Original subtitles

Hell, I'm getting out of his way.

This time on "Moonshiners"--

We learned in South Carolina, they've had a flurry of

hailstorms come through.

They've got a lot of damaged peaches.

Ah, you asshole!

Are you ready?

Well, she's a nice one, ain't she?

We're trying to construct a still within one run,

we can produce an aged whiskey that tastes like it's been in

a barrel for several years. - I like it.

- I do, too. - What we're trying to achieve

is to get this nice, rich, brown color

and a good flavor behind it.

Moment of truth.

Yeah, buddy.

You said you wanted some barrel-aged whiskey.

Tell us what you think about that.

It's a daggone warehouse, eh?

Look at this setup, Tim.

I'm running a batch of liquor for the local moonshine boss

just to get the right to operate in his territory.

If I mess up this moonshine, I know I'm gonna be in deeper

trouble with these guys.

Ooh, that's hot.

This is how we make the moonshine.

So how is our old buddy Jeff over here?

Is he good?

He's one thing I'm sure of today.

Jeff ain't gonna be bailing no hay.

In Cocke County, Tennessee, under constant

surveillance from law enforcement, Mark and Digger

take a circuitous route to meet a trusted grain supplier.

Now, Jeff, he ain't called since I told him we're on

radio silence unless it's something urgent.

Jeff used to run liquor for us, so we know that, number one,

we can trust him with everything we got,

and number two, he knows how to keep his mouth shut.

Anything that has to do with the liquor business right now,

we need to be very, very careful of how we step,

especially when it comes to gathering ingredients.

As soon as we get this grain to produce some liquor and we're

starting to make a little more, we'll be sure and drop Jeff off

a couple of cases, he can make a little extra money, too.

What in the world has happened here, Jeffrey?

Damn.

His baler caught on fire.

So now he's down a baler, so he definitely needs to make

some money now. - Well, on the good side here,

we've got money and we've come to buy some grain.

None of it made it.

You know, this summer has been miserable.

We've had an unusual amount of rain early on.

He takes us into his fields, he shows us what he's grown

this year, and it is, it's pretty sad.

- Damn. - I see what you mean.

If we're gonna make any liquor at all that we can sell,

we're gonna have to do a 180 and turn around and see

what's behind us we can run.

It's been a terrible year all the way around.

But down in South Carolina, they've got peaches down there

where they're having to throw away

50, 60% of the crop, they're just tossing them out

right now because of hail damage.

- Hail? - Hail.

Once the fruit gets hit by those hailstones,

it bruises the fruit. - Oh, yeah.

It'll cause rot. It'll rot right there.

That's a shame, all them peaches getting throwed away.

So immediately, my gears go to spinning.

They need somebody to help them get them out of the way.

I mean, their loss could be our gain.

How do you feel about maybe us making a little peach liquor?

I'm done a-smelling what you're cooking.

I mean, we're changing gears here, it looks like.

If there's something out there that can be salvaged to make

liquor out of it, we're gonna go get it.

Peach brandy is awful easy to sell.

Well, Jeffrey, we're gonna go see if we can't find

somebody that knows somebody in peach country.

No problem. Appreciate that you came.

- Thank you, Jeff. - Thank you, brother.

Well, Jerry, we're getting into it awful deep to be building

a brand new pot for aged whiskey we don't even know

is gonna work yet.

I'm gonna tell you what, though.

If we can get this system to work, $200 a gallon--

- We'll be making money. - Making good money.

Yes, indeed.

In Haywood County, North Carolina,

after a bootlegger offered them top dollar

for true barrel-aged whiskey,

Mike and Jerry face a problem.

They don't have any aged spirits to sell.

Now they're scrambling to cook up an imitation product that's

convincing enough to fool their buyer.

So to get this method on the ground, to get it part

of our reality... - Go ahead.

...we're starting with a brand new pot, which is

gonna contain 170 gallons.

This is pretty much the largest pot still that you can make

out of one single sheet of copper.

There's the barrel flanged and ready to go.

Well, down there, we just put us a bottle and a cap

on it and a valve, we'll be ready to set a column.

The submarine pot we've been using was designed to work

with steam heat.

You know, but with this multi-step rapid aging system

we've got, we're gonna have much more control

over the heat. So we're building a pot

that can run with direct flame.

- Are you ready? - Ready.

Up.

Well, she's a nice one, ain't she?

She's a behemoth for sure.

Oh, yes.

- You good? - Good.

You know, with this still design, we're actually gonna

use some of our old still components, and we're gonna

and build some new still components.

- I like it. - I do, too.

We're actually gonna have three different processes that

we know actually work, in hopes that those three combinations

of processes is gonna give us what we need.

- Ready? - Looky there.

I think that'll turn out nice.

To mimic true barrel aging, Mike and Jerry are devising

a two-stage process.

As they heat their mash,

alcohol vapor rises up

the column where it condenses and drips down plates lined

with lightly charred oak chips, capturing light caramel

and vanilla flavors.

In the second stage,

they'll run the liquor into

two airtight kegs containing medium-char oak chips.

By pressurizing the kegs with nitrogen, they'll force

the liquor into the charred oak, then create a vacuum

to pull it back out, mirroring the natural flow

of whiskey in and out of new American oak barrel staves.

As seasons change, over two years of aging.

Let's see if this old chiller right here is gonna be

wide enough to see if it's gonna fit down in there.

- Oh, yeah. - After the fact.

Let it go.

- OK. - There's room to spare.

Just making sure.

This chiller that we actually designed,

when that hot liquid comes off the still, it steams.

We don't want this to happen because that's losing alcohol.

So by putting this chiller on there, we can run cold water

through it, and when that alcohol comes off as a liquid,

it's gonna be nice and cool and not steam.

How many coils you got in that chiller right there?

Oh, I don't know.

You know, you need, you need at least 13.

I got 12.

For good luck or whatever, we've always built worms

back in the day with 13 coils in them.

Yeah.

In other words, that represents 12 jurars

and one chance of getting off. So you have that odd guy.

- Jurars? - Jury, jurars.

- Jurars? - Like the jury on the--

Yeah, is that what they call them, "jurars"?

Jurars, that's what I call them.

Oh, OK. Jurors, jurars,

and you got one chance of getting off.

We don't want this to be illegal.

- No. - We don't want to do nothing illegal.

We don't dare want to do nothing illegal, do we, Jerry?

Mm-mm.

You know, this is something that should be in

a science lab with our hair stuck up to the ceiling.

Not in the backwoods.

Let's start our dephlegmator.

Yeah, I think me and Jerry should swap these overalls

for white lab coats.

Man, we are getting in the science world here.

I think we'll do it the same way we've done the chiller.

Do it to it.

A dephlegmator, it is to condense steam back into liquid

and make a reflux to up your proof.

Keeps the steam and alcohol within the system.

It's gonna rain back down on top of the plates.

With all these chips, it's just gonna start getting

richer with flavor, richer with color, body, aroma,

the whole nine yards.

It'll look pretty once we get her all stacked together.

- It will. - Right there's some normal column space up.

It's gonna look good, buddy.

You know, if we can make this work and fool everybody into

thinking that we've got a two-year-old aged whiskey

coming out of a barrel, we're gonna change

the backwoods liquor forever.

Let's go see if we can source us some kegs.

Let's get it, man.

Well, he didn't say anything about a dirt road,

but it looks like we on a dirt road.

I mean, but this is back in the cut, Tim.

In Jefferson County, Kentucky, after escaping

trouble in the backwoods of Virginia, Tim and his partner,

Howard, prepared to mash in a 1,000-gallon run

of tariff-free liquor for a buyer in Canada.

What's going on in here?

But when a local kingpin caught wind of outsiders

on his turf...

I've got a still and mash ready to go.

My guy was operating it. He got busted.

...Tim found himself facing an offer he couldn't

easily refuse. - What do we got to do?

I want you guys to run the shine.

It looks like we ain't got no choice.

I'm just nervous, man, to be put on a still that's already

mashed in, ready to run, and we've got to pick up

because someone else got caught.

Basically, we was just held at gunpoint and told to run

this shine before we can make our liquor in his territory.

You know, the problem is,

I gave the buyer in Canada my word.

You know, my word that I will deliver 1,000 gallons come

hell or high water, and that's what I'm gonna do.

All right, here we go.

I felt like this guy was sending us on a daggone

wild goose chase.

Ah.

My God, what a place.

- That's a daggone warehouse, eh? - This is...

Oh, look at this setup, Tim.

That's what I'm looking at right here.

- Oh, my Lord, Tim. - Wow.

Yeah.

Man, this is a double-rig operation.

I mean, they got twins.

Yeah, it's pretty nice right here now.

All the illegal stills I ever run was always

in the backwoods.

These guys got a different setup.

I mean, I know a lot of these tariffs are putting a lot

of these distilleries out of business,

and maybe this is one of them.

These guys must be pretty well-connected to operate

an elaborate still like this in a warehouse out in the open.

Do you see what I'm looking at? They're electric stills.

These are not, like, gas stills.

You can't put no burner on them.

I've never run one, have you?

Think it just got electric wires on it.

That means you got to figure out

how to turn the electric on. - I'm gonna find power.

First thing I noticed, it is copper stills.

But the key thing here is, these are electric stills.

There's no burner. There's no propane tanks.

I've never ran anything like this before.

All right, look, here's the mash right here.

They got one for that one and one for this one.

- They got twin mash barrels? - That's what he said.

It's going to be set up, so.

Oh, my God.

Hmm.

- Oh. - Cornmeal.

About as bitter as you can get.

I tasted the corn mash that they had prepared for this run,

and, uh, it's a little bit different than I'm normally

used to, but I mean, this is Kentucky.

This is limestone water.

I mean, nothing bad about it, just a little bit different.

Here gonna be a challenge, man.

This ain't like a hot-water heater, except it's a souped-up

hot-water heater. Got four of them in it.

Got some funny-looking elements in there.

These electric burners, it has an amperage gauge that

tells you how many amps to put into the element.

So this turns on each one of the elements.

See that?

I've never been trained on this, so I don't know, do you put

100 amps on it or 10 amps? I mean, will it blow up?

I don't know.

We got to move that over here, and let's put some mash

in the still. - Let's get it.

I want to get this run done as fast as possible.

Drop the shine and move on.

Now we got to go into this and got to go up here.

The 1,000 gallons that I got to make for the guys in Canada

is small potatoes compared to this.

Getting caught in a large-scale illegal operation here,

you know, this could put me in jail and put me in prison

for a long time.

It's pulling 81.9 amps.

In the woods, we turn on the propane, we hear more gas

coming out. - Yeah.

I hear a little bit of hum here, but you don't hear

anything over here.

You don't hear the gas.

But you heard that, didn't you?

- Oh. - We just lost power.

Yeah, we ain't-- We ain't got no power here.

Howard, go check them breakers.

I'm running a batch of liquor for the local moonshine boss

just to get the right to operate in his territory.

I never made liquor on an electric still before,

but I think I just shorted something out.

It's a pretty amazing setup here.

You know, it's all new to me, but, you know, if the law busts

in here, I'm probably going to prison for a long time.

- Tim, your breakers are tripped. - Well, turn it on.

All right.

Coming back on, just make sure y'all clear over there.

Still nothing?

That means we got a problem somewhere else.

Howard's over there switching these breakers,

and we should have power,

but that's not working.

So you got power coming in. Disconnect.

Here you go.

- All your breakers are tripped. - Well, turn them on then.

- I am. - These control boxes,

they have little, mini breakers

for each one in there, and all of those is

tripped out. - Here we go, Tim.

Oh, yeah. All right.

I think our biggest mistake was-- is running all these

elements at 20 amps apiece.

That's pulling a lot of amperage that we don't need

to be doing trying to heat these pots up.

How many jugs we got total?

40.

That's what they give us, so I guess that's what

we're gonna get. I'm just glad ain't nothing else

happening around here.

- Oh, I see the steam. - Yeah, she's coming on up.

She's about 163 now.

We'll run the heads off like that?

- Yeah. - Run the heads off, let the steam out?

Get 173 and let that come on out.

I just want to make the best run that I can under

the circumstances and get the hell out of here.

If I ruin this mash, I mess up this moonshine, I know

I'm gonna be in deeper trouble with these guys.

It's hot right here. Yeah, he's coming.

Howard, you hear it?

Hear it? We got it coming out the damn worm now, son.

- It's thumping. - Yeah.

- I mean, that's running, too. - This one running, too.

Don't mind it, boys.

You know, we got everything running good, you know,

inside of this building.

We got the stills dialed in, but this whole process here is

actually putting me behind on making my 1,000 gallons

for the Canadian guy.

That's pretty good. Good liquor.

Yeah, I think it's all right, yeah.

As we've been tinkering with these stills, we're starting

to find a balance for them. We're figuring out how to

operate them in stages and bring the heat

up as we should.

So all we need to do is start filling up these jugs

and hit the road.

All right, Howard, this is the last jug.

You go get the truck, back it in.

We're gonna fill the truck up.

We got this thing done, you know, and I asked Howard

to, you know, get the vehicle, and all we got to do is put

40 jugs in the vehicle and get out of here.

All right, boys, let's go.

So now we got to get it back to this designated drop point.

All right, let's get this stuff unloaded, man.

Once we get all 40 jugs, you know, set back at

a designated location, we'll call John and let him

know that, "Hey, mission complete."

Tomorrow night, we're gonna head back to the barn.

We got a lot of runs that we gotta mash in and hopefully

smooth sailing from here on out.

All right, is that gonna do it?

Yeah.

You know, having this hailstorm, it could be

our little bit of salvation.

Well, you know, in the process of learning how poor

our corns are doing in our little crops this year,

we learned in South Carolina, they've had a flurry

of hailstorms come through.

They've got a lot of damaged peaches.

Therefore, they're having to get rid of it.

It's damaged merchandise.

You know, Jeff says that they was just throwing

the peaches away. - Oh, I guarantee it.

Let me check the news, Puss, and see if it

tells anything.

Hail damage.

Well, Ridge Spring, South Carolina has got hit

tremendously hard with hail,

and there is peach farms there.

Huh.

I don't know exactly where that is, do you?

No, but there's an old atlas under the seat over yonder.

We can pull over up here and give it a gander.

This area around Ridge Spring, you know, it's known.

I mean, there's several, several peach farms here,

so this is a solid, solid lead.

We think this is the place we need to concentrate.

Ridge Springs...

E...

four.

It's a little north of Augusta.

Right in through here, that's where a lot of

the peaches are raised.

Well, that's not that far from us.

You know, me and you can't be seen coming back into town

with a truckload of peaches.

They're gonna know we're making peach brandy.

Kelly and Amanda's already over here in North Carolina.

Reckon Kelly would do us a solid and run over there

and grab us a truckload of peaches?

- You got that burner phone on you? - Mm-hmm.

Call Kelly. We're gonna play this off

we're getting 'em for hog farmers anyhow and helping 'em

by hauling them off.

Yeah, yeah, this ain't about us.

It's doing a good deed for the hogs and the farmers.

You know, local law officials have been on our hind end

for a while now, and we don't really think it's a good call

for us to go haul a dump truck load of peaches.

We would be guilty by association.

Law enforcement would know that we weren't gonna make jam

out of them.

Hello?

Hey, boss man.

Hey, what's up?

Hey, we just noticed over there in South Carolina,

they got hit really hard with hail like we did

with the flood.

How do you feel about going and getting a bunch

of free peaches?

Well, I mean, I could.

We got hungry hogs. Hogs love peaches.

Yeah.

And them people needs help getting that fruit out of

their way, getting it out of their warehouses.

So we figure we just do them solid and spend a day

helping them haul off some bad peaches.

Well, and when we say we, we mean you.

Yeah, that.

Do you have a line on somebody?

It's in Ridge Spring, Kelly.

Well, you just want me to go down there and see what

I can haul off? - I'm sure they don't care

who hauls them off as long as

they don't have to deal with them.

All right, well, I'll be back in touch here in a day or two.

All right, we'll call you with another number here

in a day or two.

- All right, all right, I'll see you. - All right.

This one is kablooey.

You know, there ain't no doubt that there's a lot of damaged

peaches down there.

But they will be perfect for what we want them for.

And knowing Kelly, he's gonna bring back enough peaches

for all of us.

Peach brandy, here we come.

Well, I'm glad we got them spouts out of there.

Me too, bub.

- Well... - I'll tell you what,

them are gonna make some good pressure vessels

for sure. - High-pressure vacuum vessels.

- Yeah. - You know, we're trying to

construct a still within one run,

we can produce an aged whiskey that tastes like it's been

in a barrel for several years.

We're using a couple different techniques to try

to accomplish this.

Hot liquor flowing over wood chips and pressurization,

trying to replicate and mimic the natural process that takes

place in a barrel over a couple of years.

This will be our crossover pipe, and that'll allow us

to pull vacuum on one and pressure on the other.

With the whole process that we got going on, I just hope

it's gonna be enough, man.

If me and Jerry's gonna pass this off as two-year-old,

barrel-aged whiskey, we gotta get every detail right.

That still doesn't guarantee that we're gonna produce

a product that's gonna fool our bootlegger.

- There we go. - Got one hole done.

There it is, boss.

It'll take some grinding and finessing, but...

It'll be good.

We got a little meat to work with, now.

On these stainless-steel kegs, we simply just got a little

ball valve system that we can hook our pressure line

and our vacuum line up to.

So therefore, when we get ready to add pressure, we just

hook it up, fill it up with pressure, pushing all

the liquor into these wood chips all at one time

and holding it there as long as we want it to hold it there.

All right, that looks good.

And when we vacuum it, it sucks it out of that wood

and holds it for a while.

So we can replicate years in just a matter of minutes.

Now then, for the fun part, stacking this mammy-jammy up.

We gotta stack her, son. Put the stack on it.

I don't believe anybody's ever attempted to try to do what

we're doing here.

You know, we've tried several different steps of rapid-age

whiskey, and we've had varied degrees of success.

There you go, the seal should be inside of it.

Now, by combining some of our methods together,

we can produce a whiskey that no one else can tell apart

from aged whiskey that's been in a barrel for several years.

Oh, my God, it's so heavy.

If this doesn't work, me and Jerry's wasting a lot of

precious time on a pointless task with nothing to show

for it and no liquor to sell.

Tell you what, I am tickled to death.

- It's together, ain't it? - If nothing else...

- Son. - ...son, she looks marvelous.

She's a beaut now.

If she functions like we're anticipating,

we're gonna make some very quick, rapid-aged whiskey.

If it works and gives us a couple-year-old aged whiskey,

it's gonna change the world.

Now that we've got this thing all complete and hooked up

and ready to go, we step back and take a look at it.

And, of course, we're gonna pat ourselves on the back.

- This thing is amazing. - It's not a success yet.

- Oh, I know. - We've got to get there

and make it happen right here out of this spout right here,

then we know for a fact

we can claim it then, baby. - That's right.

You know, the only thing left for us to do is be able to get

this thing to the woods and hopefully get Junior's

order fulfilled.

Well, it ain't gonna make nothing sitting here on

a concrete floor, is it? - That mash is ready to roll,

and so are we. - Let's get it, baby!

It's a little damp in here, ain't it, bub?

- Yeah, that is for sure. - Oh, yeah, boy.

But it's cool.

- Nice. - That part I actually like.

Yes, sir.

Even though the sun's a-shining.

Well.

Tell you what, this day's been a long time coming.

We've done a lot of testing, a lot of researching.

I really hope this all comes together and works like

it's supposed to. - By God, it better work, Jerry.

You know, me and Jerry, we've got a bootlegger that's

willing to pay $200 per gallon for good aged whiskey,

but it's got to taste like it's been in that barrel for

a couple of years, though. - All right.

So this rapid-age system we've built, we got to get it

to work. It's gonna give us, hopefully,

two to three-year-old aged whiskey within just a few hours.

I don't know how many people got a catch can

like that one. - I don't know.

There it is, boss. Let's put a column on it.

Let's pump it full and fire this bad boy up, son.

We mashed in a whiskey mash made out of corn and wheat.

It's ready to rock and roll right now.

It's good alcohol volume.

All we got to do is pump this stuff over,

fire it up and hope for the best.

Jerry, that's gonna look pretty good.

Now this still is unlike anything that's ever been

built anywhere.

This rig right here combines three different rapid-aging

techniques that worked the best for us in the shop.

Number one is running hot alcohol before it's a vapor

over wood chips.

And of course, putting that alcohol in those chips under

pressure and then a vacuum system.

If this thing works and produces the aged whiskey

that we're looking for here today that will sell

on the market, we've changed the world.

Let's get her lit up, bub.

Let's get the old torch ready.

There we go.

Let this bad boy heat up.

We'll leave the old port off the front here so she can

steam off all them bad heads and stuff.

Yeah, me and Mike, we test a lot of different procedures,

but on paper, this all looks good in combination,

but we've never tried this all together.

I think we ought to go ahead and get our water going.

I'll go hit the valve.

Now that we've got steam coming out, we've got all

the bad stuff boiled off this thing.

Now we're gonna send that steam to the top.

There you go.

We're getting ready to rock and roll with it now, baby!

Heck yeah, man. Drips are dropping in there.

- Nice. - Got some condensing off that first plate.

Yeah, buddy. It's getting hot.

- Say it won't be long. - Ready to crack it?

Let's see what she's got, go slow with it.

I am. I'm going as slow as I can go.

- Looky there. - Here she comes.

- Yeah, she's hot, too. - Yeah, buddy.

It ought to be coming out this first worm here in a minute.

- Looky there. - Looky there, looky there.

Perfect. We better get some chips

loaded up this doggone tank. - Yeah.

Our whole goal is to be able to get this alcohol into the wood

and get it back out.

So, we're gonna load up our two tanks with actually

wood chips and actually wood staves from a wooden barrel.

- That'll be good, don't you think? - I think so.

Especially with that vacuum and that pressure going through

that, it's gonna pull it in and out.

You know, these two kegs that we have here serves

for our vacuum tanks and our pressure tanks.

Put her to it, baby.

There we go.

Look at that thing dropping, Jerry.

I'll be doggone. So far, so good.

- Yes, indeed. - Very good.

Listen to that. It's laying the pressure to it.

You know, when we put it into a pressure tank,

put the nitrogen to it...

All right, that'll be good.

...we're forcing the alcohol into those wood chips to stay

at a certain pressure.

I'm gonna get our vacuum system hooked up so we can make

a change right here real quick.

What we're trying to achieve is to get this nice, rich, brown

color and a good flavor behind it to replicate it being

in a barrel for two or three years, but we're only gonna

do it in less than 24 hours.

All right, Mike, here it goes, moment of truth.

Vacuum pump coming up.

Let her fly.

Looky there. Looky there.

She's coming out of there dark.

One of the cool things about the way we've got these tanks

designed are we can use them for both pressure and vacuum,

because we're gonna be able to vacuum the system down to be

able to pull all the alcohol into it, and then we're gonna

have to pressurize it to push it into the next tank.

All right. She's equalized.

So, we're going to do this in, like, five-gallon

increments here.

We'll leave it under pressure for a while, put it under

vacuum for a while. - Tell you what,

let's throw this thing on a vacuuming.

Go ahead and get a cycle going here.

- Hook that bad boy up. - So, we do that several times.

Push it in, hold it.

Pulling them out, hold it.

Ready?

Hopefully that gives us the finished product

of a two or three-year-old aged whiskey.

Let's get us a good, clean bucket.

- Hey, moment of truth. - Yeah, buddy.

All right, put a little pressure to it.

Hey, now's the time to tell all.

We catching finished product in a bucket.

We just got to get that mellow aged whiskey flavor to come

through like it's had some time on a shelf somewhere.

Look at that. There you go.

- Look at that, son. - Golly, smell that, man.

Ha-ha!

- Moment of truth. - Yeah, buddy.

We've had this liquor come down the column.

We've actually put it under vacuum.

We've put it under pressure.

We've put a lot of time and money into this.

If we don't catch that flavor, then we're not gonna be able to

sell this, and this is something we can't lose out on.

- Oh, my God! - Ah!

Dude, that mellowed that out tremendously.

Look how dark that is.

It's a dark, rich color.

The nose is wonderful on this stuff.

We have done it!

Knocked it out of the park, son!

You know, me and Jerry, we've created rapid-age whiskey

in the backwoods in just a few hours.

But is it good enough to fool our bootlegger into thinking

it's two-year-old barrel-aged whiskey?

I don't know, but if it ain't, it don't matter what we think.

All right, well, that's the last bucket.

That's 15 gallons of goodness right there, baby.

That's gonna be three grand right here.

Oh, you ain't never lie.

Go get rid of some liquor, baby.

I'm all for that.

I think this is what we got to do to be free.

You know, after that run for John last night, we've got

permission to run our liquor in his territory.

We got to get this water so we can mash in.

You know, we got 1,000 gallons to make right now,

and we're already late for my buyer in Canada.

Put that pump down here.

So we can't afford any more setbacks.

- You ready, DJ? - Try it.

Got water?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're good.

Finally, we have worked our asses off to get to this point.

Now all we got to do is get that water in the pots,

sugar, corn, and let's run.

- Want to throw fire? - Yeah, I got you.

Uh-huh.

All right, what do you need me to do?

- Grain-- we got to get some grain over here. - All right.

All right, fire in the hole.

I've got a 1,000-gallon, tariff-free order.

I've got to get it to Canada.

Only got a few weeks to get it done.

From here on, we can't have anything else slowing us down.

Well, I know one thing.

I wish we did this three days ago, because then it'd be ready

to run by now.

We're mashing in two stills to speed up the process.

We got $40,000 on the line, and I'm risking everything

for this sale. I mean, I could lose

my distillery and my freedom.

That's money right there.

Howard, get the water hose.

We'll cool it down. Then we'll put the yeast in it.

Finally, we got these stills mashed in.

We're gonna come back in three days

and we're gonna check this mash and see if it's ready to run.

Put some more cold in it.

Obviously, he's gonna be cutting it close with

the timeline we have in front of us, but we should be able to

run both stills twice a week.

That's more than 200-plus gallons a week, hopefully.

- Now, we're waiting on the mash. - We're done with this.

We gotta shut this down, just let it wait, percolate.

Right now, everything is looking good.

Yes, it's a long ways to go.

You know, we need to make 1,000 gallons, but right now,

we're in business, and we're gonna be making

liquor pretty soon. - I mean, as hot as it is,

Tim, we need this to cook off quick.

It's probably gonna do good, because the weather's

just right. Get out of here.

Probably some of the best rapid-aged whiskey, period.

I would drink a jar of this right next to a jar that's come

off of a shelf at a major distillery.

It's that good to me.

But I think we need to kind of pull the wool over his eyes

just a little bit. - How are we gonna do that?

Put it in that barrel right up yonder.

You know, we made a deal with our bootlegger, Junior, to pay

$200 a gallon for good, aged whiskey.

- Got it? - I got it.

But it's got to taste like that two or three-year-old

aged whiskey. - You ready?

I'm ready.

Whoa!

So, if we pull a jar off of a wooden barrel right in front

of Junior and he takes a sip of it, half of the battle is won.

Because he's gonna think, you know, this stuff's been

sitting in a barrel regardless.

Now, that's some of the prettiest liquor

you'll ever look at right there.

Well, tell you what, Mike, we put a lot of time

and effort and money and everything else into this,

building the still.

- I sure hope he goes for this. - Yeah, me and you both.

You know, presentation is everything.

When you can make somebody want something with their eyes

first, in a lot of cases, you're gonna make the deal.

Let's go get paid for it, brother.

Heck yeah.

I ain't never been up here before, Puss.

You sure we're going the right place?

I think so.

Yeah, he said just come up to the woodline on the right.

I'm pretty sure these is woods.

I've seen woods before.

You know, old Kelly, bless his heart, he's told us

a spot to meet, where to go, and he'll be seeing us.

I'm assuming they've got some peaches.

When you send Kelly after something, you better be ready

for a God's plenty to show up. - Here comes the truck.

- Huh. - What in the world?

- Well, you reckon he's got in that trailer yonder? - Oh.

You know, we're kind of sitting on the top of this

hill, and we see Kelly's truck coming up.

Huh. They's something behind him.

We assume he has a load of peaches in the back

of his truck.

But the closer he gets, the better we see.

He's pulling a damn bona fide dump trailer.

And it is absolutely full of peaches.

Mother of pearl.

All right, let's just go see what they've got.

In the name of sense.

You know the old saying, "Get all you can get."

- Well, we got all we can haul. - Damn.

What's up? You asked for peaches, right?

- By God, we got them. - Ask and you shall receive.

They's 350 bushels of peaches there or more.

I think we ought to take our shoes off and get in here

and go to stomping. - Wrong.

Yeah, I got a bunion, so I can't.

I mean, this is a lot of peaches.

- Well, let's get at it. - I mean, I don't even know

if we can mash in this many peaches

before they rot. - Look here, guys.

They're juicing themselves.

They're pouring out right here out of the corner

of this trailer.

We need to just catch it.

That's one less we got to squeeze.

I brought us a little swimming pool to catch in,

so I'm gonna get it.

You know, these peaches are

starting to already show that

they've been bruised and they've been hauled

and they've been in the hot sun.

So we're gonna have to get to work on these things

pretty much immediately. - I'm gonna be honest.

They're going to have to be mushed up smaller

than in halves. - Yeah.

I think a lot of them already mushing themselves up.

These are wonderful peaches.

They're juicy, they're sweet, they're so good.

Boy, just think how good a liquor it's gonna be.

The way people love peach brandy.

It is. They do like it.

The best way to mash these things in is do it by hand,

you know, because you've got to pull the pit out.

You can't use it in your mash.

Just mash them and squeeze them and bust them up.

I think we're about to-- gonna be delirious

by the time we get halfway through this trailer.

Everything we've ever done has been a learning experience,

and this one ain't no different, but I know what my Papaw's

always told me--

"Son, when you think you're getting something for free,

ain't nothing free." - Ain't nothing free.

"If you're getting it for free, some poor bastard's paying

for it somehow," so now we're paying for it.

Now we're paying for it.

You always rather have too much of something,

but if you're trying to mash in all these peaches, doing them

by hand is just ridiculous.

I mean, we don't have enough years to live to mash them all

in by hand.

If we was just gonna make one or two barrels of mash.

That's one thing, but there's enough mash here to

make damn 50 or 60 barrels.

We're gonna have to find a fruit crusher somewhere.

They make industrial-sized fruit crushers and presses.

You could have found one of them for free somewhere

on the road back. - That ain't a bad idea.

Yeah, I'm game for anything we get out from under these

damn peaches.

You know, if we had a fruit crusher, we'd be out of this

in no time.

We got to have something big, and we don't have it.

Well, fellas, I've got an idea.

If you-uns will indulge me for a few minutes and let me try it

and be patient. We'll see if it'll work.

- I like it. - If it gets me out of cutting

these damn peaches open

and digging them pits out, yeah, I'm all for it.

All right, I'll be back in a few minutes.

Well, if that's the case, then I'm gonna stop

cutting up right now.

Kelly, he's got a plan, and whatever it is, I'm on

board with it because the plan that we have and the work we're

doing ain't gonna get us anywhere.

I was all ambitious, like, "Yeah, we can do this,"

trying to be optimistic about it.

- Now I'm having second thoughts. - I like optimism.

In the name of sense, what in the world is he gonna do?

That's called an excavator.

Yeah, but what's he got in mind?

Is he going to mash them down or bury them?

Let's keep something to put the pits in.

Yeah, just make one for pits.

Well, you know, I can remember from chemistry that

we extracted cyanide out of these seeds.

You know, I'm not a damn chemist by any means,

and all my life I've been told that the inside of a peach pit

is poisonous.

I'm gonna throw the bull[bleep] flag on the cyanide.

I mean, there might be some of it in there, but it's such

a small amount, it probably wouldn't kill a piss ant.

What about when you put 10,000 of them together?

Do you know that you can take a peach seed and dry it out in

the oven and grind it up, and it makes a good

steak marinade? - I don't believe him.

Kelly only puts ketchup on his steaks.

Hell, I'm getting out of his way.

What are you gonna do? You just gonna mash them?

I'm just gonna mash and waller 'em back and forth and watch

the juice run out right here, and then we can pump

that pool as it's filling up out in the barrels.

- OK. - All I can tell you is get to mashing.

This trailer has a tailgate on it that has about a half-inch

gap at the bottom of the back doors, so I can get in there

and just mash the heck out of these things.

It should work just fine to be able to squeeze that juice out,

and then we're gonna pump it in our barrels.

That looks more like peach juice.

Yeah.

How much do I like touching the bottom of the bed?

- You're there. - You're there now.

Oh, we got juice coming all over it.

They looking like they're mushing up.

Oh, yeah. Push them up against the side.

This is actually pretty genius.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't know if it's gonna work or not,

but you got to give Kelly credit, man.

He's got some good hillbilly ingenuity sometimes.

I mean, we never would have got all these peaches

mashed up, we'd have been here for a month.

Capital idea, Kelly.

Ah, you asshole!

Well, still better than doing it by hand, I guess.

This is kind of like a carnival ride at the fair.

Whee!

I mean, this is a huge trackhoe, and you don't have to beat

these peaches.

All Kelly's got to do is just set his bucket down on them

and just push down.

In essence, creating a big press.

Then he'll stir them around a little bit, mash them

some more, and pull new ones and mash them.

It's just a matter of getting it from the container here over

into the barrel. And these peaches

would have been rotten before we ever finished it the way

we were doing it. - Man, we're getting old.

Used to, we could set these right up

in the back of the truck, no problem.

Whew!

Well, we're mashing peaches and pumping juice.

Kelly'll get you in a bind. He'll get you out of it, too.

I think we're getting to the end there.

Yeah, we're out of juice.

All right, that's it. This one's full, too.

But we do need to get this mashed in before it

goes sour on us.

Y'all are the ones that made the trip over there.

Y'all deserve the lion's share.

We can get by with probably four barrels.

Yeah.

Well, I'll just back right up through here to this.

We'll just throw them up in the back of the truck.

Let's just put them in there real gentle like.

Yeah, well, if you think we can throw them anyhow,

hell, I have got you fooled.

If we throw anything, it'll be a damn disc.

I'll tell you one thing.

This has been a damn learning experience.

- See how smart you are, Kelly? - Yeah.

By the time it's said and done, Kelly has got us

enough barrels that we're all gonna get a bunch.

There'll be at the truckload to take back with us and start

making little peach brandy.

Yeah, that's a load.

We're just gonna go ahead and divvy this out.

They're gonna go their way. We're gonna go our way.

So Mark and Digger get to make peach moonshine.

Me and Amanda get to make peach moonshine.

There's old Junior.

What do you say, Junior?

Bootlegger just pulled up. This is the moment of truth.

If we can make him think this is two-year-old,

barrel-aged whiskey, we just hit paydirt.

Got you a little something here.

Yeah. Even in a barrel.

Well. Even in a barrel.

You said you wanted some barrel-aged whiskey.

- Yep. - Some two to three-year-old.

There you go. Right there.

- That's what I'm looking for. - Guaranteed.

Guaranteed backwoods. We're going to get you

a horn of it here and see what you think.

Hand me that hammer there, Jerry, will you?

Let the old flavor speak for itself.

- Yeah. - Where did you all find that at?

We're just gonna keep that to ourself there, old Junior.

- There you go. - Looky there.

See what you think about that.

- Oh, yeah. - Got a good color.

Color's there for sure.

Yes, sir.

What's your thoughts?

I know you got something on your mind.

I'll tell you.

That's some of the best whiskey I've tasted, aged whiskey.

We got you 20 good gallons right here.

- $4,000. - $4,000.

$4,000. Yes, sir.

Junior said it's some of the best aged whiskey he's ever

got in the backwoods, and that makes me and Jerry feel like

we're on top of the world right now.

It feels good to have a payday. It's been a long time coming.

Is there any chance I can get some more of that?

Is there any more where that came from?

Probably within a week we can probably get it to you.

OK.

This tickles me to death that he wants another $4,000 order

right off the bat. We'll see you next week.

- See you in one week. - See you in a week.

I don't know about this situation.

It's like the wrong neighborhood for us to be in.

You know, I am sitting dead in the water right here.

I mean, we got 1,000 gallons of liquor right here

in these trailers.

We don't have no sight of the boat that's gonna

smuggle our liquor to Canada.

You sure this is the place?

I don't know nothing, Howard.

All I know is this is where he told me to come to.

The man's there. He just unloaded the liquor.

I say we go in there right now to talk to him,

try to make a deal with him.

I don't know exactly what this place is,

but me and Jerry needs to be making this extra money.

What are you doing bringing that in my bar?

Is that live?

- That's right this very second. - So he's right above us.

- Above us. - Be quiet.