Tim: What is that in that jar?
That, gentlemen, is a cubeb berry.
A -- a what?
Narrator: This time on "master distiller"...
Tony: This is mountain brandy.
Narrator: Mountain brandy --
the hillbilly hybrid of fruit and grain.
That's hotter than a [bleep] wolf in a forest fire.
Born of desperation, its recipes vary
in every corner of appalachia.
Tim: Looks like we're gonna have apple pie,
we're gonna have gin, and I don't know what.
That's gonna be west virginia surprise.
Narrator: But the best jars of mountain brandy...
Gonna be real cinnamony.
...Could be the ultimate test of heritage and skill.
Across the country, a handful of amateur 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 they'll face off to earn their place
in america's liquor-making legacy.
At this point, if I were you, I'd be concerned.
Judged by three legendary moonshiners,
they'll go head-to-head in a series of challenges...
Tim: You know what sells.
Yeah, and I know what won't, too.
There you go!
Narrator: ...To determine who has what it takes...
Oh! Oh!
...To be named master distiller.
It's gonna be the longest hour of my [bleep] life.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications
digger: Men, y'all know why you're here.
Tim smith,
mark ramsey,
and I'm digger manes.
Y'all got to impress us.
Your skills is what's gonna separate you.
Now y'all are gonna make us some mountain brandy.
Brandy, from the dutch word for "burnt wine,"
is traditionally distilled from fermented fruit.
But in remote areas of appalachia,
the high cost and limited shelf life of fruit
drove moonshiners to experiment,
combining seasonal fruits
with cheaper, longer-lasting grains.
Old-timers now use the nickname "mountain brandy"
to describe any type of hybrid moonshine
that incorporates regional produce
into a grain-based mash.
You're gonna prove to us which one of you all
is master distiller.
The winner's gonna get the bragging rights, of course,
and you're gonna get a limited label
here at sugarlands distilling company.
Awesome.
Tim: We've provided you with a finished mash,
so y'all got the same still, same mash.
The winner of this run gets their choice of any parts
they want to assemble from our still stash house
men, you got four hours to bring us your best jar.
Your time starts...
Now. Get with it.
Narrator: Like the moonshiners of centuries past,
the first run of the mystery house mash
will showcase the distillers' ability to adapt their skills
to the untested ingredients and equipment
and serve as the base spirit for the next flavor challenge.
Zigzag -- he's doing good.
He got the rubber band around it.
You know, he's got his filter going on there.
That's the good stuff that gets you drunk.
Name's bob zigai. I'm from indiana.
That's about as clean as you can get,
and I made this with tap water.
I go by the name zigzag.
That's what everybody calls me.
Right here, there's some honeyshine I made.
I would put my mountain brandies up against anybody's.
I call this tailgate still because I can take it anywhere
and try to stay one step ahead of the law.
I used to be a machinist, fabricator.
[ chain saw whirs ]
I worked in the coal mines.
I'm a jack of all trades, master of none.
I made this.
You can put your apples, your peaches and stuff in here.
I've been running moonshine for about 17 years now.
I'm self-taught. I use old-school techniques.
I love cooking with fire.
This is the part I love right here --
getting to watch magic happen.
Years of practice, my friend.
I give the neighbor a jar, a couple of neighbors.
Well, now I got the whole town --
they've all come together trying to rob me,
break in my house and steal my shine.
So I must be doing something right.
Look at that!
Tim: Big boy, huh?
I bet he'd skin a feller up
if you pissed him off. Oh, yeah.
Welcome to loch & union distilling.
My name is gian nelson. I go by g.P.
I'm the technical cellar master here.
Being in the napa valley,
we have a lot of great resources for used wine barrels.
[bleep] always leaving [bleep] over here.
My mountain brandy's gonna be kind of an interpretation
of what I think spices should be.
Being a new-wave distiller,
we kind of do things a little differently,
so I'm excited to show the judges
what we're all about out here.
We basically built these stills
out of the biggest piece of ikea furniture
with no instruction you've ever seen.
So, I've been distilling for about three years now.
I originally came from winemaking,
but before that, I was in the marine corps.
Really tense times out there,
and I got hit by an I.E.D. Out there,
so I was in rehabilitation after that,
and I still am.
I overcame some obstacles,
thankfully to some close friends and family.
But also, I found my true love of what I do.
It saved my life because it gave me a purpose in life again
that I didn't really feel when I got out of the military.
I get to bang on these barrels
and make spirits with a bunch of cool guys.
I mean, I'm a pretty lucky guy. -[ laughs ]
that's tasting good.
Real good.
I'm gonna tell you what --
old tony,
he's got some severe alcohol abuse going on over there.
Tim: [ laughing ] I know. He's pulling that funnel.
That screen funnel ain't working too good.
Has he got any into the pot yet?
Tony: Dagnabbit. Oops!
My name is tony perry.
I make the best mountain brandy in west virginia.
In west virginia, you've either got a coal miner,
a logger, or a moonshiner in your family.
That's just a fact.
We gonna go see how the jits are doing,
maybe make a little bit of moonshine.
What do you think, buddy?
I got mixed up in the moonshine world kind of bootlegging.
I distill 'cause I feel like it's a dying art.
I call it the jit.
It's kind of one of them redneck,
hillbilly ingenuity type things.
I will take this still when it's running,
I will go one, two, three.
If I can do that without jerking, it ain't hot enough.
I'm 55 years old and I still hide stuff
from my mommy out of respect. I love her to death.
I wouldn't want to break her heart.
I hope she don't pass out or nothing
when she finds out that her only son is a moonshiner.
[ chuckles ]
this is really three different countries.
It couldn't be no more diverse.
♪
what it'll all come down to
is if they run at the right temperature
and if they get it tempered correctly,
'cause everything else is identical.
Narrator: In order to complete this challenge,
the contestants must deliver a crystal-clear spirit
between 90- and 100-proof
that can best be combined with additional regional ingredients
to further flavor their mountain brandy.
G.P.: There it is.
Damn, I wish I'd brought my glasses.
Come on.
Are you kidding me?
Boy, I need one of these burners.
-[ laughs ] -holy [bleep], I love it.
You got to ask santa.
I wish I had something this fancy.
You ought to come by our store.
Well, I got one --
it's just different. [ laughs ]
narrator: Once burners are lit,
distillers have to carefully control the heat
as the mash approaches 173 degrees.
The heat vaporizes the alcohol from the mash,
causing it to rise up into the cap
and then out through a pipe called the arm
and over to the thump keg,
where any residual water is deposited.
The purified alcohol vapor then moves through another arm
to the condenser,
where it's cooled into liquid mountain brandy.
G.P.: What's up, man?
Just figured out something I didn't do, I should've did.
What's that?
Man, forgot to use my cheesecloth.
I put my mash in, and I thought, "oh, no."
I noticed the cheesecloth,
and I was wondering, I thought, you know, this wire thing,
I'm not getting all my sediment, all my stuff out of my mash,
and that's when I realized, I thought,
I don't have time to really break this down a second time.
So I thought I'll run it slow.
So I'm gonna make sure that I don't scorch this,
and I'm gonna get that one perfect jar.
Perfect.
I'm kind of one of those perfectionists,
so I want to get it just really nice.
Zigzag: I'm ready to cut this hose off right here.
G.P.: [ laughs ] that's what's gonna condense
that vapor back into alcohol.
Do I got permission to cut this hose?
Yeah, just don't cut mine, though, alright?
Well, I just want to cut this
so I can drain it quicker and keep the water.
By the time it travels through there, it's backing me up.
No, that's what I was doing, too.
Now I can crank this up and go get my water flow through there.
'cause the colder you can keep this,
the better your alcohol is gonna come out.
I'm gonna make good liquor, not [bleep].
Monkey [bleep].
Hey, that's what I'm calling mine!
I'll buy you a beer after this, huh?
I only drink shine. Alright, I'll buy --
every time I drink beer, I go to jail.
[ laughs ]
tim: What you got going on there, g.P.?
G.P.: I'm in the thumper now.
You not nervous no more?
I've been to combat. This is nothing.
Yeah? Oh, oh, okay. [ laughs ]
nobody's shooting at you right now.
Nah, not today.
They might want to arrest you,
but they're not gonna shoot you.
[ laughs ]
ooh, yeah. It's nice.
Got a good mash flow on that.
Narrator: As alcohol runs off the still,
distillers make cuts to separate the dangerous compounds
found in the heads
from the most desirable liquor found in the hearts
before reaching the flavorful but lower-proof tails
contained at the end of the run.
Spoon test coming up.
I don't know if that's an old-school
or new-school technique. [ laughs ]
you know, different parts of the country do things different.
Digger: Yeah, I mean, he is from indiana.
Hey, zigzag? We always consider ourselves
learning all the time.
Tell us about that spoon.
When you light that, if you instantly see red flame,
-that's an impurity in it. -That'll kill you.
But if you light that and it's just a pretty blue flame
and it stays pretty blue, go ahead
and start drinking, boys.
From watching this, I can pretty much
pick out the jar I want.
Well, I'll be damned. Now we know.
Yeah, I'm digging his chemistry end of it.
Yeah. Now we know.
-Tony, how you doing? -Doing pretty good.
-Yeah? -Slow. That's okay.
Don't run out of time now.
You know, I ain't never had a time set on this.
-No, me neither. -[ laughs ]
just takes as long as it takes.
That's the time. -Yes, sir.
Zigzag: It's one of those things, you don't rush it,
because rushing could cost you your life.
Tim: What do you think?
Tony's gonna have to put some more fire under his.
G.P. Over there, he's already got nearly a 750 full.
Yeah, he's running his like he gonna get out of town,
like he stole it. -[ laughs ]
just making it fast don't make it good, neither.
Gentlemen, you're at the one-hour-left mark.
One hour to get us a jar on this table.
Tony got any liquor running yet there?
Tim: No, he ain't got nothing going on.
It's not none of our concern, but at this point,
if I were you, I'd be concerned.
Narrator: Coming up...
You need to get you some of that.
Slim shady over there is gonna drink his best one.
Narrator: ...Jars hit the judging table...
Where you at, tony? Getting close over there?
Narrator: ...And missing still parts have one shiner running dry.
Can't connect it.
Looks like you're in quite a pickle.
Tim: You just got it dripping?
Just starting? It's starting.
Narrator: Two outlaw shiners and one legal distiller
are locked in a mountain brandy battle
to claim the title of master distiller.
But a simple mistake has one former bootlegger
falling behind.
Run it slow, so I'm gonna make sure
that I don't scorch this.
G.P. Over there has probably got --
how many jars you got, g.P.?
One jar of hearts right now.
Digger: Jars on the table in 30 minutes.
Oh, man, you need to get you some of this.
Slim shady over there is gonna drink his best one.
Digger: I believe he about drunk about a whole jar.
I'd love to have a job doing this.
G.P.'s messed with them jars an awful lot, ain't he?
Keep rubbing, there's gonna be a damn genie pop out of it.
When I proof at work, we use hydrometers,
we use density meters.
We do things that are a little bit more technical.
But at the end of the day, when you don't have any tools,
you got to rely on yourself.
Alright, I'm done.
You got your pick of the litter?
Pick of the litter.
-Gentlemen. -Yeah.
-Here you go, man. -Zigzag!
I hope it meets your approval.
-Alright. -Z-z.
Where you at, tony? Getting close over there?
Time's starting to run down,
so I thought, I'm gonna go with the one I got,
and I believe it's good enough.
This feller's the best I can do today.
This is zigzag's.
I'm telling you, this one's got a heck of a bead on it.
Yeah.
[ dramatic music playing ]
for high-proof liquor, it's good liquor.
It ain't fiery, is it, tim? -Yeah, no.
Yeah. A little.
I mean, it's a little bit because of the proof.
Yeah, but if you drink about half of that
right there, you'd be fiery.
Oh, yeah, you drank right down to there,
you'd be outside in the damn weeds.
Ready to tear something up.
Well, this is old g.P.'s.
Yeah, it got a good smell to it.
Yeah, it don't smell bad at all.
That's real low-proof, huh?
♪
it ain't fiery at all,
but I don't think it's enough proof to be fiery.
Smells like backins to me.
I mean, it ain't bad.
It's just enough proof, you'd bust your damn head.
Oh, now tony. Oh.
Got a little different smell to it.
That's surprising for the same mash.
That might not have been a handkerchief
he used to filter it through.
Might've been his damn socks.
[ chuckles ]
he didn't strain his, and I believe
he just got a little bit of scorch in there.
It ain't hot.
No. No, it ain't fiery.
It just got a funny aftertaste to it to me.
Alright, boys, we're pretty rock-solid
on which one we're gonna go with?
I think so.
As yinz know, only one can win these challenges.
Tony, yours has incredible taste profile,
totally different from anyone else.
But I think you know what the problem was on this.
You got a little bit of your raw goods in there from the mash.
Didn't want to burn it, 'cause I know if it burned,
it was gonna be the bullet to the head.
Well, I think no matter how bad you dodged,
you still scorched a little bit.
Zigzag over here with the spoon trick, now.
We all three have learned something from you.
Thank you, sirs.
I want to say it's a little bit precise, you know?
I mean, it's kind of like you tuned it in
because of that spoon trick that you're doing.
For me personally, it's too high-proof for drinking.
Yeah, yeah.
When you're selling 118-proof liquor,
you're losing money.
Yeah, I know it. Yeah.
G.P., let's go with you.
Yours is actually incredible smooth -- incredible smooth.
Thank you.
By no means is it cloudy,
but I think it has more water molecules in it.
-Yes, sir. -You know?
Makes sense. Yes, sir.
It tastes good, but I think it's just too low-proof.
♪
-zigzag? -Yes, sir.
You get pick of the litter of the still parts.
Thank you, sir.
I'm excited they like my liquor.
Means the world to me coming from them guys.
Come with me, and we'll take you to the still stash house.
You pick the parts that you want.
You go first.
G.P., you'll go second. Tony, you'll pick third.
This loss, this is gonna be something
that's gonna make me concentrate a little more.
I ain't gonna make these little, silly rookie mistakes.
Follow me. We'll go get them.
Narrator: From small copper pots used on family farms
to giant submarine pots popularized during prohibition
to supply the masses,
moonshiners have traditionally matched their stills
to the mash.
Like the shiners before them, the distillers must pick parts
to assemble a still best-suited for a second flavor run
of the house mash that will determine
who will run their own mountain brandy from scratch.
Mark: Alright, guys.
Zigzag, you got five minutes, buddy.
Go to it.
G.P.: Leave some for the rest of us.
♪
alright, zigzag. You're down to 30 seconds, man.
I hope they got a big one. [ laughs ]
alright, zigzag. You're done, buddy.
Alright, g.P.
As I got into that stash house and I thought I had
a lot more time than I did...
G.P., you better get with it. You're down to one minute.
One minute. Oh, boy.
Second they said "one minute,"
you know, the heart rate started going up a little bit
and I just started grabbing things
that I knew I could work with.
Mark: Time! You're done! Come on out of there, g.P.
[ exhales sharply ]
tony.
Tony: There wasn't a whole lot of choosing.
When I went in, it was like survival mode.
Like, I need something that will work.
30 seconds, my man.
Tony: Oh, it's going quick.
Alright, tony, you're done. Come out of there.
You've got what you need.
Let's head on back and put them together.
Narrator: The contestants will now have to configure a still
that can best impart their signature flavors
into their mountain brandy.
Welcome back, gentlemen.
You've got one hour to get these stills together.
If you ain't got what you need, you'd better squat [bleep]
because your time's past.
And that one hour starts now.
G.P., man, he's stacking up something.
He's making him a column still, ain't he?
Tony's got an in-line one, too.
It looks like he's got three condensers and a shotgun.
He's got a doubler.
He got a shotgun and a worm.
Yeah, I know it.
He got a totally wrong cap for what he's making.
Tim: Well, he's got this cap, too.
He can't hook that one up to his thumper.
Ziggy -- he didn't change nothing.
He was happy with his damn still.
G.P.: What you got going on?
I don't have nothing to connect this to this.
Digger: What's going on, gentlemen?
I want that.
I can't connect it.
Yeah, you could get this connect,
but you won't be able to get a jug under that.
Looks like you're in quite a pickle.
Yeah, it's like having a 500-horsepower motor in your car
and no damn drive shaft.
It ain't worth a nickel if you can't make it run.
Mark: G.P. Ain't got no condenser, does he?
Tim: Tony over there has got three of them.
How you gonna condense liquor without a condenser?
That's a fine question.
I wish I would've thought about that in my five minutes.
[ chuckles ]
mm.
Narrator: Coming up... I'm gonna get up.
-...Pressure builds... -There you go.
...And knives are out for elimination.
G.P.: At this point, it's up to the lord.
This ain't the time to experiment.
Nope, not the time to experiment.
Narrator: Two backwoods shiners
and one combat veteran turned legal liquor maker
are going still-to-still
to see who makes the best mountain brandy.
I want that.
Can't connect it.
Mark: G.P. Ain't got no condenser, does he?
How you gonna condense liquor without a condenser?
That's a fine question.
But two contestants are missing vital parts.
You're not gonna be able to thump, no matter what,
so just go straight in your condenser.
I can. I can go to the condenser.
And then, hey, at least right now --
I can run. ...You're running liquor.
Well, I had overlooked how to connect it,
and he brought that to my attention, and he's spot on.
Narrator: A single-pot setup that runs alcohol vapor
straight to the condenser
without the intermediary thump keg
means any flavoring must happen in the main pot
or after distillation.
You can't get to your condenser.
He can't get to condenser, 'cause he ain't got one.
-I got a condenser, buddy. -I'm helping you out...
-I got a condenser. -How about helping me out?
I'm gonna help you. Brother.
You're my man. I just need this.
You're the man, tony. I love you, man.
They give each other a little love.
That's what it's all about.
At this point, it's up to the lord, so...
I thought he turned water into wine.
I didn't know he turned it into liquor.
-That was popcorn's job. -No, you're absolutely right.
I used to make it into some wine,
but now I'm making it into some shine.
Well, I'm glad we've got three different people,
three different places, and three different setups.
Three completely different setups.
I'm just gonna go with a standard pot still here
with kind of a lyne arm condenser.
Zigzag: It's got a big thump where I can get more flavor in it.
Don't try to second-guess stuff.
Just go with what you know. Keep it simple.
Tony: I think I've done all I can do here
with what I got.
I think I'll name her wildebeest. [ laughs ]
yinz all done a good job of assembling your stills.
This is your flavor run.
When this run is said and done,
we're gonna say goodbye to one of you.
Time to go the pantry.
You're gonna have five minutes each.
Good luck to all of you.
Narrator: When ingredients become so scarce
there isn't enough to fill a mash barrel,
backwoods shiners can stretch their yields
by infusing additional flavors
to their mountain brandy during or after distillation.
Following in this tradition,
the contestants will have to make the most
out of the limited pantry options
to complete their own unique mountain brandy
by flavoring the mystery house mash.
I'm making sour apple, peach, cinnamon, and sour honey.
So, first thing I see is the apple cherry cider,
and I thought I can do something with that.
I got to sweeten it a little, so I saw the jar of raw honey,
and then I saw the almond.
G.P.: If I want to really impress these judges,
I got to think on my feet and just go with my gut.
Spices, spices, spices, spices, spices.
I'm seeing juniper. I'm seeing coriander.
I'm seeing all the other spices that I'm used to working with.
Hell yeah.
But I also know that I'm not in california anymore.
I'm in eastern tennessee, so I'm gonna make sure
that I'm gonna give a little flavor profile
that's more kind of congruent to them.
Yeah, I could work with that, too.
So I wanted to make sure that I had something
that was really complex,
but also something that would showcase my skill set, too.
I'm ready as I will ever be.
Welcome back, men. Y'all got all your goodies?
Time to do that flavor run.
You're gonna have your four hours,
like you did on your first run.
Unfortunately, one of you gonna go home.
You got four hours.
And your time starts...
Now.
Narrator: For this flavor run,
the distillers can use their unfinished jars
from the first run,
as well as the additional unused house mash
to further hone the flavor profile
of the final mountain brandy.
Tim: What's tony doing? He's turning the still over now.
He's double-straining his mash.
-Ohh. -He scorched that last time.
I double-filtered my mash.
I'm not screwing up on that again.
I'm gonna make a good liquor, and I'm gonna win this thing.
There ain't no damn jibber-jabber
between them right now at this point, are they?
No, it's serious business.
G.P.'s over here having a snack.
He's got a lot of different, like, little spices and stuff.
He had a lot of little jars.
He been handling a teabag.
I'm gonna steep the botanicals into the mash.
I'm gonna get the oils out.
I'm gonna distill the botanicals.
And while that's working, I'm gonna try to see
if I can come with some kind of syrup or juice
to kind of blend that out.
He is making a gin.
Narrator: Flavoring shine with juniper and other botanicals
was first done for medicinal purposes.
But as with all mountain brandies,
using local herbs and spices has evolved into another way
to increase the palatability of a base spirit.
See, that's california. You go over here,
tony's not gonna know anything about that.
Same as zigzag, making some kind of apple something.
I think he's gonna make an apple pie or something.
Apple cinnamon toast crunch.
Zigzag: That's good stuff there. Gonna be real cinnamony.
Put too much cinnamon on there.
I mean, if I was him, I'd be careful.
If he ain't careful, he's gonna overpower it.
He knows what he's doing.
He's making something he knows how to make.
Put every bit of the stuff he mixed up in the thumper.
I put my still beer here.
I put all my flavor in the thump.
That way, I don't scorch it over here in the pot.
Don't you spill one drop of that.
I won't.
Well, it looks like we're gonna have apple pie,
we're gonna have gin, and I don't know what.
That's gonna be west virginia surprise.
This is honey, toasted almond, cherry, apple.
If you win, tony, I don't know if you have a big enough jar
to put a label on and say all that.
Well, that wouldn't be my problem if I win.
I crushed the almonds. I put them in a gin basket,
try to infuse almond oils into my shine.
And then after I get a product,
I'm gonna introduce my apple, cherry, and my honey.
Zigzag's getting ready to light it up.
I'm gonna get up so I can be ready to run.
-There you go! Yep. -[ laughs ]
you're blowing pure gas, no fire.
Ain't nothing smells no damn worse
than on-fire hillbilly. -Yeah.
Narrator: Coming up...
One shiner falls from grace.
A lot of good liquor here on the table.
And a little bit of [bleep] liquor.
And the remaining two put all their dreams
of becoming master distiller
in one pot.
I'm glad they finally started cooking something.
Narrator: It's spicy versus sweet
in the race to turn a mystery house mash
into a signature mountain brandy
and win the title of master distiller.
Ohh, man! That's fiery.
Digger: 20 minutes, men.
Winning the title of master distiller, that'd blow me away.
That fruit's really starting to come through now.
It's right where I want it.
That's gonna be the jar.
Now we're getting there, bud.
I'm concerned seeing tony and zigzag.
You can't discount years of experience,
whereas I come from a new train of thought
where spices and botanicals really kind of run the game.
Tony: I'm thinking number four is gonna be the one.
Just good enough is not good enough for this.
-Here comes zigzaggy. -Here comes zigzag.
Here you go, man. Hope you enjoy it.
Tim: That's a pretty-looking jar, now.
And g.P.'s coming up to the table.
-Fellas. -Ah!
Good luck.
That's mr. Zigzag, right there.
Go for it.
Smells like apple pie. [ sniffs ]
and it tastes like apple pie. Really?
It's nothing that you can buy at the grocery store.
I don't know, that back end's a little funky.
That cinnamon's what did it.
That's hotter that a [bleep] wolf in a forest fire.
-Whose is that? -This is g.P.
-I ain't no gin guy. -I can smell that over here.
It ain't horrible.
I ain't ever seen gin look like that, though.
He used way too much citrus peel.
You may fall in love with that.
I get more pepper than anything.
Think about it -- we got to drink it,
and we got to sell it.
Let's go to old tony.
Now, that's dandy right there on the nose.
I would put it in the lines of one of them kiddie juice bags
that you poke a straw in.
I mean, you can drink that.
You know what sells.
Yeah, and I know what won't, too.
Honestly, a lot of good liquor here on the table.
And a little bit of [bleep] liquor.
This has been the toughest bunch, I think --
and I didn't park my vehicle nowhere close by,
so don't y'all think you're gonna go put a nail
or a knife in my tire. [ laughter ]
tony, you got a good liquor here,
a little light.
You put ice in this, you got a good kool-aid.
Now, g.P., you've got a little start of a gin,
a little flavor-infused gin.
I love gin. It's just a little bit
on the peppery side for me on the back end.
Zigzag, when you were walking over here with this,
we saw the perfect jar of liquor.
Thank you.
You know, right off the bat, you get a good fore-flavor.
And then on the back, it's a little...
Well, it's a lot harsh.
Yeah.
I think the cinnamon is what killed you.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I think that you've been used to the, as I call it,
the dollar-store cinnamon... -Right.
...That's just bark that's been sprayed
with cinnamon oil.
And, old buddy...
It bought you a ticket home.
-Okay. -I'm sorry, old buddy.
That's alright.
When I was making it, I took a sip,
and I could feel the cinnamon on the back of it,
and it burnt the back of my throat.
And I didn't understand why, 'cause I only used two sticks,
but it was different cinnamon I'm not used to.
All the best.
It's been a humbling experience.
You taught us an important lesson
we're gonna carry through in our work.
Thank you.
You may get to see this spoon again.
Other than my kids being born,
one of the best days of my life,
and I want to thank y'all.
Narrator: For the final round, the distillers will
mash in their own original mountain brandy recipes.
Using water and heat to break down the ingredients
they brought from home,
this process will set the stage for fermentation.
Tony: This is mountain brandy. I got sugar.
I use ground corn, the malted barley,
and one of my ingredients that not a lot of people use,
is I like to use rice -- white rice.
I think it gives it a little sweet taste.
It kind of knocks the edge off the corn.
Planning on doing a blackberry
'cause a lot of people seem to like it.
This is kind of a west virginia thing.
I feel like mine's the best.
'course, probably everybody does,
but I'm the only one right.
[ laughs ]
g.P.: My ingredients for my final mash will be caraway,
allspice, cubeb berry, nutmeg with 100% malted barley.
The barley comes from the other side of the mountains
in the sacramento valley.
I have a great relationship with the maltster,
and they have a great relationship with the farmer,
so it really showcases what california's all about.
Oh, she's sugary. That's good.
This west virginia yeast maybe is a little tougher than most.
Alrighty. -That's a wrap.
Narrator: Once the yeast is added,
the mash is allowed to ferment for five days.
If conditions are right,
the yeast will consume the sugar and starches in the mix,
releasing alcohol as a byproduct.
Once the mash's alcohol content reaches 10% to 20%,
the yeast dies off and is ready to distill into mountain brandy.
Welcome back, boys. This is your day.
It might not be the most important day of your life,
but by damn, it's gonna be the most important
four hours of your life right now.
Y'all are gonna make us some mountain brandy.
This is where we're gonna find out
which one of you is master distiller.
You get the bragging rights, and you get your signature run
in a major distillery.
And your time starts now.
Good luck, buddy. [ sighs ]
I want his cap, and I want to hook it to my thumper.
Ooh, that smells good. Huh!
He's making a bucket to strain his mash in.
That's new. What's big man doing?
Old g.P.'s making another gin bag.
But with different -- with different spices.
Different spices.
G.P.: My plan for the final run here is take my mash
and steep them with the botanicals
that I brought from home.
What in the world is g.P. Doing?
G.P., what is that in that jar?
G.P.: That, gentlemen, is a cubeb berry.
-A -- a what? -A cubeb berry.
They're these somewhat peppery and kind of fruity spices
that you find -- I believe it's in indonesia.
You know, I'll tell you what. You got two people here
that is from both ends of the universe.
You might as well say I'm backwoods,
and man, he's got more recipes in his head
than I've ever heard of. [ laughs ]
hey, but you know what? You've been distilling longer
than I've been alive, so that counts for something.
My still setup for the final run
is something that I'm really comfortable with.
Charging that water's gonna bring my proof up.
I'm hoping to get a little cleaner liquor.
That's my goal.
Steady. -Damn, g.P.
That's an awful big bucket there, buddy.
Oh! Oh!
Well, I don't have a lot of mash to work with today,
so I'm gonna get every single ounce out of this.
Uhp! [ muttering ]
tony's got a fire.
Tim: Tony, what are you doing? What are you, eating something?
I'm eating a blackberry.
You're eating blackberries?
I'm gonna make a blackberry.
Where's the blackberries come in?
Blackberries come in at the end.
But not distilled blackberry?
Not distilled blackberry.
We got nutty flavor over here,
and we're gonna have blackberry flavor over here.
Gonna have a blackberry.
What poor old tony don't know --
I hate blackberries.
You hate blackberries? Uh-oh!
[ both chuckle ]
gentlemen, you're at the one-hour-left mark.
It's gonna be the longest hour of my [bleep] life.
You always get a raccoon in the mash.
That's the number-one animal that gets in that, is raccoons.
But raccoons are really smart, though.
I'm telling you, they're problem solvers.
They get down in it, fall in it, and they can't get out.
Hell, they don't want to!
Hell, they're in there paddling around, drinking.
He's in between loving you and biting you.
Biting the hell out of you.
Yeah, he's mad, but he's happy.
He's like, he's happy and he's like, "my instinct tells me
I'm supposed to be aggressive. I'm supposed to growl, bite,
scratch, eat." but then he's like --
can't bring himself to do that, can he?
Yeah, then he can't stand up straight.
Tim: That's your first jar? First drip?
Yeah, first drips, going low and slow.
Narrator: An up-and-coming legal distiller
and an experienced backwoods shiner
are going jar-to-jar
to prove who makes the best mountain brandy.
G.P.: The only reason I'd get sent home
is 'cause it's just not traditional.
But as far as smell,
I'm close to getting into the hearts.
Tony: I'm wanting to get into my hearts.
I'm wanting to get that one that just kind of --
it's the money jar.
Yeah, y'all down to 10 minutes.
Digger: I'll tell you where 10 minutes is a long time --
when you sitting in the back seat of a patrol car.
[bleep] is going now.
This is a delicate business, man.
If you really want to be a master distiller,
you know, you got to think about every single detail here.
So I'm gonna give you the best hearts
I can give you with this, and [bleep].
All up to the gods now.
I'm wishing g.P. The best of luck.
I want him to put out the best jar of liquor
he's ever put.
And I want mine to be that much better.
Lids on the jars, jars on the tables.
Five minutes.
You're running close but you're good.
-You're close. -I believe that's the one.
-Thank you, tony. -That's the one.
G.P.: Oh, yeah! Let's go.
You're down to about 10 seconds.
You better hurry there, g.P.
Four, three, two...
That's what you call being down to the damn second.
Here comes the fun part.
G.P.'s got the best bead
I've seen on a jar of liquor to date.
You judge it on clarity and the beads,
I'd give him a damn blue ribbon right now.
That smell, it's just... It's a rye or pumpernickel.
It's got too much spice in it,
just like zigzag's did.
It's a really strong cinnamon that lays right in there
with you, and that's from them cubeb berries, I guarantee.
Tell you what -- it's a little...
[ laughs ] it's a little much.
It's different. He's putting stuff in there
I ain't never heard of before.
Check tony's out.
Now, this right here looks pretty, too, just looking at it.
This ain't over 80.
No.
Now, it smells like raspberry.
Mm-hmm.
He put blackberries in, but it smells like raspberry.
I don't know how it did it, but it's raspberry.
It's a smooth taste.
It covers your tongue perfect.
It's raspberry. Oh, yeah, I like that.
This is backwoods of west virginia
and, you know, phd of california.
[ dramatic music plays ]
boys, pretty good showing out of both of you.
Tony: I do have butterflies in my stomach
'cause, mark, tim, and digger -- I look up to them.
And I would just be honored to be mentioned
in the same sentence as those guys.
At the end of the day,
only one of you can be the next master distiller.
A master distiller, to me, is a title that really gets earned.
I mean, coming from the marine corps,
we earn that title of marine.
Once a marine, always a marine, and I'm really proud of that.
I'm doing this for them, and I want to make sure
that in my life,
that I get to become the master distiller.
Pretty jars on the table there.
I mean we've got two fine-looking jars of liquor.
Tony, I don't want to worry you,
but you got two sitting here on the panel
don't like blackberries.
Mm!
It's got great flavor. You know, you look at it,
you're seeing blackberries. You're gonna think,
well, you gonna get a drink of blackberry.
Then you take a sip, and it fools you.
There's raspberry in there.
-It's cranberry. -Oh, cranberry.
It's got cranberry in it with it.
-Ah! -That's my little...
Trick.
G.P., now, you look at this jar right here
and you think you've got the perfect jar of white liquor.
You know, it's got a great nose on it.
I mean, it's like opening an oven
with a big loaf of bread that just come out of it.
Something I ain't ever smelt. Yeah.
That's something different right there.
-This is a pretty complex drink. -Thank you.
I think you might've overdone it on your cubeb berries.
-Okay. -They're a powerful spice.
-Yes, sir. -It's really prominent.
Okay.
Boys, at the end of the day, somebody's got to go home.
[ dramatic music playing ]
tony...
You're the next master distiller.
Good job.
-Congratulations, buddy. -Thank you.
Tony: Thank you. Means a lot.
I'm the new master distiller!
I'm from west -- by god, stand up and shout,
where the men are men, the sheep know it,
and a man can drive good woman hog wild, sooey! -- Virginia.
I'm proud to lose to you there, big guy.
Being here as a combat veteran and a wounded warrior,
that, you know, resilience is everything to us.
You have a got the damn know-how.
In a few short years, you, g.P.,
are gonna be a force to be reckoned with in this world.
You know, I thought I came here just with one objective,
but I'm leaving with a new appreciation
for these old-time guys
that are really making it happen out there.
Tony: So, mom, I got to confess --
you're the mother of a moonshiner.
And not only that --
you're the mother of the next master distiller.
Mark: You ain't never seen nothing like that.
Narrator: Next time...
Better brought your "a" game, tim.
...On "master distiller"...
I turn around, and mark and digger's over in the corner
making milkshake.
Narrator: It's digger versus mark versus tim
in a never-before-seen showdown
to prove once and for all who makes the best liquor.
You touch that, and you can say, "I've been shot before."