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