Moonshiners (2011–…): Season 11, Episode 11 - Southern Discomfort - full transcript
this time
on moonshiners...
y'all been seeing
all these hard seltzers
all over the place?
He wants to make hard seltzer.
Trust me, it works.
No, to mix that
peach brandy with water
is something we've never done.
Man, there's a ton of sugar
in there, ain't there?
There's people out there
willing to pay good money
for a top-quality product.
What in the hell?
It's blue.
that's our still, man.
the man who's allowing
us to run up on his property?
He decided to sell it.
It seems like
every time we turn around
we're having to pack up, move
and go find somewhere else.
Whoo!
We're gonna run
some liquor now, boys.
this is how we
make the moonshine.
That's good stuff right there
and I'm not really even
that big a raspberry fan.
along the carolina border,
after devising a recipe
for hard seltzer
made from moonshine...
blackberry right there.
Josh prepares to test market
the product on his customers.
there's strawberry.
boy,
that stuff's pretty.
Me and brian are making
homegrown hard seltzer.
All right, let 'er rip, cuz.
I built this co2 system
with this pressure cooker
just to try it out
on a small scale.
I'm gonna sell
the hard seltzer
for eight dollars a quart.
And me and brian
are gonna find out
if people are actually
gonna really buy this.
Let 'er rip, potato chip.
there it goes.
homegrown hard seltzer?
That's something totally new
and something outside the box.
Uses a little bit of alcohol,
stretches it a long way,
makes me a lot of money.
B, if this right
here works out,
we'll make a damn killing.
Now that we got all
this hard seltzer made up,
it's time to put this *bleep*
to the test
and see if me and brian are
actually gonna be able
to take it out there
and sell it.
I got multiple sales lined up.
And I guarantee you,
I'm gonna get some feedback.
what are we gonna
say to 'em when we get out?
- I'll talk to 'em.
- all right.
I didn't exactly tell
all my customers
when they were
coming to meet me
that I didn't have shine.
good to see you, senor.
- good to see you.
hey look man, we got something
new here we want
you to try out.
Just try it out
and see what you think.
We got blackberry, watermelon,
we got raspberry, strawberry.
This is like nothing you ever
tried before right here.
- what is it?
well, it's hard seltzer
but see what
you think about it
-before you start judging it.
- all right.
Try this blackberry.
-That's good stuff there.
- it's pretty good.
And I ain't charging
as much on it
as I normally do on a cork so
I'll give you a break on it.
Eight dollars a jar
is what we come up with.
- make me a case of
the blackberry and strawberry.
- all right.
Hell, yeah.
I knew the second that
I sold my first case
they didn't just buy a jar,
I knew I was in business.
-Hard seltzer.
-Hard seltzer?
That's good,
let's get it in here.
there's definitely a demand
for this hard seltzer.
The money's great, but it can
definitely be better.
I'm gonna have to upscale.
This is a booming market
and I am really
on to something.
But not on this level.
There's a way to make
more money doing this
but I'm definitely gonna
need henry, kenny
and tickle's help.
that's good.
in franklin county, virginia,
tickle, henry and
kenny are running
the last barrels of mash
from the 34 bushels of peaches
they secured this season.
Here you go, kenny.
Tell you what, our season's
been right rough so far.
But things are starting
to look up for us.
-That'll make some
damn good stuff.
- damn right.
you know,
we've been hammering
away running peach brandy.
We should get anywhere
from 40 to 48 gallons.
And that peach brandy
is so damn good,
you know, you're looking
at $160 a gallon.
Think that should do it.
-All right, let's get this
jewel lit there, henry
-light 'em up, baby.
-There we go.
-Yeah man.
yes sir,
she's looking good.
you know, we've been
running peach brandy can out
for years and years
and years now.
You know, thousands
of barrels of peach brandy.
You're getting a little
hot here.
We're gonna get it
capped over here.
We've been doing it
for generations now
and I plan on
continuing that legacy.
Ain't she pretty?
I'm pushing 'em
over a bit harder.
Yeah, yeah,
go ahead and push her.
-Won't be long
till we got something.
-It's coming.
-I'll tell you what though,
we got liquor.
-All right.
-What do you think
about that, henry?
-Beautiful stream.
Damn right.
She's rolling too, boy.
As long as it
turns it out good.
I'll tell you what,
that's some good peach brandy.
This peach brandy,
you can't even hardly tell
you're drinking liquor.
It's that smooth.
God, that smells good.
That right there,
is some mighty fine brandy.
-About 103.
-Yeah, that's perfect.
That is so good.
That is so good.
You don't have
to hog it over there.
I know,
he's running off with it.
Do you all want to try it too?
I don't know.
Tell me what
you think of that.
Ooh.
It's good and smooth.
God almighty,
the flavor in there.
Peach brandy is
a high-dollar product.
I reckon that's it,
we done, ain't we?
But we gotta keep it going.
We ain't quite got ourselves
out of this hole we done dug.
Oh yeah, she's done.
hell, you've got
every damn scuppernong
in the state
of alabama, ain't ya?
And part of the florida
panhandle too, brother.
You know, we finished
that little run for beaz
that he dubbed "ambrosia."
and the scuppernongs
come through great.
Now we wanna make
a scuppernong cognac.
There is a ton of sugar
in there, ain't there?
Man, these are just right,
you scored on these.
cognac's a
high-end liquor.
There's no reason ours can't
be a high-end liquor
and command
a big price as well.
People are working again or
willing to pay good money
for a top quality product.
To be cognac, for real,
it's gotta be like in Italy or
-somewhere...
-From the cognac
region of France.
in the 16th century,
the dutch were masters of
distilling brandy in europe.
To source the large
volumes of wine
they needed to make
the popular spirit,
they spent merchant ships to
the cognac region of France
to trade directly
with winemakers.
French wine, however,
spoiled easily
during the long voyage
back to the netherlands.
To solve this problem,
the merchants supplied
the region's winemakers
with copper pots and training
in double distillation.
French winemakers quickly
adopted the techniques
and developed their own
double distilled brandy
worthy of the name cognac.
Today, the luxurious
liquor is so popular
only two percent
of all cognac produced
stays in France.
To be a true cognac, beaz,
you have to distil it twice.
So we do a stripping run
in big sloppy,
and get the alcohol
all out the mash.
Then we have to redistil
the alcohol
and the spirit run.
-Okay.
-Then we barrel-age it.
Cognac is double distilled,
number one to up the proof
and concentrate the flavors.
We're using big sloppy
on this run because right now
it's the biggest still
we've got that's functional
in our stable
and she makes fine liquor.
I think this'll make
some killer cognac.
Hey, let's
call it killer cognac.
There's probably a few hundred
pounds of scuppernongs here.
Tell you, if we were gonna
stomp every one of these,
we're looking at
two days' work.
We don't have the time
to dedicate to that.
So, I brought my chipper
shredder that we use
to shred whole corn.
Well, if it'll run
through a cob of corn,
a grape ain't gonna
be no problem at all.
-Man, that is great
right there, that is...
-I told you.
-Boy, smell how
good it smells.
-Yeah.
That's getting all the damn
juice and the gritty.
well, I am so tickled
you got this sucker.
this pulled our ass out
of the fire a couple of times.
well, we'll be done
with this in no time.
- yes, we will.
- I love this.
you know, it don't
matter how hard you work,
you still have to have
some fun doing it,
and there ain't nothing
any more fun
than pranking beaz
any chance that we get.
what'd you do to it?
This thing just quit.
It didn't lock up, it just,
power went away
and it stopped.
Generator run outta gas?
No, it's full.
I filled it up just
before I cranked it.
Yeah, we ain't even
halfway done yet.
You know,
in a moonshiner's world,
there is something always
that goes south on you.
And this is something
that beaz hadn't been
around enough yet to learn.
I don't see anything in there.
I'm gonna say, all this juice
has fouled the motor up.
You'd think it would be
sealed though, wouldn't it?
Well, beaz.
You know what that means?
Um, I do.
Get them shoes off.
okay.
Them feet, they look like they
should be on a damn hobbit.
Beaz thinks, man I'm going to
save the day right here
and I'm going to be a hero.
And, he's all in.
Head down wide open.
All right, let's see
how this works.
Good lord.
Man, I'm not heavy enough
to smush these good.
Boy, if anybody sees us
doing this crap right here,
we'll be blackballed from
the world of damn liquor.
I just want y'all to know,
this is terrible.
-This sucks.
-It don't look so bad.
You're missing some.
yeah, I know.
Well, my feet ain't
fat like y'all's.
Man, this is so slippery,
it's crazy.
Them feet look like
they belong
on a little mouse, don't they?
They do, don't they?
Really?
You know, we know in our mind
that there ain't no way
we're gonna have him
stomp on all these grapes
but he doesn't know that.
We could just
push a joke so far.
We gotta get the work done.
I'm gonna get this
over here for your handle.
Thank you.
Oh perfect man, thanks.
-whoa.
-Wow.
-You fixed it.
You think it overheated?
Maybe, or could be
that mark unplugged it.
-are you kidding me?
This proves beyond a doubt
what you're willing
to do for us.
You know, it's really
a good thing that this
turned out to be just a prank
because we'd be here
for three days
if we were waiting on beaz
to stomp all these grapes
with them little bitty feet.
well, that's a lot
of grape juice.
I have never
been this proud
in my entire life.
To me, this is as gorgeous
as a brand new newborn baby.
all right, beaz,
we gotta gently
lift 'em right up.
- no kidding.
all right,
here we go.
wow.
we got all these
grapes shredded up,
now we gotta heat
a little water up
so we can melt
a little sugar in there and
get started on
making this mash.
all right boys,
let's get that
scuppernongs in the pot.
here we go.
We're almost there, guys.
Looking good boys,
looking good.
Keep it coming, love.
-Lookee there.
-What you want to do?
Eat that?
All that's sweet as
damn tupelo honey.
You know, to say there's a
little bit of flavor in there,
that's an understatement.
It's some of the
most flavorful grapes
I've ever seen in my life.
These scuppernongs are great.
Yeast nutrient and some
good champagne yeast.
What you think, killer?
Well, I think it's
gonna be great.
That's what I'm thinking.
we're ready
to rock and roll.
We gotta wait about
seven or ten days
for this to get fermented.
And then we're ready
to make some cognac.
I think this is what we
would call "done mashed in."
let's get the hell outta here.
just got back
from florida,
off my honeymoon and
you know, I couldn't help but
think the whole damn time
I was down there,
how jerry was doing
and apparently, he's got
something he wants
to talk to me about.
One thought crosses my mind,
that he's not gonna be able
to work with me any more
on account of, you know,
he had bleeding on the brain.
thought I
heard you out here.
what's going on,
brother?
Doing pretty good I guess
for what I've been through,
just trying to take it easy.
You know, it's really good
to see jerry right now.
I hadn't seen him
since the wedding.
He looks a lot better
than he did.
I got something
I want to show you.
Come here and check this out.
that's our still, man.
The man that's allowing us
to run up on his property?
He decided to sell it.
oh, my god.
How many damn times has this
gotta happen to us, man?
I don't know.
I feel like a damn
broke-leg dog getting
kicked when he's down.
I mean, we can't keep doing
this every damn season, man.
It seems like every time
we turn around
we're having to pack up, move
and go find somewhere else.
I mean, how many more damn
places can a man find?
We're running out of time.
We gotta find
something pretty quick
so we can bust out a few runs
and get some money
back in our pocket.
It's gonna be damn hard
right now at this time of year
to find another still site
just to pop up.
I know, all the
wet weather springs
are starting to dry up.
As much as I'd love to help,
I can't do no backwoods
high hiking,
carrying this stuff in.
You need to rest,
do what you gotta do,
but it would be good if we
could find something quick.
Do you know of anybody?
Not right off the
top of my head.
I'm gonna try to make
a few phone calls.
The thought crossed
my mind, though,
we ran a lot in tennessee.
What do you think about
coming back over that way?
Ugh, I don't like it.
I don't like that idea.
Me and jerry's been running
north carolina this season
simply because our
stash house got raided.
There, that's risky.
Risky business.
it means we gotta
move to get stuff going
and things are cooled down
enough, you know, then...
We'll try to make it happen.
it's very risky
for me and mike
to go back to tennessee,
but that's what we
might have to do.
I'll take care of this end.
Sure, we're gonna
get back in business.
Hey, henry,
sound like somebody
coming down your driveway.
I'm expecting
a delivery.
-That's mr. Joshua.
- lookie yonder.
He usually shows up
with a load of something.
- yeah, that's true.
-You boys ain't
gonna believe
what I've been up to.
well, what's up, hoss?
what have you
been doing, boy?
what's up, hoss?
God, I've missed the hell
out of everybody.
-What's going on?
-Stay used to it.
So josh, what did you do
with the shine we sent?
Did it get you back
on your feet?
-It got him back on
one of 'em, anyway.
-One of 'em, anyway.
Boys, y'all ain't gonna
believe what I've
done come up with.
Have y'all been seeing
all these hard seltzers
all over the place?
-Oh, yeah.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-Low alcohol.
Ten percent.
Ten percent?
Oh, damn. Yeah, yeah.
That's pressured, ain't it?
I heard it
when you cracked it.
What kinda price
can you give that at?
-Well, I'm selling it
for eight dollars a jar.
- is it selling?
I've done sold cases
and cases and cases of it.
God damn, man, that's smooth.
-Smells pretty good.
-Got a good smell to it
josh wants to make
hard seltzer.
Now, this is not an idea
that we would've come up with
on our own.
Tell you what, I could see
how that could sell
right there, josh.
But right now, the market
is huge for this stuff.
I've already made a ton
of money just off
this little pot right here.
-You made this?
-I made that out of this.
This little pressure cooker,
it was kind of like
an experiment to see
if it would work.
To go to a larger scale
we're gonna have to use
a different tank.
So my plan is, get rid
of that.
Put it in here.
Let's get down here where
we can take a look at it.
I haven't never tore
one of these apart before.
It really tastes good.
But he did a small
trial run with it.
Can we do it on a
larger scale, I don't know.
Here's what I want to do.
Basically, this is
the concept right here.
Put a beer tap on here
and then hook the co2 tank
up to it. Keeps it carbonated
as it pushes it out.
I say, let's hook
this thing up.
So what are you thinking
about putting in there?
Only the best.
what you calling
the best here, son?
You know what the best is.
It's that peach brandy.
no.
Henry seemed to be on board
right off until josh mentioned
peach brandy.
You wanna take
our 100 proof peach brandy,
and cut it to ten percent?
How are you gonna
justify all that?
Because I'm stretching
that dollar way on out there,
and it ain't taking
that much work to do it.
Henry's peach brandy is primo.
And we wanna charge
a primo price.
All we gotta do is fix this
apparatus and we're ready
to rock and roll.
Trust me, it works.
I've already done it,
and I've already sold it.
I'm telling you.
josh has always
got something going on,
and everything we've done
so far has panned out.
We've made money with it.
But water touching
my peach brandy's taboo.
So, I'm very reluctant on
taking and changing the whole
profile of my peach brandy.
When I'm raising hell
about having to do something
I don't wanna do,
what is it you tell me?
-"but son,
you're making money."
-that's it.
That's a whole lot
of good brandy,
high quality brandy,
that we know we can
get a big price out of.
But we can sell that, too.
We're gonna be able to sell
all our liquor to people
we're selling liquor to,
but we're also gonna
be able to hit a lot
of people with this.
And this is gonna make
more money than that
brandy is by itself.
I real can tell that
henry is just seeing this
as something you don't do.
You don't mess
with peach brandy.
These seltzers
are selling big.
And if we can take a product
like what we make
and make one out of it,
it's gotta be better
than what's in the store.
What I think is we're gonna
be able to take
that quality of something
and hit a different
demographic of people.
I'll tell you what, henry.
Now, how can you argue
with making more money?
-Can't argue with that.
-Do you need
any more convincing?
He took
just our regular liquor
and made something
this good off of it.
I understand that, it's just
this thing we've always had
about putting water
in our brandy, man.
It's just been taboo.
well, well,
it ain't brandy no more.
Hey, we still got
brandy left over.
That's the whole thing.
It only takes
so much brandy to make it.
it's not like he's
asking for all the brandy.
That's something anybody
can drink. Even people that
don't drink would drink that.
That is good. I have to admit,
that is extremely good.
Sometimes it's hard to teach
an old dog new tricks.
I think it's worth
taking a gamble.
-They seem to be on your side,
with you doing it, too.
-I say we give it a shot.
All right. Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Y'all convinced me.
so we're gonna
make the hard seltzer
with that killer peach brandy,
and we're gonna charge
a killer price.
I need a little
more convincing, henry,
I don't know about you.
I just don't like
putting water with that
peach brandy.
If we don't get this recipe
down right, and this
doesn't turn out good,
henry's gonna be
one upset moonshiner.
All right, let's rock, boys.
you know, I'm
basically out of
options right now.
Our still site was basically
sold out from under us.
Bad as I hate to,
I've gotta go ask daniel
for some damn help.
You know, me and daniel,
we were the best of friends.
We were like brothers.
We've had some bad blood
in the past, but you know,
time heals wounds.
And I figured if anybody
knows around this area
where a good
still site may be,
it could be him.
What are you doing, daniel?
Hell, riding around
with the top down.
Heard that.
Long time no see.
How you been, brother?
I am as busy
as a two-pecker pup.
well, that's busy. I heard
that, I'll tell you what.
Well, I just got back from
my honeymoon,
and I come in to find out
that our still site's
been burned.
The guy just up and
sold the damn land
out from under me.
And we've had a misfortunate
incident with jerry.
He's been piled up
in hospital,
and he's in pretty rough
damn shape.
That is some
bad circumstances.
Regardless of what's ever
been said or done,
I'm running out of damn
options here, and I don't have
any damn where else to go.
We got a long
damn past together,
that's for damn sure.
Yeah, a long one,
that's for sure.
With all that being said,
the question I have for you
and the reason I am here
is to see, do you know of any
damn where in this country
that I could set up
and be safe
on a damn still site?
Somewhere to set up with
all the elements.
You got running water,
you're gonna have people.
-Yeah.
-And you, it's gotta
be somewhere where
a lot of people don't know
about that running water.
That's getting hard to find
any more with
the population, huh?
Mmm-hmm.
Everybody thinks that you
just stick a pot out there and
fill it full of mash,
and make liquor.
It's not that easy.
It's hard on a moonshiner
to find a good place
to run moonshine.
I just figured
you might know a spot.
I know there's one out there.
-Finding it is the thing.
-Yeah.
-You can't just set a still
up anywhere.
-That's right.
-You've gotta have all
your resources you need.
-You got to.
The only ones that I know
around here, close,
is being used.
But, now, there may be
a few more around.
you know, I don't know
if daniel is wanting to help
me right here, right now.
You know, I just floated
the question out there to him.
He seems like he's
hem-hawing around
just a little bit with me.
You know, truthfully, mike,
I know these woods right here
like the back of my hand.
I've hunted about all
these hills and
hollers around here.
And there ain't no
damn body in this world
ever make it through
this world without help.
And I'm gonna give you
something to go look at.
It's got killer water,
and it's a damn good holler
to run liquor in,
one way in, one way out.
And you've seen it,
and you've been there with me.
That was several years back
at pawpaw patch.
And we went to pick pawpaw.
I remember damn well.
But if you go all the way up
in the head of that holler,
past that pawpaw patch,
in that left-hand holler,
you'll find a damn good
water source.
Right in there is a fine spot
to put a still site.
But there it is.
There's your tip. Try that.
Brother, I appreciate it.
I owe you the world, man.
Thank you so much.
In the past, I probably
wouldn't have helped
mike at all.
But he's down and out,
and he needs to set up and
get to making some liquor.
I tell you what though,
you'd better hurry up.
Because at this time,
we ain't got much longer
to do it.
Nope. Time's a-wasting,
that's for sure.
Well, I appreciate you,
brother.
You know I feel like I'm on
the right track, right now.
It's giving me somewhere
to go, somewhere to look at.
Something I didn't have
a few minutes ago.
So here I go. I'm gonna check
this place out.
Yeah, if we can make
this thing work,
I don't see no reason
not to try.
I was able to convince
henry, kenny and tickle
with this idea
to make this hard seltzer.
If you don't take a chance,
you're not gonna make
no money.
There's no way I could use my
little bitty crock pot
to be able to make anything
on any scale.
So I got to thinking
that I could take a beer keg,
and modify this thing.
So we can fill it up,
and carbonate my drink.
But I'm gonna say one thing,
I will kill you
if he screws up this brandy.
If it don't work out,
take it out of my cut,
straight up.
How do we build
this thing, josh,
that's what I'm mostly about.
all right,
so, see there's
a little beer in there.
mmm-hmm. I smell it.
Nasty.
We're gonna let all
that rotten beer
and all that pressure off.
We're building us
a co2 infusion machine
to make hard seltzer.
Now we can drill a hole in it,
hook this up to a nipple
with freaking little valve
on it.
We're gonna put one spout
on this thing that will be
for nothing more
than putting product
in this thing and wash
this thing out between uses.
We can drill a hole
and slide that into it
and it'll be down in there,
like that right there.
We're gonna put a tube
that goes all the way
down to the bottom
of this thing.
What that'll do is it'll put
the carbon dioxide inside
the product inside this keg.
Then we can just cut it off,
hold the pressure in it
and be carbonated.
This beer keg is a very
integral part of this build,
because without pressure
the co2 will not infuse
into our hard seltzer product
that we've got in here.
We're looking for our drill,
our grinder...
-You need a tape measure?
-No.
-How about this hammer?
-No.
-Needle-nose vise-grips?
-No.
-How about that pencil?
-Let me think. No.
*bleep*
the design of this beer keg
josh had, it's genius
and it's simple.
-Yeah.
-That'll work right yonder.
This is where we fill it
and where we drain it at.
We got that water proofed.
Now, we gotta pressurize
it somehow, right?
Then this will slide
all the way down into
the bottom right there.
It's important that the air
goes into the liquid.
Put a beer tap on, right?
Boom.
That thing's ready to roll.
We finally got
this machine built.
Now it's time to test
this thing and we're just
gonna see how it works.
Y'all ready to see
what this thing does?
here's the
liquid gold, boys.
me watering down
henry's liquor?
If that don't work out,
I'm never gonna hear
the end of this.
I got a 400-foot
well dug here.
This is not town water.
-There's no chlorine
in this water.
-Yeah.
It's some of the best
water you could ever
drink right there,
so I don't mind
using that for our mix.
-Yeah, you ain't gonna
go wrong with that.
-That oughta about do it.
All right. Put some fruit
in it, and freaking,
let that marinate
a little bit.
I mean, we already
got peach brandy. Do we really
need more peach flavor?
I mean that liquor right
there oughta flavor it good.
We'll put all the flavor
to it we can.
The taste profile
on that right there
is probably gonna go way down
when you add that water to it,
so we'll put some
extra flavor, you know.
-Okay.
-You don't know how nervous I
am about trying this, do you?
-Let 'er rip, potato chip.
-That hurt me.
the first step in
making a hard seltzer's
taking the liquor
and diluting down to 20 proof
with spring water.
- gosh,
that's hurting, ain't it?
- that hurt me.
Yep, that's hurting.
Never thought I would see you
do that, henry.
-please don't
track us down, daddy.
Daddy seen me pouring brandy
over in water, he'd kill me.
- that's what
I'm talking about.
-Here you go.
And it smells good, don't it?
Oh, god. Daddy's probably
strike me down if he saw me
pouring all that good peach
brandy into water.
-That's all we need.
- I'll tell you what.
-I'm smelling it.
-Oh, that's perfect, baby.
That's perfect.
It ain't perfect yet. We can't
carbonate it like that.
We gotta flavor it, still.
all right.
I know you and
tickle's always
packing knives.
Yes sir.
She's sharp, too, boy.
Yeah, I'd say
that's going all right.
why is kenny's such
big chunks and yours are such
little bitty ones, tickle?
my knife's sharper.
how big is his?
yours are
little bitty tiny ones.
Josh, you've cut all
the peach off of it.
oh, give me a break.
hold on, it won't come out.
like a sword in it.
excalibur!
I don't guess there's but
one thing better than
good old peach brandy,
-and that's my mama's peach
cobbler. Oh, my goodness.
- I'll tell you what.
What do you say,
daddy making liquor out of it,
mama making cobbler.
- mama making cobbler.
- ain't nothing
wrong with that.
And they used to say that
because we were all kind
of bunch of peaches.
-Uh-huh.
-Same time that we're making
the brandy.
Mm-hm.
-That's exactly what momma--
-that's exactly
what she doing.
Exactly.
That's gonna make
some good stuff,
I can tell you that.
We'll make us a top with like
this on it.
it does look like a pumpkin.
-Like a lid?
-Yeah, like a lid
-for peaches.
-Yeah.
That would do good.
Advertise your product.
We don't have to advertise.
They see us coming,
they know what it is.
-they know what it is.
Mean peach.
-The juice coming out of--
-coming on out.
-I'd be dogged, if it ain't.
-Mm-hm.
-It was very clear,
wasn't it now?
-Taste it now.
What do you think
of the flavor of that?
-Oh, yeah.
-Think it's good.
Tastes much better.
Sweet.
-Boys, I believe that's
getting close to enough.
-Yeah...
I think it might be.
Put a bunch of peaches in it,
let it soak.
It'll be good and ready to go.
-Gonna be some good stuff.
- gonna be
just peachy, ain't it?
Heh heh.
Yeah, heading over
to this pawpaw patch that
daniel told me about.
So we're going up that hollow,
see what it's got to offer.
You know, I hadn't been back
to this place in years.
I'm gonna go down here
and check it out,
and see what I can't find.
It means a lot to me that,
you know, daniel come over,
and give me this advice.
He didn't have to
even bring it up to me.
But he did. Maybe
it's potentially set me on
the right damn path right now.
Old pawpaw tree right here.
This is actually
one of the ones
me and daniel picked from.
-There's one right there
big as a tater.
-We're getting a bunch now.
Yes, sir!
Mmm. Smell of these brings me
back to childhood.
I'll be darned. Ohh!
That's a good pawpaw.
This one's ripe. I'm actually
gonna cut it open.
Look how soft that thing is.
By god, that's good eatin'
right there.
Although women used to
make bread and stuff
out of them.
That'll make that liquor,
right there.
But anyhoo.
I can't believe I found
that one hanging there.
There ain't a pawpaw in
this country to be found
right now.
that's crazy.
But, I definitely feel like
I'm on the right track.
There's a hollow right up here
to my left.
You know,
I just got to step off
to the unknown now,
and go and find what daniel
was talking about.
Yeah, I feel like a man
chasing a damn rainbow.
With a pot of gold at the end
of it nobody's ever
damn found.
Well I intend to find
that pot of gold here today.
Whoo-hoo! Boy, there is water
right here.
damn. My god, that's cold.
This water runs all the time.
There ain't no question
about that.
Damn.
I'm on a damn power line.
I can't run liquor
under power lines.
The power company come
down here cleaning up,
doing their job, you know.
That's a good way to just
get seen or get told on.
I'm gonna head on up
the hollow,
see what I can find.
Damn. Yeah, I'm just gonna
keep following this branch up
stream, see what I find.
But I don't know,
'cause if there's
power lines up there,
this is not gonna work.
If I draw daniel a white line,
it's a long way
up through here.
Looks like the end of road
for me.
but I hear the sweet sound
of water.
It's some old growth
in here in these woods.
Big trees. Probably ain't
too many people been back
in here.
That water. I can hear
it getting closer and closer.
You know, I can hear
the water rushing by as I'm
walking through these woods.
Can't help but think,
you know what, I think
I may be onto something.
Holy mother of pearl!
My god! That is pure beauty.
And bam! There it is,
this humungous 70-80 foot
waterfall. Whoo!
I'm just about
damn speechless.
All the water in
the world that I need.
No power lines.
No sign of nobody.
I do believe
I found mine and jerry's
still site.
I've never seen anything
so breathtaking in my whole
entire life. Whoo!
We're gonna run
some liquor now, boys!
well, it's still here.
man, there's alcohol
in it and it still got
plenty of great flavor.
you know what this
means, don't you boys?
we're gonna have some
fine liquor.
I says get going.
You know our scuppernong
mash is ready.
It's ready to go.
We're gonna run it today.
Here goes nothing.
we have two stills
here. We're gonna do
the stripping run
to take the alcohol from
the mash on big sloppy.
Then we'll go straight
to the small still with that
spirit and do
the spirit run which is
the second distillation.
nice.
we've decided
we're not using a thumper.
Since it has
to be re-distilled anyway.
We just simply want
all the volume we
can get out of it
in as short a time
as we can do it.
Beaz, I'll have to say,
old buddy,
you're turning into
an outstanding liquor man.
I'm enjoying seeing
this whole process 'cause
like I said, it's my first
double distillation to do.
the reason
cognac is more of
a premium liquor
is the fact that
it's double distilled
and it's barrel aged.
Now the double distillation.
That brings more of
the floral flavor to the fruit
to the front.
hey, look.
Look at that.
I got a coon pecker.
you don't know
which end's up on that
little rascal.
see, it looks
like it's working.
that's what
she never said.
All right, boys, all we got's
time now.
why don't you
kick that power up just a dab.
That can run a little harder.
oh, hell.
them blow the pecker out?
No.
What in the hell?
It's blue!
God dang it!
what causes that?
I don't know.
All of our distillate, blue.
That's all you
can say about it.
It's not clear. It blue.
Son of a bitch!
I hate this *bleep*.
Look at it.
That looks worse
than your *bleep*.
when you look in
you see your liquor
turning blue, that's when
you don't clean
your copper good.
That sends mark off
the rails because
his forte is the copper.
So that being said,
we dropped the ball here.
and so
it's from?
I don't know
what it's from.
I got a pretty idea
though, it's just
canker... It's... It's
tarnish that gets on copper.
God damn it!
Your cleaning solution
and fill it up, that's what
it comes out looking like.
so in this instant,
our damn cognac liquor is
the cleaning solution.
Sadly enough.
that's
a rookie mistake,
is what it is.
yeah.
I'm surprised you all
weren't on top of that.
that's
a rookie mistake.
It'll happen to
the best of us. You can't
cry over spilled milk.
No, but I wanna cry
over blue liquor.
I say we just dump it out.
let's just dump it.
Stop the run right there.
Dump the damn stuff,
shut her down.
I ain't gonna let--
I'll help you dump it.
Hold my food coloring.
You son of a bitch!
-really?
-Yes, really.
-You're welcome.
- it oughta have been
our turn.
- yep.
-Damn!
You're official now.
100 million
pounds of scuppernongs.
Spent some money on that.
550 miles in the car.
Spent money on that.
Blue food coloring
for dollar tree.
Priceless. I owed y'all.
yes, you did.
and I knew
we were gonna run that again.
So I knew it'd pull that
food coloring right out of it.
So...
We were fixing to waste
some of this liquor
'cause of you.
We was fixing to dump it out.
good job, man.
-Well, thank you.
-I guess we deserve that.
I reckon.
You know to say that
we had one coming,
yeah we had... We got
a half a dozen coming
at least.
look at that
friggin' blue liquor.
that's gorgeous.
What dumbass
didn't clean their still?
we're gonna pull
this liquor right over here
to the other still
to do our spirit run.
And after that we get into
the hearts,
we'll give her a taste,
and let beaz go away
with his chest pulled out
that he pranked mark
and digger for a change.
let's cap her off,
baby, man.
Let's start with the
first bucket 'cause it's been
marinated the longest.
all right. Yeah.
I can see a color change
in that.
Can we reuse these peaches?
We could make a pie out of it
or something.
We put some peaches
in it to add some extra
flavor to it.
- looks good.
- still got
some stuff in it.
- think we need
to strain some more?
-Yeah, I think we do.
we decided to use
my peach brandy.
I'm still a little bit
reluctant about doing all.
put the
cheese cloth right in
the bottom of it.
yeah right here.
Like that,
you know what I mean?
After we filter
this stuff out,
we put it inside our co2
infusion machine.
-Don't spill it.
-I believe it's gonna
spill everywhere.
Get it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
It's pouring out the bottom.
Hey, stay over here.
Stay over here.
Stay over here.
talking about mixing
it with all that water,
is something we've never done.
-Yeah.
-You can't just dump it.
There we go.
We wouldn't even
want a drop of
sweat to drop off our hat
into our brandy but
we'll give it a shot and see.
right. So we shut
this valve off right here
where we just
filled that up, right?
Put this hose
on here like so.
Now we got our stuff in here.
We're putting the co2 to it.
let's turn the gas on.
if this doesn't
work out, me watering
henry's liquor down,
boy, have I screwed up
big this time.
-Imma hear it bubbling.
-She's bubbling.
josh is over here
controlling the gas.
He starts carbonating.
She's damn sure
bubbling through it.
It hits 12 pounds.
Josh keeps carbonating.
How... How do you know
how much pressure
you're putting in this thing?
-It ain't gonna
blow up on us, is it?
-I hope it don't.
-Me too.
- right there is 18.
it hits 18 pounds.
Josh keeps carbonating.
Here just look...
Here, come on, back up a bit.
It hits 25 pounds.
Josh keeps carbonating.
I'd shut her down
right yonder.
how's it holding up?
See any cracks,
anything bulging?
it ain't
going nowhere.
I read on this thing.
It says, do not go over.
60 psi. We got a
long way to go.
Now I know it says,
do not go over 60 psi
all right, that's all good
and fine. But now
we welded stuff
through this.
How much pressure
you got in it?
30 pounds.
-Shut it down josh.
-You got 30 pounds.
I'd shut that down.
These guys are all
freakin' out. But I want
as much
pressure on
this thing as I get.
- how much psi
is your weld gonna hold?
-Let's shut if off.
One of them things come
out of there, it's a bullet.
I'm gonna turn it off.
-It ain't got no--
- god almighty!
That thing done spurted up
there 20 feet.
Alright, that comes out
of your part.
Yeah, that comes out of
your part.
we've got it
pressurized.
And now it really
is the moment of truth.
Squirt it in there, tick.
I mean it looks like
I'm pumping soda
out of this thing.
I'll be damn if ain't...
Ain't carbonated.
It's got a beautiful
slight peach tint to it.
And it's nice and it's bubbly.
What do you think?
Pretty damn good there.
I'm afraid to try it.
give it a try.
See what you think.
Come on, now. What...
What do you think there,
henry?
It's got a good taste to it,
ain't it?
he spit it out? Oh!
- you going for real.
- huh?
-You're going for real.
- what are you talking
about? You don't like it?
-For real?
- you don't have
a peach brandy
turn out like this.
Gold man, baby
I got you, boy.
he scared me. He scared me.
It's gonna be a gold mine,
I'm telling you!
I'm watching him running
around and spitting it out.
And the whole time I'm
sitting here in a state
of panic thinking I'm never
gonna hear the end of it.
You did good. Did good.
I'm just glad that
it worked out and he likes it.
I was scared to death
y'all was gonna trip out
on it.
I was a little terrified
myself, son,
I have to admit.
It's real bubbly.
It's real light.
It'd be something
that a lot of people
could drink that
normally wouldn't drink.
It's almost I could
bubble in champagne
or something.
Cap her on up.
-Here.
-Yeah, baby.
normally, my customers
for brandy, they look
for that kick.
They look for that 100-105
proof from that brandy.
In this situation,
we've taken that flavor
from that brandy,
and we've reduced it down
to 20 proof. We lookin'
a whole new market.
We lookin' at customers
that they love the flavor.
Just enough to give
them a slight buzz.
Think we could make
a pile of money with this...
This younger generation.
This about the easiest
juggin' up I've ever done
in my life.
The tricky part of this
hard seltzer,
we've never sold
anything like this.
We wanna be competitive
with what people are buying
this stuff in the store for.
But then again, we can't just
give this stuff away either.
let's finish getting
these bottled up.
'cause this stuff
is gone this afternoon.
-Awesome, perfect.
-It's that good.
-Thank you, bro.
-Thank you.
we need to
come up with
a name for it.
How about back wood boys
hard seltzer?
why do we
wanna use "boys"?
I ain't a boy.
Back woods men.
I... Some... I don't know.
look, till you
come up with a name,
you don't get your cut.
How about polk county
paralyzer?
Polk county...
We ain't in polk county.
That don't matter.
I made the first batch
in polk county.
I don't know. It sue is--
you like word "peat"
don't you frank?
Twisted peach punch.
-What do you think about that?
-That's pretty good.
Double twisted peach punch.
-Double twisted peach punch.
-That's too much.
I don't know. I like double
better than plain.
They're gonna pay more
for something double twisted
than single twisted.
It's too hard.
Just for you, josh.
Double twisted peach punch.
What do you want again, sir?
I want some homemade
double twisted peach punch.
Hard seltzer.
You got it. Done deal.
all right, fellers.
Yeehaw!
Think we ought to keep
a case of that ourselves,
right?
Looks damn, look,
just about like a damn beer.
-Beer tint.
- here's the more
important question, fellas.
What you reckon
we oughta sell this stuff for?
I ain't gonna lie if you could
sell for 20 dollars a jar,
that'd be one hell of
a profit.
That ain't bad.
I don't think we'll
get that for it.
-That's too stout. Yeah.
- too steep for it?
-It's gotta be
worth our time too.
-$20 is right by it.
oh, sure look. You make a
couple hundred extra dollars
for just a little bit
more work. It's worth it,
ain't it?
That's what I'm trying
to say. What do you reckon?
What are people
willing to pay? We know what
they'll pay for our brandy.
What will they pay
for this stuff?
Here's what it boils down to.
20 dollars is too steep.
10 dollars ain't enough.
They sell this
in the stores, don't they?
They do. But what we got
right here is twice as strong
as what's in the store.
-So what they sell in
the store is like five.
-And twice as much.
And twice as much.
If 5% in stores,
we're throwing
10% out there.
-Yeah.
-So that's gonna pull
some more people in.
Well look. I... I...
What do you all
think about this?
One quart of liquor
will make five quarts of this.
Yeah.
If we take
and make this stuff
12 dollars a quart,
and then get rid of
all five quarts
that one quart will make,
that's 60 bucks.
then we turn that
160 dollars gallon of
peach brandy into
240 dollars.
240 dollars a gallon.
160 dollar gallon
of shine into 240.
-240.
-I like the sound of that.
That don't sound bad.
That's good money
right there.
And also we broaden
the market to a whole 'nother
group of people.
A whole quart for $12,
who wouldn't--
-who can't afford that?
-I mean, think about it.
and once they buy
their first one, they coming
back for another one.
Good as that is,
and as strong as it is,
I don't see no problems
selling it.
Sounds like
we got a plan then.
I say we go
make this a damn sale.
how we gonna sell half
a case is all I know.
Y'all gonna drink it
all up before we can
get there with it.
that's alcohol baking.
That's the head coming off.
-Okay.
-Well, we've got enough out
of it, I'd say, don't we?
yepper.
All right mark. What color you
think this run's gonna be?
Oh, it's gonna
be clear, beaz.
hot metal
looks like cold metal.
and hot air
is invisible just like
cold air.
yeah.
all right,
there it comes.
Yup. Scuppernong.
- it's clear.
-Yes, it's not blue,
mr. Beazy.
well...
if it had been
blue this time
we'd have had a problem,
houston.
Can you believe
how strong the scuppernong
smell is?
Oh, my!
Man, it's double distilled,
but, man, it's still
plenty flavorful with
the scuppernong.
And it ain't blue.
- and it's not
blue, I'll be danged.
-It ain't blue.
You know it's... It's crazy
how good this
second distillation of this
scuppernong cognac tastes.
You know, I think
that we've hit it out of
the park.
It's just a matter now
of getting it barrel aged.
That's hard liquor
right there.
exactly how you want
it to be. That's... That's
the queen of
the liquor right there.
Damn.
this scuppernong
flavor, it's right there
in the front.
It mellows out
then it finishes off
real good with them
floral notes
that you get from a grape.
Oh, richard.
What's up, cool breeze?
I just
came up on a whole bunch
of cherries, man.
I'm trying to find something
to do with it.
Thought I'd make
my signature cherry bounce.
We first met
richard landry with
master distiller.
Here we go, fellas.
This gonna be richard.
that's richard.
Oh, my.
Richard?
You're the next
master distiller, my friend.
Congratulations, bro.
richard is impressive
as a distiller.
But he's also a donkey
on the edge.
He don't mind
trying new things.
He says he has access
to a lot of cherries
where he's at.
I got a couple
hundred pounds of it.
Damn. That's a million
dollars' worth of cherries.
Hey, richard.
We're right now
finishing up a run of
scuppernong cognac.
Why wouldn't that
work with cherries?
well, it definitely
would work with cherries.
I don't know
what kind of process
y'all doing with that?
We just run it twice. Do a
stripping run, a spirit run.
well,
that sounds good right there.
You use that cane syrup.
Do you think you could get
some of that?
I got so much
sugar cane around me
I can't throw a rock
without hitting some.
Uh, how about me and
old digger officially inviting
you to tennessee
to come up here
and bring those stuff and...
And we'll...
We'll do this run
with you and we can all
learn something.
You can hang out with us
a while.
man, that's
a christmas present right now.
I'm on my way.
That sounds good, boss.
We'll look... We'll look
forward to seeing you
and I'm anxious to
lean about the cane.
I'll give you all
a call when I get
everything together.
Sound like a plan, buddy.
I look forward to it.
- all right,
thank you.
-See you, bye.
Well, you know, richard's
wanting to do a cherry liquor.
He wants to take it
to the next level.
So here we go.
yeah,
this is heavy. Good lord!
I got these rags.
on moonshiners...
y'all been seeing
all these hard seltzers
all over the place?
He wants to make hard seltzer.
Trust me, it works.
No, to mix that
peach brandy with water
is something we've never done.
Man, there's a ton of sugar
in there, ain't there?
There's people out there
willing to pay good money
for a top-quality product.
What in the hell?
It's blue.
that's our still, man.
the man who's allowing
us to run up on his property?
He decided to sell it.
It seems like
every time we turn around
we're having to pack up, move
and go find somewhere else.
Whoo!
We're gonna run
some liquor now, boys.
this is how we
make the moonshine.
That's good stuff right there
and I'm not really even
that big a raspberry fan.
along the carolina border,
after devising a recipe
for hard seltzer
made from moonshine...
blackberry right there.
Josh prepares to test market
the product on his customers.
there's strawberry.
boy,
that stuff's pretty.
Me and brian are making
homegrown hard seltzer.
All right, let 'er rip, cuz.
I built this co2 system
with this pressure cooker
just to try it out
on a small scale.
I'm gonna sell
the hard seltzer
for eight dollars a quart.
And me and brian
are gonna find out
if people are actually
gonna really buy this.
Let 'er rip, potato chip.
there it goes.
homegrown hard seltzer?
That's something totally new
and something outside the box.
Uses a little bit of alcohol,
stretches it a long way,
makes me a lot of money.
B, if this right
here works out,
we'll make a damn killing.
Now that we got all
this hard seltzer made up,
it's time to put this *bleep*
to the test
and see if me and brian are
actually gonna be able
to take it out there
and sell it.
I got multiple sales lined up.
And I guarantee you,
I'm gonna get some feedback.
what are we gonna
say to 'em when we get out?
- I'll talk to 'em.
- all right.
I didn't exactly tell
all my customers
when they were
coming to meet me
that I didn't have shine.
good to see you, senor.
- good to see you.
hey look man, we got something
new here we want
you to try out.
Just try it out
and see what you think.
We got blackberry, watermelon,
we got raspberry, strawberry.
This is like nothing you ever
tried before right here.
- what is it?
well, it's hard seltzer
but see what
you think about it
-before you start judging it.
- all right.
Try this blackberry.
-That's good stuff there.
- it's pretty good.
And I ain't charging
as much on it
as I normally do on a cork so
I'll give you a break on it.
Eight dollars a jar
is what we come up with.
- make me a case of
the blackberry and strawberry.
- all right.
Hell, yeah.
I knew the second that
I sold my first case
they didn't just buy a jar,
I knew I was in business.
-Hard seltzer.
-Hard seltzer?
That's good,
let's get it in here.
there's definitely a demand
for this hard seltzer.
The money's great, but it can
definitely be better.
I'm gonna have to upscale.
This is a booming market
and I am really
on to something.
But not on this level.
There's a way to make
more money doing this
but I'm definitely gonna
need henry, kenny
and tickle's help.
that's good.
in franklin county, virginia,
tickle, henry and
kenny are running
the last barrels of mash
from the 34 bushels of peaches
they secured this season.
Here you go, kenny.
Tell you what, our season's
been right rough so far.
But things are starting
to look up for us.
-That'll make some
damn good stuff.
- damn right.
you know,
we've been hammering
away running peach brandy.
We should get anywhere
from 40 to 48 gallons.
And that peach brandy
is so damn good,
you know, you're looking
at $160 a gallon.
Think that should do it.
-All right, let's get this
jewel lit there, henry
-light 'em up, baby.
-There we go.
-Yeah man.
yes sir,
she's looking good.
you know, we've been
running peach brandy can out
for years and years
and years now.
You know, thousands
of barrels of peach brandy.
You're getting a little
hot here.
We're gonna get it
capped over here.
We've been doing it
for generations now
and I plan on
continuing that legacy.
Ain't she pretty?
I'm pushing 'em
over a bit harder.
Yeah, yeah,
go ahead and push her.
-Won't be long
till we got something.
-It's coming.
-I'll tell you what though,
we got liquor.
-All right.
-What do you think
about that, henry?
-Beautiful stream.
Damn right.
She's rolling too, boy.
As long as it
turns it out good.
I'll tell you what,
that's some good peach brandy.
This peach brandy,
you can't even hardly tell
you're drinking liquor.
It's that smooth.
God, that smells good.
That right there,
is some mighty fine brandy.
-About 103.
-Yeah, that's perfect.
That is so good.
That is so good.
You don't have
to hog it over there.
I know,
he's running off with it.
Do you all want to try it too?
I don't know.
Tell me what
you think of that.
Ooh.
It's good and smooth.
God almighty,
the flavor in there.
Peach brandy is
a high-dollar product.
I reckon that's it,
we done, ain't we?
But we gotta keep it going.
We ain't quite got ourselves
out of this hole we done dug.
Oh yeah, she's done.
hell, you've got
every damn scuppernong
in the state
of alabama, ain't ya?
And part of the florida
panhandle too, brother.
You know, we finished
that little run for beaz
that he dubbed "ambrosia."
and the scuppernongs
come through great.
Now we wanna make
a scuppernong cognac.
There is a ton of sugar
in there, ain't there?
Man, these are just right,
you scored on these.
cognac's a
high-end liquor.
There's no reason ours can't
be a high-end liquor
and command
a big price as well.
People are working again or
willing to pay good money
for a top quality product.
To be cognac, for real,
it's gotta be like in Italy or
-somewhere...
-From the cognac
region of France.
in the 16th century,
the dutch were masters of
distilling brandy in europe.
To source the large
volumes of wine
they needed to make
the popular spirit,
they spent merchant ships to
the cognac region of France
to trade directly
with winemakers.
French wine, however,
spoiled easily
during the long voyage
back to the netherlands.
To solve this problem,
the merchants supplied
the region's winemakers
with copper pots and training
in double distillation.
French winemakers quickly
adopted the techniques
and developed their own
double distilled brandy
worthy of the name cognac.
Today, the luxurious
liquor is so popular
only two percent
of all cognac produced
stays in France.
To be a true cognac, beaz,
you have to distil it twice.
So we do a stripping run
in big sloppy,
and get the alcohol
all out the mash.
Then we have to redistil
the alcohol
and the spirit run.
-Okay.
-Then we barrel-age it.
Cognac is double distilled,
number one to up the proof
and concentrate the flavors.
We're using big sloppy
on this run because right now
it's the biggest still
we've got that's functional
in our stable
and she makes fine liquor.
I think this'll make
some killer cognac.
Hey, let's
call it killer cognac.
There's probably a few hundred
pounds of scuppernongs here.
Tell you, if we were gonna
stomp every one of these,
we're looking at
two days' work.
We don't have the time
to dedicate to that.
So, I brought my chipper
shredder that we use
to shred whole corn.
Well, if it'll run
through a cob of corn,
a grape ain't gonna
be no problem at all.
-Man, that is great
right there, that is...
-I told you.
-Boy, smell how
good it smells.
-Yeah.
That's getting all the damn
juice and the gritty.
well, I am so tickled
you got this sucker.
this pulled our ass out
of the fire a couple of times.
well, we'll be done
with this in no time.
- yes, we will.
- I love this.
you know, it don't
matter how hard you work,
you still have to have
some fun doing it,
and there ain't nothing
any more fun
than pranking beaz
any chance that we get.
what'd you do to it?
This thing just quit.
It didn't lock up, it just,
power went away
and it stopped.
Generator run outta gas?
No, it's full.
I filled it up just
before I cranked it.
Yeah, we ain't even
halfway done yet.
You know,
in a moonshiner's world,
there is something always
that goes south on you.
And this is something
that beaz hadn't been
around enough yet to learn.
I don't see anything in there.
I'm gonna say, all this juice
has fouled the motor up.
You'd think it would be
sealed though, wouldn't it?
Well, beaz.
You know what that means?
Um, I do.
Get them shoes off.
okay.
Them feet, they look like they
should be on a damn hobbit.
Beaz thinks, man I'm going to
save the day right here
and I'm going to be a hero.
And, he's all in.
Head down wide open.
All right, let's see
how this works.
Good lord.
Man, I'm not heavy enough
to smush these good.
Boy, if anybody sees us
doing this crap right here,
we'll be blackballed from
the world of damn liquor.
I just want y'all to know,
this is terrible.
-This sucks.
-It don't look so bad.
You're missing some.
yeah, I know.
Well, my feet ain't
fat like y'all's.
Man, this is so slippery,
it's crazy.
Them feet look like
they belong
on a little mouse, don't they?
They do, don't they?
Really?
You know, we know in our mind
that there ain't no way
we're gonna have him
stomp on all these grapes
but he doesn't know that.
We could just
push a joke so far.
We gotta get the work done.
I'm gonna get this
over here for your handle.
Thank you.
Oh perfect man, thanks.
-whoa.
-Wow.
-You fixed it.
You think it overheated?
Maybe, or could be
that mark unplugged it.
-are you kidding me?
This proves beyond a doubt
what you're willing
to do for us.
You know, it's really
a good thing that this
turned out to be just a prank
because we'd be here
for three days
if we were waiting on beaz
to stomp all these grapes
with them little bitty feet.
well, that's a lot
of grape juice.
I have never
been this proud
in my entire life.
To me, this is as gorgeous
as a brand new newborn baby.
all right, beaz,
we gotta gently
lift 'em right up.
- no kidding.
all right,
here we go.
wow.
we got all these
grapes shredded up,
now we gotta heat
a little water up
so we can melt
a little sugar in there and
get started on
making this mash.
all right boys,
let's get that
scuppernongs in the pot.
here we go.
We're almost there, guys.
Looking good boys,
looking good.
Keep it coming, love.
-Lookee there.
-What you want to do?
Eat that?
All that's sweet as
damn tupelo honey.
You know, to say there's a
little bit of flavor in there,
that's an understatement.
It's some of the
most flavorful grapes
I've ever seen in my life.
These scuppernongs are great.
Yeast nutrient and some
good champagne yeast.
What you think, killer?
Well, I think it's
gonna be great.
That's what I'm thinking.
we're ready
to rock and roll.
We gotta wait about
seven or ten days
for this to get fermented.
And then we're ready
to make some cognac.
I think this is what we
would call "done mashed in."
let's get the hell outta here.
just got back
from florida,
off my honeymoon and
you know, I couldn't help but
think the whole damn time
I was down there,
how jerry was doing
and apparently, he's got
something he wants
to talk to me about.
One thought crosses my mind,
that he's not gonna be able
to work with me any more
on account of, you know,
he had bleeding on the brain.
thought I
heard you out here.
what's going on,
brother?
Doing pretty good I guess
for what I've been through,
just trying to take it easy.
You know, it's really good
to see jerry right now.
I hadn't seen him
since the wedding.
He looks a lot better
than he did.
I got something
I want to show you.
Come here and check this out.
that's our still, man.
The man that's allowing us
to run up on his property?
He decided to sell it.
oh, my god.
How many damn times has this
gotta happen to us, man?
I don't know.
I feel like a damn
broke-leg dog getting
kicked when he's down.
I mean, we can't keep doing
this every damn season, man.
It seems like every time
we turn around
we're having to pack up, move
and go find somewhere else.
I mean, how many more damn
places can a man find?
We're running out of time.
We gotta find
something pretty quick
so we can bust out a few runs
and get some money
back in our pocket.
It's gonna be damn hard
right now at this time of year
to find another still site
just to pop up.
I know, all the
wet weather springs
are starting to dry up.
As much as I'd love to help,
I can't do no backwoods
high hiking,
carrying this stuff in.
You need to rest,
do what you gotta do,
but it would be good if we
could find something quick.
Do you know of anybody?
Not right off the
top of my head.
I'm gonna try to make
a few phone calls.
The thought crossed
my mind, though,
we ran a lot in tennessee.
What do you think about
coming back over that way?
Ugh, I don't like it.
I don't like that idea.
Me and jerry's been running
north carolina this season
simply because our
stash house got raided.
There, that's risky.
Risky business.
it means we gotta
move to get stuff going
and things are cooled down
enough, you know, then...
We'll try to make it happen.
it's very risky
for me and mike
to go back to tennessee,
but that's what we
might have to do.
I'll take care of this end.
Sure, we're gonna
get back in business.
Hey, henry,
sound like somebody
coming down your driveway.
I'm expecting
a delivery.
-That's mr. Joshua.
- lookie yonder.
He usually shows up
with a load of something.
- yeah, that's true.
-You boys ain't
gonna believe
what I've been up to.
well, what's up, hoss?
what have you
been doing, boy?
what's up, hoss?
God, I've missed the hell
out of everybody.
-What's going on?
-Stay used to it.
So josh, what did you do
with the shine we sent?
Did it get you back
on your feet?
-It got him back on
one of 'em, anyway.
-One of 'em, anyway.
Boys, y'all ain't gonna
believe what I've
done come up with.
Have y'all been seeing
all these hard seltzers
all over the place?
-Oh, yeah.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-Low alcohol.
Ten percent.
Ten percent?
Oh, damn. Yeah, yeah.
That's pressured, ain't it?
I heard it
when you cracked it.
What kinda price
can you give that at?
-Well, I'm selling it
for eight dollars a jar.
- is it selling?
I've done sold cases
and cases and cases of it.
God damn, man, that's smooth.
-Smells pretty good.
-Got a good smell to it
josh wants to make
hard seltzer.
Now, this is not an idea
that we would've come up with
on our own.
Tell you what, I could see
how that could sell
right there, josh.
But right now, the market
is huge for this stuff.
I've already made a ton
of money just off
this little pot right here.
-You made this?
-I made that out of this.
This little pressure cooker,
it was kind of like
an experiment to see
if it would work.
To go to a larger scale
we're gonna have to use
a different tank.
So my plan is, get rid
of that.
Put it in here.
Let's get down here where
we can take a look at it.
I haven't never tore
one of these apart before.
It really tastes good.
But he did a small
trial run with it.
Can we do it on a
larger scale, I don't know.
Here's what I want to do.
Basically, this is
the concept right here.
Put a beer tap on here
and then hook the co2 tank
up to it. Keeps it carbonated
as it pushes it out.
I say, let's hook
this thing up.
So what are you thinking
about putting in there?
Only the best.
what you calling
the best here, son?
You know what the best is.
It's that peach brandy.
no.
Henry seemed to be on board
right off until josh mentioned
peach brandy.
You wanna take
our 100 proof peach brandy,
and cut it to ten percent?
How are you gonna
justify all that?
Because I'm stretching
that dollar way on out there,
and it ain't taking
that much work to do it.
Henry's peach brandy is primo.
And we wanna charge
a primo price.
All we gotta do is fix this
apparatus and we're ready
to rock and roll.
Trust me, it works.
I've already done it,
and I've already sold it.
I'm telling you.
josh has always
got something going on,
and everything we've done
so far has panned out.
We've made money with it.
But water touching
my peach brandy's taboo.
So, I'm very reluctant on
taking and changing the whole
profile of my peach brandy.
When I'm raising hell
about having to do something
I don't wanna do,
what is it you tell me?
-"but son,
you're making money."
-that's it.
That's a whole lot
of good brandy,
high quality brandy,
that we know we can
get a big price out of.
But we can sell that, too.
We're gonna be able to sell
all our liquor to people
we're selling liquor to,
but we're also gonna
be able to hit a lot
of people with this.
And this is gonna make
more money than that
brandy is by itself.
I real can tell that
henry is just seeing this
as something you don't do.
You don't mess
with peach brandy.
These seltzers
are selling big.
And if we can take a product
like what we make
and make one out of it,
it's gotta be better
than what's in the store.
What I think is we're gonna
be able to take
that quality of something
and hit a different
demographic of people.
I'll tell you what, henry.
Now, how can you argue
with making more money?
-Can't argue with that.
-Do you need
any more convincing?
He took
just our regular liquor
and made something
this good off of it.
I understand that, it's just
this thing we've always had
about putting water
in our brandy, man.
It's just been taboo.
well, well,
it ain't brandy no more.
Hey, we still got
brandy left over.
That's the whole thing.
It only takes
so much brandy to make it.
it's not like he's
asking for all the brandy.
That's something anybody
can drink. Even people that
don't drink would drink that.
That is good. I have to admit,
that is extremely good.
Sometimes it's hard to teach
an old dog new tricks.
I think it's worth
taking a gamble.
-They seem to be on your side,
with you doing it, too.
-I say we give it a shot.
All right. Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Y'all convinced me.
so we're gonna
make the hard seltzer
with that killer peach brandy,
and we're gonna charge
a killer price.
I need a little
more convincing, henry,
I don't know about you.
I just don't like
putting water with that
peach brandy.
If we don't get this recipe
down right, and this
doesn't turn out good,
henry's gonna be
one upset moonshiner.
All right, let's rock, boys.
you know, I'm
basically out of
options right now.
Our still site was basically
sold out from under us.
Bad as I hate to,
I've gotta go ask daniel
for some damn help.
You know, me and daniel,
we were the best of friends.
We were like brothers.
We've had some bad blood
in the past, but you know,
time heals wounds.
And I figured if anybody
knows around this area
where a good
still site may be,
it could be him.
What are you doing, daniel?
Hell, riding around
with the top down.
Heard that.
Long time no see.
How you been, brother?
I am as busy
as a two-pecker pup.
well, that's busy. I heard
that, I'll tell you what.
Well, I just got back from
my honeymoon,
and I come in to find out
that our still site's
been burned.
The guy just up and
sold the damn land
out from under me.
And we've had a misfortunate
incident with jerry.
He's been piled up
in hospital,
and he's in pretty rough
damn shape.
That is some
bad circumstances.
Regardless of what's ever
been said or done,
I'm running out of damn
options here, and I don't have
any damn where else to go.
We got a long
damn past together,
that's for damn sure.
Yeah, a long one,
that's for sure.
With all that being said,
the question I have for you
and the reason I am here
is to see, do you know of any
damn where in this country
that I could set up
and be safe
on a damn still site?
Somewhere to set up with
all the elements.
You got running water,
you're gonna have people.
-Yeah.
-And you, it's gotta
be somewhere where
a lot of people don't know
about that running water.
That's getting hard to find
any more with
the population, huh?
Mmm-hmm.
Everybody thinks that you
just stick a pot out there and
fill it full of mash,
and make liquor.
It's not that easy.
It's hard on a moonshiner
to find a good place
to run moonshine.
I just figured
you might know a spot.
I know there's one out there.
-Finding it is the thing.
-Yeah.
-You can't just set a still
up anywhere.
-That's right.
-You've gotta have all
your resources you need.
-You got to.
The only ones that I know
around here, close,
is being used.
But, now, there may be
a few more around.
you know, I don't know
if daniel is wanting to help
me right here, right now.
You know, I just floated
the question out there to him.
He seems like he's
hem-hawing around
just a little bit with me.
You know, truthfully, mike,
I know these woods right here
like the back of my hand.
I've hunted about all
these hills and
hollers around here.
And there ain't no
damn body in this world
ever make it through
this world without help.
And I'm gonna give you
something to go look at.
It's got killer water,
and it's a damn good holler
to run liquor in,
one way in, one way out.
And you've seen it,
and you've been there with me.
That was several years back
at pawpaw patch.
And we went to pick pawpaw.
I remember damn well.
But if you go all the way up
in the head of that holler,
past that pawpaw patch,
in that left-hand holler,
you'll find a damn good
water source.
Right in there is a fine spot
to put a still site.
But there it is.
There's your tip. Try that.
Brother, I appreciate it.
I owe you the world, man.
Thank you so much.
In the past, I probably
wouldn't have helped
mike at all.
But he's down and out,
and he needs to set up and
get to making some liquor.
I tell you what though,
you'd better hurry up.
Because at this time,
we ain't got much longer
to do it.
Nope. Time's a-wasting,
that's for sure.
Well, I appreciate you,
brother.
You know I feel like I'm on
the right track, right now.
It's giving me somewhere
to go, somewhere to look at.
Something I didn't have
a few minutes ago.
So here I go. I'm gonna check
this place out.
Yeah, if we can make
this thing work,
I don't see no reason
not to try.
I was able to convince
henry, kenny and tickle
with this idea
to make this hard seltzer.
If you don't take a chance,
you're not gonna make
no money.
There's no way I could use my
little bitty crock pot
to be able to make anything
on any scale.
So I got to thinking
that I could take a beer keg,
and modify this thing.
So we can fill it up,
and carbonate my drink.
But I'm gonna say one thing,
I will kill you
if he screws up this brandy.
If it don't work out,
take it out of my cut,
straight up.
How do we build
this thing, josh,
that's what I'm mostly about.
all right,
so, see there's
a little beer in there.
mmm-hmm. I smell it.
Nasty.
We're gonna let all
that rotten beer
and all that pressure off.
We're building us
a co2 infusion machine
to make hard seltzer.
Now we can drill a hole in it,
hook this up to a nipple
with freaking little valve
on it.
We're gonna put one spout
on this thing that will be
for nothing more
than putting product
in this thing and wash
this thing out between uses.
We can drill a hole
and slide that into it
and it'll be down in there,
like that right there.
We're gonna put a tube
that goes all the way
down to the bottom
of this thing.
What that'll do is it'll put
the carbon dioxide inside
the product inside this keg.
Then we can just cut it off,
hold the pressure in it
and be carbonated.
This beer keg is a very
integral part of this build,
because without pressure
the co2 will not infuse
into our hard seltzer product
that we've got in here.
We're looking for our drill,
our grinder...
-You need a tape measure?
-No.
-How about this hammer?
-No.
-Needle-nose vise-grips?
-No.
-How about that pencil?
-Let me think. No.
*bleep*
the design of this beer keg
josh had, it's genius
and it's simple.
-Yeah.
-That'll work right yonder.
This is where we fill it
and where we drain it at.
We got that water proofed.
Now, we gotta pressurize
it somehow, right?
Then this will slide
all the way down into
the bottom right there.
It's important that the air
goes into the liquid.
Put a beer tap on, right?
Boom.
That thing's ready to roll.
We finally got
this machine built.
Now it's time to test
this thing and we're just
gonna see how it works.
Y'all ready to see
what this thing does?
here's the
liquid gold, boys.
me watering down
henry's liquor?
If that don't work out,
I'm never gonna hear
the end of this.
I got a 400-foot
well dug here.
This is not town water.
-There's no chlorine
in this water.
-Yeah.
It's some of the best
water you could ever
drink right there,
so I don't mind
using that for our mix.
-Yeah, you ain't gonna
go wrong with that.
-That oughta about do it.
All right. Put some fruit
in it, and freaking,
let that marinate
a little bit.
I mean, we already
got peach brandy. Do we really
need more peach flavor?
I mean that liquor right
there oughta flavor it good.
We'll put all the flavor
to it we can.
The taste profile
on that right there
is probably gonna go way down
when you add that water to it,
so we'll put some
extra flavor, you know.
-Okay.
-You don't know how nervous I
am about trying this, do you?
-Let 'er rip, potato chip.
-That hurt me.
the first step in
making a hard seltzer's
taking the liquor
and diluting down to 20 proof
with spring water.
- gosh,
that's hurting, ain't it?
- that hurt me.
Yep, that's hurting.
Never thought I would see you
do that, henry.
-please don't
track us down, daddy.
Daddy seen me pouring brandy
over in water, he'd kill me.
- that's what
I'm talking about.
-Here you go.
And it smells good, don't it?
Oh, god. Daddy's probably
strike me down if he saw me
pouring all that good peach
brandy into water.
-That's all we need.
- I'll tell you what.
-I'm smelling it.
-Oh, that's perfect, baby.
That's perfect.
It ain't perfect yet. We can't
carbonate it like that.
We gotta flavor it, still.
all right.
I know you and
tickle's always
packing knives.
Yes sir.
She's sharp, too, boy.
Yeah, I'd say
that's going all right.
why is kenny's such
big chunks and yours are such
little bitty ones, tickle?
my knife's sharper.
how big is his?
yours are
little bitty tiny ones.
Josh, you've cut all
the peach off of it.
oh, give me a break.
hold on, it won't come out.
like a sword in it.
excalibur!
I don't guess there's but
one thing better than
good old peach brandy,
-and that's my mama's peach
cobbler. Oh, my goodness.
- I'll tell you what.
What do you say,
daddy making liquor out of it,
mama making cobbler.
- mama making cobbler.
- ain't nothing
wrong with that.
And they used to say that
because we were all kind
of bunch of peaches.
-Uh-huh.
-Same time that we're making
the brandy.
Mm-hm.
-That's exactly what momma--
-that's exactly
what she doing.
Exactly.
That's gonna make
some good stuff,
I can tell you that.
We'll make us a top with like
this on it.
it does look like a pumpkin.
-Like a lid?
-Yeah, like a lid
-for peaches.
-Yeah.
That would do good.
Advertise your product.
We don't have to advertise.
They see us coming,
they know what it is.
-they know what it is.
Mean peach.
-The juice coming out of--
-coming on out.
-I'd be dogged, if it ain't.
-Mm-hm.
-It was very clear,
wasn't it now?
-Taste it now.
What do you think
of the flavor of that?
-Oh, yeah.
-Think it's good.
Tastes much better.
Sweet.
-Boys, I believe that's
getting close to enough.
-Yeah...
I think it might be.
Put a bunch of peaches in it,
let it soak.
It'll be good and ready to go.
-Gonna be some good stuff.
- gonna be
just peachy, ain't it?
Heh heh.
Yeah, heading over
to this pawpaw patch that
daniel told me about.
So we're going up that hollow,
see what it's got to offer.
You know, I hadn't been back
to this place in years.
I'm gonna go down here
and check it out,
and see what I can't find.
It means a lot to me that,
you know, daniel come over,
and give me this advice.
He didn't have to
even bring it up to me.
But he did. Maybe
it's potentially set me on
the right damn path right now.
Old pawpaw tree right here.
This is actually
one of the ones
me and daniel picked from.
-There's one right there
big as a tater.
-We're getting a bunch now.
Yes, sir!
Mmm. Smell of these brings me
back to childhood.
I'll be darned. Ohh!
That's a good pawpaw.
This one's ripe. I'm actually
gonna cut it open.
Look how soft that thing is.
By god, that's good eatin'
right there.
Although women used to
make bread and stuff
out of them.
That'll make that liquor,
right there.
But anyhoo.
I can't believe I found
that one hanging there.
There ain't a pawpaw in
this country to be found
right now.
that's crazy.
But, I definitely feel like
I'm on the right track.
There's a hollow right up here
to my left.
You know,
I just got to step off
to the unknown now,
and go and find what daniel
was talking about.
Yeah, I feel like a man
chasing a damn rainbow.
With a pot of gold at the end
of it nobody's ever
damn found.
Well I intend to find
that pot of gold here today.
Whoo-hoo! Boy, there is water
right here.
damn. My god, that's cold.
This water runs all the time.
There ain't no question
about that.
Damn.
I'm on a damn power line.
I can't run liquor
under power lines.
The power company come
down here cleaning up,
doing their job, you know.
That's a good way to just
get seen or get told on.
I'm gonna head on up
the hollow,
see what I can find.
Damn. Yeah, I'm just gonna
keep following this branch up
stream, see what I find.
But I don't know,
'cause if there's
power lines up there,
this is not gonna work.
If I draw daniel a white line,
it's a long way
up through here.
Looks like the end of road
for me.
but I hear the sweet sound
of water.
It's some old growth
in here in these woods.
Big trees. Probably ain't
too many people been back
in here.
That water. I can hear
it getting closer and closer.
You know, I can hear
the water rushing by as I'm
walking through these woods.
Can't help but think,
you know what, I think
I may be onto something.
Holy mother of pearl!
My god! That is pure beauty.
And bam! There it is,
this humungous 70-80 foot
waterfall. Whoo!
I'm just about
damn speechless.
All the water in
the world that I need.
No power lines.
No sign of nobody.
I do believe
I found mine and jerry's
still site.
I've never seen anything
so breathtaking in my whole
entire life. Whoo!
We're gonna run
some liquor now, boys!
well, it's still here.
man, there's alcohol
in it and it still got
plenty of great flavor.
you know what this
means, don't you boys?
we're gonna have some
fine liquor.
I says get going.
You know our scuppernong
mash is ready.
It's ready to go.
We're gonna run it today.
Here goes nothing.
we have two stills
here. We're gonna do
the stripping run
to take the alcohol from
the mash on big sloppy.
Then we'll go straight
to the small still with that
spirit and do
the spirit run which is
the second distillation.
nice.
we've decided
we're not using a thumper.
Since it has
to be re-distilled anyway.
We just simply want
all the volume we
can get out of it
in as short a time
as we can do it.
Beaz, I'll have to say,
old buddy,
you're turning into
an outstanding liquor man.
I'm enjoying seeing
this whole process 'cause
like I said, it's my first
double distillation to do.
the reason
cognac is more of
a premium liquor
is the fact that
it's double distilled
and it's barrel aged.
Now the double distillation.
That brings more of
the floral flavor to the fruit
to the front.
hey, look.
Look at that.
I got a coon pecker.
you don't know
which end's up on that
little rascal.
see, it looks
like it's working.
that's what
she never said.
All right, boys, all we got's
time now.
why don't you
kick that power up just a dab.
That can run a little harder.
oh, hell.
them blow the pecker out?
No.
What in the hell?
It's blue!
God dang it!
what causes that?
I don't know.
All of our distillate, blue.
That's all you
can say about it.
It's not clear. It blue.
Son of a bitch!
I hate this *bleep*.
Look at it.
That looks worse
than your *bleep*.
when you look in
you see your liquor
turning blue, that's when
you don't clean
your copper good.
That sends mark off
the rails because
his forte is the copper.
So that being said,
we dropped the ball here.
and so
it's from?
I don't know
what it's from.
I got a pretty idea
though, it's just
canker... It's... It's
tarnish that gets on copper.
God damn it!
Your cleaning solution
and fill it up, that's what
it comes out looking like.
so in this instant,
our damn cognac liquor is
the cleaning solution.
Sadly enough.
that's
a rookie mistake,
is what it is.
yeah.
I'm surprised you all
weren't on top of that.
that's
a rookie mistake.
It'll happen to
the best of us. You can't
cry over spilled milk.
No, but I wanna cry
over blue liquor.
I say we just dump it out.
let's just dump it.
Stop the run right there.
Dump the damn stuff,
shut her down.
I ain't gonna let--
I'll help you dump it.
Hold my food coloring.
You son of a bitch!
-really?
-Yes, really.
-You're welcome.
- it oughta have been
our turn.
- yep.
-Damn!
You're official now.
100 million
pounds of scuppernongs.
Spent some money on that.
550 miles in the car.
Spent money on that.
Blue food coloring
for dollar tree.
Priceless. I owed y'all.
yes, you did.
and I knew
we were gonna run that again.
So I knew it'd pull that
food coloring right out of it.
So...
We were fixing to waste
some of this liquor
'cause of you.
We was fixing to dump it out.
good job, man.
-Well, thank you.
-I guess we deserve that.
I reckon.
You know to say that
we had one coming,
yeah we had... We got
a half a dozen coming
at least.
look at that
friggin' blue liquor.
that's gorgeous.
What dumbass
didn't clean their still?
we're gonna pull
this liquor right over here
to the other still
to do our spirit run.
And after that we get into
the hearts,
we'll give her a taste,
and let beaz go away
with his chest pulled out
that he pranked mark
and digger for a change.
let's cap her off,
baby, man.
Let's start with the
first bucket 'cause it's been
marinated the longest.
all right. Yeah.
I can see a color change
in that.
Can we reuse these peaches?
We could make a pie out of it
or something.
We put some peaches
in it to add some extra
flavor to it.
- looks good.
- still got
some stuff in it.
- think we need
to strain some more?
-Yeah, I think we do.
we decided to use
my peach brandy.
I'm still a little bit
reluctant about doing all.
put the
cheese cloth right in
the bottom of it.
yeah right here.
Like that,
you know what I mean?
After we filter
this stuff out,
we put it inside our co2
infusion machine.
-Don't spill it.
-I believe it's gonna
spill everywhere.
Get it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
It's pouring out the bottom.
Hey, stay over here.
Stay over here.
Stay over here.
talking about mixing
it with all that water,
is something we've never done.
-Yeah.
-You can't just dump it.
There we go.
We wouldn't even
want a drop of
sweat to drop off our hat
into our brandy but
we'll give it a shot and see.
right. So we shut
this valve off right here
where we just
filled that up, right?
Put this hose
on here like so.
Now we got our stuff in here.
We're putting the co2 to it.
let's turn the gas on.
if this doesn't
work out, me watering
henry's liquor down,
boy, have I screwed up
big this time.
-Imma hear it bubbling.
-She's bubbling.
josh is over here
controlling the gas.
He starts carbonating.
She's damn sure
bubbling through it.
It hits 12 pounds.
Josh keeps carbonating.
How... How do you know
how much pressure
you're putting in this thing?
-It ain't gonna
blow up on us, is it?
-I hope it don't.
-Me too.
- right there is 18.
it hits 18 pounds.
Josh keeps carbonating.
Here just look...
Here, come on, back up a bit.
It hits 25 pounds.
Josh keeps carbonating.
I'd shut her down
right yonder.
how's it holding up?
See any cracks,
anything bulging?
it ain't
going nowhere.
I read on this thing.
It says, do not go over.
60 psi. We got a
long way to go.
Now I know it says,
do not go over 60 psi
all right, that's all good
and fine. But now
we welded stuff
through this.
How much pressure
you got in it?
30 pounds.
-Shut it down josh.
-You got 30 pounds.
I'd shut that down.
These guys are all
freakin' out. But I want
as much
pressure on
this thing as I get.
- how much psi
is your weld gonna hold?
-Let's shut if off.
One of them things come
out of there, it's a bullet.
I'm gonna turn it off.
-It ain't got no--
- god almighty!
That thing done spurted up
there 20 feet.
Alright, that comes out
of your part.
Yeah, that comes out of
your part.
we've got it
pressurized.
And now it really
is the moment of truth.
Squirt it in there, tick.
I mean it looks like
I'm pumping soda
out of this thing.
I'll be damn if ain't...
Ain't carbonated.
It's got a beautiful
slight peach tint to it.
And it's nice and it's bubbly.
What do you think?
Pretty damn good there.
I'm afraid to try it.
give it a try.
See what you think.
Come on, now. What...
What do you think there,
henry?
It's got a good taste to it,
ain't it?
he spit it out? Oh!
- you going for real.
- huh?
-You're going for real.
- what are you talking
about? You don't like it?
-For real?
- you don't have
a peach brandy
turn out like this.
Gold man, baby
I got you, boy.
he scared me. He scared me.
It's gonna be a gold mine,
I'm telling you!
I'm watching him running
around and spitting it out.
And the whole time I'm
sitting here in a state
of panic thinking I'm never
gonna hear the end of it.
You did good. Did good.
I'm just glad that
it worked out and he likes it.
I was scared to death
y'all was gonna trip out
on it.
I was a little terrified
myself, son,
I have to admit.
It's real bubbly.
It's real light.
It'd be something
that a lot of people
could drink that
normally wouldn't drink.
It's almost I could
bubble in champagne
or something.
Cap her on up.
-Here.
-Yeah, baby.
normally, my customers
for brandy, they look
for that kick.
They look for that 100-105
proof from that brandy.
In this situation,
we've taken that flavor
from that brandy,
and we've reduced it down
to 20 proof. We lookin'
a whole new market.
We lookin' at customers
that they love the flavor.
Just enough to give
them a slight buzz.
Think we could make
a pile of money with this...
This younger generation.
This about the easiest
juggin' up I've ever done
in my life.
The tricky part of this
hard seltzer,
we've never sold
anything like this.
We wanna be competitive
with what people are buying
this stuff in the store for.
But then again, we can't just
give this stuff away either.
let's finish getting
these bottled up.
'cause this stuff
is gone this afternoon.
-Awesome, perfect.
-It's that good.
-Thank you, bro.
-Thank you.
we need to
come up with
a name for it.
How about back wood boys
hard seltzer?
why do we
wanna use "boys"?
I ain't a boy.
Back woods men.
I... Some... I don't know.
look, till you
come up with a name,
you don't get your cut.
How about polk county
paralyzer?
Polk county...
We ain't in polk county.
That don't matter.
I made the first batch
in polk county.
I don't know. It sue is--
you like word "peat"
don't you frank?
Twisted peach punch.
-What do you think about that?
-That's pretty good.
Double twisted peach punch.
-Double twisted peach punch.
-That's too much.
I don't know. I like double
better than plain.
They're gonna pay more
for something double twisted
than single twisted.
It's too hard.
Just for you, josh.
Double twisted peach punch.
What do you want again, sir?
I want some homemade
double twisted peach punch.
Hard seltzer.
You got it. Done deal.
all right, fellers.
Yeehaw!
Think we ought to keep
a case of that ourselves,
right?
Looks damn, look,
just about like a damn beer.
-Beer tint.
- here's the more
important question, fellas.
What you reckon
we oughta sell this stuff for?
I ain't gonna lie if you could
sell for 20 dollars a jar,
that'd be one hell of
a profit.
That ain't bad.
I don't think we'll
get that for it.
-That's too stout. Yeah.
- too steep for it?
-It's gotta be
worth our time too.
-$20 is right by it.
oh, sure look. You make a
couple hundred extra dollars
for just a little bit
more work. It's worth it,
ain't it?
That's what I'm trying
to say. What do you reckon?
What are people
willing to pay? We know what
they'll pay for our brandy.
What will they pay
for this stuff?
Here's what it boils down to.
20 dollars is too steep.
10 dollars ain't enough.
They sell this
in the stores, don't they?
They do. But what we got
right here is twice as strong
as what's in the store.
-So what they sell in
the store is like five.
-And twice as much.
And twice as much.
If 5% in stores,
we're throwing
10% out there.
-Yeah.
-So that's gonna pull
some more people in.
Well look. I... I...
What do you all
think about this?
One quart of liquor
will make five quarts of this.
Yeah.
If we take
and make this stuff
12 dollars a quart,
and then get rid of
all five quarts
that one quart will make,
that's 60 bucks.
then we turn that
160 dollars gallon of
peach brandy into
240 dollars.
240 dollars a gallon.
160 dollar gallon
of shine into 240.
-240.
-I like the sound of that.
That don't sound bad.
That's good money
right there.
And also we broaden
the market to a whole 'nother
group of people.
A whole quart for $12,
who wouldn't--
-who can't afford that?
-I mean, think about it.
and once they buy
their first one, they coming
back for another one.
Good as that is,
and as strong as it is,
I don't see no problems
selling it.
Sounds like
we got a plan then.
I say we go
make this a damn sale.
how we gonna sell half
a case is all I know.
Y'all gonna drink it
all up before we can
get there with it.
that's alcohol baking.
That's the head coming off.
-Okay.
-Well, we've got enough out
of it, I'd say, don't we?
yepper.
All right mark. What color you
think this run's gonna be?
Oh, it's gonna
be clear, beaz.
hot metal
looks like cold metal.
and hot air
is invisible just like
cold air.
yeah.
all right,
there it comes.
Yup. Scuppernong.
- it's clear.
-Yes, it's not blue,
mr. Beazy.
well...
if it had been
blue this time
we'd have had a problem,
houston.
Can you believe
how strong the scuppernong
smell is?
Oh, my!
Man, it's double distilled,
but, man, it's still
plenty flavorful with
the scuppernong.
And it ain't blue.
- and it's not
blue, I'll be danged.
-It ain't blue.
You know it's... It's crazy
how good this
second distillation of this
scuppernong cognac tastes.
You know, I think
that we've hit it out of
the park.
It's just a matter now
of getting it barrel aged.
That's hard liquor
right there.
exactly how you want
it to be. That's... That's
the queen of
the liquor right there.
Damn.
this scuppernong
flavor, it's right there
in the front.
It mellows out
then it finishes off
real good with them
floral notes
that you get from a grape.
Oh, richard.
What's up, cool breeze?
I just
came up on a whole bunch
of cherries, man.
I'm trying to find something
to do with it.
Thought I'd make
my signature cherry bounce.
We first met
richard landry with
master distiller.
Here we go, fellas.
This gonna be richard.
that's richard.
Oh, my.
Richard?
You're the next
master distiller, my friend.
Congratulations, bro.
richard is impressive
as a distiller.
But he's also a donkey
on the edge.
He don't mind
trying new things.
He says he has access
to a lot of cherries
where he's at.
I got a couple
hundred pounds of it.
Damn. That's a million
dollars' worth of cherries.
Hey, richard.
We're right now
finishing up a run of
scuppernong cognac.
Why wouldn't that
work with cherries?
well, it definitely
would work with cherries.
I don't know
what kind of process
y'all doing with that?
We just run it twice. Do a
stripping run, a spirit run.
well,
that sounds good right there.
You use that cane syrup.
Do you think you could get
some of that?
I got so much
sugar cane around me
I can't throw a rock
without hitting some.
Uh, how about me and
old digger officially inviting
you to tennessee
to come up here
and bring those stuff and...
And we'll...
We'll do this run
with you and we can all
learn something.
You can hang out with us
a while.
man, that's
a christmas present right now.
I'm on my way.
That sounds good, boss.
We'll look... We'll look
forward to seeing you
and I'm anxious to
lean about the cane.
I'll give you all
a call when I get
everything together.
Sound like a plan, buddy.
I look forward to it.
- all right,
thank you.
-See you, bye.
Well, you know, richard's
wanting to do a cherry liquor.
He wants to take it
to the next level.
So here we go.
yeah,
this is heavy. Good lord!
I got these rags.