Moonshiners (2011–…): Season 10, Episode 11 - Mason Jar Shortage - full transcript

On this episode
of Moonshiners...

I need a couple of
pallets of jars
if you got 'em.

The canning jars?
You can't even get a jar lid.

Mason jars are
quintessential vessel
for moonshine liquor.

Now I've got 20 customers
that this is going to.

I don't know I'm gonna
get it to 'em without jars.

We got four posts
in the ground, Bubba.

We got no roofing material
right now.

This roofing
is close to a 1000 $.

We done metal one time.

He wants us to go over
and get that roofing material
over on another man's land



at the old still side.

I'll tell you what,
I'm not too keen
about what's going on.

I ain't neither.

But I'd be damned
if I'm not using my stuff.

Need to get what's mine.

- Turn it on, Chuck.
-All right.
Here we go.

Today is our first run
of barley malt.

We actually got something
we think that's gonna sell,

but we need to make
big quantities of it.

Got a lot of steam
going up there.

I don't know if it's working
like it's supposed to work
in that junk.

It's all blowing
out of the roof out there.

This is how we make
the moonshine.

Hey, listen,
you hear that?



There's someone here
with a tractor.

Get the bulbs.

That's a damn tractor
coming around here.

Oh, my God,
he's coming in here.

In Sevier County,
Tennessee,

after starting
an overnight run
in an unused barn,

Mike and Jerry face
a moonshiner's
worst nightmare,

getting caught mid run
in the light of day.

God, I hope he knocks
the back door instead
of the building.

Well, behind this damn barn,

see our damn heads,
I'd be worried too.

What hell is this guy
doing, Jerry?

No.

He sees us.
Get out, get out.

What is he doing?

I don't think he's just taking
a round on his tractor here.

Man, this is too damn close
for comfort.

Get the hell
out of here, dude.

Get his ass on that
tractor and get out of here.

Can't believe
he's leaving, man.

Think he's gone, brother.

Man, I'm gonna tell you
that was too damn close.

I can't *bleep* believe
we even damn doing this.

We gotta hurry
and get this round off
and get the hell out of here.

Finally, this guy gets up
on his tractor,

rolls right on back out
the same way he come.

We got to get
this thing wrapped up

and get the hell out of here.

That was too close
for comfort.

And, I mean,
he could come back
at any time.

I'm not doing this no more.

I'm done with it.

Last one right here.

We get the hell out of here
in just a little while.

We're not out
of the woods yet.

We're sitting here
in bright-ass damn day light.

We still got to get this
alcohol out of this barn,

get everything loaded up,
get the hell out of here

without being seen.

We're just shy of 50 gallons

but it's a averaging
a 180 proof product here.

It's enough for us
to temper down

and get the hell out of here.

At least we got
the damn liquor.

That's right.

I hear a big diesel
incoming.

You know who that is.

-He can't sneak up on nothing,
can he?
-No.

In neighboring
Cocke County, Tennessee,

Mark and Digger meet up
with their new associate,
Daniel.

What's going on, Slim?

Daniel said he had
a little something
we might be interested in.

I got something
I want to show you guys.

He's been working
with us for a while,

selling a lot of corn liquor.

We have no idea
what's going on.

Daniel just said
bring a wheelbarrow.

In the name of Saints.

The whole bed's
full of wheat bran.

500 pounds of it,
to be exact.

My buddy,
he is at the fete there.

When he got his supply,
and as sure they brought
him way too much.

He was just going to
throw it out on the ground,
let it rot.

And I said, "Oh, no."

All old timers
used to use bran,

you know, for cap.

And they'll make it sell too.
Work harder.

And plus, it's a heck
of a flavor of liquor.

We've been known to make
other grains other than corn.

Wheat bran makes
damn fine liquor.

We'd utilize this
if that's what
Daniel's got in mind.

It's 500 pounds of it.

We put 25 pounds in a barrel.
That's 20 rounds
of liquor there.

-I know.
-Yeah.

This could be as much
as 360-380 gallons
of liquor

if things go well.

That's flat out 25 grand.

That's a lot of dollars.
It's a lot of dollars.

It's gonna be
a hell of a lot of work.

Next time,
if you get us
something to tow in the woods,

see if you can get us
a 100 pounds of it
instead of 500.

The more the merrier
when it comes to supplies
to make liquor.

I understand.

Homemade liquor drinkers
aren't unlike anybody else.

They like something
a little different
occasionally.

A lot of people are drinking
barley and wheat
and other grains.

We make liquor
out of anything that permits.

What's this shovel for?

Is that in case
the revenue man comes in
so we can bury him?

Maybe.

I've got the 100-year-old
grain grinder

and, man,
it works real good.

-Set it on that old barrel
right there.
-Yeah, man.

I actually fastened
a washing machine motor
on it power it.

And I worked with the pulleys
until I got the right speed

to where it
cracks grain real good.

All right.

Have to help it start
because of the gear ratio
on it.

I've got it geared
to where it runs slow.

You know, it's hard to believe
that a 100-year-old grinder
still works, don't it?

Uh, they made stuff to last
back them days.

Daniel got kudos
on coming up with
the thresis rascal.

He bought it at a yard sale.

I'd go get me on too
if I could find it.

I can't get over
how quiet it is.

This thing looks like
it's a 100 years old.

It's slow,
but it's constant.

You don't have to
grind it manually.

Man, I think it's great.

Oh, God, that's perfect.

Well, we got
a five gallon bucket here.

We need it four times,
you think?

Yeah, about four times.
That'll be enough.

Sounds good to me.

We're going to put sugar
in these tokes.

So we're going to mash in
two tokes

with four five gallon buckets
of the bran.

And six bags of sugar
per toke.

Mark, I'm fixing
bringing your first bucket.

All right.
Bring it on, brother.

Here you go, buddy.

This is the first one.

Easy now.

You can look here
what Daniel's done for us.

He sourced the grain
on his own.

He's come up with
the machine to bust open
the kernels with.

You know, Daniel's knocking
it out of the park for us.

Here we go, boys,
here's number four.

- You're grinding, we're dumping.
- -Yeah.

We've got
the steel pot
heating up.

The water in it to steep
the grain in.

We've got grain
and sugar in the tokes,
ready to go.

All right,
we're half less.

What's in this bin
will be done.

It's all we need.

As soon as this water
gets up to where
it's nearly boiling,

we'll pump that over.

That ought to be plain enough
water to steep this grain.

Look here, it's steam
coming off that, boss.

You just set
that pump on top of it.

Digger's got a better head
than everyone of us.

Yeah, I don't like
saying that out loud.

Look at 'em over there.

Look like two monkeys
trying to fornicate
a football.

-Here we go.
-Wait, till...

We'll let it steep overnight.

Let it get plenty of
cook time on that grain.

We really want to get
all the flavor out of that.

You know, corn liquor,
it's got a little sweet
essence.

Using little bit more grain
with this wheat bran,

it should bring a little bit
more of an earthy note
to the liquor.

Then we'll start pumping
the hot water
over into this one.

Yeah, boy.

If we've got
our measurements right,

we could possibly go to
20-24 rounds of mash
on this wheat bran alone.

Let's cover 'em up.

It's bran, who knows?

You never know how
it's going to turn out

till you put it in a pot
and cook it.

- Or if rain's coming.
- It is, ain't it?

- Pretty good day, wasn't it?
- -Oh, yeah.

There's word that
this guy has got
a bunch of tanks and stuff.

You know, I'm just looking
online and looking at
pictures and stuff,

so I always like to put my
hands on it.

One state
to the Northeastern Virginia,

Tim is on the hunt
for the right equipment

to make his
new specialty moonshine.

I don't know if anyone
has made a single-malt
barley moonshine before.

It looks like
malty milkshake to me.

Chuck and I did some
experimental batches

with the small still
in the woods.

Pretty good, Chuck.

I think it's a little better
than pretty good, Tim.

We actually got
something we think
that's gonna sell,

and we need to make
big quantities of it.

In order to do that,
we need a new still.

Kevin?

Kev...

There, Kevin,
I was looking for you.

Kevin is the guy
that I've been talking to
about buying the equipment.

Well, I'm looking for a tank,

like a 350-400 gallon,
something.

You know,
and this guy has
all kinds of scrap tanks.

Different things,
I can take it
and do something with.

That's another round tank
right there.

Motors, pumps.

Look at that, they put
a worm on the outside
of the tank there.

Yeah.

Evaporators, cooling coils,

even some parts of stills.

Hey, you got
a column still.

Came out of
a local distillery.

-This is the part that the...
-Oh, that goes on that.

column sits on top of.

Oh!

How much does something
like that cost?

160,000 $.

- Oh, no, it looks pretty, but that's not my range.
- -Okay.

Show me a tank.

This tank here
is a 350 gallon.

Open top.

Oh, yeah,
this bottom, it fits.

It's an insulated tank.

It's like it's got
a jacket around it
where you can heat it up.

I won't have to build a coil
to go inside of it.

Yeah, Tim, you want to come
look at this.

It looks like some
potential leak part.

Oh, yeah, I see right here.

I can see a hole in there.

That means if it's weak
like that up here,

it's probably everywhere else.

Yeah, it probably got
over-pressurized or something.

I mean, look at that.

I mean, I can open it up
with my knife.

I don't want one that's
going to add more problems
to my situation.

I don't want to get in
to having to fix it
before I build it.

All right, show me
something else you got.

Okay.

What in the world
is this thing?

That's an insulated tank.

We call it the pickle.

- The pickle?
- Yeah.

I wanna buy that
for a tickle.

- That'll be a camouflaged still, won't it?
- -That's right.

You could set that up
in the woods

and nobody even knows
what it was.

A pickle for tickle.

Here's a tank I had
in mind for you.

About 450 gallons.

Got a top on it.

It's got a nice base on it.

Just closed on the tops.
It's got a little manhole.

You can open it up
and look inside of.

Yeah.

It looks like something
I can make into a still.

I guess you take
a cheque much.

Yes. We'll take a check.

Good, good, good.

-Let's go figure out
how to get this on a truck.
-Okay.

I didn't want to leave,

you know, without taking
advantage of the opportunity.

So I just made
a determination.

I'm going to buy it.
I'm going to take it.

And I'm bringing it home.

-Good day, Kevin.
-Okay, thanks a lot.

-Thank you. Good job.
-Appreciate it.

Coming up...

We've got good news
and bad news, Killer.

72 gallons of liquor
and jars are unavailable
right now.

Now I've got 20 customers
that this is going to

I don't know how I'm going
to get it to 'em without jars.

There, boys,
as J.B. would say,

- "Another hard day at tokes."
- Yeah.

It's been a little less
than a week.

Our mash should be ready.

We're coming in with Daniel
into the still site.

We're going to run
the wheat bran mash today.

Well?

-Maybe run that--
-Damn!

Did you get down
and get your too big
of a lung full?

Yeah, it's got some
alcohol in it.

God almighty.

This is my very first time
of ever making

a 100% of wheat bran
or any other bran,

for that matter, liquor.

And there she comes.

You know,
Daniel's probably
one of the few people

that's helped us.

Daniel proving his worth.

And we're going to let him in
a little deeper in our world.

She's lit now.
She's lit.

Let's get lit.

That's liquor. And they
get their own doorknob,
ain't it.

Just like a windshield
wiper on billy goat's ass.

- You know, Daniel...
- Yeah.

You've been a big help to us.

You've rounded up
all the grain.

You come with that corn.

Normally, we wouldn't
split equal thirds.

- Yeah?
- We think you're worth every bit of it.

Well, I appreciate that.

On this wheat bran shine,
I'm actually, uh,

equal partners
with them on it.

It's a big deal to me,
you know?

And it speaks volume
of these guys.

If you got
a barrel of corn,
mash or barley,

there ain't a better reason
not cranking that little
too, are they?

We need to know,
we need to fill it up.

Let's get it done.

Look here, boys.

All right.
You ready to get it fired up, Digger?

You get it fired up.
I'll get that gas.

Coming out of here.

Gonna poof on you.

What the hell for?

Did you see that?

Well, it burnt my hairs
off my arm.

Look at that.
God, look at that.

look at that.

I think, all I can say is
I thank the Good Lord
it didn't get my beard.

I've been working on it
about two years, and I'm glad
it didn't get swinged.

Ain't nothin'
to do now but wait.

I've not known Daniel
that many years,

but he's the kind of person
that when you first meet him,

you feel like
you've known him
your whole life.

-Is it hot?
-Yeah. Hell yeah, it's hot.

He's a lot of fun
to have around.

It smells like
it's on its way.

to give money.

Yeah, it's on its way.

So is Mark.

There it is.
Thar she blows.

The corn liquor still,
it starts pulling out
liquor right off the bat,

you know, about an hour in.

We'll catch us
a jar of heads
and get rid of them.

Now we can go to catching
the real stuff right here.

Big Sloppy here. That's so hot
you can't touch it right now.

She'll be putting out liquor
here any minute.

This will be
the first many runs.

We've got quite a bit
of this wheat bran.

Any run can go south on you,

but we're just hoping
this one turns out well.

It's an experiment.

Let me smell that.

Get your nose here.

Phew.

That's badass right there.

- There you go.
- Look yonder.

Here's a jar of heads, fellas.

Now, here's a problem.

What is it?

Mark both lost
our peckers today.

Sloppy ain't real cordial
for somebody putting
a strange pecker in her.

- What?
- But if you don't care, go ahead--

I just so happen to have one.
Look here.

Big Sloppy's
protective of who gets
to stick a pecker in her.

I'm gonna stick
my pecker in her today.

That's a old big pecker there.
She might like it.

Well, she might
get cantankerous.

You know,
that's a honor for me

to be able to pull a pecker
out my hat, and stick it
in another man's condenser.

Boy, I'm tellin' you,
that's a nice smell.
Nice on the nose.

That's nice.

And it smells good.

-Just different. Wheat bran.
-Wheat bran,
that's what it is.

-It ain't fiery, is it?
-Uh-uh.

It ain't corn for damn sure.

It's pretty good.

Tastes pretty good
on the damn tongue.

You know, the way
that taste right there,

I could sit and drank the jar,
but you'd have to
carry me out.

Yeah, we ain't-- We don't
feel like that.

We'd tie a rope to you
and try to drag ya.

You know, the taste is great.
Great on the nose.

it's also got an aftertaste
like fresh baked bread,
what I guess you would say so.

Yeah, the liquor's good,
and I think it'll be
fine to sell.

You have to help me
do some pushing up this hill.

Yeah, I can do that.

Hot damn.

I wanna get it on a trailer
and see what it looks like.

Then we can
do something with it.

Let's see if we can
get it on the floor.

In Culpeper, Virginia.

In order to scale up
their single malt moonshine,

Tim and Chuck
begin construction
on a custom built still.

We're building
this still on a trailer
right now, mobile.

'Cause we don't know
where we're gonna
put that thing.

Now, we have room to expand.

But we've got to build
another building, you've
got to pull a concrete path.

Well, you know, Tim has always
got to do it right now.

We don't have time
for all of that.

-How is that, Chuck?
-Beautiful?

This still is
a little bit different.
It's kind of old-school.

If you look at some of
the very old still prior to,
say, the '30s and '40s,

on a lot of them, you'll see
the elephant trunk design.

It goes way up in the air,
and then, it turns back down
to the condenser.

Today, a lot of people
don't use this technique,

But this cap design
is putting the resistance
back onto the still.

That's going to
increase reflux,

and it's going to help us,
not hurt us on
the taste profile.

How you hook it up?

Well, we put you in first
and then, we screw this in.

There's a manhole in town.

Okay, Chuck,
watch them steps now.

I ain't about used
this thing in 10 years.

I can't find the step.

I didn't tell you
that was easy.

No, you didn't
tell me that, sir.

You got to wiggle in like
an old snake going after...
a frog, you know.

All right, we could use
a little help.

All right, we could
use a little help.

Yeah, Grab that thing
and push it up to us.

We're going to take
the inch and a half,

60 feet long copper coil,

and kind of turn it,
and ease it in there
like a corkscrew.

Six more inches.

Six more inches,
that's all you get.

Two inches.

One inch. There it is.

You got the whole enchilada.

All right, let's get the
saw and torch,
and we'll weld it up.

When we first did
single malt barley,

We took it down in the woods,
we used the old
submarine steel,

we had a wooden
burrow-type thumper,
and a condensing worm.

- Right there, Chuck.
You see that?
-That'll work.

We're all
doing something
a little bit different here.

Way took out the thumper.

Normally, you know, it could
change the taste profile
a little bit.

But to compensate for that,
we increased the cap height.

Put it like that.

And then, put that
on top of that.

Tim normally runs
a still consisting of a pot,
thump keg and a condenser.

The role of the thump keg
is to increase proof
by providing a mechanism

that creates reflux
or secondary distillation.

In lieu of a thump keg,

Tim is using a still design
named for its long,
swooping curves

called a swan's neck.

Due to its gradual reduction
in size, it creates reflux

by providing back pressure
that holds the alcohol vapor
back long enough

for the less pure compounds
to condense

and fall back into the pot
for further distillation.

Only the lighter,
more pure alcohol vapors

continue through the neck
to the condenser,

resulting in a cleaner
malted barley flavor.

I'm just thinking,

there's engineering, and this
is backwards engineering now.

You know, we're
still testing this thing.

Keep going that way, Chuck.

Until it comes out that spout,
we don't know what
it's going to taste like.

All right, we're
boltin' the cap on.

Looks like something out of
a science fiction movie.

If that looks so nice,
we'll put it in a parade.

Yeah, it would be great
in a parade.

Man, I hope like hell

out here is a good damn spot.
We got to find
somewhere to go.

You ain't kiddin'.
We got to have something.

Burn that barn,
this is too damn sketchy, man.

We just can't be
taking chances like that.

Me and Jerry,
we've got one more spot
we can go check out.

It's a old
abandoned dairy farm.

You know anything
about this guy here?

Yeah, he's a pretty good
old feller.

-He's all good with it?
-He's good.

He said, "If you get caught,
you're there on your own.

I don't even know
your ass is there."

Mike's got a lead,
hopefully, to be promising.

I mean, we've got
customers callin' us every day

and we got to
keep this stuff flowing
no matter what.

Here's my number one
question to you.

We know that it's his land?

We'll double check it
for damn sure to make sure
we're on his property.

Let's get out,
see what we can find.

You know, me
and Mike is pullin' in
to is this old dairy barn,

and, you know, it's been there
for a long time.

It's done caved in on itself.

What the hell's all this?

There's a lot of cars.

You see stuff been
sitting around for
years and years,

Tells me there's not
a whole lot going on
in this piece of property.

Better watch out, man.
You could step on
a damn snake or anything here.

There's water in it.

I'm gonna jump down there
and take a look at it.

Me and Jerry, we stomped down
through the briars
and bushes and stuff,

and sure enough, man,
I mean, that creek's
right there.

Tastes like water.
By God, it's good too.

It's clear, it's cold,
it's running over
blue slate rock.

This spring right here's
coming straight out the top
of the Smoky Mountains.

Tell you what?
This is a pretty nice
little flat right here.

I have to agree
with you, Jerry.

This looks
awful dadgum good, boy.

We got cover right here,
real good cover.

We've got the creek
right there on top of us.

Nothin' here beside us two.
So, that's just
gonna be handy.

The thing about it is
I don't hear nothing
but damn water.

-That's all I hear.
-This could work
right here, bud.

Leaving the ears
and eyes open,
I don't hear nothin'.

I don't even hear
a dog in the distance.

-You know what,
I think we got a spot, man.
-No kiddin', man. I'm with ya.

There may be one
damn other thing
we need to do, buddy.

-What's that?
-Let's find out for damn sure
where we stayin'.

That's right.

The last time we was on
a still site for so long,

and got run off because
we was over the property line.

So we're gonna pinpoint
and make damn sure

we're on the property
we're supposed to be on.

Let's see, right there
is where we is.

Right here's
his property boundary.
So, we gotta look her up.

Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah,
that's him. That's the guy.

We are in the clear by a mile.

It's got a lot of property.

Hell yeah, we're good to go.

You know, now we've
got this site, we
feel comfortable with it.

Everything looks good.
The access, the water.

We're gonna get
some mash supplies. We'll
bring in our barrel or pump,

and get this mash rolling.

You know what the walking
ain't gonna be quite as bad.

All right, you got to
get your ladder in place.

You got to tell me
when to shut it off.

In Central Virginia,

We're gonna shoot for halfway?
What're we shooting for?

-Yeah, I wanna
shoot for halfway.
-All right.

Tim and Chuck
prepare for an upscaled run

of their single malt
barley moonshine.

It's their first run ever
on their new mobile still.

Even though it's a boiler-fed
commercial still,

this design was
developed to replicate

the same taste profile
that we got in the backwoods.

-Turn it on, Chuck.
-All right, here we go.

Oh, yeah, got something
going on now.

You got it now, Tim?

Yeah, We got
some thick stuff, Chuck.

You want the gate valve
opened further?

I don't know.
It wants to come out the top.

I think you had
a little thick stuff
in the line.

'Cause, in there,
it's pretty good.

-Smells good, too.
-Good.

I think we can
cut it off, Chuck.

Let's
get it on up there,

-and let's go hook it up
to the boiler.
-All right.

We got two boilers here.
We got the old one,
and we got the new one.

New boiler is all connected
to the big still.

We don't wanna interfere
with that. We don't
wanna stop anything.

Plus, we have nowhere
to hook up to.

So we made a determination
that the old boiler would be
the best one to use.

We're gonna pull it up
to the boiler, connect it...

-Will it reach
right there, Chuck?
-Just try.

Chuck's been using this boiler
for, like, 25, 30 years.

You know, it works good
it works great. It's just old.

Okay.

-I think we oughta
turn it on, Chuck.
-You ready?

Yeah. Let's turn to steam on.

Let's see if
this old thing will
crank up today.

So, hot steam at 350 degrees
going into here.

it's gonna circulate 60 times
round and around and around.

And then, it's gonna
come out here.

And then once the mash
gets to 175 degrees,

is going to come
out the cap to the worm.

Alcohol is gonna
come out of this one,

and then, the overflow
of cold water is gonna
come out of this

and go on back into
that drain there,

and all that's gonna
meet up together...

if it all goes right

I'm gonna
throttle it back a little bit.

I don't wanna
get damn too much steam.

Let me go check
the rest of the valve.

Got a lot of steam
goin' up here.

I don't know if that's'
working like it's supposed
to work in there, Chuck.

It's all blowing
out the roof out there.

The steam is supposed
to be going into our still,
our mobile still.

But steam is coming out
of the chimney of the boiler.

I mean, it's total opposite
of what it's supposed
to be doing.

The boiler just blew up.
The chamber blew a side and blew it up.

-That is not good, sir.
-No, it ain't good at all.
It's gone.

You got the same
kind of hook up over here.

Well, not there now.
But we can put it in.

Back at
Belmont Farm, after losing
the secondary boiler.

Tim and Chuck are going
with plan B.

Well, you know,
we've got the main boiler.

This boiler, actually
right now, is running
a 3000 gallon still.

But this boiler's big enough
to run the whole distillery.

It's just not been connected.

How're we gonna connect it
to this thing, sir?

I don't know, but first thing
we gotta do is shut this down
and let it cool off.

Oh, I hate doing that, Tim.

The boiler is the heart
of the whole system here.

With this boiler
shut down, it shuts
the whole distillery down.

We gotta solve this,
and we gotta solve it fast.

this is a steam line here.

but this steam is gonna
have to connect to
that outflow pipe over there.

-That runs over there
and goes outside.
-It goes outside.

That's where we can connect
to our mobile still.

That's actually like
the drain for the still.

It's really a drain
for the big still.

But we can
connect it over here

'cause this is going back
to the boiler.

-That's the main steam line.
-Yeah.

We cut the pipe
and can't put it
back together,

-we're really gonna be
in a problem.
-We've got to do it.

It is heart surgery, you know.
I'm the surgeon here.

There you go, Tim.

And we're gonna
put in a bypass.

Hopefully, the connections
work, it all matches.

If we cut this line,
and we mess this thing up,

the whole distiller
is gonna be stopping.

Go, check.

It's been only a day, Tim.
Looks like it fits to me.

So now you've
got a valve here.

You can cut this one,
cut that valve off there.

And that steam
would come through here.

Yeah.

Or you can cut this off,

and becomes a drain line,
and drain comes out here.

-Yeah.
-You could open that up,
open that up,

and blow steam out
to clean the slop
out the bottom.

Yeah. All right.

I think we did
all the retrofitting
pretty good.

-Hook it up.
-Ah, here we go.

Now, it's able to run
both stills.

The easy way, Chuck,
is to let her steer, you know?

You know,
this is a big baller.

I'm just afraid
that maybe it's too big,

and we put too much stress
on the steel.

I turned it on, Tim.

You know,
we just built this thing.

Homemade from a lot of
different sources here.

And we're going to
build pressure inside.

-I can feel
that thing swelling.
-Yeah.

You better get back
in case it blows.

-You ain't got a shirt on.
-I know.

The pressure is okay
as long has a way to escape.

The escape is through
the capped on the decondenser.

When that gets clogged up,

then you got back-pressure.

How much pressure's
on it, Chuck?

Well, it's not that much.

-I ain't squeezing.
-450 gallon still

could be maybe
10,000 pounds of pressure.

You take 10,000 pounds
of pressure and hit
a piece of sheet metal,

it's going to rip it apart.

And you are
within that vicinity
somewhere,

you're probably
going to get cut open.

It's gettin' hot.

And we got alcohol out.

Chuck, we're runnin'.

We did something right, huh?

Little bit clouded.

It's cleaning that coal out.

It's here. Right there.

Well, you know,
when the other baller
blew up,

I didn't think
we would get to here.

And I thought,
we're going to end up
dumping all the mash out.

But now we got both running.

We're making Climax inside,
and straight 100 percent
barley malt outside.

That's rich, true barley
right there.

I don't think it's good, so...

Yeah, it's single malt,
100 percent malted barley.

We have proved that we can
replicate the taste profile.

Whether we do it in the woods
or do it on a mobile still.

That right there.
You know what?
That sneak up on you.

Look at that bee.
When them bees come around
then you know it's good.

Yeah.

I really think that
when it hits the market,
it's gonna be on fire.

That'll sell, Tim.
That's good.

Here we go.

You had the barrels
on the elevator, ain't you?

Yeah. I had them hid there
half way down.

-How much was he wanting? 70?
-72 gallons.

72 gallons.
Now, that's a good sale.

Back at their headquarters
in rural Tennessee,

Mark and Digger
ready a shipment
of wheat bran moonshine

for their Nashville
bootlegger Killer Bees.

After we tell him about
this wheat bran,

Bees, he's all excited
and he's on his way.

He's after 72 gallons.

He's already got it sold.
So So we've got to
get in here,

jar it up,
and get it ready
for distribution.

We need that little pump
we used the other day.

You know, Bees is in his
wheelhouse in Nashville.

He's got
the high price clients.

Here we go.

And, you know,
we'd like to have him around.

He generates a lot of sales
with big price tag
attached to 'em.

Well, looking back, I probably
should have gotten
a little stronger of a pump.

It's all right.

Well, I don't want to
pump it too fast,
so if something goes haywire,

you don't lose
as much so quick.

Yeah, if your hose flies out
or something,

you ain't squirted it
every-damn-where
over the floor.

If these four barrels full,
which is 120 gallons,

that's 480 quarts.

You go get us some jars
and I'll check the proof
on this.

Okay.

Bees, of course,
is getting the lion's share
of it.

It's hard work,
but honestly,
it's a good payday.

Damn. I am out of jars.

-Hey, Puss.
-Hey, haddy.

We're going to have to go get
some more jars.

We don't have but four boxes.

We use so many jars,

we buy 'em by the pallet.

Normally, two to four pallets
at a time.

I knew we'd run low on jars.

Just didn't know how bad.

-Look at that, Puss.
-Two more.

-That's all of 'em, ain't it?
-Yep.

I'll tell you what, if you can
hold this fort down,

I'll go out there
and I'll get two pallets
of jars.

And then we're gonna
rest this dog down.

Yeah, 'cause he's got to have
24 boxes.

I'll be back
in about 45 minutes.

Take your time. I've got this.

You know, the mason jar's
a quintessential vessel

for moonshine liquor.

We're in the backwoods.
There's not a bottle factory
that you can go to

and have your custom bottle
made. So, everybody rely,

in our neck of the woods,
at least, on the mason jar.

They're clean.
They're easy to see through.

You can see if you're getting
a quality product,

you can pour your drink out,
seal it back up.

You can drink out of it.
Set it in a refrigerator.

Stick it in a cooler,
and drag it out.
get a drink when you want it.

Long time no see.

Well, it's that time
of the year,

I need jars.
I need least one pallet
if you got it.

You and several thousand
others, my friend.

I can't get *bleep* No, no.

In 50 years that
we've been here,

never seen products
so hard to come by.

And it's not
just toilet paper,
it's almost anything.

And if you... if you walk
through the grocery store,

a normal grocery store,
you see outages
everywhere you turn.

And we've gone through
probably 18,000 cases
of jars in seven weeks.

You can't even get a...

You can't even get a jar lid.

It's bad, my friend.

What'd you reckon the deal is?

The several thousand cases

we've gone through,

most of that's people
that's canning.

-Yeah.
-They've put gardens out
for the first time.

-or maybe in a long time...
-I never thought I'd see
anything like this

in my lifetime, but nah.

Every source I've ever had
for a glass container,

-I can't find 'em.
-Well, I'm gonna
get out your hair.

-I know you're busy, brother.
-Good to see you, my friend.

I'll check with you if you
don't call me with anything,
I'll check with you.

Okay. Will do.

You know, it's funny
how the same thing

that caused our business
to go through the roof,

the pandemic, has apparently
affected the jar businesses.

Well, no matter what
the reason is
that this has come about,

we've got to find
a source somewhere.

We can't be in
the liquor business.

if we don't have something
to put the liquor in.

I never thought
I'd see a day like this.

Can't find no jars.

Hellfire.

I stopped at four other places
there ain't even a jelly jar
to be had.

We've had sugar shortages
and grain shortages.

There ain't never been
a jar shortage.

It ain't one thing. It's 75.

The things that you can
always know is given.

And now it ain't.

Yeah. nothing certain no more
except thinking how

we used to make a living
in the liquor business.

Kind of makes you wish
we'd paid some taxes now

so we could have got some
of that rocking chair money,
don't it?

Yeah. Wonder if we could apply
for some of that
PPP money.

I don't know. Hell,
we're self-employed
and we pay our employees.

Reckon I can get some of it.

Yee-haw!

-Almost to the right spot.
-That's right.

In Eastern Tennessee,

Mike and Jerry
are prepping their mash

and building out their
new still site to house
their 13 foot column still.

All right, J,

I know you're
damn belly still hurting

how we're gonna
get this down this down
this damn hill?

Could just slide it
down the bend,

-but it might tear the bags
-We got that damn tarp
right there.

*bleep*

Look at that.

In order to be a moonshiner,

you gotta use your damn head.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you got to come up
with something on the fly
all the time.

You know I think
we've created the first ever
mass slip-and-slide.

You wanna head on down?
I'll get a hose.

All right.

I've got oats
and barley today

to mash it with.
We got it very, very cheap.

We're just using
what we can use, you know?

Besides, with the rig
that we've got,

it's just going to strip
the taste out of it anyway.

Let's get the sugar poured in.

It should take, I don't know,
17 days, maybe a day
or two longer.

in order to give us time
to start building
our still house.

You got it, sweetheart?

Ah.

We gotta get this joker built.
We're gonna get
that steel in here.

Mike and I were planning
on building a thing
about 14 foot tall.

Basically, me and Mike
are gonna keep it simple.

We're gonna have four poles
and a sloped roof.

All we need is just a cover

to keep the rain
from falling on this pot.

Filling these holes up
with water here, uh,

so we can add our concrete.

It just saves us from mixing
it in like a wheelbarrow

or something like that.

Plus, I got some really
quick set in concrete.

-How's it looking?
-Dead on the money
right there, son.

Well, that's good.

We got four posts
in the ground, Bubba.

My God, that's going to be
a high enough roof, ain't it?

Speaking of a damn roof,
what are we gonna do
for a roof?

We ain't got no
roofing material right now.

Good option I know of,
we done bought one time.

And I knew exactly
what the hell he was
talking about.

He wants us to go over
and get that roofing material

over on another man's land
at that old still site.

You know, Jerry,
I mean that man...

You know, he swore by it.

He's gonna call the law on us
if he caught us
in there again.

What cops did
on our own stuff?

What's he gonna do? Run us off
'cause we're trespassing?

-Technically,
it belongs to us.
-We should be able to get it.

Let's do it.

We'll go get that *bleep*
right now if you want to.

This roof is close to $1,000.

I don't want to fork up
that kind of money
this late in season.

so I, you know, pretty much
got it under my damn sleeve.

I'm going to
slip back in there

and get this metal
off his damn stillhouse
and get the hell out of there.

Get up there
and get this job done
and get hell out here, Jerry.

Yeah, tell you what?
I'm not too keen about what's going on.

I ain't neither,

but I'm be dying before I let
somebody stop me from
getting what's mine.

I'll tell you one
damn thing, though.

I ain't gonna
miss this walk.

I ain't neither.

Say, I touched
the end, brother.

I'll tell you what?

Pretty disheartened.

But you know what?

It's going to lead on to
better things. I can feel it.

Hell, yeah.

It's a sketchy situation,

It's scary,
it's nerve-racking.

But we've got a deal.

Damn it. Come on.

Just don't bend it up.
We've got to reuse it.

Watch this.

Knew that
was going to happen.

This is a sad-ass situation.

After all the work
we put into this place

and having to
take it all back down.

And it's coming down
a lot faster if it went up.

That's what's
so surprising, you know?

It takes so long to build,
it don't take but a minute
to crumble it to pieces.

It's a little
disheartening, sad.

-This is the
end of it, brother.
-Yeah.

It's time
to move on now.

I tell you what, man,
still site that we've got now,

this roofing metal
is going to look sexy.

It's going to be as good,
if not better than what
we had before.

I'm excited to get started
and get any still site built,

so we get back in operation.

Is there some way
to spot us on the way
out of here?

I hope like hell not.

It don't creek any floors.

I don't know if it can't stand
much more of this or not.

Sounds like
mine and your knees
coming up them steps.

You know, I don't know
how he's going to take it

when he realizes he's going
to take these two
30-gallon barrels of liquor,

but that's his only option.

Easy now.

He's got people
waiting on liquor.

If he didn't,
he's not your back.

He's got to take it,
find jars then dispense it,

and, you know,
he's got to do
what he's got to do

just like we do.

- There he is.
- Ah, there she comes.

- Hello, fellas.
- Killer.

-How are you, buddy?
-Good, man.

-How are you?
-Good to see you.

- Hello, my friend.
- Sup?

How y'all doing?

We got good news
and bad news, Killer.

I may see some of
the bad news right now.

We got 60.

And that's the last
of any jars.

Jars are
unavailable right now.

Why are there no jars?

I think during
this economic hardship

that more people's canning,
putting up food.

-Man, I've got 20 customers
that this is going to.
-Hmm.

I don't know how I'm going
to get it to 'em without jars.

When people think moonshine
they think Mason jars.

They want to open the lid
and take a swig

and go,
"Whoo! That was moonshine."

That's the mistake of it.

I don't know what
I'm going to do about that.

I don't have jars.

I need hundreds,
hundreds of jars.

That gum, man.

I'm only glass
to put those in.

- Well, they...
- I don't have the answer for you there.

- Okay.
- -You're in the same situation we are.

We're struggling, and you're
going to struggle
with us, brother.

I'm going to look
in Nashville.

I'll see what I can do.
And you need jars as well?

- Yes.
- If I find jars...

- We need all we can get, as many as we can get.
- Okay.

The next big thing is
will these fit in your
soccer-mom car?

In my
soccer-mom...

- Well, uh, maybe.
- Maybe.

Okay, It's not
a soccer-mom car.
It is a crossover SUV.

Come and help us
a little bit.

Yeah, let me
hold this man down.

Yeah, you *bleep*

Yeah, it's not big.
It's affordable.

I believe it'll go.

I am not a soccer mom.

Seventy bucks a gallon.
$5,040.

I trust you, brother.

When you get home,
call us and let us know
you made it safe.

I will, and I'll get
right on those jars, man.

Drive slow and don't break
the speed limit.

-Thanks, guys.
-Thank you, brother.

- Love you, man.
- Love you many.