I heard digger say this, "and I know way more about
making liquor than tim smith does."
I can make damn better liquor than you on a damn teapot.
Have to run one of these stills over here to find out.
There still mash over there.
Want to do a little side bet on that?
All right, I'll match whatever you put on the table.
Well, well.
Narrator: This time on "master distiller"...
Digger: You touch that and you can say if you haven't been shot before,
"I've been shot before."
narrator: Three of appalachia's most notorious moonshiners...
Tim: You ain't ever seen nothing like that.
That's open-jar distilling.
-Shoot. -Whoo-wee.
Narrator: ...Go head to head to determine once and for all...
You got five minutes, fellers.
Narrator: ...Who can make the best liquor?
It had a smooth taste. In fact, I'd feed it to a baby.
Narrator: For decades the best moonshiners in america
have built their reputations on the smoothest liquor
and finest heritage recipes.
Now, for the first time ever...
These master shiners are staking their names...
-My secret weapon. -What are you sick?
Look like you got a damn jar of pepto-bismol.
Narrator: ...And their hard-earned cash...
I got $1,000 riding on this.
...To present their best signature shines
to "moonshiners" fans...
-Some of us cheat. -No, that's you.
Tim: What are you talking about? I'm standing over here.
Narrator: ...In a competition...
Digger: You better brought your a game, tim.
Narrator:...For the ultimate bragging rights.
Tim: I turn around and mark and digger's
over in the corner making milkshakes.
And there it is again.
Bring on the moonshine.
[ cheering ]
-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications
now I've got a little old bitty still out here
we can put up for the trophy.
All right, y'all want to do a little side bet on this?
Hey, a thousand bucks a piece, if yinz gonna do a side bet.
The thousand dollars is between you two.
I ain't a gambler, I'm too stingy.
We got to set up some ground rules here.
I think we use the same ones we used for the contestants.
House mash, equal stills, 4-hour time limit.
Just like the contestants.
We'll build our own mash, too.
All right. Looks like we've got ourselves a challenge.
We need somebody to keep us up to date on time.
I got the perfect person to run this contest.
Really?
Hey, you know, this guy knows his numbers.
-[ chuckles ] -okay.
Well, all right, fellas, we's here.
What we got going on?
We're gonna go over there and run these three stills,
and you're gonna time us. Now the time is just 4 hours,
all you got to do is tell us when to start and when to stop.
I ain't got no watch. What am I gonna do,
sit here and count?
Damn, tickle, don't wander off with my watch.
All right, sounds good. Y'all go over there.
Yeah, we're going over here.
Okay. All right, now what I do now?
Tell us to start.
You have 4 hours starting...
Now.
Narrator: Using the same corn mash and equipment,
the first run will showcase the master moonshiners'
unique technical skills.
The winner will get the first pick of ingredients
to flavor the resulting spirit for the next challenge.
And at the end of the competition, the flavored liquor
will be judged alongside each shiner's own signature recipe
for the final prize.
Watch this, I'm afraid it'll fall out of my basket.
♪
I'm starting to believe that's a bribe.
Damn good one, though.
I'm not boastful, but there's not many people in this world
that can carry my shoes when it comes to making liquor.
Our region, it's known as the moonshine capital of the world.
I work with some of the best liquor men in the country.
Back here in this old hole
is where a lot of the old liquor men
came and got their sugar and their corn, their jars.
I was hanging around working a little bit,
and a little wiry feller came in,
you know, and he come over and first thing he did,
he squeezed my arm and said,
"boy you're a strapping young man, aren't you?"
probably the first recollections of meeting
up with popcorn sutton. "come see me,"
he said, "I'll put you to work." the rest was history.
-He feels the spirit. -Yeah I did, yeah.
He feels the spirit.
Digger: Making liquor gets into your blood.
Anybody that's ever made it will tell you,
it's in their blood, and they're not lying.
It's the smell that you got in your nose when it's cooking.
It's the noise the stills make.
It's really indescribable how it makes you feel.
What you doing over there?
I'm getting my steeping bag ready.
Mark: We ain't got none of this stuff.
I thought we had to play by the same rules.
You should have brought it.
Looks like you ain't got a barrel of mash tim.
There's two barrels of mash -- my mash and mark's mash.
Whatever. I knew this wasn't gonna be a fair game, no way.
That's okay, I got something over here.
I'm calling bull [bleep].
We're supposed to use the same stuff
that the other contestants use.
Equipment wise with the stills.
Yinz just go ahead and have at it.
Cheat like hell, I'm going to beat the piss out of you.
Mark: I don't give a damn what they're doing.
I like tim smith, I love digger. It's a competition now.
Mark: Now, I've knowed digger for 40 years.
This is where it all started, mine and your friendship.
I don't even remember what we talked about that night.
I remember we talked maybe about camping
a little bit and some guns.
This is where it took off.
Right over yonder, there by the stools.
Mark: Digger's my partner.
He's somebody that I trust and he trusts me.
We have each others back.
Damn, popcorn, what have you got us into?
You ever miss popcorn?
Oh, every day.
He was a dear friend of mine.
Man: Popcorn would be proud of mark and digger,
the way they've -- keeping the tradition going.
I always said from the get go, "I'm the still man."
this the first time that we've built one of these
from scratch, digger.
I think you're doin' a beautiful job.
Oh, he's a picasso.
Mark: Being able to build a still from scratch,
it's just another way of my honoring my heritage.
This is a work of art.
I'm the still man.
But we're gonna have liquid out of here any time, tickle.
I know how to make liquor, I can make liquor.
You've got to boil the piss out of that corn
to break down the starches in it.
Smells delicious.
This contest is a 4-hour contest.
When he brought out that pump, he probably cut 30 minutes off
because I'm slowly, gallon at a time, putting it in there.
You take a gallon a minute, that's 30 minutes.
I done lost 30 minutes already just filling up the still.
I'm out of town here. This is their home turf,
but I'm number 1 moonshiner from where I'm from.
There's money to be made at that
as long as you don't get caught at it.
My name is tim smith.
Through my dad and through the family
I kind of grew up around moonshining all my life.
My father didn't want me to do moonshining.
He always talked about going legal.
He always told me that we had the best recipe
and made the best moonshine in the country.
My dad passed away, and I started thinking seriously,
"I'm gonna do it for my dad."
that way I can keep on the heritage
and make money without worrying about getting arrested.
But you know that costs money.
Tim: Steve's one of the goodest guys you'll ever find.
I'm tickle, I work with tim.
Tim, this is a monumental undertaking, huh?
Oh, yeah.
This bottle right here is the first bottle
of legal climax moonshine right here.
You see my dad inside the bottle
because that's his recipe.
My knowledge from years back, and my dad teaching me
how to run moonshine stills. I got this.
Everything I got here is manual.
I don't have no kind of automated equipment like this --
digger has over here.
You justify it however you want to, but...
I'm backwoods, I don't need no electricity.
You can cut the lights out if you want to.
We're smart enough to go buy a generator.
Tickle: Tim and digger, they've got this side bet going on.
I really think that has really amped it up.
It just got serious. Tim done took his shirt off.
We don't want to see your man [bleep].
I know tim smith, and I know digger pretty good, too.
And ain't neither one of them gonna want to let go
of $1,000. -This is the first time
I've ever run a still this small.
Kind of look like a toy, don't it?
I don't know if I got it too hot or too cold yet.
Tim bellyaching about everything.
Can't get my liquid out.
Digger: I keep hearing these noise that sounds like a crying baby,
will somebody please find it? I think somebody's abandoned it.
My drain is not working, I'm telling you.
And there it is again.
This is gonna be the easiest $1,000 I ever made.
When I need some help now, I want both of you...
You holler. I will not...
I want both of you over here.
-I'll come and help you. -I'll come help you.
I'll come and help you tighten your nut, tim.
Okay.
Gentlemen, and I use this term very loosely now,
2 hours left.
Well, digger, he's way ahead.
I see you're already heated up over here to about what,
about 150 degrees? -Yup.
Digger's came out of the gate like a racehorse.
There's 1,000 different ways to run a still.
The end result's what counts.
What you got going on here, tim?
Checking my mash as I'm heating it up.
My dad told me slow and cold,
and we're gonna get the perfect jar
out of this little still.
Tim: My dad always told me, if you can't put your finger
three times in it, then it's hot.
One, two, three.
I just can get three, so it's almost ready to cap.
Okay.
See these guys over here don't know anything about that.
They just went ahead and capped the still off
and turned the heat on.
You don't want to put the cap on it till it's ready.
Tim might be trying to get in my head.
He don't know the combination to get into that dusty dungeon.
Narrator: Once burners are lit,
the distillers must carefully control the heat
in order to reach 173 degrees
when the alcohol vapors are stripped
from the remaining liquid.
The vapors travel to the thump keg for a second distillation,
before reaching the condenser,
where they're cooled into liquid alcohol.
Digger: I crank my still up where I think
it would start running quicker.
You've got to get your feet wet. You got to feel that still,
and you've got to get a feel for what it does.
Seems to be digger's a specialist on these gas burners.
He knows more about these things than anybody.
Honestly, I run mine a little hot
because I can correct that heat if I need to.
Digger: Your honor, let the record reflect, I have liquor running.
Oh.
You touch that and you can say, if you hadn't been shot before,
"I've been shot before."
just looking at it.
God, I think you're just scared, that's all.
Mark: You get that burner to quit going and coming,
but I think it's heating okay.
Did you adjust you're airflow?
Let me work on that just a skosh.
I'm running pretty liquor. My liquor's coming off so clear,
I'm having trouble seeing if there's anything
even in the jar. This is wonderful.
It's here now, it's coming here. Got anything, mark?
Nope, not yet.
I don't even have anything coming out yet,
and digger's on four jar.
Let's count together, tim.
One, two, three, four, five. I'm on number five.
Narrator: Coming up...
It can only get better.
Narrator: ...Blind taste tests...
A red one, a yellow one and a blue one.
Narrator: ...And backstabbing.
They ain't left me [bleep].
Hey, this is a competition, you know, I'm in it to win it.
Tim: Everything I got here is manual.
Hell, we're smart enough to go buy a generator.
Narrator: It's hot stills and dirty deals...
I'm starting to believe that's a bribe.
Narrator: ...As three of america's best moonshiners battle
to bring their best jars to a public competition.
Tim: This first time I ever run still this small.
Gonna be the easiest $1,000 I ever made.
Narrator: Using the same corn mash and still set up...
It just got serious.
...The shiner with the best jar from this challenge
will get first pick of their ingredients
for the next flavor run.
What are you doing over there, poot?
I'm tampering.
Narrator: Over the course of a run, shiners make cuts
to separate the harsh high proof heads from the cleanest,
most desirable alcohol found in the hearts,
before reaching the lower proof, but flavorful tails.
The mark of a true master distiller
is how they choose to blend
these cuts for the final product,
including adding water to bring down the proof
in a process known as tempering.
Digger: I'm not a cuts guy.
I pull a little bit of the foul-tasting heads out,
run the back, and save me a little back ends
to use in the thump keg,
and then I spring water temper it.
When I got a good sweet jar...
...I just call it good and go turn my jar in.
Alright, one jar in, huh?
I wouldn't be ashamed to sell 10,000 cases of it.
Well, there you go.
So it's done come down to this, we have 1 hour left.
Time flies when you having fun, don't it?
Mark: Yeah, I wish it'd slow down just a dab.
I may have to turn my heat up a little bit then.
Tickle: Mm-hmm, you might have to.
I don't like to turn mine up.
I ain't gonna be where I need to be in an hour.
I ain't got no choice.
This is the time in every moonshiners
run when mistakes can be made very easily.
Mark: I turned mine up a little, tim.
Yeah, I turned mine up, too.
I don't like running it that high.
I've got it up to 200 degrees now.
That's actually about 10, 15 degrees higher than I like.
We've got a drip.
Finally, something's coming out.
I did make a little bit mistake.
I went ahead and filled my still up like
I was gonna make a whole full run,
but we're gonna get there.
I finally got a drip over here.
I'm a little crunched for time.
Pressure's on.
Tim: I'm running in the heads right now,
just trying to balance it out, trying to adjust my heat
a little bit, my worm condenser,
just make sure I got everything running right
before I really get serious with it.
I've caught just a few heads. I didn't catch many.
I don't know if I want to do any blending yet
or just wait until I get a sweet jar
and leave it at that. I don't know yet.
If I like it, then maybe everybody else will, too.
You got 5 minutes left.
Honk, we're running out of time, huh?
We sure as hell are.
Tim: I'm playing a game here with this alcohol.
I'm putting it in this container,
rather than putting it in a jar and putting a seal on it
because if you put the top on, another alcohol can vapor out,
so I'm actually letting some air get to it
and let some of that alcohol vapors come off of it,
letting it dissipate a little bit.
Hopefully it's gonna make a little bit smoother taste.
Pretty high proof,
but it's the way we did it in the woods.
Here you go, tickle. -All right.
That's the winner, tim smith, md.
-Md? Moonshine doctor? -Master distiller.
Master distiller!
Mark: Running out of time here. It's still at 120 proof.
Just a little touch of spring water
will bring it down really quick.
I just need one jar.
All right, mr. Ramsey.
All right, here we go.
Well, I've got a great idea on how we can keep this fair.
All right fellers, y'all can come on in here.
Tim: What you got going on here now?
I got a red one, a yellow one, and a blue one.
I've got the names covered up on top,
so we don't know whose is what.
Everybody vote for the jar they liked the best.
We don't know whose the hell either one of them is.
A blind taste test is extremely fair on this.
Honestly, if I taste a better jar of liquor than me,
I'll tip my hat to him.
This is gonna tell us who on your next run
gets to go into the pantry and pick all your goodies out...
-On our flavor.. -...On your flavored run.
That being said, let's start tasting.
Smells good.
♪
digger: Pretty good.
Tim: My jar, I could actually tell the flavor profile
because by me airing it out a little bit
and letting some of those vapors come off,
it actually made it smoother.
All right, now let's try the yellow jar.
Mark: That's pretty good jar of liquor right there.
Tim: Still smooth.
Tickle: The smell is very close, but on those two jars,
there's a definite difference in the flavor on them.
You know, I don't know how,
but I see this really being a cluster.
Nobody here is a rookie, and it shows right here in these jars.
Honestly, I couldn't tell a lot of difference in any of them.
The only thing that woulda really made any difference
to made it easier is if somebody'd scorched
their liquor, nobody scorched their liquor,
everybody run their liquor, fine.
I'd be proud to claim any of them jars.
-Any of them jars, yeah. -I think all of them are good.
Tim: All of them are very close to the taste profile,
but I got this.
I'm gonna go one, two, three -- red, yellow, blue.
I'm in 100% agreement with tim.
I'm pretty much there, too.
Red... -Red.
...Tastes better to me.
Okay.
The first person going into our pantry...
...Is tim smith.
Good job, tick, I knew you could do it.
Tim: It was kind of shocking that mark and digger
actually picked my jar. You know, it's kind of exciting.
These guys have been making moonshine longer than I have.
The second jar, much as I hate to admit it, is digger.
Tim: There.
Tickle: He done a fine job, which means...
Would you look how long it took me to get done.
-You can only got third. -Hey, I'm...
At least you got third place.
Tim's the winner and now I need to be worrying about him.
When we go to our pantry, tim will go in first,
digger will go in second,
and mark, if they leave you anything...
-If I got anything left. -...You go in third.
Thing about it is, you know, on the flip,
hell, I can't do no worse.
That's right. You know what?
You know, it can only get better.
I'm the first one to go to the pantry,
I've got 5 minutes. There's vegetables in here,
fresh fruit, and then, my eye goes to the horehound candy.
Thinking about grandma's recipe and making a cough syrup,
this is what I want.
Then I see all the other things I could add to it.
Then I see some things I really didn't know
if I needed to use it or not, but I grabbed it anyway
because I knew if I had them in my basket,
mark and digger can't use them.
Hey, this is a competition. I'm in it to win it, right?
Even though tim's tried to take everything out of the pantry
that he could to sabotage everybody,
he didn't take anything I needed, it's all right there.
He didn't get the cherries.
There they are, so I just gather up what I need.
I come out with three things in my basket and I'm done.
It ain't bad enough to come in third place, sad,
but they ain't left me [bleep].
I'm really grasping straws at this point.
I got to get whatever I cans.
I get a few bananas, some maple syrup, some pecans,
and I don't at this point have a clue what the hell
I'm gonna do with them,
but it's what I got, so I'll make something.
I don't know what it'll be just yet,
but I'll come up with something.
Narrator: Coming up...
-I'm trying to flavor. -Well, you need to.
Narrator: ...The recipes get heated...
Digger: I'm just worried about making enough to beat you.
Narrator: ...And paranoia boils over.
All of a sudden, I can't smell anything,
and then mark, he's like, "I got the same symptoms."
narrator: Three of america's best moonshiners are competing
for the ultimate bragging rights...
Finally, something's coming out.
...And $1,000 side bet.
Gonna be the easiest $1,000 I ever made.
Narrator: After the initial run of the house corn mash,
tim smith won first pick of the pantry for the next flavor run.
They ain't left me [bleep].
I'm in it to win it.
I'm really grasping straws at this point.
All right, y'all have one hour to make y'all flavors,
starting now.
Narrator: Moonshiners are forced to improvise their techniques
when operating in the backwoods.
For this challenge, the shiners must flavor the liquor
they collected in the first round
without the use of a still.
Mark: It's bad enough for me to come in third,
tim got every ingredient in the pantry.
Tim: Hey, you got to do what you got to do.
First come, first served is what they told me.
Didn't have enough faith in winning on your own.
Narrator: The resulting shine will be judged by the public
along with the moonshiner's own signature recipes.
Digger: Ain't making but a quart of liquor, tim, hellfire.
-I'm trying to flavor though. -You need to.
Mark: Maybe you need all that then to flavor that jar up.
I'm making my top secret recipe that I learned from my dad,
and the base is horehound.
Horehound's probably one of the oldest old-fashioned candies
that you ever see out.
So I'm using straight moonshine, no water,
but I'm using a container to heat my jar with inside.
You can see the color's already changing already.
Digger, what are you making?
I'm making the finest liquor
you've ever had the opportunity to taste.
We're cooking up our syrups to use for our flavors,
and all I needed was a steeping bag.
My cherries, I pulled the stems off
so they don't give any bitterness to it.
Put a little pectin in there
that I had to help break down the fibers in those cherries.
And I'll steep them, and the other stuff,
I'm not gonna tell you about.
I just knew it. That digger liked those cherries.
I should've grabbed those cherries,
and then he would've been lost.
Digger: Look at that purty bloody color.
Mark: I'm gonna make what I hope will be a maple, banana,
pecan pancake liquor.
I simply chop up some bananas,
dice up some pecans, put my maple syrup in it,
a little bit of water to thin it down,
and start simmering it real slow.
Squeeze out the renderings and see what I've got.
You never had nothing like this before.
Hope nobody catches me do it because next thing I know,
they're gonna know the recipe.
Tim: I use some different techniques to the other guys.
They put everything in a pot and cook it up like some soup.
Hey, I put my jar in the middle
and I melted down my candies in there,
and then I did the apples and stuff on the side.
Because you want to use that to water it down with,
and that adds a taste profile to it.
Oh, man, look at that run off that blade right there.
Boys, I don't know what I'm making here,
but it smells goosey pud.
Look at that stuff distilling right there.
Look at that, hmm? Look at that. -Look at it, what?
You ain't never seen nothing like that, huh?
That's open jar distilling. Smell that.
I can smell what tim's putting down over there,
and it don't smell good.
Whoo-wee!
I can smell what mark's putting down over there
and I can smell it, and it smells like breakfast cooking.
It smelled like pancakes fixing to hit the table.
Whoo, satan, get away from my door.
Tickle: What you got going on over here, digger?
This is what,
secret proprietary ingredients?
Yeah.
Yeah, wouldn't even tell your mama, would you?
Nope.
No, well, I can understand how that goes.
Course it'd be kind of tough,
you know, her being dead and everything.
Oh, well, well, that's the safest one to tell, then.
Fellers, good luck. Y'all have 5 minutes left.
-Oh, hell. -All right?
Tim: Hell, I'm about done anyway.
I don't smell anything y'all cooking.
I can't smell anything for all this good I got over here.
All I'm smelling is this right here.
Damn, boys, I wanted to beat you,
but I didn't want to beat you this bad.
♪
I'm done.
Well, I knew that before you ever got started.
This [bleep] right here is the recipe that stopped
the damn hatfield-mccoy feud.
-Stop it. -Stopped it.
I'm bringing an old fashioned recipe.
I would like to call it daddy's whole ham delight.
This is the winning jar, no doubt.
So I just made the best of a bad situation,
and I call it maple, banana, pecan pancake.
I like it a lot.
Look at that. It's beautiful, it's red.
This has probably stopped more divorces
than anything in east tennessee. It's love juice.
You get ahold of it, I don't give a damn
who you're mad at. Tim, I love you.
[ laughter ]
oh, my god.
All right, fellers, are you guys done here?
Yeah, I got the winning jar right here.
Well, I guess we'll see about that.
Tickle: All right, fellas. It has come down to this.
Right there's the winning jar, stevie ray tickle.
It's what I had to work with on the spur of the moment.
I'm happy with it.
I have to say, that ain't bad, right yonder.
That smells like the pancake pantry.
Tim: Mark's tastes pretty sweet.
It's got some "alchy-hol."
tim: You added some kind of syrup to it, didn't you?
Maple banana, with pecan.
Digger: There was 900 little cherries give up their all for that jar.
Pretty good right there.
But it ain't a very pretty jar of liquor though, is it?
Tickle: That doesn't mean that it ain't good.
Tastes a little bit red on my tongue.
Tickle: Digger, I hate to tell you this.
It reminds me a whole lot of a cough syrup.
Tastes like some koolaid.
I don't give a [bleep] what anybody calls it.
I know when I make it, I can't keep it.
It goes too fast.
Now, y'all done got all that out of the way,
let's taste the real stuff right here.
Daddy's horehound delight.
Whoa. Damn.
Digger: They call it horehound for a reason.
It looks like a dog that can't get nobody to love it.
Tim: You ain't never tasted nothing like that.
-You're right. -That's the real deal.
It's got bite.
It's got a little bit of bite to it, but she got a good flavor.
Taste that vanilla I put in there?
Digger: Can't taste it for the horehound.
I'd like it better if it had cooled off good.
I don't like horehound candies.
It tastes like a damn buffalo's ass to me.
Well, the way I see it, they all taste good.
Let the people decide it.
This jar right here is your flavored run,
and we'll have your run that's your own signature recipe.
-The last run. -The last run.
You do what you want to with it. That is your signature run.
It ain't none of their business what I'm doing.
Narrator: The final run...
Digger: I'm just worried about making enough to beat you.
Narrator: ...Leads to the final straw.
Tim: I mean, digger's killing us.
He's done sabotaged his best buddy for 42 years.
You guys done here?
Yeah, I got the winning jar, right here.
I guess we'll see about that.
Narrator: Three of the country's top shiners
are putting their reputations to the test
to see who can make the best liquor.
Look at that.
They'll each bring two jars to the table.
Mark: That's a pretty good jar of liquor.
Narrator: In the last challenge, they created a flavored shine.
For the final challenge, our distillers are crafting
a signature shine from scratch
to be judged by "moonshiners" fans in a blind taste test.
[bleep] I can make liquor in a coffee cup.
But with suspicions running high,
two of the shiners are insisting
on mashing in their original recipes side by side.
I ain't seen nobody offer no money up yet.
Wait a minute, now. I thought it was a friendly wager.
You can't win the wager if you don't win.
I hope so. I got $1,000 riding on this.
Hell yeah.
Digger: All I'm using is just plain old cherry pie filling,
a little bit of sugar just to boost the alcohol content,
and then an old strain of yeast we've used for some time now.
I can't be telling all my secrets,
but this right here helps the fruit along really good.
It's actually an enzyme that breaks down
some of the pectins in the fruit.
That's where your flavor's at. It's tasty.
You better have brought your "a" game, tim.
I'm making milkshake over here.
I don't know what you talking about.
I don't know what am I doing, but I tasted this right here,
I thought I'd cheated on my wife.
We're gonna make some peach cobbler.
Old fashioned recipe back from my grandmother, actually.
We always love eating peach cobbler.
My dad said, "why don't we turn it into a moonshine?"
peaches, some sugar, malted barley here.
We're gonna mix it up with the drill, add my yeast.
40 years been using the same yeast.
Yeah, you better hope you got yeast
to stand up all that sugar in there.
I hope so.
You know we got to have this done in five days.
That's a lot to be finishing up.
I'll be done in four.
Digger: I ain't worried about making a lot of liquor.
I'm just worried about making enough to beat you.
Tim: This comes out as good as that tastes right there,
we're gonna have something good.
Digger: [bleep] I've had people drink this cherry liquor,
and it changed their life.
Tim ain't no competition. I see what he's doing,
and I know where it's gonna end,
and it ain't gonna end well.
I need to be worrying about mark.
I wanted to do mine away from them
because it ain't none of their business what I'm doing.
I'm gonna make a mash to beat these other two farts.
They don't know it yet, but armageddon is on its way.
I'm gonna try to keep mine very, very simple.
Very little sugar, a maple base smash, white ground corn meal.
Not gonna use a lot of it. It does,
it smells like a pancake. I hope the good lord,
when I stand in front of my maker,
he can look at me and say, "mark, it was really fun
when you beat digger and tim smith".
Because that would be the ultimate prize.
Narrator: Once the yeast is added, the shiners have only five days
to allow for fermentation to occur.
If the ingredients are right,
the yeast will consume the sugars
and starches in the mash,
releasing alcohol as a byproduct.
If the alcohol levels in the mash reach 10% to 20%,
the yeast will die off, and it's ready to distill.
An incomplete fermentation will result in low proof shine
and affect the final flavor.
Fellas, this is y'all signature mash, y'all's final run.
What we've got here is the trophy
that y'all are going to be playing for.
It's a little baby still.
I believe you two fellers has got a little side bet
of $1,000 going on right here.
Y'all have 4 hours to get us a jar
to get out into the tasting room.
All right? Your time starts...
Now.
My trophy.
You leave that alone.
-Boy, that smells good. -Tell you what, digger,
that is definitely a great tasting mash.
Do you know what you just did?
-What's that? -You tasted the winning mash.
♪
just so cold. Oof.
I'm running an old fashioned peach cobbler brandy.
I'm running it cold.
It's looking good, it smells good.
Mark: I'm gonna try it. Might put fruit in there.
-Thumper. -Thumper.
Hey, I may put a little bit in mine, too.
Digger put some cherries into his thumper, so I thought,
"well, why shouldn't I just put some peaches in?"
kind of enhance the flavor just a little bit.
It's competitive, we're in a contest,
so I don't want to be left out in the cold here.
♪
the majority of the flavoring in it is maple and vanilla.
My nose is so stopped up, I can't even smell my mash.
One thing I feel just a tiny bit handicapped about today is,
I'm gonna be turning in a jar of liquor
that I don't have any idea
what it smells like or tastes like.
I tell you what, I can taste the maple in there.
It's gonna be so damn good
you'll have to lay down to drink it.
Well I tell you what, I'm looking forward to it.
All right, fellas, 1 hour.
I've made cherry brandy for 30 years.
My go-to recipe, it's illegal in seven states.
Is it?
I've got a secret weapon in my holster.
Tim ain't got a clue what's coming his way.
You got 5 minutes, fellers.
-5 minutes? -No, no, no. I'm just kidding.
Y'all still got plenty of time.
Damn, we got to send him back to school.
Well, if we got 5 minutes you know what you got over here?
Three losers.
Have you got liquor?
Digger: I got wicker.
Ain't nothing wrong with that except need to run
a little bit out, start getting into that sweet [bleep].
You got wicker? -It's coming in by pairing.
Mark got a cold, he's stopped up.
He can't smell, he can't taste.
Then I looked over here and tim's starting to sniffle,
and snot, and whine about it a little bit.
Tim: All of a sudden I can't smell anything.
Then mark, he's like, "I can't smell anything neither.
I can't taste anything."
and I'm like, "I got the same symptoms."
you got any wicker, tim?
Tim: No, we got a little pee coming out.
Tim: Both of us are coming down with the flu symptoms
while we're running a still,
so I'm thinking, "man, what's wrong with digger?"
he's like, "I'm good. Nothing's wrong with me."
mark: You're coming at you, puss.
Digger: I'm [bleep] like a buffalo.
I'm thinking, "sabotage again."
I mean, he's done rubbed something off onto mark.
Then mark's done rubbed it off onto me or something.
It's hard to make those cuts.
I mean, you can't smell it, you can't taste it.
I mean, what else you gonna do?
Only thing I can do is look at it.
I mean digger's killing us. He's killing both of us.
He's done sabotaged mark, his best buddy for 42 years.
Tickle: I hate to tell you all this
but y'all done got a half hour left now.
-What? Half hour? -Yes. All right.
-You sure your clock's right? -I am 100% sure.
♪
I'm just gonna wait and pull my secret weapon
out when the time comes.
Is this your 19th time through here?
Narrator: The shiners present the cream of the crop...
Looks like you got a damn jar of pepto-bismol.
Tim: It's a kid's drink.
Narrator: ...For a shot at the trophy, the glory,
and the $1,000 prize.
Y'all voted for what you liked.
And I reckon everybody liked...
You in here? Tim?
When I get up here, I can't find no damn body.
That's a good batch. It's ready to run, too.
Hey.
Oh, yeah.
I actually found me a jar of moonshine,
so I didn't find tim, but hell, a jar of moonshine's
just as good I reckon. That'll do.
That'll do right there. Yeah, yeah. That aught to do.
If you can't take it don't lay it out.
Narrator: Three of america's most notorious moonshiners
are finishing a run of their best signature shines.
[bleep] like a buffalo.
The resulting jars will be judged by moonshiners' fans
in a blind taste test to determine once
and for all whose shine is finest.
That's getting into some tails come out of that right now,
which is giving me some good flavor.
Tim: It looks good. Best I can tell it tastes good
and it smells good.
We both done lost that. I turn around and I look,
mark and digger's over in the corner making milkshakes.
Mark: I've got a surprise for them, so...
-Say, you do? -Well I think I do.
I got one last trick up my sleeve.
I brought my cream with me. I call it winter fest
because it tastes so much like,
and reminds me of when I was a kid, snow cream.
I think it's gonna be so good
but I might have plans for it somewhere down the road.
That [bleep] right there will cure anything
from itchy ankles to sore [bleep].
Time to pull my secret weapon out.
My cherry vanilla cream. Everybody begs for it.
60% of the moonshine consumer market is a woman.
You've got probably 20% to 25%
that either have boyfriends that are trying to impress them,
they're gonna vote their way, or they got henpecked husbands.
I know where I'm going with this.
I'm shooting for that target market.
What are you sick?
Look like you got a damn jar of pepto-bismol over there.
I mean, no way they're going to come out with a pepto-bismol
and put it on the table as moonshine.
Your final run of moonshine? No way.
Digger: People might say, "it's not making true moonshine liquor."
yeah, it is. I start with the moonshine liquor.
I take it to a higher level
because if you're gonna be successful in this market,
you're gonna adapt.
I'm not just some dumb hillbilly moonshiner.
Tim: It's a kid's drink, right? It's a kid's drink.
If you put it in the freezer it'll freeze solid.
That's one fresh jar of peach brandy.
Okay, fellers, we have one jar in.
Here comes the winning jar of cherry vanilla sipping cream.
All right.
We're just waiting on yours, brother.
We're getting down to the wire now.
You know how brave I am?
I'm bringing you the winning jar,
and I don't have any idea what it tastes like.
-All right. -It is nice and light.
-Snow cream. -Awww.
Narrator: For the final judgment, each distiller
has two jars in the competition.
Their flavored house shine and their own special recipe.
Tim smith, mark ramsey,
and digger will be competing for this trophy still.
We have alcohol a, alcohol b, and we have alcohol c.
There may be about $1,000 side bet on this, too.
Narrator: The distiller with the most votes
after two rounds of tasting wins
the entire competition and the $1,000 side bet.
-Y'all enjoying it so far? -Yes.
A was a distinct flavor. It was wonderful, smooth.
I didn't like it too much. Had a little texture to it.
I liked b. I think it was my favorite.
Really well balanced. -I tasted cherry and cinnamon.
And those are just really strong, good flavors.
They were my favorite.
They're enjoying the hell out of yours.
You might have to have to give them more sippy cups.
Man: The nose was really good on it,
so I had some really great expectations.
The finish was not as great. It was actually a little chunky.
C, it kind of reminded me a little bit more about apple pie.
It had like a pop of flavor at the end.
It's supposed to be 20 people,
so there should be 20 cups over there.
Maybe the damn first two were so bad they didn't want another.
C was way too strong.
I got a whole thing still left over there.
Maybe you had more to start with.
-Somebody's cheating. -Hell, it's you.
Tim: What you talking about, I'm standing over here.
All right folks, this next round that we've got,
without further ado, let's bring on the moonshine.
A was just kind of mediocre.
Man: It had a nice balance of sweet and strong,
so it felt sort of like a smoky mountain christmas to me.
Very easy going down.
Ma'am, is this your 19th time through here?
-24th. -24th. Oh, okay.
All right.
B was the one I liked the best.
-You could taste the cherry. -It was very flavorful.
Man: Had a little bit of a bitter finish to it,
which to me was detracting.
It had a smooth taste. In fact, I'd feed it to a baby.
I thought about my wife, she'd probably like that a lot.
Digger: I'm watching them going through, tasting it.
I'm seeing the big eyes on the women,
and turn around and tellin' her husband,
"this is even better."
tickle: Get your votes in right down here.
God knows I would help you all out or I can't count later on.
Tickle needs to fill up some on the a slot.
After you drink 20 that's it, you don't get no more.
That's enough votes.
Well, hell, why not, right?
Hell, I believe I'd vote for that one.
C was like a true moonshine.
A little too strong.
You could tell it definitely come from the backwoods.
The peach did come through. It has a good flavor.
Hoo, because you taste it from your tongue to your tummy.
You know what? I ain't gonna lie to you,
I'll vote for that one, too.
-Should have been even. -Here we go. Calling a foul.
What's that noise again?
I keep hearing that crying baby again.
It's a foul.
All right, well, hell, I reckon the only thing left for me to do
is count all this up.
♪
does he know his abcs?
Tim: Hell, he ain't got to shuffle them.
What comes out is what comes out.
This one's gonna be a lot closer than what I was thinking.
You all come up here.
I'm gonna win. I mean, how else can I lose?
Hey, I'm getting a new set of tires.
Mark: I'm not scared of either one of them.
Mark is winning the still.
I'm confident but I'm not certain.
You all voted for what you liked.
And I reckon everybody likes pepto-bismol.
Digger!
[ cheering ]
you know, I mean, I'm humble.
I don't take anything for granted.
[ cheering ]
I work hard at this. I don't think it's easy.
Congratulations, my brother.
Tim: I don't know where his recipe came from,
but, hey, people voted on it, it was fair.
The old liquor men that I've known since I was just a kid,
they were always the ones that were first in line to give.
They helped somebody out when they were in need.
And we're gonna auction this off
and give it to the wounded warrior project.
Amen!
[ cheering ]
I've said it for years, there's a lot of people
made way more liquor than I have,
but I'm good at what I do.
Tim smith, he and I've got $1,000 side bet.
[ laughter ]
I guess I'm gonna have to go sell my tires.
You made a bet and didn't have no money on you?
I was planning on winning.
[ laughter ]