Original subtitles

Tax-free liquor's got the backwoods booming.

- Taking all my money. - You're getting all my liquor.

So, you're needing some liquor, are you?

Yeah, at least 100 gallons.

Drawing in the wise.

What are you trying to say?

Are you trying to say you're going illegal?

If I just sit and do nothing,

I'm gonna lose everything.

And the reckless.

You called her on an open line.

To gamble their freedom on the lure of easy money.

That joker is following us, Tickle.

Because when you let the scent of this much cash drift through

these hollers...

Somebody out there selling liquor at damn

rock-bottom prices.

The government's bound to come sniffing.

Ah, [bleep].

Along with every carpetbagger

and counterfeiter chasing a quick score.

Can I help you?

- You made this liquor, right? - Yes, sir.

Fellers like this here, you got to deal with them

pretty rough.

Now, new faces arises to stir the proverbial pot.

We don't drink no moonshine. That stuff is from the devil.

Hell-bent on fanning the flames of tension

older than the hills themselves.

- What the hell is this? - Bullet holes.

That's a Bible verse.

Out here, the real fight is always more than money.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red.

At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth

like an adder.

It's a battle for the spirit of the backwoods.

Corn liquor, what Digger and myself cut our teeth on.

- Hot damn - Made in the woods.

You can't beat that.

And a way of life built on heritage and tradition.

Right now, we shouldn't be taking no chances.

I'm gonna grab what we can right quick and get

the hell out of here.

I'm thinking, is someone gonna arrest us?

Somebody going to shoot us? Or what's going to happen?

Henry, Henry, help. God dang it.

The cops will be here in a minute.

Oh, oh [bleep].

Damn, all mighty. Come on.

Everything's gone.

This is how we make the moonshine.

- What are you doing, Tim? - Taping, man.

I'm glad y'all showed up.

What'd you call us down here to do a tape job?

No. I got something come up,

and I'm gonna need some help.

I need, like, 1,000 gallons made.

That's what I need.

That's the deal.

I ran into this gentleman.

He's actually from Canada.

We started talking about moonshine and liquor and stuff.

Next thing I know, I've got $20,000 in my hand.

Get half up front, the other half at

the end of the day.

I just need to get the stuff made.

What are you trying to say?

Are you trying to say you're going illegal?

In Culpeper County, Virginia, as the commercial

whiskey business suffers under tariffs and decreasing demand,

former outlaw turned legal distiller Tim Smith grapples

with an existential quandary.

The cash in the moonshine market suddenly seems

a lot greener on the outlaw side.

The Canadians, they want to buy American whiskey

and moonshine, but the tariffs, the price is, like, double.

So, if we can introduce this on a black market where we don't

have any tariffs charges on it, I can make some money,

and my buyer, he can, too. - You got a lot to lose.

You know, you've been rocking and rolling here

for ten years or more, legally.

You sure you want to do this thing, Tim?

Well, that's the thing.

The legal business is not so good right now.

That's right.

You've got to pay the federal government off for you

to just make alcohol,

and then you've got to pay every state to sell the alcohol,

and then you've got to give the distributor their part,

and then the retailer gets

their part, and by the time you get done with that,

you won't get no money.

Twelve years ago, Tim and his best friend Tickle ran one of

the biggest illegal moonshine operations in Virginia.

I'd say, the average moonshiner can make about

$30,000 in three months.

Oh, yeah.

We need to start loading this up.

But facing the prospect of life in jail, Tim made

a reluctant decision to invest in a licensed distillery.

That way I can make moonshine, I can keep on the heritage,

and make money without worrying about getting arrested.

Now, with no way to earn a living in the legal market,

all bets are off.

I just got an opportunity to make some money,

and the only way to do it is illegal, because you can't

make it legal.

Well, you know, you got to be careful.

You know, Mark almost got busted last year.

Yeah, I know, but I ain't Mark, and I ain't Digger

neither, and I got you two guys that I know you got my back.

I'm just thrilled to be back out in the woods with Tim.

Well, you're with the right two guys here.

That's right.

Look, let's start throwing what you got in the truck.

This journey, you know, over a decade now of being

legal, which I've always wanted to do.

I wanted to bring my dad's recipe to light.

I did that. I put it on the shelf.

But, you know, you get $30 for that little bottle,

and you profit 65 cents.

You lead the way, and me and Henry will follow you, all right?

Just follow me.

To make profit, you got to get cash money.

And cash money is no taxes.

No taxes mean you're breaking the law.

- All right. - What do you think, Henry?

This is way back in here. I mean, that's security there.

I'm going back to some old territories growing up as a kid.

You know, it still has not been developed.

It is out there.

That's some fresh water coming in right up there.

It comes down through here.

It brings back memories, but it also, you know,

it raises a hair up on your back.

You start thinking about, is somebody watching you?

Is it somebody out there in those woods, you know,

just waiting for you when you unload?

I got about four weeks. Thousand gallons.

Got to have a whole lot more than that.

Well, I mean, we got to put more stills in.

And then we'll be running, setting up, running,

setting up, running, mashing. - Do it like we did back in the old days.

- Four weeks, we'll be done. - Let's do it.

- Let's get them unloaded. - Yeah, let's get them unloaded.

Sometimes it comes a time in your life you have to

make a decision.

- Come on down with us. - I got it.

Because if I just sit here and do nothing, I'm gonna

lose everything. Right now, we need some money.

I'm not gonna let this legacy go down.

I just hope I don't get caught.

You with the right two.

Don't worry. That's why we're here.

- That's why we're here. - Y'all ready?

Let's roll on.

We've pushed our luck way further than

we ever should have. - I know we have,

but that still don't kill the feeling of

wanting to do what we've done every spring for so many years.

Deep in the hills of Cocke County, Tennessee,

the first warm days of spring lure lifelong moonshiners Mark

and Digger back to the woods.

We achieved our goal.

We had all these teams of making liquor, but that could

have been our mistake.

Put your hands up on the car there.

After their last season ended in handcuffs,

the legendary outlaws face a harsh reality.

There's little doubt local law enforcement is already

tracking their every move.

You know, we made the really hard decision to shut

our whole operation down.

We packed up all the stills, the equipment that

we rounded up, and we put it in storage.

Gonna be real mixed emotions seeing all these stills, ain't it?

Yeah, do we keep pushing it or do we let up?

I don't know.

I'm not sure which direction's the wrong one.

We're gonna go look at these stills.

We're gonna decide what we're gonna do.

I think it needs further discussion as to

where we're gonna go into making liquor this year.

Have mercy.

Well, there they are, just the way we left them.

We look at these stills kind of like a hunting hound dog.

A hound dog that ain't permitted to hunt is in misery.

And I can't help but think that these stills somehow or another

know they're supposed to be making liquor.

I mean, it just ain't right to have all these nice stills

sitting here making no liquor. - Yeah.

Would we be tempting fate if we keep pushing our luck?

It's a hard decision to make, but I'm wanting to light one of

them up so bad I can't stand it, and I know Puss is, too.

Let me tell you what, let me make a suggestion.

One of our dearest and oldest friends in the liquor business

has never been caught, never been handcuffed.

- I'm talking about JB Rader. - Yep.

What do you say we go talk to JB

about it? - All right, I'll go for that.

If there is such a thing as a living legend,

JB is it in the moonshine business.

Popcorn, he got caught.

JB never did. If I want marital advice,

I don't ask somebody that's been divorced seven times.

Let's see if we can run JB down, Puss.

Let's go see Rader.

We were supposed to be down deep.

Got to get down into the bedrock, which we really

ain't there yet.

Four counties southeast, fifth-generation moonshiner

Josh Owens also heeds spring's call of the woods.

After a long recovery from a near-fatal motorcycle accident,

Josh is finally ready to restart his own

moonshine operation.

But until his new partner arrives to help set up

the copper stills, he's got another precious metal

on his mind.

I've heard all my life about my ancestors finding gold in

these mountains and these hills and these creeks

and these rivers around here,

and to be able to make some liquid money and some

solid money at the same time, I don't think it'd get

any better than that.

Freeze.

Where you at?

Scared the [bleep] out of me.

It feels dang good to be back home, back to my roots,

back to my heritage.

A few years ago, I was in a motorcycle wreck.

Just about took me out of here.

It's been a really long road to recovery.

But now that I'm feeling pretty good, it's time to get

my liquor still back up and running

and start making some money.

What are you doing?

Man, let me tell you something.

- Uh-huh. - There's a lot of people before me

made a living off of gold in these hills,

and I was really hoping I could find some gold

in these hills my damn self.

I've known Chuk for a few years now.

A while back, I went down to Arkansas, helped him

put together a still, get his whole entire operation

up and running.

Things are coming around full circle, because now he is

up here helping me.

Well, it looks pretty as always down here.

Is this not the best still site ever?

You can't whoop it with a stick.

We've got good, clean spring water.

Oh.

Did you hear that?

Got to be on your toes out here.

I guess it was a... I don't know.

All right, now don't start that [bleep].

You'll get me shook up before we even get started.

I've really been on the edge since Mark and Digger about got

busted by the law last year.

I think all of us moonshiners are a little more jumpier

than usual. And that's another reason

I wanted Chuk out here.

I need another set of eyes and ears.

Anyway, I got a large order for some cherry rye and really

good lineup on some grains.

On my grandpa's side of the family, we're famous for

cherry whiskey. Believe it or not,

I haven't made it in years, but now that

I'm back home, there is a huge market waiting for it.

It's gonna put a ton of money in our pocket.

- You ready to hustle? - Hell yeah, I am.

- Nice. - I think we're fixing to

build something that's real big here,

and I'm excited to be here.

So, hey, we're about to get right to work.

Ain't no time to waste.

Oh, Lord.

You know, JB, he's got a lot of sense.

He's back here at one of the very first stillsites that

Popcorn ever had. - Yeah.

You know, me and Digger, we're headed to seek advice

from JB.

This was the place where Popcorn ran liquor back when

he first started out before he got big, when he was

just learning the trade.

You know, Popcorn, he felt safe here, and obviously he was for

a long, long time. I guess that's why JB's here.

This was the pull-off right here,

it's just "growed" up now. - Yep, here we are.

We just need to see him and get some advice from him.

JB ain't never been caught.

He's never spent a night in jail,

so he's the one we need to ask. - I would agree.

You know, JB' 's made as much liquor as anybody.

He's never ended up in handcuffs like us.

That's the guy we need to go talk to about how to

keep on making liquor.

Well, if we'd been the law, you'd be in handcuffs

right now. - We coming in on you, boss.

Hey, Digger. Hey, Mark.

Boy, that cooling tub is staying cold. - Yeah, right.

That water's turning over fast, ain't it?

- Yeah. - Well, all right.

Well, JB, me and old Digger, we're at a crossroads here.

We've been shut down for six months.

We ain't made a drop of liquor. And we need some advice.

Yeah, I know what's the matter.

You got too big for your damn britches.

Boys made the same mistakes that Popcorn did.

He said, "What you're doing's against the law."

I said, "I know it."

I said, "I don't give a goddamn."

Legendary Appalachian moonshiner Popcorn Sutton

was a mentor to Mark and Digger.

But as his fame grew, so did his belief that

he was untouchable.

He flouted the law, operating illegal stills

in the open, increasing his liquor output exponentially,

and selling moonshine to anyone and everyone until the walls of

justice finally closed in on him.

Yeah, Popcorn just got too big, like yuns.

- Yep. - Making the same mistakes.

Yeah, I didn't put it into contrast because we kind of

thought we was a little bit slicker than the next man.

Yeah.

That's what he thought, too.

So tell us what we need to do.

Just tell us right out what you think our move

needs to be, JB.

There ain't many backwoods moonshiners left.

We need to keep it going.

Just keep making liquor, but be smarter.

Back to basics. Just put you a small pot out,

or one barrel, and you know

who you can sell to and you can't.

I think this is perfect scenario.

You're sitting here with you a little still, all for yourself,

making what you can sell. - Yep.

Ain't getting rich, but, you know, growed up

not rich, so what the hell do I need to get rich now for?

That's why we came to you, Obi-Wan.

- That's why we came to you. - I love you, baby.

I love you back.

The Mark and Digger Enterprises is now shut down.

It's just gonna be me and Mark.

We're going back to just an old single pot, and we're making

corn liquor. That's it, plain and simple.

- Well, he put it in perspective for us, didn't he? - Yeah,

and it was laying right in front of us the whole time.

We're just too damn stupid to look ourselves.

I can't wait for you to see this.

I'm so excited.

We're going to get some of the best grains

in North Carolina. We're about to make some frickin' Carolina rye cherry.

This is probably one of the best grain distributors

anywhere in the South, and I got a friend that

works there. He's their delivery guy.

So all I got to do is meet up with him.

We're gonna buy some.

It's the beginning of the season.

I'm excited because I already got a tall order, and it's for

cherry rye, and I'm ready to make some money.

See that white truck right there?

Whenever he comes out of there and gets in that truck,

we're gonna follow him out of here.

He'll be on his delivery running from this distillery

to that distillery.

Somewhere in the middle there, we'll grease the wheel.

Some of that grain's gonna fall right in the back of

this truck.

Don't nobody have a problem with cash money.

We're trying to save money any way we can.

We're gonna get a better deal by just dealing with my buddy

here off the back of the truck.

There he is right there.

Oh, yeah, he's loading it up, too.

Yeah, here he comes right there.

Is he getting in the truck, or is he-- what's he doing?

Looks like he's getting in.

Big money truck.

Here he comes.

High pursuit.

We got the subject heading westbound on the rural road,

and we're about to run up on him, get all the grains,

and go back to the woods. - Oh, yeah.

So you know where this old boy's heading?

I really don't, but there's about 100 damn

breweries up here, but he's got to be stopping at one of the son-of-a-guns.

You think he's gonna have enough of what we need on there?

If he's got ten bags of rye, we're in business.

Yeah. Looks like he's pulling up in here.

Looks like that little alley or something right there.

I'm gonna run up here and talk to him real quick.

This brewery we're stopping at, it looks good.

Don't look like there's a ton of people around.

It looks like just the right spot.

I'll be right back.

- What's up, man? - What's going on, man?

How are you?

That's a good sign.

Is this a good place to get some grains from you?

- Got cash? - Yeah.

I need some rye.

I got 300 on me. How much you give me for 300?

I think we could let seven bags fall off for 300 bucks.

Let them fall.

I've only got 300 bucks, but he said he'd give it to me

for 300, so game on.

There's three bills right there.

- You want me to back over here? - Yeah, go on back and on in.

- All right. - Oh, yeah.

He's walking back with a smile on his face.

The best part about all this is, is now we gotta hook up on

premium grains for our entire season that nobody else is

gonna be able to get their hands on, and that's just

gonna take us to a whole new level.

That's it. Next couple weeks,

I'm definitely gonna be coming back, if that's all right.

- You bring the cash. - Oh, man, it's on.

Now we need to get some cherries.

That's worth its weight in gold, Bro.

Make liquor, make money.

Come on back, big boy.

That's good. Good.

Last night we came in,

we bought some still parts,

and today we're gonna go in

and we're gonna mash that still in.

I want to get something in that works, because I got

1,000 gallons I got to have, and I only got four weeks.

Now, tell me where you want to go with this thing, Tim?

We got to put more stills in here.

- It's just the first one. - First one?

- First one can go here. - Let's do it.

There's a snake coming out of there.

Well, you know, it's been 14 years since I've been

in the woods.

I don't know if I made the right decision or not.

You know, I may even lose my license, get put in jail.

Forgot how much work it is out here, ain't it?

Going to prison at anyone's age, that's kind of

scary anyway.

You know, at my age, I really don't want to be

going to prison.

But this is what I know how to do.

I know how to make liquor. I can make money.

I feel like I'm carrying a casket.

I feel like I'm carrying both of y'all.

Looks pretty good over here.

Yeah, let's get that pump running, get the water in that

thing, get it swelled up.

- Now we talking, baby. - We need the grain first.

We're not using no special recipe here.

This is just plain, bootleg moonshine liquor.

Some corn and sugar.

We're just mixing it in, putting the yeast in it,

and letting it work.

How's it feel, Tim, to be out here dissolving this sugar?

It's nice. A little bit stressful.

I mean, it's looking good because we got one still

set up, we're gonna start bringing more in each day

and mashing in.

Y'all ready to go grab the next pot?

- Go get some more stuff. - Four weeks.

I mean, this is plenty of time if we can get these stills set up.

A few days later, we'll come back and set up

a thump and water box.

And get them old stills moving, too.

Hold it, Tim. What the hell is this

coming down through here?

Uh-oh.

I don't know who that is.

I don't like this at all.

- Tim Smith. - Oh, Charlie Wright.

What in the world are you doing down in here?

Well, we're just looking over some property down here.

You know, I got some land down here.

A friend of mine's got some land down here.

- Oh, so you got permission to be down in here? - Yeah.

I'd love to see y'all come to church.

OK. Well, may have to do that.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll see if we can't make things right.

What are you doing with a gun and stuff?

I was trying to do some turkey hunting.

I'm a redneck preacher, man. We do hunting and fishing.

OK.

We don't drink no moonshine, though.

You know, that stuff is from the devil, man.

You need to, I don't know, you need to change your life.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just the one

I grew up in, and it's kind of a heritage.

Well, you know, I grew up, and my family was in moonshine,

and when I got old enough to make a choice for my own,

I quit. - Yeah.

- OK. - Sound like a deal?

We'll see what we can do about it.

I'll be looking to see y'all this Sunday.

- Good meeting you. - Good meeting you.

- Y'all be careful out there. - You be careful, too.

- God dang, man. - That was good and bad.

Jesus Christ.

It's a story old as time.

The law versus the moonshiners.

But there's more to this story than what

a lot of people realize.

There are people out here in this world that just,

in general, frown upon the making of liquor,

the selling of liquor, the drinking of alcohol,

and you know what?

They're entitled to that opinion.

He told you plainly, you need to be

changing your ways.

Well, I have been changing my ways.

That's how I got here.

Sat back here and I was quiet.

I've been in woods all of my life, except for the last

decade, and it's got complicated.

Moonshiners can get attacked by a special ABC agent,

law enforcement, state police, all those agencies out there,

but not someone's gonna confront you.

You know, they're preachers against alcohol.

I mean, that's all it is to it.

When he puts the word of God on you, that's some pressure

right there. That is some pressure.

That's not like, "I'm gonna arrest you."

That's like, "I'm gonna make sure your soul

goes to heaven or not."

I ain't seen you guys in a while.

It's been a spell.

You know, the past few days have been pretty tough on us,

laying off our entire staff, everyone that worked for us,

with the exception of Amanda and Kelly.

Basically, we ain't made, none of us

made no liquor in six months.

I mean, there ain't no way of sugarcoating it.

We're under the gun. Y'all are, too.

- We're a liability to y'all. - I've said that for years.

Well, it just got real now.

Last couple of years, we've been running

a big moonshine organization.

We had teams working for us, a lot of teams making

a lot of liquor. I'm feeling real conflicted

about cutting ties with Amanda and Kelly, but it's time.

On the advice of JB Rader,

we're cutting loose all the teams.

What does that mean, you've dropped all the teams?

We've cut everybody loose. We're a liability to everybody.

Given with the interaction with law enforcement and all

the teams we got out there drawing attention to us,

we're exercising extra precautions this year.

We're doing our due diligence on security.

That's an old, burner phone.

You call if you need anything.

The first number that's in the saved phone number,

that's the phone I've got right now.

Feel free to use any of our recipes.

Make yuns of all the money you can, but be safe doing it.

I mean, we want to run liquor.

You know all these stills are in here.

Pick what you need, take what you want.

So it's not as bad as it could have been.

We're not completely cut off.

We still get to use all the equipment we've had access

to in the previous years.

And thankfully, they've kept one lifeline to me and Kelly,

and I really, really appreciate that.

The holy grail of moonshine.

Why don't we just take one right now, and I'm gonna have

the key, and if we need some more stuff, we can come back at

any time and get what we want? - I'd keep my head low.

Hey, yuns have at it as you see fit.

I recommend you guys setting up as far away as you can

practically, you know, maybe even over in

western North Carolina somewhere.

Out of state would be a smart place to go.

It's y'all's bus.

You take it up the route you want to go.

They're out on their own, and we wish them the best.

But we've come to terms with it.

We're gonna mash in to total liquor.

We're gonna be down to Mark and Digger.

Man, it's a good feeling to know we got

these grains already.

So, all we got to do is just get some cherries,

and then [bleep], we're ready to roll.

It's the beginning of the season.

Already got a tall order, we got some great Carolina rye.

Now, we need to get some cherries.

He wants a large order of cherry whiskey.

We're about to make some dollars, man.

Yes, sir.

We're going to the farmer's market, where I've gone a bunch

of times, and I've got more fruit than you can

shake a stick at, and I'm ready to get some cherries

and go make some money.

Oh, yeah, this is a big-old operation.

I love this place.

- How's it going, bud? - Good, how are you?

Yeah, we're great, man.

- Hey, we need some cherries. - A little too early.

- Cherries. - I knew it was a little early,

but the farmer's market's always got what I need.

Well, there's a guy down below down here that has that

shipped in. He might have some.

OK, great. Thank you very much.

I've been coming up here friggin' 14 or 15 years,

and they've always had exactly what I wanted.

This time, they don't have what I need.

He says we're four or five weeks too early that if there

are any, they're down below at the bottom.

- How you doing, buddy? - Doing well.

- How you doing? - I'm doing pretty good.

I'm looking for some cherries.

We're going for a world record on

the world's largest cherry pie.

- Well, you're about a month too early. - I know it, man,

but I know you guys probably can have some.

I'm sorry, but there's a warehouse

full of options.

Happy to go let you take a look.

Raspberries, maybe blackberries.

Find something that works for you.

OK. All right.

What are the odds of me getting an order for some cherry rye

and it being, like, within five weeks of not having

any [bleep] cherries? That makes no sense.

- Hey, hey. - Hey, whatcha doing?

- How you doing, man? - Good, how about yourself?

The fella outside said to come out here that y'all had

all kind of stuff out here.

What I really need is some cherries, man.

We got some blackberries, raspberries.

- Yeah. - What are they looking like?

- You want to see them? - Yeah.

They got raspberries, strawberries,

blackberries, but they don't have any doggone cherries.

Mmm. Sweet, too.

- Oh, man, those are sweet. - Mmm.

Raspberries.

If I had to pick between the two, it'd be the blackberry.

Sounds like you got a choice to make.

Well, it's not exactly what we're supposed to be doing.

- Mm-hmm. - Um,

let's either take the blackberries or leave it.

It's just my luck.

Got a kick-start on the season, got a big order fulfilled.

Just when I think I'm fixing to kill it and everything's going

great and I'm about to hit a home run, I usually get hit

in the head like I'm taking a home run.

But I'm not gonna let that stop me.

Right now, we can't make a cherry pie.

We're just gonna have to make a blackberry pie.

I like blackberry pie.

I know my customers ask for cherry rye, and it may be risky

to make some blackberry rye, but there's no cherries.

We'll take out half a pallet of blackberries right there.

I'm gonna go around and get the truck.

- OK, we'll do it. - Appreciate it.

We made a damn executive decision.

I guarantee that he's gonna want to buy some more

blackberry rye when it's over.

Thank you, Mr. Allen.

- Back in the hills. - We in a good place, man.

This is a good still site. We got great water here.

We got great ingredients.

As long as we can stay out of jail, we'll make money.

Money, money, money.

This fella wants some cherry rye.

We didn't get cherries, but we damn for sure got

some really, really, really good blackberries.

I want to get this baby fired up as quick as we can.

Yeah.

And I got to make this deal.

Right now, we're just gonna have to take a chance

because I really don't want to lose the customer.

Looky there.

- Son, would you look at that. - Oh, I tell you.

I would almost rather eat them.

- Are these not great? - They are.

God dang.

I tell you what, I know cherries are good,

but these are just as good. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Let's get mashed in.

Oh, yeah, she ready.

We normally just mash right into the sub pot, but rye is

notorious for scorching.

It's gonna stick to the bottom and ruin your whole run.

So what we're gonna do, we're gonna mash in,

in the tote, be done with it.

I'm a little unprepared.

- Mm-hmm. - Normally, I'd have a piece of

pipe in there with a little ball valve on it,

and I can cut it off and on.

I forgot I needed that ball valve.

So we're doing it the old-fashioned way.

- The old traditional way. - Yep.

So I had to go the old-school way.

We had to go to dumping a five-gallon bucket

down in a still...

Oh [bleep], fire truck.

...burning our knuckles,

burning our arms.

Shoo.

Man, you wanna talk about tough.

Them old fellas, they earned it.

A little corn.

Putting this corn in the pot at near boiling temps,

you're just breaking down all those starches in it,

you know, and that's gonna turn into sugar,

which is food for the yeast to make the alcohol.

Rye's known for being mean. It's got such a bite to it.

So we're adding a little bit of corn to it just to kind of

break it up some.

- Rye, baby, rye. - All right, here we go.

Come here, hoe.

Rye whiskey, rye whiskey. Lord, don't let me down.

Yeah.

I bet he was a character, wasn't he?

Man, old Tim Tom was a character.

You have no idea.

Man, I'd have loved to have met him.

We don't hold a candle to him.

I'm telling you right now, I guarantee you,

he's rocking it out in Heaven, you know what I mean?

Running liquor, boy.

Man, this Carolina rye has a certain aroma on it that's

different than any other rye, so I can tell why

it's so special.

I'm gonna dump some berries in there.

You know, when you got unique grains and unique flavors,

and you're able to do these different combinations,

out here in the woods like this,

this is how you take over the market.

- The magic dust. - Nice.

Oh, mm.

Hey, you know that thing they do with the boat where

they break the bottle of champagne or wine over the back

of the boat? - Uh, christen it.

We just christened our season.

And one's gonna try to rain on us, now the sun's back out.

Hey, shining down on us right now.

- Ah. - Yeah, let's get it covered up and get out of here.

JB, he knows how foolish and careless we've got.

Well, that was what we've been, just damn ignorant.

We didn't have any business getting so big so fast.

We don't look to get rich no more.

We just look to survive, stay out of jail,

feed our families, and have a little bit of fun

while we're doing it.

We'll check out the old site here.

This site's never been compromised.

We're not gonna flee Cocke County.

Cocke County's our home.

This is where our moonshine heritage is.

A lot of canopies filled in here.

You know, we got good overhead coverage.

We've learned our lesson.

We're gonna use a secure still site.

We're gonna only sell to our old, established customers.

And we're gonna keep a very low profile.

I say we at least get in here and get our mash built.

Let's go do it.

You know, me and Digger, we're going back to our basics,

not only just in me and him doing it.

We're going back to basics all the way around.

We're going back to the simple corn recipe liquors

that we've had.

Well, here's where the rubber meets the road.

- You know what? - What?

I say, by God, let's lay the ears back to it.

Let's fill this damn place up with stills again.

By God, and we'll bring our damn gats with us,

and we'll just shoot our way out.

- Let's don't and say we did. - OK.

We're just gonna boil some pots of water enough to steep

the corn, and we're actually just gonna melt the sugar

into the pots of water.

That's good, ain't it?

Yeah, we can go ahead dump that corn in it.

In Appalachia, here where we live, the old standby,

the go-to, is just corn liquor.

We'll just dump that sugar water right on top of that

and steep that corn.

For hundreds and hundreds of years, that's all there was.

You know, that was good enough for everybody back then,

and hell, that's good enough for me now.

That smells like good, sweet cornbread, Puss.

That's what we're looking for.

Let's grind that bucket of white corn.

We like a heavy-grit grain.

The more you get it ground, the more you expose your

starches and your carbohydrates to the fermentation process.

Kind of feels good, just me and you doing it again,

don't it? - Yeah.

Corn liquor, what Digger and myself cut our teeth on.

We're going back to the old days.

We're ready to rock. Here we go.

Just seems like there's something different

about this time.

- Put, "Tickle was here." - Don't do that.

Don't do that. What are you doing?

Well, look, look.

My dad always told me that if you get caught making

moonshine, look, they're going to put it on the front page

of the newspaper. This is mocking.

Now they're gonna know whose still it was

and who Tickle is.

But I done pulled more time than you, Tim.

I'm trying to give them a lead.

They've been chasing you. I'm going the other way.

You send them chasing me, and I'm going to tell them

where you're at. - OK, I'll put, "Sorry."

- . - Get that thing away from him.

Boy, I can tell you he ain't been in the woods in a while.

We about right on temp. Oh, yeah, that's bath water.

The yeast is the magic potion here.

It's the magic dust, we like to call it.

It's what eats up the sugars and turns them into alcohol.

Damn, Puss, I can't believe we're here making

a round of liquor.

I don't want to ever hear us say that we're quitting

anymore, do you?

We had good intentions of quitting,

let's put it that way.

Of course, the road to hell is paved with them.

Let's cover this son-of-a-gun up.

That's what I was gonna say, let's tarp that up.

Won't lose no more heat. Oh, yeah, that's perfect.

But we've made the decision, and as far as I'm concerned,

Mark and Digger are back in the moonshine business.

I guess we're here to stay.

Tell you what, this site's gonna look a whole lot better

with two pots in it, ain't it?

We get this one set up now, get it mashed in, we'll bring

another tomorrow. - Whole lot of wildlife, though.

It sort of concerns me with hunting season coming up.

Well, that's the only thing we done saw.

That preacher man.

You know, the first still's already set up,

already mashed in, probably already working.

We're gonna set the second still up, same deal.

All right, let's see what we got going on.

- All right. - We're gonna put it right here.

- Pot's empty. - .

- Your pot is empty. - The drain is laying up here.

- Where's the plug? - It's up.

It went on the ground.

The pressure didn't blow it out?

It's like somebody just took it out.

- What the hell is this? - What is what?

- Holes. - Be dogged if it ain't.

- Yeah. - Like somebody done shot it.

Look at this hole, man. It's like 22 bullet holes.

It's one thing that the plug was pulled out, but with holes

being shot in this thing, somebody's actually trying to

ruin this still where we cannot use it again.

That's some more down there, man.

- What does that say? - Somebody wrote something on it.

- What is that? - P-R-V.

P-R-V 23.

I know what this is.

I don't come from a line of moonshiners.

I come from a line of Baptist preachers.

That's a Bible verse. PRV, that's Proverbs.

Chapter 23, verses 31 through 32.

- What's it mean? - Let me look it up.

Proverbs 23, 31 and 32.

"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth

"his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

"At the last, it biteth like a serpent and stingeth

like an adder."

What does that mean, pretty strong?

That means

only drink it when it's fresh-squeezed.

Don't drink it after it's been fermented.

It's all about, you know, alcohol.

Don't drink alcohol.

You know, it's forbidden and all of this.

I'm like, "Oh, boy, now we really got trouble now."

Now, who did we see right after we mashed this in that

might be writing Bible verses on the pot?

- We saw the preacher. - We sure did see the preacher.

On the road. He come all the way down here.

I mean, he did talk to you a little stern.

Told you real quick, he didn't like liquor.

We saw him down here hunting.

He had a shotgun.

Now, is he just sending us a message, or did he send

a message to the police, too?

I don't know, but I think right now we shouldn't be

taking no chances. - We better grab what we can

right quick and get the hell out of here. - Let's face it.

We don't know if the person that did this

called the police. - Well, get the pump, then.

This still site right here is ruined, y'all.

I'm thinking this is not a good start for

my illegal world here.

You know, I left this a long time ago.

Went legal.

Now I come back, it's like the first day

went bad.

And I'm thinking, is someone gonna arrest us, somebody gonna

shoot us, or what's gonna happen?

All right, Puss.

On this season of "Moonshiners"--

We don't want you pushing that [bleep] around here, man.

I mean, I've never smuggled no moonshine across the border.

Get on out of here.

Going across to kind of another country,

this is something else.

Up here's the first island. See what y'all think.

All right.

We done got worried that maybe we're being tracked.

Just put them on the beach.

This right here is going to be the perfect place for us to

start hiding our shine.

Other shiners just moved in.

Somebody else tried to choke us out of business.

We can't continue on doing business like this.

We're gonna have to do something different.

I'm just gonna have to get creative and make something

that they've never seen before. - Chuk, you hear that?

- Four-wheelers. - Hey, hey.

We got to get the hell out of here.

Here he comes, oh.

We've got a 100-gallon order.

They're gone.

Sure enough, the liquor was gone.

This can really get pretty damn ugly

if y'all don't get the hell out of here.

Y'all come up here.

I'm trying to make a living.

We know where that liquor's coming from.

It's stolen. This [bleep] is over. Got us?

Kelly, this is scary.

- We're standing. - Oh, God.

I don't know what happened. All I know I can't turn this [bleep].

I'm underwater.

- Ah, Tickle. - Yeah.

Nobody steal from us. They stole our liquor.

I'm going to put them out here for good, and I don't want them

back in this country.