Moonshiners (2011–…): Season 10, Episode 14 - Ice Shine - full transcript

[narrator] This time on
Moonshiners.

[man]
This distillation process,

totally different
from what we do.

Applejack is a form
of apple brandy.

But instead of using a
heating-distillation process,

we use
a freeze-distillation process.

I ain't never in my life
thought I'd be making liquor

with a hammer and chisel.

[man] When you got
nothing else to pick
and harvest,

we'll just go back
to the damn
old-timers way.

Made some damn
birch bark liquor.



-[exclaims]
-[laughs]

[Mark] We tried to source
all of our ingredients

as cheap as we could.

So, if we can turn these
oranges into liquor,

then we are still
further ahead of the game.

[Digger]
Obviously, it's working,
but it ain't working much.

[Mark] You think it's foul?

This is something
that's never posed
itself before.

[man] This is how
we make the moonshine!

[Mark] You know,
they're out of date,

but, I mean,
they don't smell.

They look like
little pig embryos.

[narrator] In Cocke County,
Tennessee,

facing a nation-wide
shortage of mason jars.



Mark and Digger
acquired 2,500 jars

of expired mandarin oranges
and mayonnaise.

Yeah, you're good.

[narrator] Problem is,

what to do
with the contents?

Them mandarin oranges,
we'll ferment and
make it a nice one.

I mean, we got
a 1,080 jars of it.

[Digger] It don't get
no cheaper than this.

[Mark] These oranges,
they were free.

You know,
everybody's having
hard times right now

and we figured
that if we could save

our customers
some money, good.

But I ain't never heard
of anybody

ever making orange moonshine,
mandarin or otherwise.

They're not bad.

I think the colors,
all we tell from.

[indistinct]

Well...

They don't taste bad,
that's what I'm telling you.

They're all right.

You know, people lose
their damn minds

over expiration dates.

Back in the day
when we were kids,

you smell that,
if it is stinks
you didn't eat it.

If it tastes bad,
you spit it out.

Mean it, they're mushy.

You don't want
them to be mushy.

That's what it is.
It's just the texture.

The syrup on these,
it's not really sweet.

It's probably just
a natural juice

with little extra water,
maybe some glycerin.

So, we'll add a little bit
of sugars in it.

Now, pour a little water
in here

and get that
corn sugar dissolved.

He'd probably
break that jar.

[Mark] See,
that's what I think.

They don't know because

they just turned
into nothing.

This right here,
it'll make anything ferment.

It'll take off
in a couple of hours.

This yeast is more useful
with grapes.

That's what it generates
port wine yeast.

It's more for an acidic

nature than more
but basic nature.

I'll put it over here
in this window.

It'll catch up morning sun
and warm up.

Hey, I believe it'll work.

Over the years,
we've used fruit cocktail,

we've used can peaches,
but this is something

that's never posed
itself before.

I'm gonna say,
it's gonna have
a hell of a cap on it.

All of them little
sperm pockets

so that juice comes in.

What do they call
these things on a citrus?

I don't know.

Pulp.

-Yeah, oh yeah.
-Yeah, that's pulp.

[Mark] Well, that didn't sound
like a sperm pocket.

[Henry] When we are back...

We're gonna be working with...

But I think
we'll have some time
to do another little project.

[narrator]
In Franklin County, Virginia,

Tickle and the Laws
need to figure out

what to do too much of
a good thing.

We've got to figure out
exactly what we're gonna do

with all these apples
that Josh has brought us.

I've had apples
coming out of my ears.

I just figured
I'd hook you boys up.

[Tickle] Our new still site
is too small

for this great big steamer rig
that we've got.

'Cause let's face it,
without out steamer rig,

we can't run these apples.

Taking y'all up here
to see a friend of mine.

Name is Skip.

And he's been fiddling
with his distillation process,

totally different
from what we do.

Gonna we use the cold
to our advantage.

Use the cold
to our advantage.

Totally different operation.

[Henry] A friend of mine
called me a while back.

He told me about his

way to distill alcohol,

without boiling it.

He told, I'm freezing it.

He'd been doing good.

Oh yeah,
I'm doing better
than I should.

This is my
brew house, guys.

What have we got here?

You have some stuff
working off.

[Skip] Yeah, I do.
I've got a lot of stuff
working off.

[Henry] Skip,
this guy's great.

I mean he's
very knowledgeable,
very intelligent.

You've been doing it
for a long time,
haven't you?

Seven years,
I'm a mad scientist.

That said, he likes to
mess around a whole lot.

He likes to
raise a little hail.

What's that freeze thing
you've been talking about?

All right, to start with

this is a
disinfectant sterilization.

You can get bacteria
real easy.

So, everything
you touch

stir sticks,
no matter what you do.

You need to
sterilize everything.

Sterilization
is very important.

If we were cooking it off,
it would kill any bacteria

that might form in here.

But being as we're
freezing it,

the bacteria could still
possibly stay alive

and we could come up
with an inferior product.

Now, what I've got
going in here.

This is
a standard mash,

five gallons of water,

five-and-a-half pounds
of sugar,

-Turbo yeast.
-Right.

You can take this
and infuse anything.

These are pecans,
this is coffee.

So, it tastes like coffee.

So, you put the flavors in
with the mash

in a way
and infuse it later.

[Skip] You wanna
put it in there
from the beginning,

so when it bubbles,
it bubbles through that.

Now, say when we
used distill
and after that pour

this it fired up, baby.

Skip messed in
the exact same way

that we normally mash in.

But we've got to
put a whole lot more

in our mash to get the flavor
to carry over.

But he don't have to
put much in there.

[Skip] Well,
this still working.

But what you do is,

you put it in a freezer.

What temperature
do you set this
refrigerator at?

18 to 22.

Seems to work really well.

If you wanna see a picture
of what it looks like,

I'll show you.

Let me sit here.
All right, let's see
if I can find this picture.

Why don't you tell us all
about the naked woman
you got there?

-Oh, that's your wife.
-My wife?

[laughs]

Here's what it looks like.

See, I've got a bucket here
in the sink

and it's draining
down in there.

There's a lot of
similarities

and differences between
regular distillation

and freeze distillation.

See the ice.

[Tickle]
When we regular distill,

we boil the alcohol,

let it steam over and separate

without boiling the water

to go along with it.

In freeze distillation,

the object is
to freeze the water

and condense
the alcohol in it

without freezing
any of the alcohol.

If you keep it freezing
over and over again,

you're gonna get
more alcohol content.

The average is gonna be
45 to 50 proof.

It's exactly the same
but 100% opposite.

Now, how many gallons
do you get per five gallons.

[Skip] You get gallon
three quarter.

That ain't bad.

That's a good turnout.

Freeze distillation,
I think it's something worth
looking into.

[Skip]
Taste a little bit of it.

[Tickle] For one,
the flavor combinations
are immeasurable.

Tastes good.

And two, we've had to downsize
our still site.

This freeze distillation
is gonna help us

keep our output
about the same.

You really don't know
how much we appreciate this.

Well, listen, I appreciate
you guys coming by,
I really do.

This is great.

You're not as dumb
as you look.

[laughs]

[Mike] It's cold weather, man.
We ain't got nothing
else to pick and harvest.

[Jerry] Yeah, man,
everything's gone.

[Mike] We'll just go back
to the old-timers way.

Make some damn
birch bark liquors.

[narrator] 250 miles
southwest

Sevier County, Tennessee,

Mike and Jerry
look to the forest

for a low-cost ingredient

that produces
high quality shine.

Okay, what we are looking for
is a black birch.

It's winter time
and there's nothing else
to really pick and harvest

out here in the wood,
you know.

But we've gotta
come up with something
to minimize our cost

for people to buy off
our products
for a smaller price.

So, why not just go back

to a traditional thing to do,

birch-bark whiskey.

You see this one right here?
Peel that bark.

-Tell me what you
thinking now.
-Oh, my God.

-You can tell that...
-It's very nice, right there.

I told you,
you'd know when you've
walked up on.

-I gotta put that in my mouth
like a piece of chewing gum.
-You can't chew it.

That's gonna make some
damn good liquor right there.

You just would not believe
the flavor

that's packed
in that little limb.

[whirring]

It's almost like a
root beer barrel candy

or a sassafras.

[indistinct]

[shouts indistinctly]

Well, we got a birch
cheeseball.

-Let's go get the bark off.
-Yeah.

-Get her strip down
-A little strip down.

[laughs] Yeah, baby.

We're not gonna
chip anything up.

We're not gonna use
the whole log,

you know,
we're just stripping
the bark off.

The sap that's in it,

that's where your
flavor is at,

in between the mid of the tree

and the outer layer
of the bark.

That dark, dark, dark
brown lookin' stuff.

That's where
all the flavor is.

And we cook that out,

and extract that out
into that water.

Are you ready
to get some birch
skinning home.

You kiddin' man.

I'll use them
to make furniture
after we get done.

Certainly too hard
to skin a damn log skin.

That right there,
see that little dark stuff.

Yeah?

Oh, boy, smell that.

It's hard to smell
when I got it in my mouth.

This is all about
finding the rhythm.

Yep. Find the rhythm.

The only downside of this plan
is humped out.

Have you heard of
the humpback?

-Yeah.
-That's what I'm gonna be.

I'm telling you,

them old-timers had it rough,
didn't they?

Doing this forever.

Ever loud, ever bored

to build houses with instead.

Somethings still work
to this day and age.

Come up,
doing this stuff for here.

Yeah maybe,
different people

That yeah.

Some heritage this right here
that ain't nothing gonna be.

That's right.

[exclaims]

[humming]

-That's a pretty log
you got there.
-Well, thank you, Mike.

[both laughing]

I put my foot in my mouth
every time I say somethin',
don't I?

Smell coming off this,
is absolutely incredible.
I just wanna

be like a baby
just eating a big old
chocolate swirl of.

God, I'm gonna take...

Jerry, I won't be scared

to say this.
This might be your best

run of the damn year
if it turns out.

For its flavor profile,

this is going
big damn good.

We've plenty enough
to make three barrels
that way.

We sure do.

Well, birch bark does take
a lot of flavor in it.

I'm gonna go ahead,
go add some water
on this and cap it.

We wanna keep that flavor.

So, we are soaking it
overnight in water

to keep it from drying out,
until we can reach

the point to get it mashed in.

We've got three
five gallon buckets.

Get back here tomorrow
and mash this stuff in

and save all the flavor we can

and potentially
have a good liquor.

Whoo! I know one thing.

If we do that kind of stuff
more than often,

my damn arms
feel like damn...

-Spaghetti noodles?
-...spaghetti noodles.

So let's get out here
and go get us a sandwich.

[narrator] Coming up...

-Mmm. *bleep*
-[Digger laughs] Damn.

Damn, no wonder
they couldn't sell these.

You gotta understand,

Digger is the mash curator.

I don't know a lot
about acidity and base,

but Digger seems to have
a firm grasp on it.

When you open 'em up like that

mandarin oranges smells
a lot like a fart, don't they?

No, my fart smells
like a lot like a fart.

Let's go over here
and see what this orange did.

-Looks like beer.
-It looks like orange beer.

Or them tangerine beer.

You know, this season's
been particularly hard

on a lot of people.

So we've tried to sell
our product to people cheaper.

Smells a bit like beer?

So, if we can turn these
oranges into liquor as well,

we're still further
ahead of the game

'cause all we have
actually invested
is sugar and yeast.

It's sweet as syrup.

Yeah, it shouldn't be
that sweet, puss.

Yeah. It's obviously
it's working,

but it ain't working much.

You think it's stalled?

Let's see
where we're at with it.

-Yeah.
-It's way too sweet.

It's about half,
it worked off.

It didn't do
what it was supposed to.

It fermented a little bit,

that little bit of corn sugar
we used in there

fermented out, I feel certain,

but we're back
to square one on this deal.

-Now what are you doing?
-I'm gonna check the pH.

You got another new toy.

-See what this does.
-What's that checking now?

Checks if it's acidic
or if it's alkaline,

meaning acid or basic.

Yeah, it's 30.21.

Well, you just well
told me that damn German.

You gotta understand,

Digger is the mash curator.

I don't know a lot
about acidity and base,

but Digger seems
to have a firm grasp on it.

It's funny how acid works.

If it's a little number,
it's high acid,

if it's a big number,
it's no acid.

I think it's why
the yeast stalled.

[Digger] You know, my only
theory of this right now

is it was too acidic.

It need to be
a little bit more basic,

a little more alkaline.

So I think if we make
a bigger run of this,

sugar it up, get it heavy,

adjust that pH,

...more than a 5
to 5.2 range,

I believe we'll see
a little better fermentation.

This is going down
for a minute.

Mmm. Damn.

We open the damn things up.

-Mmm. *bleep*
-[Digger laughs] Damn.

Damn, no wonder
they couldn't sell these.

*bleep* Mighty damn.

Son of a bitch.

I hope I can get 'em open.

Bingo.

-That slurp ain't heavy,
is it?
-No.

When you open 'em up like that

mandarin oranges smells
a lot like a fart, don't they?

You know, my fart
smells a lot like fart.

[chuckles] You're just getting
here with all this...

Well, the usual rule of thumb

is we use a pound of sugar
per gallon of water,

but we're gonna use
a whole entire 50-pound bag.

If it ferments,

it'll make
a little more alcohol.

Yeah.

That is 3.2.

So we gotta raise it up
two points.

Yeah, basic.

Yeah. And you do that
with that baking soda.

This baking soda.
You get your hopper ready.

You know, yeast,
they like a little bit
of an acidic atmosphere

but when it gets below 4.5,
around in there,

then it starts stressing
a little bit.

To raise the pH up
a little bit,

you gotta tanker with them

and it involves putting
a little baking soda in there

-and stirring it up.
-[whirring]

Oh, God!

5.22.

Leave it alone.

Well, we're gonna put
a little yeast nutrient,

beat that up real good.

[whirring]

If we adjust the pH,

the yeast, they'll take off
again just like a rocket,
I feel certain,

but we need to see
if the liquor is gonna
taste good.

If it ferments,
it's just half the battle.

If it makes liquor
that don't taste good,

you've accomplished nothing.

Well, you've learned me
something today, puss.

Come along, a little back.

Here you go, perfect, perfect.

[narrator] In the woods
of Central Virginia,

with the windfall of apples
at their disposal...

Smells good, don't it?

...Tickle and the Laws mash in

for their first ever
freeze distillation.

You wanna grab
this grinder over here?

I ain't never seen one
like it before.

Ain't gonna lie to you,
I thought
it was a leaf mulcher

or something like that.

Josh brought us
a whole lot of apples

when he'd come to help us
build our still site.

All right. Turning on.

So we're gonna make us
an applejack.

Applejack is a form
of apple brandy.

But instead of using
a heating distillation
process,

we use a freeze
distillation process.

Oh, unplug it.

Yeah!

-Look at that.
-Mmm-hmm.

-That's apple sauce.
-Good too.

That's the finest late blower
I've seen in my life.

I've seen that...
work off quick.

I've got a grinder that
I normally use
to grind up my apples,

but it leaves bigger chunks.

So I found this grinder,

it grinds up real fine
like apple sauce.

And I'm hoping by doing that,

we'll extract more flavor
out of that.

Damn apply syrup, man.

Applejack, baby, applejack.

[narrator] Applejack,

referred to
as America's first spirit

has a history older
than the country itself.

First produced in 1689
by William Laird,

a Scottish immigrant

who settled
in colonial New Jersey.

Applejack became so popular

that George Washington
lobbied the Laird family

to provide their home brew

to the troops
of the revolutionary war.

Robert Laird, William Laird's
great-grandson

served under Washington
and the Continental Army.

And went on to incorporate
Laird & Company

creating the first
commercial distillery
in American history.

Remarkably, George Washington

is not the only
American president

associated with applejack.

In the 1830s, Abraham Lincoln,

long before
he became a politician,

served as a tavern keeper
in Illinois.

All right, let's get this
water heated.

With this applejack,

our mash build is exactly
the same as we always do

as far as apple brandy.

We usually do a cold mash,

but we're gonna
heat this water up

so we get the apples
up to about 90 degrees.

If we don't,
it'll never kick off

and never end up
start working.

[Tickle] These apples,
they're notorious

for taking a long time
to work on.

There in the middle
of the summer,

when it's nice and hot,

it takes at least three weeks.

In the winter time,

boy, it's gonna take
a month or even longer.

[clicks tongue]

Once that's settled,
it'll work out,

it would be ready
to put it in the freezer.

I've got a huge
walk-in freezer.

-Oh, is that right?
-Commercial.

Put it on palette.

-Roll up them in there.
-Be done with it.

-Let's get this done
and we'll get on with it.
-Yeah, let's get this done.

Oh, man, that is some
good-smelling stuff.

Me and Jerry, we're fixed
to get this birch bar
mashed in.

We've let it set overnight,

it's been soaking
in its water

and keeping all the saps in
where it won't dry out.

So all we gotta do
is mash this stuff in,

get it ready to go.

The first thing
I've gotta do here,

is mow all this down
and get all that good sweet

sap out of here

and then lay the sugar,
water and yeast to it.

And once we bow
all the birch bark down,

you'll notice that water,
that tea,

is just brown.

That's where
all the flavor is.

Look at the damn water
right there.

-Like little southern
sweet tea, doesn't it?
-It does.

It's like sweet tea.

-[slurps]
-Got a smell to it, don't it?

Hell yeah, it does.

It's gonna be
some good stuff, buddy.

The water's up to temperature
and starting to boil on us

and man, the aroma
coming off of there,

it's like a good
root beer candy

or sassafras.

This is amazing.
Feel like Grandma's

green bean chicken
on the stove.

You know what, Jerry,

-I'm thinking a little bit
on this.
-Oh, yeah?

We want to keep
all the flavor and everything

that we possibly can.

-Oh, yeah.
-I'm not worried so much

a real damn high proof.

So I'm figured,
why don't we cut back

on our sugar
just a little bit?

And say maybe go to three bags
instead of four bags a barrel?

Yeah, that wouldn't be bad.

We don't worry we'll not
over-alcohol this stuff.

We want the flavor,
the taste profile,

is what we're really after.

So we're gonna back it down
to three bags of sugar
instead of four.

You know, when we modified
that still down to run this,

I want a good, tasteful liquor

that people know exactly
where it comes from.

We're doing
right the opposite.

We're not making a vodka here.

Well, birch bark
is a pretty strong bark.

It takes
a lot of flavor in it.

Looky that, looky that.

Well, it roughly takes
about a half to three quarters

of a five-gallon
bucket of bark

for 150-gallon barrel of mash.

But that's all it takes
to get that flavor.

You don't wanna overdo it

and that'd be all you taste

and you wanna spit it out.

You gotta find
that happy medium.

That's what all the old-timers
told me to do

and that's the approach
that I'm taking,

and hope and pray
it turns out right.

Damn, it is hard, ain't it?

Take her out, buddy.

Round three.

Going through these barrels

mashed in,
man, it's smelling amazing.

We'll get this thing
packed by a couple of hay,

get her covered up,
keep all that moisture
and stuff off of her,

and let this stuff
rock and roll.

That went good,
didn't it, brother?

Man, I'll tell you what,

I think it'll make
some fine liquor out there.

Me and you both, brother.

[Tickle]
What have we got here, Henry?

Oh, I'll tell you what...

[indistinct]

-Oh, she's worked off.
-[indistinct]

-It's strong too.
-Mmm.

Yeah.

[narrator]
In Franklin County, Virginia,

with 85 gallons
of the apple mash fermented,

Tickle and the Laws
begin a low cost process

for turning it into brandy.

[Tickle] We got to be really
careful with this stuff.

If we were making
a normal apple brandy,

it wouldn't really matter

how sterile these barrels are,

but these were not actually
heating this up at the still

to kill off any bacteria.

These barrels
have got to be very clean.

Good thing about
this sterilizing stuff

-is you can use it
over and over again.
-Yep.

Now what we've got to do

is we're gonna separate

all of the solids
from the liquids.

We're gonna strain this out

through a bucket
that's got some holes in it.

I think what we'll do
is dip it out of here

and run it through
the filter bucket

so we don't get any of these
big chunks and stuff in it.

[Henry] We're trying to do
this for easy extraction
on a large scale.

You know, Skip, he shows how
to do it on a smaller scale,

but the problem with that is
we got to have big freezers.

So I talked to a buddy of mine

and he's got a store,

but the problem with that

is his store is open
for business.

Henry, you...

You say you got a buddy
with a walk-in freezer.

He gon' just let us
roll these things
right up in there?

I mean, it's right
in the middle of the day.

[Henry] We're gonna have to go
after his store closes down.

So, we gon'
get there after dark.

After customers are gone.

Well, you know
us moonshiners, we do it
in the dark. You know it.

That's the way
she likes it. In the dark.

[Tickle] That's right.

Well, why don't we get us
a bite to eat or something.

[Henry] It's real late.
I need something real good.

-You cook us anything?
-[Tickle] Ah, I don't have
any cooker with me.

[Henry] Dang!

Come on back.

-[Henry] All right.
Oh, slow. Oh, slow.
-[Tickle] Easy.

Easy. Easy. Two foot.

-[Tickle] All right.
Hold, hold. Right center.
-[Henry] That's good.

[car door closes]

[Henry] Ease her down.

All right. All right.

You can move that. All right.

Don't know that's gon'
get through this door, is it?

Yeah, yes, it is.

-All right.
-[Kenny] You got it?

-Yes, sir.
-Let's get the other one.

-There we go.
-Oh, yeah.

-Heavy little thing.
-[Tickle] Yes, it is.

[Kenny] Damn right,
It's heavy.

[Tickle] That liquid
gets heavy, don't it?

The walk-in freezer
he's got right here,

it is the perfect
size for two barrels.

I'm gonna have to say
that maybe overnight

we come back
and check this stuff,

I really think we're gonna
see some good results.

All right, we're back
here to check on it...

-[Kenny] We'll see
what's going on.
-[Henry] Here you go.

-[Tickle] Oh, yeah.
She's froze.
-She's froze.

-Yeah, let's take this out.
-Froze solid.

Hmm, all right.

[Tickle] Pretty good, huh?
[Henry] Yes, sir,,
she froze up really good.

Yeah, like,
that one's even colder.

Yeah, damn, it's too cold.

[Tickle] Only one
way to find out, huh?

Get the C4.

-[Tickle chuckles]
-We're gonna have to
blow this baby.

[Tickle]
We've gotta the ice off
of the top of this stuff.

And about the only
thing we know to do

is just start breaking it
and pulling it out.

[Henry shudders] Oh, man,
I got a bite.

Got a bite?
Going ice fishing uh?

-Alaska fishing?
-Yeah.

-Taste this
and taste that one.
-Hoo-wee!

Seriously, taste that apple.

[indistinct conversation]

We've got to extract this ice,
throw it to the side

'cause that's water.
Now, we got the alcohol

and you can tell right away
that the alcohol's there,

but it's not as strong.

We're gonna have
a total different market
with this extraction.

-[Tickle]
You know what, Kenny?
-Yeah, man.

I ain't never in my life
thought I'd be making liquor

-with a hammer and chisel.
-Totally opposite.

All right, God!
[flinches] That's cold.

We're on the right path
here, now, this is
just the first freezing.

By the time we do it
a couple more times,

we'll get more alcohol
out of it.

We'll have less yield,

'cause we're gonna get
more water out each time,
each and every time,

but it'll be stronger
and stronger,

and that's what
we're looking for.

We can really see that
the apple is concentrating,

it's got a really good flavor
to it.

I think
if we freeze this stuff
a couple more times,

we're gonna have a good,
finished product.

[man exclaims]
Man, it's cold in here.

[Kenny] Well, man, for sure
she's froze, ain't she?

-Pretty solid, that.
-Yeah.

-There we go.
-Finally.

[Tickle] We've got about
two inches of ice
all the way on the top,

I'm noticing that there's
a solid two inches of ice

all the way around
the outside of the barrel.

This is looking even better.

One more time might get it.

Well, about all we can do
is put it back
in the freezer and see.

I'll tell you what,
before we do that,

you know, let's get us
a little sample.

We draw off a couple of jars.
Look at that.

-[Henry] That looks good!
-It is. Lookin' pretty good,
lookin' pretty good.

-I brought
several jars, all right?
-[Kenny] Sounds good.

This is amazing.
I never dreamed
of doing a freeze extraction.

I mean, freeze the water,
get rid of it,

what do we got left?
The alcohol. It's amazing.

And I can't wait
to get this thing and see
what people gon' think of it.

So fart, I'm loving it.

[man] You get
some of them lids off,

I'm gonna get
this rascal in here,

-You got you some juice?
-I got the juice.

[narrator] In Cocke County,
Tennessee,

while their 25 gallons
of mandarin orange mash
ferments,

Mark and Digger
test their sanitized
mayonnaise jars

as containers
for high-proof corn liquor.

I ain't thrilled or
the biggest fan in the world
of these plastic jars,

but it's all we got.

At least they ain't got
damn mayonnaise in them
no more.

You know,
this crazy jar shortage...

Same time we got
this pallet
of mandarin oranges,

we got two pallets
of expired mayonnaise, too.

All right, I'm gonna hit you
with a little liquor.

We've got enough cleaned out.

We're gonna jar up
about 20 cases,

we're gradually cleaning 'em.
We got some help with that.

Well, here we go.
We're gonna see
if he likes it.

[chuckles] Damn, it's Easter
to him, ain't it?

Would you like
about 25 times more

than what we got
in that barrel down there?

-Hell, I'll take it.
-You'll take it?

The only hitch is
we need them cleaned up
so we can use them jars.

I'm gon' tell ya,
I wouldn't have cleaned 1,500
of these damn things

but we found a use
for the mayonnaise

-and made Tater
a few dollars.
-Yeah.

You know, there's no residue,
there's no greasy film
inside of them,

they're clean
as a hound's tooth
and they'll be fine, I think.

-That all of 'em?
-Yeah, that's all of 'em.

That's all we got up here.
We still got liquor

-but...
-That's all of 'em,
as long as they're clean.

[Digger] We've got
all this tampered liquor
jarred up.

Now, we need to see
if the liquor's
gonna taste good.

How we doin' back there,
steering wheel?

Our jar shortage
is temporarily solved, cuz.

-[man 1] Oh, man!
-[man 2] Mmm-mmm!

-[man sighs]
-[man 3] Ooh,
real smooth, huh?

-[man 2] Damn!
-[man 1] I bet you
won't make it home with this.

You reckon you drank
before you got home?

[sizzles]

Damn right.

I say, the women
would love that.

-Tickle, what's up, man?
-What y'all fellers
drinking on?

Drinking this great
applejack.

Uh, I would not drink that.

-What do you mean?
-I would not drink it.

I got the worst hangover
I've ever had in my life
off of that.

If I'm drinking apple jack...

You didn't have a pint, son,
how can you tell?

I didn't even finish
the whole pint, Henry.
And I'm telling you,

you try to sell this
to a customer, they'd only
buy one jar and that's it.

-[Kenny] And you didn't
drink it with anything else?
-No, that's it.

-Didn't mix it
with nothing else?
-No, just this.

Man, that don't sound good.

-Damn, that don't
sound good at all.
-No.

It's gotta be the methanol.

[Tickle] Well,
what do you reckon
we gon' do about it?

Tonight, we're gonna
go on over and get what
we got and bring it out,

and then figure out
what we're gonna do
after that.

[Tickle] All right, fellas.

Let's see what we can't do
with this stuff.

What do you reckon, Henry?

Being as we can't get
the ice out of the barrel,

you wanna take
your liquid out?

That's what I'm thinking,
that pump we got.

Our applejack, boy it spent
plenty of time in the freezer

but we got one problem
with this stuff.

We gotta figure out
how to get the methanol
out of this thing.

That's the stuff
that's gonna give you
a hangover,

gonna kinda make you
feel sick the next day.

Plan here is to take
this old pump,

hopefully we get to suck
all that applejack out

and leave
most of the ice behind.

-[Tickle] You ready?
-[Henry] Yeah, I'm ready.

-Get on it, baby.
-Well, here we go.

-Got a good color
to it, don't it?
-[Kenny] Smells good, too.

-[Tickle] Yes, sir.
-[Kenny] Applejack, baby.

So, we'll take it to the still
that we got down the river,

-heat it until we get
all the methanol out.
-[Henry] That's right.

-Okay.
-And then shut it off.

-Should take care
of our problem.
-Should take care of it, yeah.

But you know,
we gotta be careful

with that temperature
right there.

-[Kenny] Absolutely.
-I wanna cut the methanol off

-but we don't wanna be cooking
the ethanol out of it.
-[Henry] You got that right.

Absolutely, we gotta stay
right dead on it.

We got a little sub
down at the river.

Fire it up in no time at all,
we could burn
all that methanol off,

we could keep
the temperature regulated
the way it's supposed to be.

That way, we won't get
to the ethanol.

-Well, let's get out of here.
-[Tickle] Yeah, let's get.

[narrator] Boiling off
is a method

for removing lethal methanol
from a batch
of distilled alcohol.

It achieves the same end
as throwing away
the first few ounces of a run,

known as pitching the heads.

Methanol has a boiling point
of 148 degrees Fahrenheit

while ethanol,
the drinkable stuff,
boils at 173 Fahrenheit.

By heating the liquid
to a temperature between
the two boiling points

and holding it there
for a few minutes

the methanol will evaporate
as a gas,

leaving behind alcohol
that's safe to drink.

-[man] We got 115 right now.
-[man 2] Hundred fifteen?

-All right.
-[man 3] Getting close
to it now, Tickle.

In normal distillation,
I wanna cook the ethanol off
and capture it.

But the way
we're doing this here,
there is no cap on here.

If I get it hot enough
to boil the ethanol off,

it's just going up in the air,
and that's dollars going
right up into the atmosphere.

-[man 1] One forty five?
-That's 145, 148.

-[Tickle] Hundred forty eight?
-[man 1] Perfect,
boiling 'em right on off.

Beautiful.

[Tickle] So, how long
we gotta hold it right here?

I'd say
about another ten minutes.

You'll see in a minute,
don't matter what you adjust
the temperature,

that tin's gonna shoot up.

-That's when we know
the methanol's all gone.
-Mmm-hmm.

-But you see it coming out.
-Get all that methanol out,
baby, that's what we want.

-[Kenny] Turn it down.
-I can go a whole lot lower.

That's what I'm saying,
it's still at 160
and it's rising,

that tells me
the methanol's out.
I'd say she's about got it.

Beautiful.

-Whoa, baby's hot.
-[Henry] Must be.

[Kenny] Little bit milder,
seems like.

-[Henry] Smoother, too.
-Not quite of a bite to it.

I think we got a winner
right here.

Hey, Tickle,
you gonna test it tonight?

[sighs] Well, if I wake up
and *bleep* through
a screen door in the morning,

I'll know it ain't no good.

You know, when we distill,
we end up with about 10%

of what we put
in our mash pot.

And with this
freeze distillation,

we wound up
with much, much more.

We wound up
with about 20 gallons
at about 40 proof.

Now, it is a lower proof

but along
with that lower proof

comes a flavor profile
that's just out of this world.

I think this
is gonna open up
a whole new market for us.

On a cold, rainy day
like this,

I might just go home
and drink
some of this stuff hot.

[Kenny]
It might be better warm.

[man 1] Let's get some mash
in here, buddy.

[man 2] I feel like it's done.
It's gotta be done.

It's had enough time
to work over twice, I believe.

Nice.

Oh, boy. Look at that.

[laughs] Ah!

That has some damn CO2 gas
in it, boy.

You know, in order to run
this birch bark liquor
that we wanted to do,

we don't wanna
take a chance in running it
through our column

and stripping it all out.

We know it'll do it,
it strips everything out.

So we're gonna have to take
this column down,
take it apart...

-Got it?
-Yeah.

Stack it down where all we got
is the simple cap,

a crossover arm
into the condenser

and it just takes
a little bit of time.

Oh, watch yourself now.

All these sections
to the column still
will fit themselves.

The very, very tip top
will fit
on the top of the pot.

Now to get her lined up.

That way we're just basically
using a pot still
without a thump keg.

Look at that.

Pretty damn good, this design.

It'd be multi-pass,
multipurpose.

I say, you did
a damn good job

but don't break your damn back
patting yourself now.

Well, I've got to
'cause you ain't going to.

-There you good, bud.
-Thank you.

You've done a good job, Jerry.

We haven't used a still
this way yet

and I'm excited
to watch it run.

All we gotta do is modify
another arm to it
and we're done.

That looks good there,
don't it, Jerry?

We are ready to pump over
some birch bark mash, baby.

We've got all our fitting
soldered in,
got the arm in.

She looks so little.

Looks good with that
Miyagi cap on there, don't it?

Do the flamingo.

Wah!

[both laughing]

There it is.

We're pumping this stuff,
and the smell is phenomenal.

Oh, my God.

It smells like a damn
big birch root beer over here.

There was a root beer smell
that's coming out of this,

I just know it's gonna be
a good liquor.

Grab that torch, brother.
Let's get this thing fired up.

Get down on your knees, now.
Face down, butt up.

[laughs] Not in the mud,
I ain't.

Torch up.

There we go.

This pot is no different
than what it was

as far as the size goes.
It looked a lot bigger

and more beefier
with all them columns up.

This is still
a 150-gallon pot.

[metal clanging]

*bleep* man.
A bucket of water.

Cats bathing their self
at my feet.

It is the new normal.
This is Henry's cat.

This is
a specially-trained cat.

This cat not only knows
how to make moonshine,

this cat is very advanced

at alerting us
to when the law comes.

I tell you what,
if we really need to,

we can stand back and this cat
will fight the police

and keep them away
from us long enough
for us to get away.

And let's face it, who's ever
gonna fight with a cat?

[laughs]

I mean, really, if you wanna
test this theory out,

give one a bath.

[laughs]

*bleep* man.
A bucket of water.

Oh, my God.

I got it.

-Damn.
-Damn hay. Get the...

You know, I was beginning
to think this hay
was our best friend,

but turned out to be
our damn worst enemy.

Well, we were dumb actually
for putting hay
up under the damn burner

in the first place.

Well, I think a lot of it
got kicked under there.

We gotta have this straw
on-site,

we just gotta be
a little more precautious
about it.

I'm gonna kind of pull it away
from the burner,

so we don't have any problems
with it, and we'll just
move on with this run.

Fire it back up. We gotta keep
our damn eyes peeled on that.

Damn.

-Shouldn't be long now.
-Oh, yeah, baby.

See if you can hold it.

Hell, yes.

You know, this thing's
heating up very nicely.

We got to filling our pipe,
kind of amazing how fast
it's actually working

than what it would
if it has a tower on it.

-Here she comes.
-All right, baby.

Wow, I like its stream, too.

It's pretty. You can smell it
coming out of there,
can't you?

-If that ain't birch bark,
I don't know what is, baby.
-Oh, my God.

You can't help
wanting to lick your fingers.

-Uh, no, but not right now.
-Not right yet.

Man, we're running liquor.
We're not gonna be greedy,

we're gonna let these heads
hit the ground.

-I bet it's ready,
what about you?
-Yeah.

-Holy damn. 150.
-One-fifty proof.

Hey, that's good, brother.

We can taste it now.

-Oh, my God.
-God almighty.

Me and Jerry, we ain't never
made no birch bark liquor,

but I must've took
really good notes
from these old timers,

because I'm gonna
tell you what,

what we're running here
right now, the way it tastes,

it tastes just as damn good,
if not better than what
I've dranked in the past.

Better?

-Don't wanna waste none.
-Ready?

Roll with it.
There we go.

We've got our fourth bucket
under here,

we're walking on 20 gallons
of produce coming on down.

So once we blend
this alcohol together,

we're looking roughly
around 115-120 proof mark.

I couldn't ask to do
no damn better job.

No, mate, you done that wrong.

[both laughing]

Let's get this damn liquor
out of here,

I'm about to freeze
to death, brother.

Let's go dream up
something else to make.

You know, grains and fruits,
it costs money.

We're trying new stuff.

We done a tomato paste run,

we done this birch
and this turned out fantastic,

so I think we're gonna venture
into doing a lot more
crazy ideas

at a low cost,
so people can afford it.

We don't know where it's gonna
end up taking us.

-I'm tickled, buddy!
-Man, tell you what

-we couldn't ask
for no better.
-Yeah.

Atta boy, I can smell mash
from here.

Maybe you done
something right.

[narrator]
In Cocke County, Tennessee,

seven days after mashing in
160 jars

of expired mandarin oranges,

Mark and Digger crack open
the barrel

to see if their
low-cost experiment

will pay off
in high-proof brandy.

Done get you a little more
in your belly with this.

Now that right there
is some high-proof beer.

Check the gravity on it.

Now what's this supposed
to be?

I don't understand,
what is gravity mean?

1.00 is water,

so we're sitting on .990

so now, we're a little bit
thinner than water,
'cause alcohol's thinner.

Obviously, the PH and
yeast energizer has worked.

We've got mash and we're ready
to run this liquor

and see if we made good liquor

or something that
we're gonna have to turn out

and wash our feet in.

-It's coming.
I mean it's half empty.
-Yeah.

-That's half full.
-You're an eternal optimist.

Nope, I'm a realist.

I don't think about the glass
being half full,

I don't think about the glass
being half empty,

I think about the glass
as a son of a bitch.

[chuckles] Really?

Anything that we do
for the first time,

we just do in small batches,

so there's no sense
in carrying this stuff
into the woods,

so we're gonna do it here
in our building.

I still can't get over

it did not work at all
in that test jar

and you put a damn thimble
full of baking soda in it

and turned it into some
of the best work
and mash we've had.

Hell, we might need to just
start doing things
a little more modern

on our mashes, altogether.

Oop, oop.

-Is it running?
-Yeah, boy.

That's enough head
for that, here.

I'll tell you what, big man.

It's still too high proof.

It's 150 proof.

It's 140, 150 right now,
but I'm gonna tell you

on that back end,
you get orange.

I'm not a hater of oranges
at all.

As I get older,
it gives me heart burn more.

I stay away from 'em,
but I love the taste.

That's the beauty of a brandy.

You know, you get the alcohol
then you get
all the complex flavors

that you go through
and pick up,
and on that very end,

you find out what fruit
that was fermented off of.

In this case,
it's mandarin orange.

Ain't a damn thing
wrong with that.

-No.
-Pretty good, ain't it?

That's damn fine liquor
right there.

This is definitely worth us
taking the chance
to scale it up.

We've got it, why not?

I mean, it's here. You know,
get all we can get out of it.

We've got about eight counts
of yeast

and $30 in that jug of liquor.

Ain't nothing wrong with that.

I'd take that for the rest
of my born days.

[Digger]
That's gonna be good.

[narrator] Next time
onMoonshiners...

Oh, no.
This is the still site.

Richard here is very good
with fruit.

These guys right here,
when it comes to the brandy,
it don't get no better.

Figured we needed
to get everybody together.

These guys are making
a strawberry brandy.

This strawberry needs
a complement.

Ever thought about mixing that
with something?

I'll tell you something, boys.
It's a hell of a day.

These damn widowmakers
are the best a fella's had.

Here she comes, boys.

*bleep*

This is it right here.

We're gonna make
a still out of it.

We're gonna make a still
out of that?

This is actually gonna
get me back to the 1600s.

Back then, George Thorpe
and the Native Americans,

they used some kind
of pottery.

This is right up
my alley right here, Tim.

I took pottery in school.

If we can just shape it
and design it
a little bit more,

to make it into a still.

Matter of fact, I think
I got an F in the class.