[john] let me ask you somethin'.
Would you consider goin' into a partnership?
[jeremy] just north of cocke county, tennessee,
mark and digger face an unexpected dilemma.
Unlimited access to one of the best
water sources in the country.
But, only if they partner with its owner
on a legal distillery.
[digger] there ain't nothing tempts me any more
than that right there.
-There's a bet here. -Yeah.
I'm, I'm gonna have to graciously decline
right now just simply because I don't know
if I'm ready for that jump in my life right now.
Everybody's been told the old cliche,
if you love what you do, you'll never
work a day in your life.
I don't consider this work.
I'm in the woods with my best friend.
And if I go legal, then it becomes a job.
And I'm afraid if it becomes a job, I'll no longer love it.
Well, guys, you know, when the water leaves
this property, I know for a fact
based on what I've seen on the maps
it probably travels two miles before there's any
other influence of a tributary into it.
What you're saying is that once this
water leaves your boundaries, you no longer
care how it's policed.
Exactly. That would be the best way I could put it.
[mark] once it runs past his property line,
he's no longer in charge of it.
John, thank you, sir.
So, we might go further downstream,
find a still site and continue making
this tennessee whiskey.
[digger] how come, man, you can't be lucky enough
to have a piece of property with water like he's owning?
Well, I tend to refer to my situation
as financially embarrassed.
[mark laughs]
[mark] this water, the quality of it, is not gonna change
until tributaries start running into it
and dilutin' its purity.
Over yonder's where we have to go with this.
I don't know, we might get through this culvert.
So, we're gonna scout this source
a little farther downstream and see if we can't
find a suitable spot for a still site
using the same water, but on different property.
It don't look bad through here, bud.
All right, it's clear as a bell down there
except for that big snake nest.
[mark laughs]
[mike] man, I'm ready to put some benjamins in the old pocket.
-What about you? -Ready, freddy.
[jeremy] over the state line in haywood county,
north carolina, moonshiners mike and jerry
are busy turning a windfall of blueberries
into high-end brandy.
Ooh boy! That's blueberry in it.
[mike] me and jerry, we wanna make top shelf,
high dollar premium alcohol.
That's our goal for this season.
You know, less alcohol but for a higher price.
That's what we're tryna do.
You get your snort in it.
What's it taste like? Tastes pretty good.
[jerry] oh, god. Something is ready.
Holy. Oh, my god.
-That is fan... -That's good,
of a great crack, just like it is.
When you mash in fruit and ferment it,
it turns into wine.
-It's a semi-sweet, dry. -Semi-dry, yeah.
-Oh, my god. It's good. -It's dry wine.
This blueberry mash, this is some of the finest looking wine
a man could ever blink his eyes on.
Whatever we've done, by god, we've done somethin' right.
Let's get this stuff skimmed off here and get it in the pot.
Got a nice, thick cake on the top of it.
Really, really pretty, real deep dark in color.
It smells great. Tastes damn good, too.
[mike] get some of that fine blueberry wine pouring here.
That's about full, cap her off.
When we get this started, you can tap that cap a little.
[jerry] the pasteless cap.
-[mike] the pasteless cap. -[jerry] authoritative.
[mike] hey, lets go over and get yourself
-a little bit of that wine. -[jerry] that'd be good.
[mike] you know, I've bought a lot of wine in my life.
I've made a lot of wine at home in my life.
But, this is some of the best stuff, I believe,
I've ever put in my mouth.
It's too good not to drink, man, I'm telling you.
Well, you know, who would love this right here?
-[jerry] who? -Jenna, my fiance.
Me and jenna, we've been together now for seven years.
We've actually been engaged for basically seven years.
We finally made a date to get married,
gonna go ahead and put the last nail
in the coffin so to speak.
She likes stuff like it?
Damn! She loves a good wine, man.
She'd be over here with a damn straw,
sucking the bottom out of this damn thing.
You know, the, the blueberry brandy is real damn good.
Oh, yeah, this is that whole different...
-[mike] whole different taste? -...Whole different complexity to it.
I'm gonna throw one at you,
somethin' I ain't never even done.
-I ain't even attempted to do. -[jerry] what'd that be?
You know how I like bubbly [bleep].
You know, you like bubbly. All right.
I'd like to make a champagne, sparkling wine,
something like it out of this, a champagne.
[jeremy] champagne is a sparkling wine produced
in the champagne region of France.
While today, champagne is coveted the world over.
It was actually discovered accidentally
in the 17th century.
The vendors in champagne were vying to produce
better wine than their southern neighbors
in burgundy.
However, champagne's colder winter
led to bottles freezing
and yeast going dormant.
When warmer weather returned, the yeast reactivated,
releasing carbon dioxide.
This buildup of pressure caused most bottles to explode.
But those that remained intact,
had champagne signature bubbles.
Legend has it that a french monk
named dom perignon turned this serendipitous mishap
into the celebratory beverage we have today.
Have you ever looked into the process of champagne?
To my understanding, it's pretty lengthy.
Well, we can do a quick process on it, maybe.
Just add the sparkling note to it.
You know, make it fizzy like champagne.
Well, I'm gonna do it like a cider,
you know, they actually add a little bit of yeast
and sugar before they can it.
-Mmm-hmm. -To kinda give it that "shh."
-a little crisp I guess. -Yeah.
And look at the volume that we're gonna have
as opposed to distilling it out.
-Oh, yeah. -Seven gallons, after we distill it?
And we've got 50 sitting around here.
It's a no damn brainer.
Are you down for a damn challenge or what?
You know me. Challenge is my middle name.
-[mike] jerry, we got liquor, brother. -[jerry] love it.
-[mike] see that's hitting the jar. -[jerry] good deal.
[mike] our blueberry brandy goes for about
a hundred and twenty-five dollars a gallon.
We can probably sell,
you know, a bottle of the champagne
for 50 bucks a bottle.
For volume, that's double the money, pretty much.
Also, we'll have a hell of a lot more volume
than if we distilled it off into brandy.
-[jerry] it's getting cold. -[mike] heck yeah, son.
But it's a lot of extra work
and making champagne is a process
that neither one of us is really familiar with.
We got money to be made on the brandy.
But if we turn this into a champagne,
we may fail completely.
We're basically risking
the bird that we have in our hand
for two in the damn bush here.
-[mike] money in the bank. -[jerry] money in the bank.
[mike] in the bottle anyway.
...Meet me over here,
uh, man's supposed to bring as much raspberries.
How many has he got?
I don't know, a bunch, whate he thought.
Five, six hundred pound or somethin', I don't know.
Heck, how in the world he got hold of 600 pounds
-of raspberries? -I have no idea.
[jeremy] eighty miles west in graham county, north carolina.
Mark and huck are rendezvousing with a local contact
who has a line on mass quantities of fruit.
[mark] man, huck's trying to make some money.
Mike, from last year, didn't make this much really.
[huck] oh, he's got the whole truck weighted down ain't it.
-Yeah, it's scrawny, isn't it. -Yeah.
Usually raspberries four or five six dollars
for this little bitty box that we know.
If you get a chance to get some product like that free,
you better grab it.
-Hello, up there. -Hello, mark.
[mark] let's see, what we got here?
[grunts]
what is it, is it jelly?
It looks like jelly to me.
But it's raspberry, sir.
What do you think we're making? Pancakes, is it?
[huck] boy, I tell you what, that's sweet.
It wouldn't take much sugar with it.
That won't take much...
Work to get it mashed in either, would it.
Well, it's already broke down that for sure.
Do you see bits and pieces of berries in there?
[mark] well, it'll save us a lot of work
and save us some money on the sugar too.
How in the world would you get six hundred pound
uh, syrup like it?
There's a food processing plant that was closing down.
They were gonna throw it out
and I told 'em I knew a couple of guys that might
do something with it.
I'd say we can do something for this.
[huck] it'd be good on a basket, wouldn't it?
[mark] even more.
I thought I was gonna have raspberry.
I've never mashed in no syrup like this before.
It ain't no tellin' how much liquor is for my frail bucket for.
It's got a real strong raspberry taste,
you know if it's real sweet, they've put a lot of sugar in.
So, we're gonna try to make the best drink it would make.
-[mark] thank you. -Appreciate it, guys.
-[mark] thank you. -Good luck, buddy.
[mark] all right, we've got to go down through here.
Here we go. Oh, yeah.
You know, 2020 was a difficult year for everybody,
but this year, things are looking up.
People are willing to pay top dollar
for a top-shelf product.
Hell, man, might we'll just get right in the damn middle of it.
[mark] we've jumped in with both feet,
went all in on this tennessee whiskey.
But the dilemma is,
we have to have limestone water
to make our tennessee whiskey.
Damn, look right under.
Oh, this is nice spot, ain't it?
That'd be ideal right there to setup.
[mark] this water, even on the other side
of john's property line,
it's still full of little periwinkle snails.
It's still crystal clear. It's still cold.
So, at this point,
it simply went from being his water
to not being his water.
There's ain't nobody I know for this part,
but if I scroll over
to the next piece property, you know who it is?
Rodney stinson.
Uh-huh.
Digger has got this
little deal on his phone, it's a property app.
And you can see the property line right through there.
We do know someone and he's a friend of ours.
-He's got like 30 acres there. -Yeah.
But the water is not on his property.
-That's a hell of a way to put some water in it. -Yeah.
I think it's 100 vertical feet.
I'd say it's close.
Well, if we're going to stay after tennessee whiskey,
I mean, this is given here.
You know, not only is it a pretty good clip
as far as the crow flies even
it's a lot of elevation to overcome
to be able to put water on the other side.
But if we're going to make tennessee whiskey,
we need to get the water to rodney's property.
Let's go get us some grasshoppers.
[mark] let's go see what we can find up here.
We followed the angus mountain spring water downstream
and we found a place that we think would work,
but we can't setup still on it.
You didn't know who owned this, right?
I don't know the people
their last name ain't from here.
[digger] you know, by and large,
if you know the names of local last name,
you feel a little comfortable getting on somebody's property.
The majority of people that have been lifelong residents over here,
they, for the most part, embrace it.
I knew over here,
but I never thought of him for ain't no water on his property.
You know, rodney, he's a good old boy,
he's been a friend of ours for decades.
We don't feel the need really to ask him
permission to set up on his property.
I know he don't mind,
and honestly, the less he knows, the better.
Then it don't put him in a position
to have to lie for us.
What do you think?
I think right over here is good and flat right here.
I love the fact stem down junk cars this year.
Yeah, boy.
[digger] man, they've plenty of it.
[mark] we can park here amongst them and not at his place.
[digger] cover up there.
You know, the big benefit of setting up
next to some old junk cars is
the copper still fits right in the junk.
You... You can't see the forest for the trees,
so to speak.
Hey, first look at this right here.
-This here can be wrecked. -This here can be wrecked to dig it out.
-I think right here is the place. -Yep.
-[digger] hey... -[mark] huh?
How are you planning on getting water over here?
Well, I hadn't really
went that far in my thinking,
but we got that water I know it's gotta come from over here.
You know, my papa had a little old thing
that he put in the spring box.
It was some sort of pump that worked off
the flow of the water comin' out of the spring house.
-Out of the spring-- -water pressure and volume.
-Yeah. -I saw one, uh,
putting water to a cabin.
-Ram pump. -[mark] ram pump.
-Yeah. -[mark] that was it.
I'd want to say rampart, but that's something else.
If we can figure out how to get a pump in here,
we can get water across this hill.
Once we get to the top of the ridge,
the rest of it's all downhill so to speak.
Well, what... What do we need to do to investigate that?
Well, I say, we go ask our resident macgyver.
Daniel may have heard of one.
You know, he's all about mechanic.
Oh, yeah. If anybody can build one
and make it work, daniel maner can.
Exactly.
We keep daniel in our hip pocket
and the fact that he's a hillbilly macgyver
that don't hurt things a bit.
This part is settled, let's go, hunt daniel and talk to him.
[mike] come on, jerry.
There are some pretty glass ice bottles, aren't they?
[jerry] sure is.
Make pretty wine out of these.
Our big idea is to turn this blueberry wine
into actual champagne.
[jerry] this process started.
[mike] let's hold it directly on top.
-Are you ready? -[jerry] try out.
There you go.
[mike] this wine's delicious.
But we made it out of crushed up blueberries.
It's got a lot of settlement particles,
uh, blueberry holes.
We gotta clear this stuff up
before we ever start the process of making champagne.
[jerry] I'm doing good this stuff right here is
looking pretty doggone good.
[mike] we're gonna soften this blueberry mash
over into our other vessels
and leave the settlement in the barrel.
Let's get them out.
That's called racking.
You do that several times to keep clearing up your wine.
We're gonna take it and catchin' these car, boys.
And it will allow all the particles inside of it
to be able to fall to the bottom.
And we will take the good clear stuff
that's coming off the top
and pump it off into another container.
Whatever is in the bottom will pitch and then we'll pump
into another one and you let that one settle
you pump it into another one.
So, pull it off that third time
it'll be nice and clean and clear.
Then we can start our champagne process from there.
All right, we got her.
You ready to get out of here of this step, brother?
-Yeah. -Then grab us a jug and throw in there.
Me and jerry, we do just about everything
under the sun in the woods.
But there's sometime you've got to get out of the woods
to do certain types of processes.
That's going to be a lot of good sparkling wine.
Usually, when me and jerry make liquor,
we ferment it one time.
If we're making this champagne,
we gotta go through a second fermentation,
keeping the right temperature for this stuff to ferment.
We're gonna go over here to a little garage
which we're gonna make our winery.
Our good friend gave us permission to be here
and we got access to regulate the temperature in here
and we're gonna start this whole process
tryna make some champagne.
I guess, our time here is done
for right this minute, ain't it?
Yeah. I'll just let her sit
-and do her thing. -Yeah.
Yeah, you know, you just gotta be patient.
You gotta let this wine sit and let gravity do its work.
Let it be still for a while.
Rack it over into another vessel.
Do the same process several times back and forth
so you can clear your wine up.
That's a cool deal, player.
Let her rest.
[huck sighs] well, I tell you what, mark.
I've never seen that much syrup one time.
We got the several buckets of good high quality raspberry syrup.
We're gonna try to make some high quality
liquor out of this.
-[huck] I tell you, it smells good. -[mark] yeah.
I tell we'll get more flavor out of that
blend something else with it.
Better, we could sell it.
Well, we could, uh...
We could make ouselves some lemonade
flavor of that bumper with it and run it through it
and see what we come up with.
I like a glass of lemonade.
-How about you? -I would like good lemonade?
[huck] I know, people drink raspberry lemonade.
Why not do it moonshine?
I know it'd be a good flavor.
As the old timers would say
we could doctor it up a little bit.
We could get some real raspberries, you know.
Pretty, that's a little maybe.
We can make it look good and taste good there by.
Fortified wine.
Everybody looked at it, said something about the color,
you know, say my...
I have to sell it, I believe this could be
just the biggest hit to say it.
Raspberry lemonade moonshine.
So, if we can get mashed in, I guess,
the quicker it'll go to working.
[mark] yeah.
Heave it, heave it.
You know, five three buckets to the barrel.
[huck] a big hit play star, don't you?
-Yeah. -Yeah, 150 pound of syrup
that's a lot of syrup.
It'd take a big biscuit
for it, I'll tell you that.
That looks like color, don't it?
[huck] somebody ripped an old pillar open.
Throw it on top of raspberry and feathered.
[both laughing]
we usually put, uh, 50 pound of sugar.
About 20 pound's all we need,
-I believe, don't you? -Yeah.
Uh, these raspberries are sweet,
you can over sugar something, you know, what?
It take forever and ever for it to work off.
So, we figured we'd cut the sugar in half
and try that.
[huck] here comes the yeast.
Oh, look at that turmoil.
Grab that sheet there, uh, must cap this off.
We gonna get both these barrels capped off, getting them to work,
and we're gonna make as much moonshine as we can out of it.
[huck] new year, new products, new flavors.
Let's take the old farmer, ain't it?
Yeah.
-[daniel] we ain't got no water? -[digger] no.
Uh. Bull [bleep].
[digger] well, as difficult as this endeavor has been,
it's getting more and more difficult.
We've got to have this water to do what we need to do.
-[mark] daniel? -[daniel] yes, sir.
The reason we're bringing you here
we gotta have this water and we can't run no generator
-or nothing here. -[daniel] but this style of pump
all you're gonna hear is a little flicker.
[digger] well, as difficult as this endeavor has been,
it's getting more and more difficult.
We're kind of maybe...
We might be trespassing a little bit,
but we're only doing it temporarily.
The water is just passing by them just like the areas
that somebody's gonna breathe on the next property.
So, what's wrong with getting a little of it
off their property
before it gets away? So, we're gonna build
this ramp pump and try to get it over this hillside here.
You have to be a jack of all trades to be among us, daniel.
-Ain't top that and... -You've... You've got to be
a plumber, a carpenter and everything.
I don't mind. That actually don't hurt.
This water is one of a kind and we have to have it.
That looks good the threading on it.
Pop pop, we're ready to go.
You know, digger and I know nothing at all
about a ramp pump.
This is our fresh reservoir.
That's one of the reasons we enlisted old daniel.
Well, this right here. It's a hydraulic ramp pump.
It'll take gravity fed water going in this, into the pump
and sandwater up through here, up in this pressure reservoir.
Higher pressure that's trapped in this tank
will push down on it and send it out to the outlet
and send it up the hill.
Uh-huh, there you put a foot on that, daniel.
Put a big rock on it.
Big ass rock.
Now, rodney's property starts at the top
of the ridge back here behind us.
So, the way it lies,
we've gotta come out of this branch,
then get to the top of the hill.
And pump water into reservoir, we're going to put up there.
If we can get to the top of that,
then we can make the water go downhill,
it's getting it to go up the hill is the problem.
We've got a pretty good task ahead of us.
It's gonna involve a lot of black pipe.
[daniel] this reminds me of being a youngster
in playland creek.
[mark] basically, what we're doing is...
[daniel] yeah.
[digger] this is...
Outrageously ridiculous to go to these measures
to do this.
But, at the end of the day, this water
has been scrutinized by the best in the business.
And it has been declared the best water
in the world at one point.
We've gotta have this water to do
what we need to do.
Well, here we go, boy.
[daniel] we ain't got no water?
[digger] no.
[daniel] may take it in there.
-Ain't no water coming in? -[digger] uh-uh.
Ah, bull [bleep]!
Nothing, it's just water flowing through
nothing's happening, no clicking, no,
no sound of anything going on inside of this pump.
-[mark] damn it. -[digger] damn it.
[digger] we've got to get this thing going, boys.
We've got to be getting some liquor made.
We ain't doing it spinning our wheels.
Smells good.
It does.
Getting better.
[huck] this raspberry syrup,
we've never run anything like this before.
There's nothing in it but raspberries,
and sugar you know,
so, we're just going to have to see how it turns out.
Hope it tastes good, don't you?
[mark] yeah.
We lost a lot of money last year.
Our fortified wine it's so good
but the more we can make the more what you sell,
the better we're going to make it this winter.
[huck] I guess we'd better build us a farm and squeeze
-some lemons, hadn't we. -[mark] yeah, buddy.
These big, fancy restaurants
people get this raspberry lemonade.
You see the sweat running down the glass
really tastes good and looks good.
So, I think this run here, will be a hit.
We don't want to put no lemons in that still.
What we're gonna do is
put it in the pump it'll give us a lot more flavor.
[huck] well if we can't sell that as liquor.
We can open up a lemonade stand.
[mark laughs]
well, here comes all that warm, you know,
the brandy that we run
should have a little bit of a raspberry taste
by putting this lemonade in the pumper
we'd be able to taste both of them in it.
Raspberry lemonade moonshine, and I ain't never heard of it.
Since we got the lemonade in the thumper
we gotta get her cap on,
get everything pasted up.
Hottest we got her now,
it shouldn't take too long, we'll be around it
and ready to start running.
[huck] here it comes, mark.
She started running out
and we're throwing out the heads
and I'm gonna take me a good little taste here.
Good high proof, son, and I'll tell you that.
Its got a good flavor to it right now.
We'll be able to tell more about it
at the back end of the run.
Get her doctored up just right,
its gonna be good.
Since all we got was syrup
we went out and bought a bunch of raspberries.
We're going to soak some of the raspberries
in some of the high proof liquor that first comes out.
[huck] that's gonna be pretty.
[mark] it is pretty, ain't it?
And then we're going to doctor yours after the fact.
I believe this is just about done.
[mark] all right, huck, let's get to her.
[huck] yeah, sell her, let's go jar it up.
[mark] that's right.
I smell this back here it's dirt, mark.
You're going to real, eh, markie?
[huck] oh, would you try, one?
Oh, oh, however you will.
You take your breath, huck.
[huck] I'll tell you them berries right there,
they're high proof.
That is strong, hoo!
If you eat one of 'em berries,
lay it out of top of that shine
the grounds level is flat meets you at in the face.
Hey, how many berries you want me to put in there?
[huck] I'm gonna put about four or five.
[mark] yeah, we're about thirty-six jars with us.
Oh, huck, he's scooping them out and he's laying it to it.
-[mark] oh, that's pretty though, ain't it. -[huck] mmm-hmm.
[mark] does that remind you of being on the binge?
I'm gonna place some berries and lemons.
I get them in there, you know, what I'm looking at?
It looks real calm...
[bird chirping]
...Peaceful I guess you would say.
I mean it, it's pretty.
[huck] mark first let's do a taste test here.
Don't burn.
Perfect.
-I can taste the raspberries set that start... -[huck] mmm-hmm.
Little bit a heat in the start and then you
-breathe lemon. -Tell you what,
if a man had a little bad cold
or something that right there would be good.
We wound up with 12 gallon,
a good raspberry lemonade moonshine.
This is something different.
I think people would buy it and pay us good for it.
Turn it this way, no the other way. Like that.
We still got to make a whole lot of alcohol.
-Say, lemonade. -[huck] lemonade.
We didn't really make nothing last year, you know,
we got to make some money this year.
[huck] well, it's got a good taste.
[mark] I will have no trouble selling that.
You ready to rock n roll, my brother?
All right, let's get this done.
I believe it's cleared up quite a lot.
It has, looks like it anyway.
[mike] this wine, we've let it sit.
Let the settlements go to the bottom.
We're gonna siphon it up again
and leave the settlement behind in the first vessels
that we're pulling from.
You ready?
-Here we go. -[jerry] let her roll.
[mike] another time we tell you about that,
she'll be right won't it, baby?
[jerry] right as rain, son.
[mike] man, this wine is beautiful,
I mean, it's got that blueberry color
almost like a beet juice,
so to speak a deep red mahogany color.
You've look right here next...
-You see it. -See all the floaties and stuff
-close to the bottom. -[mike] yes, sir, I see it.
[jerry] yeah, that's what we don't wanna get in to.
We don't want to lose the color and the good flavor
of this wine by racking it a thousand times.
-That was done. -Let's crack another.
But we don't get all the yeast out racked off,
it can create hydrogen sulfide which is that rotten egg smell
and nobody wants to drink a damn fart.
I tell you what if they wasn't kidding,
this is a timely process.
Yeah, it takes a long damn time to do all this, don't it?
[jerry] just racking it off is gonna take time.
If you want it to be right. I guess we gotta
take our time and do it right. Right?
-That's right. Right. -[mike] right, right, sir.
Once it is washed out.
Last year everything come to a screaming halt.
This year, everything's blowing up, going wide open.
People can now afford a good high end product.
This is going to be something different
that people are gonna wanna get their hands on.
This is a fine champagne.
[jerry] we'll just check these and see exactly what we got going on.
[mike] champagne should be right around
12% alcohol by volume,
but the wine itself needs to be about 10%
because the second fermentation
that makes our bubbles will only create
two more percent of abv.
When we mashed in all these blueberries,
we weren't really concerned about the alcohol content
because we're just going to run this through
and make a brandy out of it.
[jerry] what do you say?
-Proof. -Uh-huh.
Fair to say.
[mike] we are at the moment of truth right now.
I'm just hoping, like the bacon's, man this wine
rate around 10% so we can make this champagne work.
About, five.
This stuff set in 5%, that is way too low.
Over here...
It looks like about eight.
-About eight? -Yeah.
Yeah, I reckon you're right.
You know, eight percent is a lot damn closer
to the ten percent we need to be at.
But still, I don't know what in the hell
we're gonna do to make it work.
We got good flavor across the board.
All we gotta do is just add a little fortification juice here.
[mike] have it ready to rock and roll.
[jerry] where she needs to be.
Jerry comes up with the idea of putting some brandy
that we've already run off of these blueberries
into this wine to bring it up to the ten percent mark.
[jerry] so, what we're doing here is we're actually adding our,
our blueberry brandy
to our blueberry wine.
We're actually bringing the abv up
on our wine, so, it'll be like a normal champagne
abv would be.
You know, I'm not wild about
putting brandy in the champagne
because we sold the brandy and the champagne separately.
That's more money in our pockets.
But because this wine turned out so good,
this gives me and jerry a unique opportunity.
[mike] oh, look at that pretty stuff.
We're going to bring something very special
and high end to the market.
It's showing about 10 or 11.
That's what we're looking for.
If we got it just right, you know, me and jerry,
we don't wanna serve weak champagne.
We don't want people to say, you know, that's good,
but it's awful sweet. There ain't no alcohol there.
This ought to get it done right here, jerry.
[mike] we want to give them a good little punch
when they take that swallow out of that glass.
That's blueberry champagne with a good kick of alcohol.
Cap that bad boy off.
Let him set, let them settle. We're ready for bottlin'.
[mike] next step, we've got to do our second fermentation.
We got to put our champagne yeast in each bottle,
a little extra sugar
that brings the abv a little bit more,
but creates the bubbles as well.
Sounds good to me, bubby.
Long, long down process, but we're making it happen, ain't we?
[jerry] we've got it this far, don't we?
[digger] what do you think city hatty boy?
[mark] I say right up front on the bank
beside that tree.
Easy, I can't see where I'm going.
[digger] you know, it seemed like every time we turn around,
we're meeting with a little bit of reverse force
in this tennessee whiskey endeavor.
What do you say, right here, all right?
With this ramp pump, the biggest problem is
there's such a gradual flow downstream.
There's just not water pressure sufficient enough
to make this pump work.
But we've got an old reservoir.
We think this reservoir, once it fills up,
we're gonna put enough pressure down on this to force
the water downstream a whole lot
quicker and faster and harder.
So, that should get us where we need to be on this pump.
I know you didn't run in here on your knuckles last night,
-but I'm gonna tell you anyhow. -[daniel] yeah.
We can't be, uh,
dawdling around up here too much.
You're officially trespassing right now.
[mark] got 100 gallons of water here
with down pressure on it.
So, we're hoping it will
give us enough pressure and volume down at
the ramp pump that we need.
Let it go!
[mark] we wanna see it right here.
There it goes.
[digger] here we go.
If everything works the way it's supposed to,
we'll see the lower check valve
close, which in turn will force water out the outlet,
which will in turn go up the hill.
So, that's what we're hoping to see.
[water bubbling]
[digger] that's what it's supposed to do, ain't it, daniel?
I'm thinking of validating...
[daniel laughing]
hell yeah.
[digger] we've got sufficient pressure and flow.
Now the task remains to see if we can get this
water pumped up over this hill and into the reservoir.
Hey, boys look at this [bleep].
-Look at here. -[daniel] yeah.
There she comes.
[mark] son, that's a heck of a stream.
[digger] been to maine to Spain, smoked dope, chewed rope
let's go to the [bleep] market place
and some still be all I've ever seen.
[mark] you're gonna go up there or you want me go up there.
[digger] well, I'd love to go through there,
but you're a damn sight younger than I am, dan.
[daniel] well, that's what I say. I'll go. I don't care be it.
[mark] we just won't go get our tote set.
We're going to put this 275 gallon tote
at the top of the ridge.
And then from the outlet side of it,
you know, it's all down hill from there to the still site.
[daniel] boy, that's you making it down
-the liquor. -[digger] well, everybody, does it.
[daniel] now you go, will you, man?
Look at this, this barrel's...
[bleep]
[mark] inthe name of goodness, it all--
[digger] it ain't a strong-un, but it's cold water.
That's all we need, the trickle.
I bet it'd be pretty much full overnight.
I mean, that's consistent. Look at that. Look at that.
We had to go to all this trouble
because this is the best water in the world
and we certainly feel
that it's worth it. We have to have it.
It's gonna do this around the clock.
We still got to get the still site
and everything built mashed in.
Time we're ready to mash in,
we'll have enough water in here to mash in.
[daniel] I bet it'll be running over by then.
-You ready to get them in them champagne bottles, bubba? -Yeah.
[mike] you know what, this wine is clearing up.
It's looking really, really good.
We racked this stuff about three times.
I believe it's ready to go into the bottles now.
[jerry] we've got this little bottling tube
and basically a little check valve right here on the end of this.
So, when I push it down the bottle and hit the bottom,
it starts to flow.
And then when I pull it up, it stops the flow.
So, every bottle has almost the same amount of product in it.
It doesn't take long to do, does it?
[mike] no, just a few seconds and it's full.
[jerry] modern day inventions, huh?
Any mountain shiner made
champagne have they.
No.
I think many people has.
[mike] we've got 48 bottles of this champagne bottled up,
and now we've got to put our champagne yeast
and a little bit of more sugar in each bottle
and cap them off with a bottle capper.
Then we can ferment under pressure which can,
uh, creates your bubble effect inside of the wine.
A quarter of a teaspoon of sugar,
a quarter of a teaspoon of champagne yeast
to each bottle.
If it's not the right amount,
it could not do anything at all.
It could come out perfect
or you can start exploding bottles.
[jerry] the cork on a bottle of champagne
the bubble that comes out and pressurizes it.
That's the carbon dioxide.
That's the result of the yeast eating the sugar
creating the carbon dioxide gas.
Can't wait to see these damn bottles bubble up.
You know, these caps that we're putting on this is just
strictly to be able to do
our fermentation process under pressure.
We're gonna get rid of those caps.
Then we'll put our regular cork
and our wire cage around it
to keep the cork in place and then it's ready to drink.
[cell phone ringing]
hello, sweetheart!
[jenna] hey, buddy.
What are you doin'?
[jenna] um, I've been looking online
at a few dresses, and I think I've found me...
Two.
Um, I think I need some help deciding though.
Okay, well
it's whatever you want, baby girl.
[jenna] and I found a few caterers.
I think, you know, that'll give us a really good deal.
[mike] that's cool, that is great.
Well, me and jerry, we're actually
in the middle of our...
Second fermentation on our blueberry champagne.
[jenna] oh, is that gonna be for the wedding?
What, uh...
-Well-- -for the wedding?
I'll need a good bath after all this, I'm sticky.
[mark speaking]
[huck] that is a good brush.
[mark speaking]
-[huck] shoo! -[mark laughing]
now you can use that for other things.
You know, when them chiggers get all over you, scratch...
[mark speaking]
-[huck] yeah! -[both laughing]
-all right, go! -[both laughing]
[jenna] oh, is that gonna be for the wedding?
What, uh...
-Well-- -[jerry] for the wedding?
You know, jenna, she is very particular
about what she wants for the wedding.
I really wasn't planning on using the champagne,
but happy wife, happy life, right?
Yeah, baby, yep, yep.
That's going to be the champagne for the wedding.
Let me let you go for a minute.
I need to talk to jerry here. Okay, love you.
[jenna] love you, bye.
You know, me and, me and jenna has been
engaged for a long time.
-Quite a long time. -Yeah.
But we finally,
you know, settled on a date to get married.
-Really? -Yeah, yep.
-Man, that's awesome. -Yeah, we're fixing and doin' the thing, brother.
-That's for sure. -Chicken dinner for you, man.
-Yeah. -Hell, yeah.
Well, you got to be there.
I know, that's what I'm sayin'.
You've just been waiting on a date.
-Waiting on the date. -[mike laughs]
you told me, it's gonna to happen.
Yeah, I knew how excited she is, ain't she?
We can definitely spare you a couple of bottles
for the, for the toast.
Well, I was thinking more like, you know,
maybe at least half.
You know, we're looking to have
at least a 100 guests at our wedding.
If everybody's going to get toast or two of this champagne
man, I'm gonna need at least half of these rack sitting here.
This is, uh...
In most cases a once in a lifetime deal,
like, the fourth for me.
This is the...
The last in the lifetime deal for me.
-And, uh... -All right, I tell you what.
We can take one half of it for the wedding
-under one condition. -What's that?
You have to find us a buyer
to buy the rest of it at a higher price.
If we got to get double,
at least double out of the other half.
[mike] you know, jerry is kind of challenging me
to sell the other half of the champagne,
the one that we're not taken to the wedding
for double the price on the bottle
to get the same profit.
You know what we're going to have to find?
We gonna have to find that one damn man.
That one damn rich high roller.
I'll do it, I'll do it. I'll put it out there.
I'll try to find the buyer, man.
Let me try to put some money in our pocket.
You know, the type of customer
you're looking for to buy a good champagne
is somebody don't mind
spending money on a good product.
You know, I've got to find the customer now
that's willing to pay that kind of price for the champagne.
-I'll take the challenge I don't care. -All right.
[mark] here we go?
Kelley, I wanna bring you up
to speed on some stuff that you ain't got a clue about.
On the other end of this hose
is angus mountain spring water.
Boy, as good as it gets right there, bud.
It's the best water in the world.
We're bringing kelley and daniel in,
to help with the tennessee whiskey.
We finally got us still site set up
with a great source of limestone water.
So, by bringing in daniel and kelley,
we can run in shifts
and basically double our production.
All right, boys, there is a taste bucket, yeast.
Amylase enzyme, that's an important ingredient.
Corn fill that rascal up three times to that point.
Barley one time on each one of these each barrel,
rye, to right there just once.
-Is everybody on board? -Yes, sir.
Barley.
Once we get daniel and kelley trained up on this recipe...
You dip a bucket and I'll dip a scoop.
Let's scoop, scoop we'll get it.
And we see they're ready to run with it by their selves.
We're going to run as much as this
tennessee whiskey as we can as often as we can.
Let's get some water hot let's make some mash.
To say this, tennessee whiskey has been an uphill battle
been an understatement.
We faced obstacle after obstacle.
Now, we feel like we've got all that out of the way.
We're going to get busy.
-We're ready to start pumping water. -All right.
Ignition.
[digger] got any lumps down there, you feel?
I still got a dam in the bottom of it,
-I'm getting out there. -There you go.
[cell phone ringing]
yello!
[killer beaz] hey man, what are you doing?
[digger] what's up beaz?
[killer beaz] um, it's been six months
since we placed that order
for the hundred gallons of the tennessee whiskey.
You know, toward the end of last season,
when we finally dialed in the recipe,
we promised killer beaz 100 gallons
of aged tennessee whiskey in a six months.
Now, I don't know if time's moving faster
or if I'm moving slower,
but six months has passed so
it's time to get it to doing.
[killer beaz] can I come get that?
[digger] okay, well, here's the deal.
We had to take it to the east coast
to put it on a boat.
[killer beaz] you did what?