sugar, or any kind of sugar,
I could've went with a pineapple drink
that I have made time and time again.
But I didn't have what it took to tie it all together.
I looked down and seen the sardines and the black-eyed peas
and I'm like, "there's no way I'm putting that
in any kind of a drink that I'm gonna make for these guys."
I don't know what I'm making.
I'm just gonna make liquor is all I know.
I don't know what I'm making.
I'm just gonna make liquor is all I know.
Well, tell you what, daniel? That sounds like a plan to me.
That's the way I'd go.
What I've got to work with here might not be
exactly what I'm used to working with.
But I'm gonna take what I got to work with here today and give it 100%.
I'm in it to win it.
Hey, daniel?
-Go ahead. -What have you got in your little tiny jars over there?
-Black peppercorn? -That's black pepper.
And this is...
Looks to me like salt, and I would say
that's coconut milk, probably.
Give it a shot.
I don't know what in the hell it is.
If you don't know what it is, I recommend you stay away from it.
-[tickle] yeah. -[mark] leave her alone.
Smell it and taste it. I don't know what it is.
That's clam juice. That's like what you put in clam chowder.
-Bloody mary material. -Bloody mary material. Yes, sir.
I mean, I could have threw my hands up and said, "the hell with it, I'm done."
but no, this is hard times and I had to make
a flavor out of what that I had.
-I'm going to use a pineapple base for bloody mary. -Mmm-hmm.
That right there is good.
-That jar's a pineapple? -Looks like it's got pineapple in it,
but it almost tastes like them regular hard stick horehound candy.
Is that right?
I'm gonna put a little of this in that thumper.
I put the jar of pineapple/horehound jelly,
and the cherry pie filling jelly into my thumper.
I just went with what I thought would be good.
Get out of there.
I mean, I'm here to win this competition.
You come in with your bootstraps pulled up and your jeans pulled tight.
You come in to win the competition, I don't care who it's against.
You wanna win. And that's why I'm here today.
[daniel] what are you a doin'?
-He's been filling this pot up for the last 45 minutes. -I fill mine slow.
-Yeah? -'cause your heads boil first...
-Yeah. -...That way I don't even run it through.
The method that I use to heat my thumper up is different than anybody else's.
I take hot mash,
and I pour it over into my thumper.
Well, he done it without blowing himself up.
'cause I cut that flame back.
If I had not, I'd set my hair on fire.
I'd be missing eyebrows.
So what that did is that heated these nuts real quick.
And it gives me a whole lot more flavor coming out.
And there's the result right here.
Good liquor quick.
Hard times, they really let you know who you are.
How much strength you've got.
How low you can go, and how high you can go.
Winning this competition,
it would really just vindicate me for all the hard times that I've been through
and show me that I did come through them
just as strong as I thought I had.
Got a little bit of the nut smell in it.
That means it's coming through. That's a good thing.
All right, boys. You got two hours left.
I don't even know if I've started thumping yet.
Wait a minute, baby.
-I'm on 175. -[daniel] well, it's transferring steam right now.
It won't be just a minute till it transfer alcohol.
[mike] and we got liquor, boys!
Oh, yes, sir!
He got her going now!
I've got the methanol fumes coming off over here.
-Swim sweet, don't it? -[daniel whistles]
-uncle dano. -What's going on, mate?
You could go a couple of different directions in the end.
I put the pineapple and the apples
and a little pineapple juice in the thumper.
And I'm gonna make uh, like a pineapple bloody mary. Hopefully.
All right, poot.
-Mike, man. -What's up, mr. Ramsey?
I noticed you put your raw mash in there
in addition to the jars of the pie filling.
You've got a plan for your flavor, right?
These are hard times.
You know, we only got what we got.
-All right, boss. -Yes sir. Thank you, man.
-Get busy. -Yes sir.
I wanna taste this again, but I'm worried about
burning my damn tongue up if I keep over there on it.
Come on, keep deviling in that.
-We're aiming to beat you today. -[mark laughing]
[all laughing]
don't be scared of it, that don't burn a bit.
Yeah, I know.
-Taste it. It don't burn? -Let me ask you, did you taste it?
-Taste it. -[daniel] I did, watch.
-[tickle chuckles] taste it again, mate. -Right here, look.
[tickle] uh-huh. Yeah, taste it again. Get you a sip.
I swear, that don't burn a bit.
[tickle] well, I ain't... I didn't say it weren't smooth.
But it might... It'll kill your taste buds.
Does that burn a bit?
I believe something happened. I believe you put water in it,
boss, there ain't no alcohol in that.
You say it ain't? I know. I know it ain't.
-[laughing] -I know it ain't.
I know that it ain't.
-[laughing] -let's see here.
[tickle] yeah, I know, I know.
No, she's good and smooth.
I can taste the nuts starting to come through even more.
Thirty minutes, boys.
Time for a nap.
That... Oh! Mike, mike, mike... Uh, you, you, you...
[tickle] yeah, you'll learn that.
[mike] yeah, I'm wide open, man.
-[tickle] mmm-hmm. -[mike] oh, lord.
[daniel] did you run one in the floor?
-Almost damn did it. -[tickle] almost.
I don't count nothing but horseshoes and hand grenades.
You done a fine job.
Whichever one you're gonna turn in, you might need
to get working on that. You got 10 minutes left.
Ten minutes.
[tickle] let me do a little something here.
The method that I used to heat my thumper up
heated these nuts real quick instead of slowly
and it released the oils out of them.
And what that does is it gives me a whole lot more flavor
and I felt real good about my straight liquor.
Gonna hand it in, y'all.
That the one?
That will be the one.
That's the jar I like the best out of it.
I hope it's the one y'all like the best out of it too.
All right. Good luck, boss.
Here's your trashy jar of liquor.
Oh?
Oh, it's clear as a bell. We'll take it.
I think I done a pretty good job.
There's no doubt in my mind.
All right, boone, chase on out of here.
Go out there and rest a little bit.
We'll come get you when we reach a decision, brother.
All right. Give us a holler.
[mike] it come pretty quick to me,
the idea of where I wanted to go with my drink.
So I just made the best liquor
that I could make out of it.
[digger] good looking jar, mike.
And you ain't got no cloudy ones up here.
Another pretty jar.
[digger] chase on out of here.
We'll come get you when we reach a decision.
-Good luck, mike. -[mike] appreciate y'all.
-[mark] good looking jars, ain't it? -[digger] all three of them.
Yeah. We oughta get it started if we wanna get it done.
Well, gotta get it started we we wanna get her done.
Come on, whiskey pushers.
Well, I ain't gonna lie to ya, I looked at both of your boxes
and said, "damn, I wish I had that one."
-[laughing] -yep.
Let's start with daniel.
It's a clear jar.
It is awful clear. It looks like it just got water in it.
[digger] yeah.
Maybe it is.
Try that 100 proof.
-[tim] yeah? -I just hope he didn't really put them sardines in there.
Smells like liquor.
Smells almost like a honey molasses or something.
Don't get no sardines in that one or anchovies.
It's good liquor.
Yeah, there's pineapple in there on the back end.
Tastes flat and dry-like. It's not buttery slick.
Well, no, it's got a dry finish, but it's got the fruit in there.
I little bit of fiery on the back of the throat, ain't it?
-[digger] just a tiny bit. -Not bad.
-It ain't horrible. -It goes away pretty fast.
That pineapple and pineapple juice helped him out a lot.
And that tasted like some kind of brandy.
It just don't take like just everyday, run of the mill corn liquor.
Pretty good liquor.
If he decides to go the route of the bloody mary,
that may be an outstanding bloody mary.
It'd be a great backbone.
I think it'd be good on anything.
It's good, it's good. Daniel's done a good job.
I mean, there's no way around it. I'm gonna have to make a bloody mary.
I've never tried a bloody mary.
It's something new for me.
See, and a bloody mary is something I make all the time
and can make a dang good one.
Hard times is all about being thankful.
And in these hard times,
I'm thankful that mike didn't get your box, daniel.
And I'm thankful I've got what's in my box,
'cause I can work with fruity tooty myself.
[laughing]
let's try mr. Tickle.
All right, another pretty jar.
Yes it is.
That's a good bead.
[tim] yeah, it's good. A little bit lighter.
-[digger] mid 90s? -[tim] maybe 90.
I mean, we don't know what kind of mash build it had.
-No, no. -We knew he put a lot of nuts in it.
[mark] it, it's got nuts in it.
It's got boiled peanuts, it's got raw almonds.
Yeah, and that damn peanut brittle.
Everything in my box you'd have thought,
"well, only thing I can do with that is eat it."
[laughs] exactly right.
-Smells a lot like daniel's did. -[digger] and it's flat.
I mean it's almost like back ones.
There's not... There's no kick in it, is there?
-[digger] no. -Yeah, I think it's a little bland.
[mark] them damn boiled peanuts
didn't do nothing for it.
That's where you're getting that dryness from.
-'course they don't have to use that jar. -No.
You know, he up his proof.
[tim] I mean, that's got a good taste. It's not bad.
But it don't hang out no time, does it?
-No, no. It goes away real quick. -It goes away really quick.
That's one smooth drink.
-It's not a bad drink of liquor by no means. -Yeah.
All right, let's move on to mikey.
[digger] that jar of liquor is beautiful.
Usually when you see a really, really clear jar like that,
it's high proof liquor.
-[tim] yep. I'd put 110 on that one. -[mark] yeah, I'm with you.
-And that's ideal. That's what you want, now... -You buy them big.
-Yeah. -...If you're making a cocktail type drink.
You know what? He put a horehound in there.
[mark] I don't think he ever decided.
-If it tastes like horehound, it's probably horehound. -Yeah.
Said it looked like pineapple, tasted like horehound.
And I said, "well, it's a hore-apple."
[laughs]
you know, this, this hard time recipe, man,
it's started a challenge me myself.
And I know it has you too, you know?
But we don't quit.
We take what we got and we gonna create something out of it.
Very light.
Yeah. But you can tell that he drained his liquor slow.
Yeah. It smells great.
[smacks lips] it's got a lot of corn flavor came through.
Whoa. That's good.
[digger] it's a little bit high proof, but...
Just a little bit, but now there's no fire in that liquor.
No, you get nothing
that kicks you in the back of the throat.
-No, that's you. -[digger] your tonsils come away unscathed.
And it don't finish dry.
It's got a little bit of a sweet finish.
It's got enough backbone you could build a cocktail
that you could use a little bit or a whole lot
-and not hurt yourself. -Drink it like it is.
-Right. -[mark] that's a good drink right there.
Well, I've often said to be a moonshiner,
you've got to adapt and overcome.
-[mike] you do. -It's always a hard time
even in the good times.
-Yeah. -It's a hard time making liquor.
So, this one rolled right up my alley, I'm gonna say.
I ain't gonna say I won anything,
I'm just saying in my mind it rolled right up my alley.
We're all in agreement then, right?
All right, I'mma go fetch 'em.
-Okay. Easy. -[grunts]
[mark] don't break anything.
Eh, it's too late for that.
Welcome back, men.
You know, hard times, they also call for hard decisions.
That being said, we're gonna go through the process.
Daniel, proof about spot on, finished a little dry toward the back.
But all in all, it's a good drink of corn liquor.
Appreciate it.
[tim] good tasting jar.
I hate for you to have to dilute it with something.
I'd like to just drink it just like it is.
Let me tell you, anchovies, sardines or not, good jar of liquor.
Steve, you ready?
You know more about making a nut-based liquor than most people.
But also, there was one little note on the back end there
that I didn't care for, those boiled peanuts.
I think it left it a little bit bland.
But, all in all, the proof is just where I like it
for sipping the way it is now.
Good jar.
Tickle, I'm hoping you're gonna go in and make some butter-almond
or rum-almond, something you're gonna add to that flavor
because that almond is coming right through.
Did you blend it with what? Which jars?
Five, seven and eight.
Too many backings, I believe. It left you a little flat.
You can tell there's alcohol in there,
but I lost its personality, I think.
Still yet, it'd make a good drink.
Mikey, fine drink of corn liquor.
It finished well, started well and ended well.
I think you got a good jar to work with,
especially when you go to diluting it with something else,
it's probably going to finish at 85, 90 proof.
Great jar of liquor.
I don't know what was in that one particular jar,
if it was pineapple or horehound,
but it's a very good, very smooth drink.
Thank you.
All that being said,
somebody is gonna get to go pick
something off their buddy's table
to make us your flavored liquor.
-Daniel? -Yeah.
You and tickle ain't gonna be able to be that guy.
That's all right.
Mike is gonna come through and snatch something off one of y'all's tables.
I knew it. [laughs]
-so I get to be the thief? -Yes, sir.
-[laughing] -you know, it's almost like he really didn't want to win
because of daniel, ain't it?
I know it. Golly.
But you know what? I think there's something
on one of them tables I might be able to use.
Look out, boys! Here I come.
All right, mikey, get with it.
Time for you to go snatch something off somebody's table.
You know, I won the first round,
and my privilege was to be able to take an ingredient
from either daniel or tickle.
Let me go over here and look at daniel's table a minute.
All right.
[tickle] he's gonna take your pickled okra.
You know what?
Daniel, you've got all the ingredients here that you need
to make a good bloody mary.
I'm gonna... I'm gonna leave you alone.
Ah, [bleep].
I think I'm gonna come back over here.
I see a little something I might need to use.
Well, that ain't good.
I bet it's gonna be something sweet.
Hey, shut up.
You know, I've got a, a good base going on over there
so I don't need much.
-[dry laughter] -[mike] it looks like
we've all got ingredients to make a good drink with.
Can I chose not?
-You gotta take one. -You gotta take one.
[tickle] just take the [bleep] onion.
[daniel laughs]
you know, with hard times, you feel soft,
you want to try to help somebody else out.
I don't want to take something that they really need.
Tickle? I'm gonna take you up on that.
I'm gonna take your damn onion.
-[tickle] all right, all right. -[mike] deal?
All right. I love you brother.
I love you too, brother.
Mikey, a damn onion?
-Exactly right. -You had to steal an onion?
'cause neither one of us is gonna use an onion in our liquor.
So, I chose to take an onion.
They didn't say what I had to take.
But I knew I had to take some item
off of one of the guy's tables, so I took the onion.
Well, over there is the prize that you're gonna get
-if that onion helps you out to that point. -[laughing]
[digger] two dozen never used mason jars.
That being said, you gotta build us a jar
of tasty post-distilled flavored liquor.
And we want the best you got.
Jars on the table before one hour passes,
y'all's time starts now. Good luck, boys.
[tickle] all right.
Mmm. Let's see here.
All three of them had good jars.
They can take these good jars of liquor that we loved to start with
and you never know when you go to make some and blending and putting flavors in it.
I mean, it may be the next best thing in the world
and it may turn it into crap.
-Hey, mike? -Yo.
I noticed you was eyeballing my jar of honey.
Now I know, hard times come about, it draws people together.
It does. That's why I only
-took the onion from you. -[tickle] you need some of this honey?
-[laughs] -I know. Do you need some of this?
I would like to borrow just a little bit of it.
-I just need a touch. -I, I done used what I need.
-I appreciate you, brother. -All I needed was a touch of it too.
Thank you, thank you.
Going into the second round,
I just took a jar of everything that I had,
fruit punch, cherry juice, strawberry juice,
a little bit of cherry hard candies, pineapple, and some plumbs,
and I mixed it with some brown sugar.
But, you have to be
very careful when it comes to candies.
I just needed a little bit of honey to cut the cherry a little bit
because I did not want it tasting like a cough medicine.
[tim] I don't know for sure what daniel's doing over there.
He got something in his mortar and pestle.
Yeah, he's crunching up something dry over there.
Peppercorns, I bet.
I know now why they come up with that daggone modern stuff
to grind stuff, 'cause this is hard, boss.
That's hard times.
I need to find my cup so I can taste.
[laughs] of course you do.
People say I taste too much.
[sarcastically] no. Who would say something about that to you?
-[laughing] -[tickle] kind of like saying I drink too much.
I never drink too much.
I drink just enough.
-[laughing] -'cause I stop drinking when I've had just enough.
Now, I know for a fact, tim, that tickle will never drink
no more than this right here in a number nine wash tub.
-[laughing] -a number nine wash tub?
-[mark] yeah. -[mike] all right.
Hey, do you think some of that sardine juice would be good in this?
-Probably not. -Absolutely not.
-[laughing] -I'd throw it right on in there, daniel.
[laughs]
[daniel] when hard times hit, you can adapt or you can sit back and cry.
And rather than throwing in the towel, I decided to make a bloody mary.
I truly didn't have all the things to make it,
but I wanted to give it a try.
When you get something handed to you that you don't have a clue what it is,
and then you have to make something out of it,
that's a hell of a challenge.
Hard times, good times, or anytime.
I'm glad I'm not on that side of the table
and have to work with what they have to on short notice.
It's kinda aggravating, I'll go ahead and tell you.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Now's when your taste ability comes into factor.
And I done burned most of mine out, drinking.
-Who'd have thunk that? -[all laughing]
uh-uh. No you ain't.
-Yes sir, I did. -[chuckles]
at least you admitted it.
Hell, he can't deny it.
[cackling]
you'd be drinking too if you was mixing liquor as good as I'm mixing.
Mixing almond, a honey, a caramel, and a coffee.
I gotta be real careful with this coffee going in there.
-[chuckles] -because it could overpower
and all this tastes like is a cup of coffee.
Yeah and if you ain't careful,
we'll just have a damn wide-awake drunk.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's all you'll have
-is wide-awake drunk. Yeah. -[all laughing]
and you all got 30 minutes.
You got liquor in that yet, daniel?
Or is that just your gravy? Your mix?
Just the gravy.
You got to let me taste that daggone bloody mary before you turn it in.
Well, if I do any good on it, you can applaud me,
'cause it's the first damn one I've ever made.
-[laughing] -let's see what you got there, daniel.
I don't know what this is.
-But I don't like it. -[hisses in disgust]
mike don't like it either.
-[daniel] you don't like it? -And I love bloody marys.
I think we're missing a little bit on the flavor.
-Daniel. -What?
Dump the rest of that salt in that jar and dissolve it.
Listen to that cooking son of a [bleep] over there.
You need more salt, at least from my flavor palate.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -[tickle] and a little bit of that vinegar.
I'd put salt and vinegar in it.
[mumbling] just shake that in.
Tell you what I'm fixing.
I'm fixing to put a shot of pineapple juice in it.
That might help sweeten it a little.
What's wrong with it, mike? Is it bitter? Sour? Hot?
To me, on a bloody mary,
it's a little bit high on the proof.
I put that much of the number four jar in it so it's probably 140 proof.
I meant for it to have a little alcohol in it.
Here's one thing about it, damn hard times
ain't done nothin' to bust up friendships, has it?
Hell no, they ain't!
Tickle, where you at?
I'm not usin'
the same jar I turned in to make my flavors.
And what I'm gonna say is I'm a little high on the proof right here.
Then I'm gonna take a little bit of a lower proof jar
and pour it on in there.
But I got my flavor profile with my almonds and my peanuts and things like that
and I'm gonna add that to it.
Okay. All right mike, whatchu make up?
With some fruit punch and some pineapple horehound jelly
and a little bit a strawberry syrup and stuff like that...
Okay.
...I think I may have a pretty good drink on ice so, pretty much ready to go.
My mom and dad had to scrape and scrounge for everything
they could do to put on the table for us to eat.
And you know, today, we only had what we had to use
so I was gonna use every ingredient to my advantage
to make a good drink for people
because I know exactly what hard times are about, I came from hard times.
[mark] all right, bring it up here mike.
-[mark] it's perty! -[tim] that look like fruit punch.
Pretty much!
[mark] if you improved what you had earlier, it's gonna be damn good.
Hope you guys enjoy it.
Appreciate y'all.
[mark] you may not get that jar back.
Maybe not.
But you know I ain't gonna lie to you, that jar ain't full.
But it's what I'm gonna turn in.
It don't look good but it's what I got during these hard times daniel.
Well, turn her in, son.
[tickle] I was extremely happy with my liquor right there
and I ain't gonna lie to ya, that might a been my problem.
Tickle, if you can find the door, head on out
and we'll come find you wherever you're at when we reach a decision.
All right then.
[tim] it gonna be a pineapple upside down bloody mary.
Well believe it or not, I swear to you, you can't taste the pineapple.
All you taste is tomato.
-[tim] tomato's eatin' it up, ain't it? -[daniel] it is.
If I woulda had celery and, uh, celery seed
I could've tied it together real good.
But I didn't, all I had was salt and black pepper
and I tried to use it and tie it together to the best of my ability.
But I'm not really much of a bloody mary guy,
you know, I tasted one at a party one time and it was pretty good.
When I threw this one together
it didn't taste nothin' like the one that I drank at that party.
How you feelin'?
[daniel] I don't believe it's worth a damn.
I's thinkin' 'bout pourin' it plum out.
-Hey tim, you notice digger's learned a new term? -[tim] what's that?
Curb appeal.
-Curve appeal? -[mark] curb, curb appeal.
Good curb appeal.
Oh yeah, what's that?
I guess if somethin' attracts your fancy settin' beside the road, you know,
it's got curb appeal, so now liquor's got curb appeal.
I never heard that.
I guess that's the same as sayin' it'd look nice on a shelf.
-[tim] okay. -Yeah.
I like that.
That's about like I learned the word called stoked.
I'd never heard of that I call stokin' a fire
and they said no "I'm stoked", I'm like what, you hot?
Or what? And he's stoked.
Yeah, stoked to me means you stoke your stove with a...
-Yeah, you're tryin' to get it hot. -Yeah.
New language. A new generation man, they come out with all kinds of things.
How you feelin'?
I don't believe it's worth a damn.
I's thinkin' 'bout pourin' it plum out.
[digger] ah, don't pour it out.
If I done good on this one, I done good, if I didn't, oh well.
-It's a learning experience. -You's workin' with what you had.
I was.
[mark] bring it in here, daniel!
Well, I don't like it but maybe you'uns will.
Always remember, son, one man's ceilin's another man's floor.
-All right, I'm gone! -[digger] good luck!
Let's get with it!
We ain't gonna get no drinkin' done if we don't get started we gotta catch up with tickle.
[tim] yeah, let's see what tickle's workin' with.
It must have plenty of stuff in it.
[tim] it's got him feelin' good.
It's gotta a little cream on top there look like.
[digger] that'll give you somethin' to chew on.
-Don't smell a lot of it. -No.
I'm smellin' honey.
-I taste just a little bit of the coffee. -[digger] yeah.
It don't overpower it, he's scared about puttin' too much coffee in it.
I don't think he did.
It's real, real sweet.
It's so sweet it'll hurt your teeth.
[digger] just one thing woulda helped him out.
If he'd asked daniel for just a little bit of that salt.
-Salted caramel? -[digger] yup.
-That would have balanced it out. -Oh yeah!
-You know that's a big seller, salted caramel. -That's a big thing.
I'd almost want to put more alcohol in it.
-I was afraid I'd overpower my liquor. -[mike] yup!
And then I'd a had stuff that
so high proof. Tasted great, but you're too high proof to drink.
Well, daniel's got some chunks in the bottom of his.
Look like he got slices of onion, peppers.
That's what a bloody mary is, a salad in a glass.
I got a can of tomatoes, tomato juice. I pretty well knew what I had to do.
Well, it's tomato juice.
Smell a little bit of spice.
Got black pepper in it. It's pretty good.
Daniel's initial run was a hundred proof.
Yeah, I think he's afraid to put much of it in that.
You taste that, a lot of that pineapple in it.
Yeah.
That may have smoothed it down.
But there's really nothing pulling all them flavors together.
He didn't have no worcestershire sauce,
he didn't have no horseradish.
No. No hot sauce.
No hot sauce.
It's a decent bloody mary for what he had to put in it.
All right, let's move onto mikey.
[tim] nice cold jaw.
It looks like syrup, but it looks like fruit punch.
Fruity nose.
I don't taste no pineapple, but it's good.
Yeah, it's balanced. It's got honey, cherry.
I get a little spicy something in there that I ain't identifying.
And I believe it got some proof in there.
-It's got some. Yeah. -[digger] yeah.
It's got plenty of proof in it.
[digger] well, you look at them legs running down that glass there,
but, that fruit, it's still holding up.
Oh I call mike's "wild berry."
I don't know what I'd call it, but I call it "baby, baby" all night long.
That's the main thing about hard times,
being thankful for what you got and working with it.
Exactly right, well said.
You know, they all three done a hell of a job with what they had to do with.
One just did a little better job.
All right, boys. We're solid with where we're at, I'm gonna go fetch 'em.
Go get 'em.
[digger] all right, boys.
Time to reach a verdict.
Daniel.
Said you'd never made a bloody mary in your life.
Never.
I believe you.
[group laughing]
there's a few more ingredients you probably coulda used.
Celery would have been nice.
[digger] just everything that pulls a bloody mary together, you really lacked.
But you got close.
Liquor was good, alcohol content was good. Good job.
Well, that's what I was worried about, didn't have enough alcohol.
[mark] no, it had plenty.
For a man that never made a bloody in his life,
you did a fine job.
Appreciate it.
Tickle, you was worried about your coffee.
I never did find nothing to even hint at coffee in it.
It was instant coffee. But it was a very minute amount.
Uh, you know, that caramel...
I mean, there's caramel all the way through.
Myself, I think it's a little bit low of proof.
But it could trick me now.
It may have more than you think. It tastes real sweet.
[digger] it needed just a little bit of salt.
-That would've balanced that sweet out... -Salted caramel.
Maybe I should've done that.
Mikey,
I don't know what all you put in there.
[tim] you know, you got a lot of berry in there.
Kinda tricked me 'cause it looks like fruit punch. But it ain't fruit punch.
Right.
But, your fruit didn't overpower,
you got plenty of octane in it. You still see legs on your shipping jar.
You had a ton of liquor in there.
Yes, sir.
Damn fine job on your part.
I appreciate it.
This was hard times.
You made the very best of a bad situation.
That's why you guys are true shiners.
And I'm proud of all of ya.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you.
Appreciate it.
All right, boys, I wanna remind you what you got at stake over here.
Two dozen brand new shiny mason jars.
Them goes a long way.
You're darn right about that.
Six gallons right there.
[digger] that being said...
Cut to the chase...
Mikey,
you won the jars.
-Thank y'all. -[digger] congratulations.
Appreciate it.
Everybody did a fine job, somebody just did a little bit better.
I'm very honored to win this competition
against two people that knew exactly what they were doing.
But I just kept rewinding my mind back to the hard times that I grew up in
and said, "this is what I'm gonna do, this is what they're gonna like."
here's a case for you guys to split.
Might let ol' daniel carry 'em.
-Appreciate it. -I appreciate that, boss.
Thank y'all. It was a pleasure competing against y'all two.
Thank y'all so much.
We're not only a brotherhood as moonshiners,
we're a family when it comes to these hard times.
All right, guys.
-[mike] thank y'all so much. -[mark] see you guys later.
-[mike] appreciate it. -[mark] great job.
Good job on all of ya.
Let's leave out, tickle.
All right, jim.
[mark] hard times. Good times.