[narrator] This time on Moonshiners...
[man 1] This guy is making somewhere in between
150 and 170 gallons of liquor a day.
From this base here, it's gonna pump the Cachaca to his bigger tanks.
[man 1] This is an illegal operation.
This blows me away.
You know, the way I figure, man, it's one thing to steal Mike and Jerry's recipe
to make it better,
but taking one of his customers, man, I mean,
that's a different thing right there.
I ain't trying to step on nobody toes, y'all.
I'm just trying to give people better alcohol.
We're gonna flood the market in Maggie Valley
with the best shine that they've ever seen.
Grab a jar, Craig.
Let's do this.
Hey, look at it. That's Richard Landry right there.
[Mike] Richard and his brother.
[Jerry] I'll be damned.
Let's turn this sumbitch around go over and talk to 'em, see what they doing.
Better not be out here running liquor on our grounds,
selling to our customers.
[man 2] This is how we make the moonshine!
-You sleep good? -Quite well. And you?
Like a baby.
Big old heavy motorcycle whipped my ass.
[laughs]
[narrator] At Minas Gebais, Brazil,
on the lamb from law enforcement in Virginia,
Josh is working on his own recipe for coffee moonshine,
one of the biggest selling products back at home.
After a good night's sleep, it's gonna be good to get this cup of coffee.
This is the way we brew coffee in Brazil. Using this.
We put the coffee powder here.
-[Josh] Then we go and pour some in it? -Yeah.
As you would put two tablespoons.
Okay, that will do.
Here you go.
[Josh] Everything I've seen so far about Fabiola's coffee plantation,
I know that this is quality coffee. But until I taste it,
I have no idea if this is gonna be the best coffee to infuse with my moonshine.
Fabiola explained to me that this is perfect for
this coffee to be mixed with alcohol.
It's gotta be slightly acidic, with just a little extra buzz from the caffeine.
[Pablo] She knows the perfect timing, the perfect roasting and the perfect pH
for this coffee to be the coffee you want.
Cheers!
-This stuff is great. -It is.
It's hard to believe that this comes off trees up there, ain't it?
-Isn't it? -Yeah. This is amazing.
Doesn't need a sugar. It's perfect.
[Josh] This is exactly what I'm looking for.
When I combine this coffee with my moonshine,
we're gonna kill it.
-You wanna tear the tents down? -[Pablo] We can do that.
-[Josh] Yeah, let's do it. -[Pablo] Okay, let's do that. [grunts]
Hey, you know what? You are a moonshiner.
You prepare your own backyard moonshine.
Um, this is Cachaca territory.
We have a bunch of people around.
We could visit a guy maybe.
What exactly is Cachaca? I know it's alcohol but...
-It's sugarcane juice and fermentation. -Yeah.
And distilling. That's it. It's pretty simple.
-There's no grains or nothing? -Just that.
I'd love to go and figure out how to make the Cachaca.
If there's a way I could take that back and make it in America,
there ain't nobody else doing that.
If I can learn how to make the Cachaca and mix that with the coffee,
I'm gonna have something totally unique.
I wanna make a buzz in the moonshine world.
Uh, this guy is not legal.
I definitely rather meet the outlaw.
So, this guy is the perfect person for you to talk with.
I'm excited, dude. Let's go meet him.
-[Pablo] Let's hit the road then. -Awesome.
[Richard] Man, I feel good right now.
We make liquor at home good, we make it here good.
I want everybody in the world to experience good liquor.
[narrator] In Haywood County, North Carolina,
Richard and Craig are on their way to sell their first batch of mimosa moonshine
in the effort to reimburse Daniel for destroying his prized copper still.
[loud explosion]
-What the hell? -[Craig] What the [bleep]?
-Oh! -What the [bleep] happened here?
Yeah, I made a big mistake. I messed up Daniel's still.
That comes with a price tag.
We owe him $3,000.
I mean, I am responsible for it.
I know I have to fix this thing or pay for it.
And that's what I'm gonna do.
The only way I could do that is to sell this liquor.
Craig, you gonna meet this guy Daniel hooked me up with, man.
-This guy, Biscuit, man, -"Biscuit"?
That's his name.
Daniel hooked me up with a couple of people out here that he knows.
But other than that, I just been finding people on my own, man.
Just anybody that wants some shine, huh?
Oh, yeah. It's easy to find buyers here in Maggie Valley.
We got a lot of stills set up here in Maggie Valley.
But, I mean, we got a whole long way to go
before we can totally pay Daniel all of his money back.
Biscuit is the guy that Mike and Daniel used to sell to
back in the day when they were partners.
You know, the way I figure, man, it's one thing to steal Mike and Jerry's recipe
and build up on it and make it better,
but taking one of his customers, man,
I mean, that's a different thing right there.
I ain't trying to step on nobody's toes here,
I'm just trying to give people better alcohol.
I hope you don't get mad but I ain't gonna stop selling it.
I know Mike and I know Jerry.
I'm not trying to burn no bridges with anybody.
But I've gotta make enough money to pay Daniel back for his still.
Grab a jar, Craig.
[Craig] Let's do this.
Plus, this liquor is awesome.
I mean, we just gotta get it out there.
If we're gonna make our mark out here,
this is definitely gonna grab everyone's attention.
He say this man buys a lot of liquor.
About to find out.
[knocking]
[Biscuit] Yes, sir!
Oh, Richard?
-Richard. What you say? -[Biscuit] What's going on, man?
[Richard] Oh, I'm doing pretty good, man.
I got a few connections around here, man.
They told me you was a good guy and you like to drink shine.
[Biscuit] Oh Lord, yeah. See, I like my shine, now.
I tell you what. We got something that we want you to try.
Check that out right there.
[Biscuit] That's good stuff.
-Mimosa shine? -[Richard] Yeah. That's right.
[Biscuit] Tasting mimosa in it a little bit.
But man, I just got that watermelon taste to it.
Man, that right there, that tastes good right there.
[Richard] We got two cases of that.
[Biscuit] What do you get one case of it?
[Richard] We usually get $40 a jar.
[Biscuit] I'll be honest with you,
there's couple of guys over here from Maggie Valley.
I've been getting mimosa shine for $25 a cooler.
[Richard] How about $35?
[Biscuit sighs]
Man, it does got a good taste to it. Can you do $30?
Both cases.
-[Richard] You got a deal. -[Biscuit] I sure do appreciate it.
-[Richard] Good deal. -[Biscuit] I'll get you some money out here.
-All right? -[Richard] We'll get your shine.
Biscuit said it tastes a whole lot better.
We sold both cases, man.
I'm stoked because this money couldn't come at a better time.
We got a whole lot of money to make.
-[Biscuit] Hey, man, I appreciate y'all. -[Richard] Appreciate you.
[Biscuit] I'll be giving you a call. I'll get some more of that.
I'm gonna just keep pounding the pavement selling this liquor.
Make sure that Daniel's still is fixed.
I'll tell you what, I don't mind sitting in the shop doing this all day,
but this thing will make us no money.
You been thinking of anything we can do for this next go around?
You know, with the grains being so hot,
I don't really wanna do a whole lot of grain.
Well, talking about money,
you know, we're still in a position we definitely need to save some.
That being said, I'm driving down the road,
I come across acres and acres and acres of the notorious Kudzu
Kudzu?
[narrator] Kudzu began its US invasion at the 1876 World's Fair.
Imported from Japan,
it was marketed as a decorative plant for backyards and gardens.
Then, as a response to the ravages of the dust bowl,
the Department of Agriculture envisioned another use for Kudzu
and funded large-scale planting as a means to fight soil erosion.
With its wildfire growth of one foot per day,
Kudzu quickly established dominance across the landscape,
strangling everything, from crops to tall trees,
and smothering roads, barns and houses in a deadly embrace.
But because Kudzu covers the landscape without rooting,
it did nothing to stop erosion.
Over the rest of the century,
it infested over 200 million acres of land
and came to be known as "the vine that ate the South".
[Mike] Kudzu multiplies like wildfire.
It goes up in trees and it grow up the side of your buildings,
and it takes completely over.
But this stuff is very edible.
You can eat every part of this from the tips, to the root, to the leaves.
Except the pod on it.
And guess what? Another thing,
it helps with blood pressure, heart disease, man.
You name it, it's got almost every medical property in it a man could ask for.
-Have you looked out back here? -[Mike] Oh, yeah.
Dude, it's taken over my building back here.
I'm afraid it's gonna turn my siding off.
-We can get all we need for free. -[Mike] Mm-hm.
Let's try to cook some of this stuff down and see what it tastes like.
Let's see what happens.
Yeah, I'm a little apprehensive trying to make a moonshine out of a weed.
It's kind of like, something that we've never done.
Man, look at this up side of this mountain
up through here has taken over.
Can you imagine if it's really good?
A couple thousand runs right here.
[Mike] The motherlode, man, if it works.
But hey, you know, it's something new, it's something different.
Might be a great seller.
It's got a good taste. I like it.
That's green bean, all day long.
[Mike] It tastes just like a green bean.
To my knowledge, I don't know of anyone that's ever made alcohol using Kudzu.
But I know they use it for teas.
So, why not make the tea into a alcoholic beverage
and present to your customers?
Could probably just sell it like that right there.
[Mike] Heck, yeah!
There we go.
You never know, people may start harvesting this stuff
to eat, for the medical properties.
Yeah, it could be like, the new kale, you know?
-When I was a kid, I'd never heard of anything like that. -Yeah.
Now kale's in everything.
Smells good. Come smell.
It smells like tea!
Like, a brown tea.
Smells really good to me.
But who knows, until we actually taste this tea
to see exactly where we stand with it.
-[cringes] -[chuckles]
You were just keeping that straight face for me.
I had to wait on that, didn't I?
Oh, my God.
There's plenty of flavor there.
It just ain't good.
No, it's not real damn good, is it?
Like a tree frog with gas?
Maybe. [scoffs]
I think that we get rid of the stem.
If you're gonna eat corn, you're not gonna throw the cob in too.
Some tender stuff in there.
Our next batch, we throw in the leaves, the little tender parts.
Leave all the stems out of it, and let's see what this tastes like.
It's got a whole different smell to it.
Still got a pretty green color.
That gives off that green bean-y kind of taste.
Way milder.
But it's still not tea that you'd wanna drink.
It needs something added to it.
It needs some sweetness, so to speak.
This is our salad.
-It's good... -It's good.
...but we need to enhance it.
Like, a strawberry or just some other...
Talking about fruits and stuff, I've got a guy
-that's got a little farm. -Yeah?
He's got plenty of cantaloupe.
Cantaloupe-Kudzu.
We don't wanna totally mask the flavor of the Kudzu
because I want to be able to taste something different.
All it needs is some sweetness.
Little pop, little sweetness, little alcohol on top of it,
I think we got it.
It's gonna be a little trial and error to add this cantaloupe to this tea.
But where the Kudzu tea is now,
I'm very satisfied.
We're saving money and we're getting rid of all this Kudzu, man.
We're gonna make a good drink out of this.
Let's go get some damn cantaloupe-ys.
Let's do it.
-Or as they say around here, some mushmelons. -Mushmelons.
There you go.
[Josh] Paolo is taking me to meet this guy, Cebola.
He makes a Brazilian moonshine called Cachaca.
I wanna learn how to make this Cachaca.
Nobody back home's making that.
It'll be totally original. I'll be the only guy that has that.
-Here we are, man. -[Josh] Awesome.
[speaking Portuguese]
Hey. Josh.
[Pablo] Everything you need from him, information, whatever,
he's ready to teach.
Tell him I'm a moonshiner in America.
And I'm looking to make coffee mixed with alcohol.
When I came down here, my plan was to mix the coffee with moonshine.
But now that I'm down here, and I'm hearing about this Cachaca.
All I could think about is taking that back to America,
and making it with that.
That'd be totally original.
Cebola's going to show us everything, from the entire process,
from the sugarcane coming here,
until we get drops of Cachaca to taste them,
out of the distiller.
They get a batch of sugarcane every week.
And then, you just start here, smashing it to get the juice out.
Wow.
[speaking Portuguese]
So, just the juice, and all the rest
goes as fuel for the fire.
That's awesome. They're totally recycling.
-Uh-huh. -Yeah.
He's getting his sugar from the cane,
and then he's taking his cane, and burning it in his furnace.
And that's how he's heating up his mash and cooking his still.
It's like, perfect.
The quantity of sugar in the sugarcane is 23 percent.
There's a bunch of sugar. I taste it.
He wants the mash to have 17 percent of sugar.
So, he has to add a little water to lower the level of sugar.
-Really? -Yeah.
Sugarcane has a bit of oil in it.
-And that kills the yeast. -Ah, ha!
So, this steel thing separates the oil,
-so he can take it out and have the proper mash working. -I got it.
-That's crazy. -[Pablo] Different than corn, huh?
It's crazy how he's using something that's got something in it
that's gonna kill his yeast, but he's able to separate it.
-That's... -Separate it. Yeah.
Well, I'm super excited to learn how to do this.
[speaking Portuguese]
He's ready for us to go right to work.
We go right in to taking sugarcane,
feeding it right in.
It rolls it real fine and just smashes it right through it, pretty easy please.
[Pablo] You see how much juice comes out of it?
That's amazing!
Totally separates it.
And the way the pulp looks like, it's dry.
[Josh] Wow!
That's so cool.
All the juice comes off it, falls into a pan.
There's a tap on the bottom, it runs down,
runs into this really crazy looking contraption.
Sugarcane juice rolls over the top of it.
It's got these little slats in it,
and each slat catches different stuff.
So, the final one, that's your product that you wanna use.
And it goes right down and fills the mash barrels up.
Oh, man. It smells good.
-[exclaims] Gah! -[Pablo] It does, doesn't it?
Hell yeah! It smells amazing.
[speaking Portuguese]
It's already fermented.
[Pablo] The juice coming in is fresh,
but there was yeast down here, so you can smell it.
[Josh] Aw, man. That's awesome, dude.
Juice in, the yeast was here,
16 hours it ferments,
and it's ready to cook.
The set up in America, it's like four, five days.
[speaking Portuguese]
Is it because there's no solids in it?
You have more sugar, it takes longer.
-So, 17 percent is perfect for the 16 hour period. -Yeah.
When we first make liquor, and it comes out the still,
-what is the proof that it starts at? -[Pablo] Oh.
He wants it to be like, 60 percent in the beginning.
And he goes down to 15.
When it's ready, he wants it to have 42, 43 percent alcohol.
That's good Cachaca.
-About 90 proof? -Yeah.
[Josh] All right, so, now that we've solved this,
where's your still at?
[man 2] This is how you make a moonshine!
[Jerry] Look at them, they're laying everywhere, ain't they?
Here's some bushel baskets.
Me and Jerry, we're at my buddy's farm.
He's got some cantaloupes for us.
And all we gotta do is go out there and pick these things.
What do you think, Jerry? About 15, 20 of them maybe?
[Jerry] I think that'll get us by.
All we need is that flavor.
-[Mike] That's it. -Oh, my God, that smells good.
The reason we're actually getting these cantaloupes,
I think it will work really well paired up with the Kudzu that we're gonna do.
That Kudzu gives off that green bean-ish kind of taste
and can be a little potent to some people's palate.
Them's purdy.
That's a half a basket full itself.
Adding something sweet like cantaloupes to the mix,
I believe it's gonna make it pleasant on the taste.
You know what the good thing is about this whole process
with the Kudzu and these damn cantaloupes?
There ain't gonna be nobody ever had it before.
That and plus we're getting this for free.
-[Jerry] Oh... -What are we spending today?
-Time? -A little bit of time, and a little bit of effort
to come out here and get it for ourselves.
Straight out of the ground from a farmer, local.
-[Jerry] Yeah. -[Mike] You can't beat it.
You know, all we've had to do is go out there and harvest this stuff for free.
We may have a little pocket change in some yeast and sugar.
But hey, man, this is pretty much a free run.
We're gonna give a good drink to our customers,
put a little money in our pocket and they don't have to spend so much to buy.
Me and Jerry, we got all of our Kudzu packed in buckets,
we got all of our cantaloupes.
Only thing we gotta do is now is get this stuff mashed in
and see what it's gonna taste like off that money pot.
This is damned good cantaloupe, buddy.
Gonna pair good with that Kudzu, ain't it?
[Jerry] I know it is.
But I don't care, I'm getting that bite of it.
Oh, my God.
Well, ain't they-- They ready.
They just ripe.
Tell you what, if we'd waited any longer on these cantaloupes,
we'd have been too late.
These things are absolutely perfect. They're good and juicy.
The sugars are all broke loose and melon's smell's absolutely incredible.
These things are gonna work great in our mash.
I think we're the first people that's kind of stuff together.
[Jerry] Well, that's just moonshining, man.
-There's no rules or anything. -[Mike] Nope. Sure ain't.
Let's go get 'em in, son.
We got all of our cantaloupes processed.
-Old junk don't look like much, does it? -[Jerry] Nope.
But it gives off a damned potent and nice flavor.
Now it's time to start processing that Kudzu.
Cooking it down first to see how we can match it with our cantaloupe.
Hey, we balling, Jerry.
Yeah, we've got all of our Kudzu leaves and tips and flower pods.
We got that boiled down to nothing.
I think we're good to go.
Now we just gotta start doing some blending with the cantaloupe.
While this is cooling, we'll boil the cantaloupes.
[both] Whoo!
-That got a hair or two. -Damn, I reckon I smell it.
-You all right? -[Mike] Oh, yeah.
We just gonna cook it down, kind of kill 'em out
so no bad bacteria can get in our fruit.
And we're gonna start adding some of this tea, man,
try to balance it out and see where it goes.
-Well, it's looking good. -Yeah, it's a little darker, ain't it?
-Hey. -That's good, boy.
It's a kind of cross between a pie and a ice cream.
-Yeah, pie. -I don't know why that tastes like that.
A damn cantaloupe-Kudzu pie.
So, let's get this dumped over in a pot and add some damn sugar.
This Kudzu tea-cantaloupe mixture, it tastes delicious.
If our alcohol tastes anything like this mash,
it's gonna be some good stuff.
[Jerry] Lay her to it.
But the test of time will tell when it comes out that moneypot...
[Jerry] Snap that puppy off.
[Mike] ...if we're gonna have sellable alcohol or not.
[Richard] Where's Dan? Does he know where we are?
This is the funnest part right here.
I just wanna get him this money, man, so we can make things right.
It's $1,200 right here, just to get him started.
We owe Daniel $3,000 for the still.
That's what it's gonna cost him to rebuild it.
So far, we've got $1,200 from selling our loquat- mimosa-watermelon moonshine.
It's not the full amount but we're gonna keep making sales
to get him paid back in full.
I noticed one thing, man.
Most of our customers are out there in Maggie Valley.
You noticed that?
Yeah, I know. That's where it's happening now.
That looks like that's where it's happening.
Craig and I sold the bulk of the liquor that we made out in Maggie Valley.
It's a real hot spot for us.
I think we should move our whole operation over there and follow the money.
-Hey, what you say, Danny? -[Daniel] What's going on, buddy?
What's going on, brother? How you doing?
-How's everything? -I ain't complaining today.
I mean, I sold as much as I could.
Got $1,200 right here for you.
This is a good start right here. I know this ain't the whole thing, Dan.
Price of copper's high right now, but
if you can start off right there,
promise you I'll take care of the rest of it, bro.
[Daniel] Well, that beats nothing.
I meet up with Richard and Craig and all they have is the partial payment on it.
$1,200. Which won't buy but one sheet of copper.
I'm gonna take this money that you guys got me here
and get the barrel part of it ready.
And get it off, soldered up.
And then, when you guys get the rest, I'll finish it up.
[Richard] I'll tell you what, Dan, y'all got a little problem.
That damn mimosa-loquat-watermelon.
-Big name for a little moonshine. -[Daniel] Uh-huh.
But, boy, people love that stuff, man.
I went to Maggie Valley, they got people over there loving it.
They were drinking Mike and Jerry's.
Just that straight mimosa, that perfumed stuff you told me about.
But as soon as they tasted ours,
they said they'd never buy that junk again.
I know you don't like that Maggie Vallye, Valley.
I've got bad blood over at Maggie Valley.
[Richard] Mike and Jerry have their whole operation in Maggie Valley.
Daniel used to be partners with Mike, until they had a real big falling out.
Because of that, I think Daniel wants to keep his distance from Maggie Valley.
I'mma take as much money out of Maggie Valley as I can.
[Josh] There it is, right there.
[Pablo] Look at this.
Oh, man.
Cebola's got one of the best setups and I'm gonna tell you why.
He's using sugarcane.
Once that sugar water hits his mash barrel,
it's already got the yeast in it.
Within an hour, it's already raging.
When it comes to making Cachaca, he's the real deal.
[narrator] Originally planted by Portuguese explorers in the 1530s,
sugarcane flourished as a cash crop,
giving rise to hundreds of refineries open along Brazil's coastline.
When cane processors noticed that the wild yeast would ferment
the leftover juice in the press into alcohol within hours,
Cachaca was born.
The cane-based liquor gained popularity over
grape-based brandies imported from Portugal.
To protect their brandy profits,
the colonial government forced the closure of Cachaca distilleries.
Frustrated distillers rebelled,
going as far as taking up arms in 1660
and storming government buildings in Rio De Janeiro.
The colonial council in Portugal caved to the rebel's demands,
allowing legal Cachaca production to resume on September 13th 1661,
a day that remains a national holiday in Brazil.
Still today, outlaw distillers in Brazil continue the tradition
by producing a tax-free version of the spirit.
In America, we call this a turn-up style still.
We use corn and grains, wheat, rye, oats.
[speaking Portuguese]
You can use bananas, sweet potatoes.
When he started 38-years ago,
took him like, 20 or more days to prepare the yeast.
Now he can do that in six days, his own.
What's he making it out of?
-So, it's sugarcane from the beginning to the end. -Wow.
-It's got its own live yeast in it. -Yeah, that's it.
Ah-ha!
So, Cebola, he's got his own strain of yeast.
He ain't traveling down to the freaking store,
and buying all these packets of yeast,
and having to store all of that crap.
He's growing his own yeast,
which is a ginormous advantage and a big money saver,
'cause yeast is expensive.
How come your liquor is going into this hole instead of going into your bucket?
From this vase here, he's got a pump there,
and he's gonna pump the Cachaca to his bigger tanks,
-where he keeps it to deliver. -Where he stores it.
-That's it. -[Josh] Yeah. Tell him I love his operation.
I'm very impressed.
Cebola's making somewhere in between 150 and 170 gallons of liquor a day.
We're not talking about amount of mash he's distilling.
This is the amount of alcohol the man's producing per day.
This is an illegal operation.
This blows me away.
[Pablo] Josh, I really think this tastes good, man. Try it.
Oh, man. Smells good.
[Pablo translating]
It's good.
Ah! It's good stuff.
Perfecto!
-[Pablo] It's strong, man, isn't it? -Man, that's good [bleep].
When he delivers, most people like the lower quantity of alco.
-I understand. -It sells better when it's a little bit less alcohol.
-Not to mention, it goes a lot further. -Yeah.
When do you deliver next?
[Pablo] Normally, he goes on Fridays. But we're lucky, he's going tomorrow.
-Can we go with? -Yeah!
[speaking Portuguese]
-Yeah, he says yeah. Hell yes. -Heck yes. Yeah.
So, Cebola brought me into his operation,
showed me how everything was done.
Tomorrow, we're gonna be going on a bootlegging run.
Awesome, thank you.
I'm super stoked to see how he does this.
We're gonna be hauling some damn Cachaca.
Hey, you know what I like about this the most? You're an outlaw.
[Richard] All right, Craig, we gotta move right into Maggie Valley.
Just imagine how Mike and Jerry's gonna feel when they find out.
Don't you think they gonna be mad?
Yeah, I'm a little bit nervous about this. I ain't gonna lie to you.
We gotta really stay low-key.
But it's worth it, man. They got too much money out there
for us not to take advantage of it.
We're gonna break down this still.
This the still we gonna take to Maggie Valley with us.
One, two, three.
We gonna take our time, we're gonna make sure that we don't harm this thing
in any manner because we've done that before.
We don't wanna repeat that process.
Just put it up here.
Take that stick out for me.
And look.
We're getting out of here in the nick of time.
Where they got dogs, they got hunters.
Seeing a dog around your still site's not a good thing.
Means people are nearby.
Let's do this quick. Get up out of here.
I don't trust that dog.
I ain't never seen a dog here before.
Where there's dogs, there's humans.
We ain't got time to play.
We gonna load this still up and we're gonna get out of here as soon as possible.
Hey, this is just part of being a moonshiner. This is what you gotta do.
Adapt and conquer.
We're gonna get to Maggie Valley.
We're gonna get in our still site.
We're gonna flood the market in Maggie Valley,
we have the best shine that they've ever seen.
Dog's still around here somewhere, Craig.
I hear one of them barking in the distance back there.
Let's just hurry up and get up out of here.
[Mike] God damn, son, it's been four, five days.
It ought to be ready by now.
Oh, yeah. You can smell it.
See what we got there.
Me and Jerry, we're here to check out our Kudzu and cantaloupe run,
see how this stuff's gonna turn out.
Talking about wanting cantaloupes.
-Bitter? -Alcohol.
Got into it, huh?
Tastes like it's been soaked in a jar of damn 150.
-That's what I like to hear. -[spits] Damn.
Let's get this cap on this thing and get her to rolling, son.
Hell yes!
I've always have high hopes for our stuff, man.
-[Jerry] Got it? -[Mike] Got it.
But we are running on a damn wild ass vine.
Fire in the hole, bro.
We won't know until that son of a gun pours out that money spout
to say that we've done a damn good job or not.
We got steam.
Let this Kudzu-cantaloupe goodness warm up.
-She's how now, bubba. -Now all we can do is wait.
Wonder what it's gonna taste like.
I can promise you one of two things,
it's gonna be really, really good,
or it's gonna be really, really bad.
-There may be an in-between in there. -There could be a third.
It could be an in-between in there.
Well, let's just hope it ain't really bad.
If it's in-between, we can still probably sell it.
Yeah, I know the damn cantaloupe part of it will be good.
I mean, my God, you got the flavor, you got the sugars.
[Jerry] I'm just nervous. I hope that cantaloupe don't cook out.
If it cooks out, it becomes overbearing bitter, you know?
The Kudzu, yeah.
When the little spout starts spitting out over there, we'll know.
We'll know it then, won't we, bubba?
-[Jerry] We rolling, everybody. -[Mike] We got liquor?
-[Jerry] Yep. -Let's put the worm in it.
[Jerry whistles] My God.
Smells damn cantaloup-y, don't it?
If it tastes anything like it smells,
I'd be a satisfied man.
[Jerry] I'mma pitch these heads out.
Looks like it's gonna try to rain on us.
[Jerry] Reckon one of these camouflage nets back over that just to help?
I'd fix to say it probably wouldn't hurt nothing,
We don't even know how this run's gonna turn out yet.
And I'll be damned if it's gonna try to start raining on us
we may not even make it through it.
I'm scared it's gonna condense back in the pot and it won't run.
So, we covered the pot and arm up a little bit,
hoping we can get through this run.
Here, swap that jar. Let me have that.
There you go.
Here's the test of all damn time now.
It's time to taste it and see what we think.
-Is it good? -Yes, indeed!
This alcohol was tasting damn good.
The cantaloupe's coming through.
Just a faint taste of the Kudzu is coming through.
I really like it.
That got a really good note of the cantaloupe in there.
[Mike] We've come up with something special, something different.
This liquor will be sold in an instant.
There we go.
Don't get it wet.
We've got five gallons sitting here now.
We probably got five more gallons to complete it
and get it out of here and go to selling it to our customers.
Trade one more out, bro. We're almost there.
[Richard] Man, we in Maggie Valley, boy.
The money is right here.
My boy told me about a spot.
So, you gotta get up in there and do a little bit of walking but it's protected.
We're gonna get on our still site,
we gonna clean it up, we gonna plumb it.
We gonna start making some shine as soon as we can.
They gonna know that the Landry brothers are here.
Let's do what we gotta do here.
It's a nice little spot.
Nice and flat. Got a great water supply.
Look, that water down there is above our heads. You see that?
We'd be able to shoot a hose straight across here.
We'll set up the mash barrels over there.
We got plenty of cover.
Think it's good.
Man, we in Maggie Valley.
Man, this is a goddamn hike.
Come on, man. We ain't got that much further.
We gonna be walking up hills all day long.
I'm from Louisiana. If I'm walking up a hill,
it's because I gotta walk up a overpass.
Come on, Craig. Put that thing down.
It doesn't matter what hill I gotta climb,
I'mma take care of what we gotta take care of over here.
That whooped my ass, I ain't gonna lie.
I'm gonna run this over there in the falls.
We're reducing that down from four inches to three quarters.
By the time it come out the end of this... [sighs]
it'll be able to wash that car.
I didn't come all the way to Maggie Valley to let a few feet of water
[bleep] with me. [grunts]
That's more than we need for the still.
So, we good.
Let's go set up the still.
We gonna cover it up.
Better being safe than sorry.
I just don't want anybody walking up and seeing copper out here
and thinking, "Hey, we can get that."
I know Murphy and his law.
-You know what Murphy's Law is? -Yeah.
-If something can be stolen, it will be stolen. -That's pretty much it.
We're a long way from home, but my mom always told me one thing,
"home is where your heart is".
My heart is right there at that site.
This is ideal for us.
It would take an act of God, or an act of a 12 gauge to get me out of here.
I'm hungry. Let's go get some lunch.
[Jerry] I'm getting hungry.
-Yeah, I don't like to eat that late. -Yeah.
-For real, man. -Get us a bite to eat, get back to them woods.
[Jerry] Tell you what, it's a pretty day for it.
[Mike humming]
-[Jerry] Looks familiar. -[Mike] Where?
Look there. Look at it. That's Richard Landry right there.
-Is that Richard? -He's got some guy with him.
[Mike] The hell? It is Richard.
Richard and his brother.
-[Jerry] I'll be damned. -[Mike] Let's turn this sumbitch around
and go over and talk to them, see what they doing.
He told us he's gonna be around but I didn't really figure he'd be like,
right here, in town.
What they doing? Down there sitting, eating or something, talking.
Having lunch, it looks like.
But we about to by gum find out.
[Mike] Richard and Craig!
[Richard] What's going on, gentlemen?
[Jerry] What's happening, fellas?
[Richard] Just looking at the sights. Ain't nothing to do.
Y'all been living here so long,
y'all forgot about how beautiful this is.
[Mike] Y'all ain't running no liquor over here?
Nah, I ain't ran no liquor in Maggie Valley at all, man.
How about selling liquor? Have you sold any liquor in Maggie Valley?
I mean, I've met a couple of people but...
Nothing to brag about, you know?
Look, guys. Just laying all jokes aside,
glad y'all here enjoying the scenery.
It's very nice. Room for everybody.
You know, just don't come in here running liquor on our territory.
and we'll leave y'all alone.
What's so wrong about setting up running around here?
Nothing wrong with you setting up. You gonna make it, but you can't keep it.
-You don't have to sell it, you know? -Oh, we gotta sell it.
That's when we're gonna have a problem.
Definitely don't be selling to nobody that we know.
Y'all enjoy your lunch, man.
-All right, homie. -It's good to see both of you.
Stay off of our customers.
Well, tell you what. If you give me a big customer list,
so I can make sure that I don't infiltrate your customers,
I'd be more than happy to stay away from them.
Y'all enjoy your lunch, man.
-We'll see ya. -[Jerry] Enjoy your lunch.
[Richard] Thanks, guys!
He had the audacity to ask me to give him a list of my customer base.
That way he knows who not to sell to.
Who in the hell does that guy think he's talking to, man?
[Jerry] I don't believe their story one damn bit.
I'll be honest with you.
I'll tell you what, I'm just not buying it.
I don't believe these guys for a second.
I think they're here to run liquor and take our customers from us.
[Mike] I think we should turn around and park up and sit and wait on 'em.
[Jerry] What you got in mind?
We just gonna follow 'em.
You never know. These guys are rookies.
They may bring us straight to their still site if they already have one.
There they are, right there.
They don't even know we here.
-[Mike] It's a military store. -[Jerry] Hell yeah.
Our main goal this season is stay hidden and stay out of everybody's way.
There you go. That's for you, right there.
[laughs]
Come and get us!
We walk in this place, they've got anything you can think about.
We're gonna run some real damn liquor out here
-on Gilligan's Island, son. -That's what it looks like.
[Mike] We're finding all kinds of good stuff in here, man.
Get off in them bushes.
-Where'd you go? -[Mike] Where am I at?
This stuff has gotta make a difference in here.
Anything that we can go a little overboard with,
staying out of the other man's eye,
that's gonna be our best goal for this season.
-All right, Jerry, you ready to go? -Okay, let's get out of here.
-We got stuff to do. We got work to do. -What do you call me?
-Damn sure ain't "captain". -It's Captain, buddy.
Hey, wait, wait. Can we afford this?
I don't know. It's just sitting on the damn curb.
-Here, let's turn the air conditioning on. -Yeah.
[both laugh]
They're just about wrapped up eating.
Me and Jerry walking away from the conversation with Richard and Craig,
I say, "You know what? Screw this."
We're going to see where they go to.
Craig, he was reaching and rubbing his head.
"Oh, hell. What the hell is going on?"
-[Jerry] Little nervous. Little nervous there, son. -[Mike] Yeah.
They damn sure better be nervous, I can tell you that much.
Well, we don't wanna jump the gun too soon.
But I think we've been in the game long damn enough to know what they're up to.
I know, yeah.
But we're going to give anybody the benefit of the doubt first.
But I think we said enough for them to get the message.
If they don't...
-Oh, look they're rolling out. -They moved deal with him. Yep.
Let's see here.
Where are you going, Richard Landry?
Let's see if we can't find out.
So, we're just following in behind to see where the hell they're going,
see if they lead us to somewhere that we need to see where they're at.
Looks like he's headed to our damn neck of the woods, don't it?
[Jerry] He's getting pretty close in.
We done tell them, we got this area covered.
-Oh, before. -If they wanna make liquor somewhere around here, fine.
But don't be selling to our customers.
Well, when I said that, that means,
everybody, just about, in this town's our customers.
We gotta do every damn thing we can because that, right there,
-it's competition. -I know.
-God damn... -Dadgumit, man.
They done jumped this light.
[Mike sighs] [bleep]
-They didn't stop, man. Damn! -[Jerry] I know that.
They get around the curve up here,
we've lost 'em.
Oh, my God. Where did they go?
-Where did they go? -Did we lose his ass?
Goddamn clear.
We blink, he's gone.
I stopped at the red light and poof,
they was gone like a powder puff.
I don't know where the hell they've went off to.
But I'm sure we'll run back into them again.
There's only so many places you could be in Maggie Valley.
We will catch up with them later, I promise you.
I'm sure we'll have to.
Ah, they're gone now. Let's just go to the shop.
See if we can get started over there.
Damn it!
Yesterday, Cebola brought me into his operation,
showed me how everything was done.
Today, we're gonna be going on a bootlegging run.
This is one of the raddest experiences of my entire life coming down here.
I'm gonna be bootlegging in Brazil.
[Pablo] I'm gonna clap as we do here in Minas Gerais
and he'll be out in a minute.
Hey, Cebola.
[speaking Portuguese]
[Pablo] He's saying that he's feeling ill
and was cautious to wear a mask and stuff.
[speaking Portuguese]
[Pablo] He's saying that he cannot deliver.
And he's got a map and the names of the customers.
He's saying that we take his truck and
the booze is inside the truck already.
[Josh] Cebola got sick.
He's not able to go do his bootlegging run.
He's asked us to do it and I really don't know if that's a good idea.
So, he's wanting us to deliver it?
Yeah, he's asking for our help.
I do feel like I owe Cebola,
cause he took us in, showed us his entire operation,
let us have the run of the mill of the place.
But I'm in a whole lot trouble back in America.
The last thing I wanna do is getting some trouble down here in Brazil
and land up in one of the jails 'cause
there's no telling what they'd do to a gringo down here.
What do you say? Let's do it?
[Josh] I really don't know what I'm gonna do.