Making moonshine is illegal. You can get seriously hurt
or you can go to the penitentiary.
Do not do this at home.
Hey, Big Haley, thank you, sweetie.
[laughs]
[narrator] This time on Moonshiners...
We're on a mission right now to resurrect Big Haley's apple brandy recipe.
People are still talking about her apple brandy 125 years later.
Oh, you're slacking. Look at these big pieces in here.
Stick your finger right down there.
[Amanda] I'd rather not.
Got that fever for that Genever.
I hear you.
Howard and I, we created a special recipe for our Genever mash.
Now, it's time to build a unique still to run it.
[Howard] Tim, we have a major malfunction right here.
I mean, you should have saw this getting hot already.
-Look, it's already hot. -I did.
We may have to shut this still down,
'cause right now, we're dead in the water.
[man] This is how we make the moonshine.
[Joe] The cavalry has arrived.
[Jeff] Gentlemen.
He's teaching me that fine art of getting my hands dirty out here.
[Mark] I bet they're sticky, too, ain't they?
-It's more than sticky. Oh! -Oh, let go. Let go.
[laughs]
[narrator] In Cocke County, Tennessee,
Mark and Digger begin their path to domination
of the Tennessee illegal liquor trade
by hiring expert distiller, Joe Jackson,
and new recruit, Jeff,
to produce a prize-winning pear brandy.
[Digger] Joe and Jeff ain't been sitting around
on their hind ends.
They've been working, they've been working strong.
The still site's cleaned up, stills are set up,
and they're already shucking corn.
[Joe] I see you guys have brought us, uh, some of your fine sundries out here.
[Mark] Well, we didn't find nothing to make a sundae with,
but we got some bosc pears.
[Jeff] Oh, man.
[Mark] Well, that's what you told us to get.
Just like I asked.
We looked at Dewalts, but we got, uh, we got these.
-[laughs] -[Jeff] High sugar.
[Mark] You know, I don't know why they call 'em pears,
they should be called singles, shouldn't they?
-[Joe laughs] -[Digger] Exactly.
[Joe] So, what our plan here is, we have to grind everything up.
The corn with the cobs and these pears.
What that's gonna allow us to do is to access
all of those fermentable sugars
inside of these ingredients
so that we get the maximum yield out of that mash.
So, I'm hoping we're gonna get a lot of liquor out of this.
Give it a good chuck.
-There you go. -That's how she makes butter.
[Mark] That'd be good just to put in pie crust.
[Joe] And some hot water, baby.
[Jeff] The way my grandmother used to churn butter.
-[Joe] I got the hot water here. -[Mark] Well, add to it.
Ooh, ooh. Spicey.
-Well, I got you. You a strong man. -[laughs]
What aroma.
-Get a sniff of that. -[Jeff] Oh, my.
-[Joe] Man. -[Digger] Oh!
Just like Christmas in the Smokies, ain't it?
Hatty boy, I believe we've put another arrow in the quiver
-at this point. -I'll tell you something,
I believe I just cheated on Big South.
[Joe] That means I get a bigger cut, right?
-No, that cut remains the same. -[Joe laughs]
-No, I mean, we get a bigger cut. -And, here, let me--
Let me go ahead and lay this out here for you.
There are no company costs, and you pay your own taxes.
[Mark] If I was a yeast,
God, this is where I'd wanna be.
[Digger] We've stuck around,
we saw this first barrel of mash get built.
I think it's gonna be just fine.
All it needs now is to kick off and get to workin'.
So, me and Mark are gonna head out,
and it's up to these boys here to build the rest of this mash.
[Mark] Well, guys, you got five more barrels--
You listen to Joe, he'll get you tuned in right, brother.
-[Mark] See you. -[Jeff] I'm not going anywhere
-until this is done. -See y'all later.
[Digger] Yes, sir. If you need anything, holler.
What I really wanna just try to find out is what kind of apples she used.
Without the apples, we don't have her apple brandy.
[narrator] Thirty miles north of Cocke County, Tennessee,
at Mark and Digger's behest,
Amanda and Kelly are hunting down ingredients
for a century-old apple brandy recipe
with mass appeal.
We wanna set the world on fire with the next new apple brandy,
and we want something different,
something that sets it apart from the crowd.
[narrator] But to make it, they must track down an elusive apple
used by a notorious East Tennessee
known as Big Haley.
Is this the cabin right up here, Amanda?
That looks like the pictures I've seen.
We're on a mission right now to resurrect
Big Haley's apple brandy recipe.
People are still talking about her apple brandy 125 years later.
She suffered from elephantiasis
and throughout her life, continued to gain a lot of weight,
between 400 to 600 pounds.
So she was kind of stuck in her cabin on the ridge.
Her cabin is still existing today.
It's been preserved by Historical Society,
and I was able to get into contact with one of the members.
So, why did you come all this way?
We are "distillers" and we were really interested
in finding out anything we can about how she was as a person, a moonshiner,
and especially, how she made her apple brandy.
Well, I wished I could tell you I had tasted some,
but I'm not quite that old.
Let's go on in here and let me show you.
This is Haley.
She moonshined inside.
[Amanda] This is where her still was,
-and this is where she would make liquor? -[woman] Right.
[Kelly] You know, Big Haley, she was a very impressive lady.
She really had it going on
in a world that was dominated then by frontiersmen.
She was a frontier woman.
[Amanda] Do you know the types of apples that she could've been using
at the time?
I do know that her husband, John Mullins, went around
to different farms and gave apple seedlings
to different farmers to start their own apple trees there
so that she would have a plentiful supply.
It was kinda greenish and reddish with black spots all over it.
-So... -[Amanda] Okay.
...it was an ugly apple,
-but it was a delicious apple. [laughs] -[Kelly laughs]
[Amanda] Ugly but delicious.
This is the most important part of this brandy recipe.
So we just have to do everything we can to find these apples.
[Howard] All right, Tim, we have this one that we ran, man.
This was a triple distillation system.
-I know, this is like the column type. -Yeah.
Pick that end up over there and let's see here.
[narrator] In Culpeper County, Virginia,
Tim and Howard are building a custom still pot
as they look to break into the market for a 500-year-old
triple distilled Dutch spirit called Genever,
once enjoyed by America's eighth president
and renowned boozer, Martin Van Buren.
We're gonna have to triple distill this,
we'll have to run this back three times.
Back in the day, they had nothin' else to do.
-It took three days to do it. -Yeah, but we got a lot to do.
Grass doesn't grow under your feet.
-No. -I think there's a way we can speed this process up.
So, let's go up there and get another still.
Howard and I, we created a special recipe for our Genever mash.
Now, it's time to build a unique still to run it.
[exhales]
Well, think about this, Howard.
Instead of distilling to the condenser,
the still to the next still.
Just keep going from still to still to still.
-You know? -Has that ever been done before?
I don't know.
Get that burner, put it over here. We gotta line it up.
We've got opportunity here to do something different.
We started off with just two stills,
we got two condensers.
How can we retrofit this thing and do three distillations
with two stills?
[narrator] The traditional process for making Genever
requires three separate distillations.
To speed up the process,
Tim will turn the three distillations into two.
The first distillation will happen on two linked pots
with botanicals added to the second pot.
Then he'll take the distillate from that run
and put it back into the first pot,
adding more botanicals if necessary
for the second and final run.
[Howard] So I understand here now, this is kind of,
-I'm seeing the picture in my head now. -[Tim] Mm-hmm.
But... And then, on the third distillation,
we've gotta introduce the juniper berries.
I'm thinking about putting the juniper in here
because this will be the second complete distillation.
I know what you're saying, but one thing we did learn about this process
that was stressed was that juniper berries were introduced
on the third distillation, the last.
If we do a little bit here, you know...
-Yeah. -[Tim] ...it may be 120 proof,
with a little bit of the juniper in it,
and then we can kinda take a taste test.
I'll tell you what, Tim,
I will put them Dutch clogs on
when we start running this still and it actually runs.
If it runs, I will dance the jig,
in those wooden shoes for you.
-I will sit out there and I will do... -[Tim] Do your thing?
-...the wood stomp for you, baby. -Okay. Okay.
Working with Howard is always fun.
I mean, he's always got something rhyming all the time.
I don't care what it is.
It's rhyming and timing.
You know, he's got, he's got something that's gonna keep,
keep you going. He gets you motivated.
Plus, he listens to me.
Tim, I mean, for real, come here.
Let me hold this. Stand back.
Look, just take a moment
to look at all your glorious splendor.
This is a bad S-O-B, Jack!
-Okay. -[grunts] We moving on up.
-[Tim laughs] Got you. -To the top!
-Hmm! -Okay, I can, I can do that.
Oh, do you see, yeah? [grunts]
[Tim laughs]
Let's go get the rest of this stuff.
-What kind of trees is this in the backyard right here? -[Amanda] Ah...
[Kelly] Is that apple trees?
[Amanda] The branches are hanging like it was.
Let's pull in.
It feels like a wild goose chase at this point,
pulling up on private property.
I mean, it's probably not the best idea
for sourcing ingredients down here in Tennessee.
It makes me a little nervous,
but it's the only option we have.
I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to find these apples.
Hello. Hey, how you doing?
-Don't shoot us. -[Kelly chuckles]
Don't shoot. We're... We're friendlies. [chuckles]
[Wayne] What are you looking for? Can I help you?
[Kelly] We're actually checking out apples
and need some advice from you, sir.
[Wayne] Well, I'll try to do best I can.
-[Kelly] We don't mean to be intrusive... -Yeah.
...but you've got apples,
so you're bound to have knowledge of apples in this area.
-Some. -[Kelly laughs]
Well, Mandy, you wanna tell him what we're looking for?
Yeah. So, they're yellow and red
-with little black spots. -Mostly red.
You wouldn't know the name of 'em or nothing?
-Nothing specific, really. -[Amanda] Yeah. Just the description.
Well, I'll show you, I'll show you what I've got.
I don't have that much anymore.
Well, that'll be great, if you don't mind. We'd be--
We'd appreciate it.
You can straddle through the electric fence if you want to.
-[Amanda chuckles] -I don't know if I wanna straddle through
an electric fence. [chuckles]
[Wayne] Now, these here are Fujis.
[Kelly] You know, his apples are just gorgeous and well taken care of.
Almost hate to ask him if he's got any real ugly apples.
Wayne, your apples are beautiful, but...
as beautiful as they are, they are just the opposite of what we're looking for.
The thing about it is you're trying to raise
-the biggest produced apples you can still. -[Amanda] Right. Yeah.
And anything that's old... a little old knotty something,
-you just get rid of. -[both] Yeah.
The only one that I ever known that had 'em lived a few hills over here,
but he's dead and gone now.
Well, that's helpful, that we're getting the right direction then.
Go right here and turn left and go back out that road.
I don't remember exactly where it's at,
but I know it's back out that way.
Well, if we get out that way, we could probably find somebody...
-[Wayne] You can find. Yeah. -...that can put us on to it.
This is definitely the best lead that we've gotten.
We've learned a lot here,
but unfortunately, we're gonna have to keep looking.
[Kelly] I see some dogwood trees.
Right here, there might be some apple trees.
No, that's dang maples and stuff.
[Amanda] We're basically on a hunt now in the whole area
for small ugly apples with little black spots that taste really good.
I'm really hoping that some of these apple trees are still standing.
We need the specific apples that Big Haley would have used in her lifetime
to recreate her apple brandy recipe properly.
[Kelly] I'm sort of of the notion if you want walnuts we can find them.
How about we make some walnut brandy? [chuckles]
[Amanda] We're trying to make historical apple brandy right now.
-[Kelly laughs] -[Amanda] Focus on that, Kelly.
[Kelly] I think I see what we're looking for.
[Amanda] Yeah, slow down. I wanna check this out.
-Are those fruit trees? -[Kelly] I think so.
[Amanda] So, we finally spotted an old, abandoned apple orchard
and there's all different types of trees.
So, fingers crossed that there's some
of Big Haley's apples still out there.
[Kelly] Well, it's overgrown.
[Amanda] Those are some apples right there.
Remember, they're not supposed to be pretty.
I'm pretty excited because we found a bunch of apples growing
and literally, it's right below the ridge,
couple miles from Big Haley's cabin.
[Kelly] My gosh, there's all kinds of 'em on the ground.
[Amanda] I can feel I am stepping on 'em.
[Kelly] I mean, there is just hundreds on the ground.
[Amanda] This could be the exact apples that we're looking for.
[Kelly] That's a ugly apple I've ever seen.
-[laughs] -[Amanda] Yeah, um...
I think it's perfectly ugly.
-[Kelly laughs] -Right?
I mean, it's even got the black spots
-that she described... -[Kelly] Yeah.
[Amanda] ...and the yellow.
[Kelly] It's a pitiful apple, I'll say that for it.
[Amanda] These apples are spot on.
They're exactly how Joanna described them to us.
All that's left now is how they taste.
[Kelly] Damn.
[Amanda] Really freakin' good.
That might be the best tasting apple I've ever had a bite of.
I didn't expect that to be so good.
It looks like a crabapple, but it tastes like a baking apple.
It's got a lot of sugar in here, it's so sweet.
Big Haley apples?
[Amanda] I think these are. I really do.
[Kelly] We may have found the last of Big Haley's apple trees
that exist, so this is a good find today.
Trying to look and see if they look mushy or whatever, but--
[Amanda] Even if they're like a little bit, that's okay,
as long as we mash these right in.
[Kelly] We're gonna get all of the bushel baskets
that we can filled up with apples
and we're gonna be rock and rolling.
[Amanda] Yeah, they are weird little small apples.
[Kelly] I think that we need to save us a few of these apples
and plant our own strain of 'em
if this turns out to be real good brandy.
They're loaded, ain't they, girl?
[Amanda] Yeah, they are. But you know what?
-They were free. -[Amanda and Kelly chuckle]
[Kelly] A week ago, we would've had to climb the trees to pick 'em.
We have searched far and wide for these apples
and we finally found them.
So, I'm really excited to bring these to Mark and Digger
and get their take on them.
I mean, how cool is that you can literally look up the ridge...
and basically see right where her cabin was?
Big Haley, please give us your blessing
to make some delicious apple brandy.
-[Jeff] Ready to go. -[Joe] All right, Mr. Jeff.
-Hit that electricity. -Here we go.
Once we get this mash in the still and get that fire lit,
there ain't no coming back.
-I'm ready. -[Joe laughs]
That is some good-looking mash going in there.
-Are you ready? -[Jeff] I am ready.
Whoo!
We gotta build a furnace around this puppy
so we don't start losing heat.
[Jeff] Let me ask you something, Joe.
Why are you out here takin' a risk
on something illegal?
I wanna use this to set up my own distillery.
-I don't have all of the money... -[Jeff] Mm-hmm.
...and all of the, you know, permits to make this happen right now.
This is my stepping stone, man.
[Jeff] Both of us is going through two walks of life,
but we're going for the same outcome.
[Joe] That's it, man.
-I mean, common goals, right? -[Jeff] Yep.
Everybody in my family's always worked
up to the day they died. I don't want that for myself.
I wanna up my income. Have that money set aside,
where I can retire and enjoy a little bit of life.
-You see how it's sticking? -[Jeff] Mm-hmm.
[Joe] And it's gonna form a natural barrier
so that those vapors can't escape.
And what these will do...
is protect our joint...
from having a leak like that.
[Jeff] Yeah, I can feel that pressure coming through.
-[Joe] Yeah, you feel that pressure coming out? -[Jeff] Yeah.
Whoo! It is getting hot.
-We're hot all the way. Oh! -[Jeff] Oh, we got liquor.
-We got liquor, we got liquor. -[laughing]
-We did, brother. We did it. -We got liquor.
-When can we start the drinking process? -[Joe] Man. [laughs]
[Jeff] I've, uh, avoided making liquor for the last 40 to 50 years.
But I'll tell you what, I've been bitten by the bug.
It's hard work, but it's fun to do,
and I hope that, uh, when we get this finished product,
it'll all be worth it.
You get the first taste, brother.
Give it a sip. Just a little, just a sip.
[exhales]
If that don't make you see Bigfoot, nothing's real.
-[Joe laughs] -Whoo!
-That is good. -[Joe] All right!
[Jeff] Oh, that's good.
Oh! Jeffy Jeff.
It is lights out.
This pear and sweet corn has come together so well,
I can't wait to just give that money jar to Mark and Digger
and see their faces.
You have graduated the Hot and Angry School of Liquor-ology
and we are ready to run, baby.
[Mark] What's up, guys?
[Jeff] Mark and Digger really know how to play the game.
They've got top notch standards for what they sell,
their customers expect the best.
And I hope this will measure up.
I expect something to come out of that pack right there
that's really good.
This is the fruits of our labor, gentlemen.
Hmm.
I hope you're satisfied.
Whoo!
-I'm telling you, puss... -Uh-huh.
...it's either really good or they didn't make lot of it.
Yeah, I was gonna say that's a little disheartening
that there's a little bit missing out of that jar. Uh...
I hope it went to tasting. I hope y'all know how to fill a jar up.
It's good liquor, guys.
-It's got enough nose on it. -It does.
Well, it couldn't help but be sweet.
-I mean, the sweetness from the pears. -[Digger] That's awful good.
Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you so much.
-See? -Come on, Joe.
That means a lot to us right there.
Good job, Jeff. I'm proud of your damn learning experience.
Thank you. I was really scared.
You know, if we keep production up to where it's at right now
and the standards stay high,
I mean, we're gonna have a hell of a nest egg before we know it.
As long as nothing gets in the way,
like rival moonshiners, and the even bigger thing, the law.
Good job, Joe.
[Digger] Let's see if it'll come on.
[whirring]
-Oh, yeah. -Stick your finger down in there.
At the mercy of the corn that's been run through it. There's still--
I'll tell you what let's do.
Let's actually put something through it,
just to see if it's still good and sharp, that's supposed to have been put through it.
Let's put a limb in it.
Kelly and Amanda, they've been out on the research trail
and, uh, they've also got a truck load of apples
they're coming in here with.
So, we tell them to come on, bring them apples
and we'll get 'em fixed up. Clean up the old apple shredder.
"Hillbilly food processor" as we call it.
-Looks like a salad. -Have to be careful with this.
That damn...
You ain't got no play handy stick up no more.
-I'll tie you a rope to it. -Look at all that pretty yellow in that leaves.
It's trimmed off or you circumscribed that.
That wasn't the best move we've made, is it?
Well, just for the record, I wasn't involved in it. [chuckles]
I'm just watching.
-All right. -[horns honking]
[Mark] I heard that, all right.
-[Amanda] Oh, they got a chipper for us. -[Kelly] Hotdog.
[Amanda] So, I'm super excited to show Mark and Digger
these apples that we found.
I'm really proud that we found the right apples.
They are hideous apples though.
Hillbilly food processor, one each.
Just want we needed. How'd you know?
-I know. -[Kelly] And you haven't made a mess with it.
-We were just seeing if it works. -We were just testing
'cause we know how you'll be if it don't work.
We ain't never run no damn brush through it.
-We were just gonna see if it grinds some brush. -All we've ever done
-is fruit and vegetables. -Show me it'll grind these apple bits?
-Oh, it'll eat them apples up. -There you go, Amanda.
-[Amanda] Just what I always wanted. Aw. -Well, you can have it.
-You've got apples? -We got apples.
You wanna see 'em?
-You do? -Of course you wanna see 'em.
Yeah, I've never seen an apple before.
I thought you might not have.
These apples were hard to find.
Yeah, this has been an ordeal.
It looks like it's hard to find.
[Mark] Yeah, they're so little they was hiding under clover leaves.
[Amanda] Don't judge our apples.
'Cause these are so good, you're gonna want to lay down to eat 'em.
[Mark exclaims]
[Amanda] We actually went to Big Haley's cabin
to get any information that we could.
So apparently her husband would go around
and he planted seedlings all over the area.
-They're delicious, actually. -They smell really, really good.
They got a whole lot of sugar content they taste like.
And then you've got a little tart on the end.
Yeah, ain't nothing wrong these. They're delicious.
These old rough looking apples, they do have great flavor.
They've got plenty of sugar.
And these right here, that's already rotten a little bit.
You'd be surprised how much flavor they bring to the party.
Yeah? That's why I wasn't afraid of those ones.
-'Cause they're starting to ferment already for us. -[Digger] Yeah.
The rot a little bit around the core,
that'll mash up, that'll make them excellent.
'Cause they're already about broke down.
[Digger] If it's so good, why'd you spit that bite out?
[Mark] Well, I was just making a point.
I was showing it how exactly, you crazy bastard.
He's trying to quit eating all of our apples.
[Digger] Put that back in there and they'll mash it.
[Amanda] There's definitely wild yeast living on these apples.
Because it's breaking down the apple and consuming it.
It's converting the fructose sugar in the apples.
And, that's exactly what we want to happen for fermentation.
It actually got sticky [bleep] all over.
[Amanda] Yeah, guys. We think actually we should
use the wild yeast on the apples to mash that in then.
I've been doing my research.
And we're going to try to harvest the wild yeast off of these apples,
because like most moonshiners back in the day,
Big Haley really only had apples and water and natural yeast.
Ain't no sugar, right?
I don't think she would've had sugar back then.
[Mark] Sugar been too hard to come by at that time.
[Amanda] True 100% apple brandy.
All that's left to do is take our apples into the woods,
and mash these in, exactly how Big Haley would have.
Good luck. Get busy.
[Digger] Get with it.
[Tim] We've got to build a condenser here.
So it's going to run, condense, and drop into here.
Distilling band. Going from vapor to liquid.
This is the last piece we've got today.
We gotta put this condenser pipe around the arm.
If we can put enough cold water through that,
it'll condense this vapor to a liquid,
before it gets to the second distillation.
See, I just made a worm.
-Yeah, a little mini keg worm. -Right.
All right. So now, we're going to put this onto this.
All right. So if I was you, I would just go, what? Like--
You're going to get it like that?
Is that what you're going to?
Somewhere along, we're gonna start shrinking it, buddy.
Well, we've got to get it on that first.
This is a 500-year recipe.
Just me and Howard, recreating Genever after so many years.
You know, real exciting.
You know, me and Howard putting our own twist on it.
Hold it, Howard.
-This way. -[exclaims in pain]
And you know, my recipe of Genever,
it honors the original recipe.
But it's something for the future.
So, I think we good on this.
-We gotta move all this stuff outside. -Why?
So, we have to get a water hose here.
Water hose here. That way our water is going away, you know.
If we're to insulate this, to make sure we keep the water
as cold as possible.
Yeah, we've gotta insulate this to keep this cold right here.
Alcohol vapor, it vapors at 175 degrees.
And for that to turn back to a liquid,
normally you need about 100 degree differential there.
So when it comes out, you want to hit the condenser.
You want it to drop down to like 75 degrees.
And if we can't cool it down enough, we may have vapor.
We got vapor, we got a problem.
It's good that we're out here finally putting this thing together, man. I'm excited.
I just gotta be careful
I don't destroy nothing.
[Tim] Yeah, don't break nothing.
This right here...
What you doubted, I believe I have faith in.
I don't know if doubted or not.
I was just saying, I never did it before.
When the first people in the Dutch colonies made Genever,
they ain't never done it before.
And then they came out with a very successful product.
[Tim] Seeing this coming together, it's amazing.
Genever is one thing,
but to build a still so complicated
and run in two directions to make three distillations in one set up.
I mean, this is incredible.
Oh, I got you something.
[laughs]
I told you, if we successfully run moonshine,
I will dance in them clogs.
[laughs]
[Amanda] Well, Kelly,
we got all our apples here in one piece.
[Kelly] It looks more like persimmons to me.
-But... -Stop judging our apples, okay?
They're delicious.
The process here to make this apple brandy
is probably one of the simplest that we've ever done.
We're literally just using water and apples
to make an apple brandy.
Kelly, have you ever used wild yeast before to make a mash?
[Kelly] No.
-Never? -Nope.
I used some kind of bread yeast,
'cause it's readily available and easy.
Back in the day, they wouldn't have had access to anything.
They would've just had apples, wild yeast, and water.
So we're going to do everything exactly how Haley would have done it.
And see how it turns out.
Yeah, I just wanna heat up a little bit of water.
Get this like, lukewarm. 90 degrees or so.
-Like body temperature -Body temperature?
Yeah, I mean, this is... Try to like,
wake that yeast up a little bit that's on the apples.
Wild yeast live naturally in the environment.
In the air, and it's kind of, all over the place.
So the idea is to make sort of a wild yeast starter,
by crushing up some of the really soft apples.
These really soft apples probably have more yeast present on them,
because the yeast is consuming those apples.
And regenerating more yeast bodies.
[Kelly] I'm not touching. I'm gonna let you be in charge.
-That way if something goes wrong-- -Kelly, you're slacking.
Look at these big pieces in here.
[Kelly] Speed up, slow down, mash it harder.
[Amanda] This is a really long process to make apple brandy.
Haley had about 14 kids or so.
So, I'm sure she put them to work when she was crushing up all these apples.
-[Kelly] Is there a reason that we have to shred 'em? -I mean...
Them being shredded, helps us get all those sugars out of 'em.
'Cause we're not really cooking the apples.
Giving a cool mash-in, will definitely benefit our flavor.
In cooking the apples, you let off a lot of the aroma and the flavor
that the apples have in them.
-Ready? -Yep.
Oh, golly, look at it. [chuckles]
it fuzzed it right up, didn't it?
[Amanda] it's hard to see, but if you look really close,
-there's some bubbles forming and popping. -Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.
[Amanda] That is fricking awesome.
Pretty soon, we're gonna be back here,
running Big Haley's apple brandy.
Good luck, little yeast babies.
-Do your thing. -[laughs]
[Amanda] Today's the big day, Kelly.
[Kelly] Big Amanda's apple brandy mash, aka Big Haley.
Let's check it out.
I'm just... Yeah.
-It sounds like the cap might be gone. -Yes, sir.
-Whoo. -Yeah.
Burns your eyes a little bit.
Well, that means there's enough alcohol in it,
to where we oughta get get us a pint or two anyway.
Sour.
[Kelly] It tastes like a bad wine. Whoo.
[Amanda] That's 'cause it is right now.
Till we make it a good brandy.
-Go to it. -Let's do it.
Big Haley's apple brandy was known far and wide
for its amazing flavor and how smooth it was.
[Kelly] Are you ready, Amanda?
-[Amanda] Ready. -It's coming at you hot.
[Amanda] It's a legendary recipe.
So I'm really hoping by the end of this day
we can put some of that in a jar
and actually get to taste for ourselves, what it may have been like.
Perfect amount.
Let's light to burn her up, and get this thing going.
[Kelly] This is one of them things, you know, that Mark and Digger are expecting.
And I guarantee you that they know we're running today.
So there's somewhere waiting to hear from us.
Pressure is on, Kelly. Thanks for the reminder.
[Kelly] Amanda's got a lot riding on this whole deal.
It's been her baby, pretty much since the get go.
She's done a lot of research.
She's done a lot of stuff here to try to see how it goes.
We're trying to recreate some of the best apple brandy in history. So...
There's no need in having pressure now. This is the easy part.
You know, if it's a win, I'll give her all the credit.
If it's a fail, I guess I'll help her take the blame.
It's building up.
It's hot right to here now.
So we're gonna have liquor before long.
This has to be something that we can get a little extra bang for the buck with.
Because, that's the only reason they even want to get into the market.
Is if they can sell the high end apple brandy.
I really, really hope that Big Haley is gonna look over us.
Give us her blessing and let us make some good apple brandy.
It's gonna be running soon.
I brought Kelly on a wild goose chase.
I've had Mark and Digger waiting all this time.
I've really talked this recipe up, and if I don't come through...
they're gonna be pretty salty with me.
-[Kelly] Oh, there it comes. -We've got liquor.
I'm gonna dial the flame way down.
Because we want this to run slow, don't we?
Yeah, turn it down a little bit.
Kelly, we're gonna dump out a lot more heads on this run
than we normally would with like the standard run-of-the-mill corn liquor.
The fructose conversion plus that wild yeast
is gonna make way more acetone.
When I make apple brandy,
it tend to produce more acetaldehydes. Which are the heads.
[Kelly] Are you ready? We can use a sampling jar.
[Amanda] Yeah, let's do a taster.
Every moonshiner knows there's a fortune you throw off of your run.
That's the four shots.
So that has levels of methyl alcohol in it.
And that's the poisonous part.
I'll be honest, Kelly. I'm a little nervous.
Even though I know all the effort we put into this,
I'm pretty sure it'll taste good. But...
I just... I don't wanna let you guys down.
Well, I got plenty of run up for us to try. So...
You know, I like to make things pretty difficult on all you guys.
But in the end, it usually plays out in my favor.
Beadin' pretty good.
Oh, my God.
We killed it.
-That is fricking amazing, right? -Totally amazing.
I'm drinking some more of this.
I'm calling the head guys and tell them they need to come up here.
You think they'll come up here and try it right now?
You know they're dying to know what this is.
I love to hear what they think about it.
Kelly and I both agree that we fricking nailed it.
Uh, you're going to come and see me and Amanda.
[Amanda] I can't wait to see their faces when they taste this.
[Tim] All right, now.
-[Tim] All right. You ready? Bam. -Yeah, I'm ready.
Hell, that cap's dropped. It looks good. It's done working.
Today is the day. You know, we've tested the still.
We built this apparatus. Very complicated. I just hope it works.
What do you think?
-It's good actually. It tastes really, really good. -Does it?
Yes, it does, man.
Howard and I, we go over, we walk to the mash barrow.
It's been sitting there, like seven days.
Oh, yeah.
It looks good. It's got that great rye color in it.
All we got to do is fill the still.
-Tim. -Howard, what are you doing?
[laughingly] I don't know about this, buddy.
-Stop playing around. -I ain't playing around.
-It's wampus. It's cattywampus. -Well, hold this.
-Oh, God. -The more weight you put on, the more stable it becomes.
And you don't spill it.
Look at that mash, baby. That rye is really showing through.
[Tim] Just don't spill it.
[Howard] I'm not gonna spill it.
I'mma fill it.
Whoo!
-You ready to put some fire in that thing? -We got fire.
That get us to that like that.
Looks good so far, don't we?
This whole journey of researching Genever,
learning the history of how it got to the United States,
and then being part of, you know,
putting our own twist on it, just me and Howard.
I just hope that when it comes out,
you know, it's just as good as it was 500 years ago.
Okay, I've got to get some insulation to go right here.
And some tape.
Think we're going to tape this up, right here.
Because this is already getting warm, man.
-Huh? -Yeah.
Yeah. It's getting a little warm.
-Little scorch. -And then we'll make some paste.
Yeah, we got to make paste We gotta-- Oh, Lord, we got a lot to do.
We got the mash. We filled the first still up.
Got it capped off.
Hold that tape.
-I'll hold the ears. -Stand back.
Now, all we've got to do is work on this condenser.
This first condenser, this line on with this copper pipe running around it.
We've got to insulate this and hopefully there's enough coil there to cool it.
All right, I'm pasting on here.
[Howard] Oh, God.
Tim, we have a major malfunction right here, son.
-We got steam, no liquid. -Oh, no.
That's gonna be a problem.
I mean, what we worst feared is here.
Get that hose. Here, cool this arm down.
We got vapor coming out.
Our condenser is not big enough. It's not cooling this arm.
I mean, you should have saw this getting hot already.
-I did. -Look, it's already hot.
Cool it right here.
Cool it right there. 'Cause this is cold.
See, this is cold right here.
Yeah, hold it right there.
Just hold it right there.
The design of this coil is to turn the vapor back into alcohol.
And that's not happening right now.
We're gonna have to shut this still down.
'Cause right now, we're dead in the water.
-Hold on, Tim. Let me go grab something -Howard?
Be careful in there.
I'm telling you, this copper is real sharp and it will cut you.
-I know. -I've got plenty of experience of getting cut.
Yeah, look at that.
You see that? You see that right there?
-That's from a copper still? -No.
I'm always just getting cut or shot.
-Jesus, man. -[laughs]
[Howard] Oh, [bleep].
[Tim] Is that your tattoo is leaking?
[Howard] Yeah, I'm gonna have a cool scar too.
Got a little tiny Tim scar right there.
We'll call it tiny Tim.
I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this.
Well, my dad always says,
"If it don't kill you, it'll make you stronger."
-Or leave a hole in you. -[laughs]
[Tim] I mean, you should have saw this getting hot already.
Yeah, hold it right there.
Just hold it right there.
We're going to cut the whole thing off.
-Hold on, Tim. Let me go grab something. -Howard?
The whole premise behind this still and this arm with this coil,
was to cool this back down to turn it back into liquid.
[Tim] Get this around here.
[Howard] The only solution here is to add more copper,
extend this out,
make this work effectively like it should.
This is us fixing it on the fly, ain't it? [laughs]
This like you're back, working back in the old days
at that old mattress factory, ain't it?
-Keep... Keep doing that. -Hold on, hold on. I'm hung up.
Well, like everything else with this still,
you know, this is the first time I built it.
We're gonna wrap this thing back up.
We're gonna run it again.
Hopefully no more problems.
All right. Get your burner.
[Howard] Fire. Fire it back up.
[Tim] This is the second coil we added to the condenser.
If this doesn't work, we're down.
We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board.
We're gonna come up with another plan.
Got a little drip coming out. Look, look, look.
There. Huh?
[Howard] The liquid gold, baby.
[Tim] Let's get the juniper berries.
How much you think?
-I would say about here. Where your hands are. -Right there?
-Yeah. -I don't wanna put too much.
[Howard] Put a third in there.
-So now, all we do is, wait for some steam here. -Yeah.
[Howard] Cap this jewel, paste it.
Boom, we're making our second distillation
with the juniper barriers introduced.
Bada bing, bada boom.
Get the cap on there.
You know, when we came to this project
we knew if we were gonna be up against the wall.
And we're a little bit worried about it.
So now we need to get this run back on page.
[Tim] Howard, Howard, look, look, look.
-[Howard] We got alcohol coming? -Oh, yeah.
-[laughs] We got our first jar. -We got it.
Second distillation of Genever right there.
Tim, this tastes like something
that Martin Van Buren would drank himself right there.
I can see why they called him old blue nose.
'Cause I'd be an old blue nose if I was drinking that.
Hmm, I like that.
Well after the second distillation,
this product really tastes really good.
But I think it needs a little bit more juniper.
I want to add a little bit more juniper to the third distillation.
And I hope the final comes out perfect.
[Howard exclaims in excitement]
[Tim] We're going to run the rest of this run.
[Howard] With these Dutch babies on.
These old Dutch Cadillacs, you want to call them.
You know what I mean? Watch me.
-Is that called a wooden shoe shuffle? -We new boot moving.
-The wooden shoe shuffle? -[laughs] You see that?
Uh, let's do it again.
Old twinkle toes over here.
-Got that fever for that Genever. -I hear ya.
Howard, looky here.
[Howard] That's stuff's running fast too, but look.
We're on this third distillation.
I'm starting to smell that juniper berries.
Everything is coming to fruition.
Everything we've worked hard for is here.
My taste buds are on fire right now.
I cannot wait to sample this jar.
-[Tim] Talk to me. -Tim...
-The Genever is here It's all-- Oh, God. -Is it?
-I'm gonna smell it. -It's heavy. No, it's there.
It's present. It's very...
a stringent... Botanical spicy.
I think that's the money.
We brought to life, this 500-year recipe of Genever.
We put a twist on the still.
It's got the grain from the rye.
We'll get a little bit of moonshiner twist with the corn.
Got the juniper in it.
So you know, the Tim Smith version?
This could be something real special.
Could make some money.
If the eighth president of United States was here, Martin Van Buren,
I think he would enjoy this just like me and Howard is.
Well, Howard, I think we done did what we set out to accomplish.
We made a Genever.
With the same still, we went that way and then went that way.
[Howard] All right. Let's get these jars. Let's get them inside.
And let's come back out and clean this mess up, man.
[Amanda] Well, here's the boys.
All this effort is because Mark and Digger challenged us
to make the best possible apple brandy.
The recipe, it hasn't been made in 120 years.
I really hope we have not done all this on a fool's errand.
[Kelly] Well, now we know how to bait yous in when we want something.
[Mark] You want us in the middle of a run, there's something usually bad wrong.
[Digger] Or something really good.
Show him, Amanda.
Well, this is what I've been waiting for.
I see a hint of happiness on your pretty little face, Amanda.
-You picked up on that, huh? -I did.
Well, there's a gnat in there. That's a good sign.
That's a damn good sign.
Damn gnat don't want your liquor ain't no man going to, is he?
You wouldn't want it.
I'm telling you, that's a sweet jar right there.
[Amanda] It's starting to pick up a lot of apple in that one.
Whoa.
It's got a fine nose on it.
[Kelly] Wait till it gets down in the tails when we get our mix together,
you think it's good now.
It's got way more apple flavor than regular apple brandy.
Yeah, it's almost like it's got some of that syrup out of them canned apples on.
It's that good.
[Mark] This is outstanding liquor.
And this is going to be the only run of it.
'Cause there's no more of the apples.
And with no sugar, it is very limited in the quantity that it makes.
That's apple, hell, west, and crooked, ain't it?
This is a top shelf brandy.
And it's going to bring a top shelf price.
I'm going to sit over and watch a little more of this get run.
-[Kelly] I'm gonna look at the still. -[Amanda] Yeah. I'm there.
I'm going to tell you something, Amanda.
-I mean-- -That down there in the right yonder,
you be laying over there in them damn weeds.
[Amanda] We've still got a little work to do so.
I haven't really tapped into far into that yet, but...
I was pretty impressed with how that come off the still.
Just so smooth like, I couldn't believe it.
[Digger] I believe you're on to something.
[Kelly] We're still running good.
[Mark] You know, usually, puss, we ain't one to just sit around
and drink a damn jar of liquor like that.
No, we're usually over there humping it out.
[Mark] We won't get off this damn mountain if we get much deeper in it.
Well, we've been stuck on the mountains before.
It ain't gonna be like something we ain't accustomed to.
[Kelly] We'll carry yous out. We've got a tarp.
Let me have that again. Damn.
[sighs heavily]
Hey, Big Haley, thank you, sweetie.
Jesus.
I knew she was here the whole time.
I guess you just got to drink enough of the brandy
to be able to actually see her.
[Mark] When this run's over, if we ain't sobered up,
-you gonna have to take us home. -[Kelly] We can do that.
-We got you covered. -[Digger] Easy now.
They're taking the liquor with them now.
I don't know how good of an idea that is.
Here, let me see. Let me see this jar.
[laughs]
I'll be their designated driver anytime
they want to get wasted off my liquor.
You can just lay down there and rest.
I'll take you home in a little while.
They're thrilled with the results.
And I am too.
We made a damn good apple brandy, I think.
-You did good. I helped. -Well, we both did.
Henry and Kenny are gone. Tickle's gone.
I just want to prove to the guys I'm still a part of this team.
Don't tell me I can't go down to the liquor still.
I'm making a comeback and it feels good.
-[man] You get your cash. -You know, I thought it might come in Handy.
I am here to see a politician.
We're going to get home distillation and it's gonna be legal now.
-How you doing, Mr. Smith? -Yes, sir.
-[man] Oh, yeah. -[man 1] Damn, cuz, that boat's good.
We need to take this liquor down here to Louisiana.
The idea is to put it under the boat.
Log! Log!
Goddamn!