[narrator] this time on moonshiners...
This has been done for hundreds of years.
This is an earth oven. You put in these lava rocks
And put the agave on top of it.
It's like a masterpiece, just like artwork.
This is a cherokee white eagle corn.
This corn is very rare,
And it was actually carried by the cherokee people
Through the appalachian mountains
When they were removed from the lower southern states.
You're looking at 25 to 30 different spices
-That goes into some of these gins. -Seriously?
We gonna have to amp things up,
So I think it's a no-braine that we get the column stil set up.
We're back in business with big bertha, baby.
[bottle rattles]
This is how we make the moonshine!
-Amanda ought to show up here any time. -Yeah.
Don't know exactly what she's up to, but...
Pretty long drive from pennsylvania down here, ain't it?
Got a phone call from mark's little buddy, amanda.
Look, there she comes.
She's got some kind of real special corn,
She's wanting us to help he malt it.
She don't know much about the malting process, so, uh,
We'll see if we can help her out there.
-Amanda. -Hi, guys!
-How you doing? -Good, good.
I'm glad you made it.
-Oh, I missed you guys. -Hey, amanda.
Hey, mark.
[amanda] since I've met mark and huck,
They've taught me a lot about the heritage of moonshining
And the old-school technique that they still use today.
All right, I'll show you the precious cargo.
They're two very seasoned moonshiners
That I can go to for help.
I think it's something special.
You come all the way down here for one bag of corn?
-I sure did. -[chuckles]
[mark] if I was going to com 14 hour drive
I'd bring a load of corn.
[softly] okay.
[amanda] all right guys.
[mark] what you got there, amanda?
[amanda] this is a cherokee white eagle corn.
[huck] there you go.
Some good-looking corn.
-[mark] I fooled with indian corn before. -Yeah.
It's a lot more red, ain't it, than that?
Never seen none of that.
So, this was actually carried by the cherokee indians
On the trail of tears,
Through north carolina right through the town.
-Through here, through these mountains. -Absolutely.
The corn is the trail of tears corn
Because it was actually carried by the cherokee peop
Through the appalachian mountains
When they were removed from the lower southern states.
They carried this corn for provisions through the winter.
And then they had to preserve some of it,
To start growing once they reached oklahoma.
But only a small amount of it really survived.
It's been cultivated over almost 200 years now
In very small amounts.
I live in cherokee county.
The cherokees, you know,
Is native to this area right here.
And this is where the corn come from in the beginning.
I really wanna pay respect to the grain,
And the cherokee people.
So I felt like it was a good thing
To bring it back here to make a really special liquor with it.
It's very important that I do right by the corn.
I really wanna extract all the flavor from this corn
And pay homage to the whole story of it.
So, I'd like to try to malt some of this.
I think malting it will kind of ensure that
We have all the enzymes we need to break it down
And get as much alcohol and flavor as we can out of this corn.
[mark] we got malted corn.
That's the only way to get the true taste of moonshine.
[amanda] I think mark and hu are the best people to bring this corn to.
I don't know anyone that's made more corn liquor than these guys have.
And also it's my chance to kind of give them a corn
And make a corn liquor that they've never tasted before.
I don't think we need to malt all of the corn.
Um, I'd like to grind some of it into cornmeal,
And we can mix the malted corn and the cornmeal.
It would be good to possibly grind it,
You know, in the old-fashioned way
With a stone mill, 'cause there's no heat.
It'll help preserve all the flavor in it.
[huck] with a lot of your old-timers around here,
You know, they still use
The old grass mills, the old stone mills.
-Yeah. -I know where there's a couple old stone mills
That are still in operation.
All right, so I'll get started.
I'll go grab the materials that I brought
-And we can start malting it. -That'll work.
[speaking spanish]
Let's start the fire.
-You wanna start the fire? -Yeah.
[narrator] in oaxaca, mexico
Along with veteran distiller xaime and oscar,
Tim gets hands-on making a traditional outlaw recipe
For turning agave into high-proof mezcal.
Now, you know, I'm a firefighter.
I stop the fire, I don't start the fire, you know?
-Well, you're gonna start it right now. -Gonna start the fire.
[tim] we in mexico, and I'm trying to get
Firsthand experience making mezcal.
Today we gonna prep the oven. This is an earth oven.
They have dug this big hole out.
You know, the agave is full of starch.
Just like making moonshine out of corn,
You gotta heat it up, then the sugars come out.
And this is what you need to make alcohol.
So, we're gonna start the oven with the heads of the mezcal.
This is 80 abv, so...
-160 proof? -Yeah.
They save the heads and they use that to start the fire.
I can understand that. I've actually did it myself.
The heads is high flammable.
That's the highest proof alcohol that's produced from the still.
So they're using all their resources.
And we on the smoky side so we should go on that side.
But the smoke is gonna follow us.
I mean, that's what it is when you're so good-looking, the smoke comes to you.
[speaks spanish]
It's the other way.
-It's the other way. -Wait a minute, oscar.
[laughter]
This part of the process is what makes
The smoky part of mezcal.
This has been done for hundreds of years.
Back in the days, there was no gas.
Ovens, like, it was just this.
-Yeah, wood. -It was just wood.
They use an oak and they use a mesquite wood.
The oak kinda favors making, like, bourbon.
You know, we use oak barrels to age our bourbon in,
But here, they using the oak wood
To actually put that smoke flavor in it.
[xaime] most of the maestros mezcaleros,
Not only oscar,
They come from the legal tradition.
This is the beauty about mezcal,
That it keeps this tradition just alive.
[oscar speaking spanish]
Oscar is saying "it's ready. Now we have to throw rocks."
-You throw rocks into it? -You put volcanic rocks.
The rocks are gonna absorb the heat.
Then you put the agave and then you cover it.
-The wood is under the rocks. -Exactly.
Let's go, tim.
[tim] they're using this volcanic rock
'cause it retains the heat,
And they want it to last as long as possible
To bake this agave.
[xaime] over here there is a lot of volcanic areas,
So we just bring the rocks
-From places near here. -[tim] there?
You know, oscar's father and generations behind him,
They was illegally making the mezcal.
This whole process is very authentic,
But hard work.
I mean, you gotta dig this hole,
You gotta get those rocks,
You gotta cut the wood, you gotta build a fire.
But just think about
They've waited for the agave to grow for eight years
Before they got to this.
This kind of work has been passed to oscar
From generations to generations.
So there's four generations behind all this knowledge.
[oscar speaks spanish]
-Vamos. -Chop, chop.
-We gotta split the pina. -Si.
-[oscar speaks spanish] -oh!
-No problem. -[laughs]
It's a lot of work involved here.
[xaime] oscar says that you're hired.
[tim] oh, good.
But this is what you gotta do.
This is traditional method
Because that's what makes this mezcal so special.
Muy bien.
[oscar speaks spanish]
[xaime] now that you see the big hard labor
Cultivating the agave,
Bring it up, starting the oven,
-Cutting the oven. -Cutting and splitting it.
-And we only halfway. -Yeah.
Four more hours to go on the oven,
So let's go relax
-And we'll come back over here. -I'm with you.
-Man, a siesta, huh? -Yeah.
We're in mexico.
[tim laughs]
[folk music playing]
We'll get these jars cleaned out, won't we?
Yeah.
You know, me and jerry, we had our final push
To make a lot of money before the end of the season.
We've gotta make a big run
So we can set up for the winter.
You never did tell me how your trip to asheville went.
-Are you talking about me and jenna? -Yeah.
-It went pretty damn good. -Oh, yeah?
Where'd y'all end up going?
Well, we went to this damn gin joint.
Gin joint?
A gin joint where they serve nothing but damn gin.
Asheville is a pretty unique town.
It's a little on the weird side for me.
Lot of health nuts and scientists and stuff.
But, you know, it's somethin I get to do some research
And see how people think, what they like to drink.
They have a long damn menu of different types of gins
They had forest-based mashes and stuff, you know?
They had, what did they call that? Quinoa?
Quinoa?
There was all these high roller guys
In there, sitting around drinking all types of gins,
Blowing money like nobody's business,
And that's what just struck the idea to me,
Hell, I could make these folks spend money too.
Why couldn't we make one, man?
Let's do a damn gin.
[sighs through teeth]
You know where to get this quin... Quinoa?
No, but we'll find it.
And we'll get it.
Gin, most of them have grain bases.
I mean, if this is considered a grain,
Then hey, it might work.
What all's in gin?
Well, main ingredient's juniper berries.
But spices, man. Botanicals.
A lot of the same properties that we done here
-With the spice liquor. -Hmm.
But you're looking at 25 to 30
Different types of flavors and spices
-That goes into some of these gins. -Seriously?
We're gonna have to wrap up production just to pay for that kind of stuff.
We'll have to make a lot of this stuff, make it good,
And not back down on our prices.
We ain't gonna be able to do it on this little pot here.
You don't think?
You know the only way we're gonna achieve what you're wanting to do?
-What? -The column still.
Our column still's a pretty special piece of equipment
That most people in the backwoods
Have never seen before.
This thing has actually got four chambers, 12 jars,
And a 150-gallon pot.
It'll pump out plenty of alcohol and tremendous flavor.
To the stores building we go.
You know, we gonna have to amp things up,
And our column still holds three times the amount of mash
Than what our old barrel still will.
So I think it's a no-brainer that we get the column still
Back out and get it set up.
Get 'em loaded up, son.
This column rig has got to b set up inside
This time of the year.
The weather's variating with each day right now.
With a little bit of wind, little bit of coolness,
It's just gonna condense down, fall back into the pot,
And you just, you're not gonna
Run no alcohol with this thing.
Running indoors, it's a big risk,
But if we can make this happen,
We can potentially set up a new client base,
And make a lot of money, fas
Jerry, he's got a big warehouse shop,
Got a lot of tools and stuff
We gonna just head over to jerry's shop
And put this thing together
And put it back to use.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, man, I'm getting excited now.
Here we go!
Yeah, you know, gin, it calls for a lot of flavors.
And this column still is capable
Of running those flavors and maintaining those flavors.
[drilling]
-There she is, baby. -Good deal.
We'll go get all of our spices and botanicals,
And we'll make some quinoa gin, baby.
We're back in business with big bertha, baby.
[xaime] come on, tim.
You wanna help oscar?
[tim] it's hot over here.
The wood is burned down, they put the lava rocks on I
And that is just really hot.
Putting the remaining fibers of the previous fermentations
And distillations,
The moisture cools down a little bit, the oven,
So this will help the agave
To have a more even cooking process.
[tim] oscar's making his legal mezcal,
But he's still doing it the illegal-fashion.
The same traditional process is being put into this mezcal.
[xaime] they put one facing up,
Because the leaves part
Can actually support better the heat.
And then the rest ones facing down.
So then a ritual that oscar makes in all of his cookings.
-Chili. -Chili?
Uh-huh. Chili.
-And perule. -Perule.
For good luck. There it goes.
So all of this is going on it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have to fit everything.
So probably
Okay.
-[xaime] two days it's gonna be cooked. -[tim] uh-huh.
-But if you open in two days the oven... -[oscar speaking spanish]
...It can be dangerous.
So, basically, you wait two more days, so everything is off.
[tim] now, you say dangerous...
It's going to catch on fire?
Yeah. If there is still like a little heat over there,
-If oxygen flows again, voom! -[tim] uh-huh.
That's why you need four days to...
Everything stops.
-[tim] safety zone. -[xaime] and then... Exactly.
It's like a masterpiece. Just like artwork.
-[tim] oscar, you're a genius. -[oscar laughing]
[tim] genius! I'm glad to be with you.
[xaime speaking spanish]
Yes. Thank you. Gracias.
[oscar speaking spanish]
So, I just really want you guys to show me
The best way to malt this corn.
I know you could malt it for too long and you could malt it for not long enough,
So I wanna make sure that it's malted for the right amount of time.
This specific strain of cor
Was carried along the trail of tears.
This corn is pretty rare, so I feel very lucky to have gotten this.
And I'm really eager to see what kind of liquor we can make with this.
[mark] spread her thin. Don't get it too thick.
[huck] fold 'em over and put another layer in there.
[mark] just keep making layers with it.
[huck] that'll hold the moisture in there.
We're trying to copy what mother nature does with the seeds in the ground.
Covered up, it'll sprout.
When it rains, it activates the process which starts germination.
You want a good inch and a half, two-inch shoots on it,
But once it starts getting green,
That's when you need to stop.
In the germination process,
That seed starts to release enzymes.
We're gonna stop it in mid-process
As soon as we get those enzymes at its fullest point.
And instead of it growing a plant,
It's gonna make tons of alcohol for us.
If you let your sprouts grow too long and it starts getting green,
You'll mess your liquor up on the taste.
-'cause then it's gone too far. -Yeah.
Once it starts turning green, you need to quit right there.
If you don't do it just righ you've ruined your whole batch of liquor.
-Just like watering a garden. -Yep.
That oughta do it.
[amanda] so, now we just let it sit for a couple days, right?
I'd take it over by the heater and set her down
-Just so it'll stay warm. -Yeah.
Surely go to sprout.
-And we'll probably add a little bit of water to this. -Every day.
It'll soak up a lot of water,
But we'll keep it next to this heater over here
And I'll keep that heater going.
We started the malting process now with these seeds.
We have them near a wood-burning stove
To keep it constantly warm,
And just give it, like, the best environment for them to malt in.
[mark] follow us and we'll take you to the mill.
[amanda] show me the way.
[mike] yo, jerry!
I got our stuff we've been talking about.
So, quinoa, huh?
You're looking at $100 plus tax per bucket.
Man, have you lost your damn mind?
$100 a bucket?
Do you realize we could have got a 50 pound sack of corn for, like, 8 or 9 bucks?
Everybody's had corn liquor.
I do realize that.
Nobody around here has had damn backwood quinoa alcohol.
But, hey, let's get her inside.
You know, quinoa is all the rage now.
People are seeking out to get this stuff.
Since our stash house got compromised last season,
We've been taking it very dadgum easy this year
On a way smaller scale than ever before.
[mike] well, we're up to a boil. Now we're ready to add our grain.
It's time for me and jerry to get back to what we're used to doing
And that's going bigger,
Making a lot of alcohol at one time,
Trying to be on top.
[jerry] okay. Well, we'll put that beta-amylase in.
That yeast is gonna have a field day in there, ain't it.
They'll be going to recess. That's for sure.
[mike] that yeast can't really eat on starch.
It's about like a damn pissant trying to eat a basketball.
You've gotta break this stuff down
And the amylase that we're gonna put in it
Will break that starch down into fermentable sugars,
Which creates alcohol.
[jerry] we want that amylase to do its job
And it does it the best at around 155-158, so...
I'm just gonna aerate it. That'll help cool it off.
If you pitch this amylase over a 160 degrees,
It will just plumb kill it.
The board stands up in it.
Golly.
[jerry] and now with this stuff cooked up,
It's really thick and hard to stir.
Now we're gonna add this alpha enzyme to it
And see if this stuff starts to break down.
-Want me to stir it? -All right. Let's see that conversion happening.
[mike] I could instantly fee it thinning up as I'm stirring it.
As soon as we pitched the amylase into this quinoa,
It turned in from like a thick oatmeal
Into a brothy soup and that's what we're looking for.
Mmm.
-It actually got a good sweet taste to it. -It does.
It actually is very, very flavorful.
It's already kinda sweet.
It's a lot better than, say, cooked down corn.
I love this stuff.
About time to get some yeast throwed to 'em, ain't it?
-[jerry] throw some magic dust to it and... -[mike] mmm-hmm.
...We're ready to let her sit.
Feeling real confident about this run.
It's looking good, smelling good,
Tasting damn good.
We're done. All we gotta do now is go try to find
Some botanicals and some spices to go in this quinoa gin
So we can run it's alcohol off.
Good job, brother.
Hell, yeah.
[xaime] so, that's a petate that's a palm mat.
And you'll see we'll cover up with this dirt.
When the agave is in the hole and it's all stacked up,
Then we have to cover it.
[tim] so, is this wet? This is wet?
[xaime] yeah, a little bit wet. Yeah.
-So, you see the smoke? -[tim] yeah, yeah, yeah.
[xaime] this is why it's smoking.
But it should be balanced between the agave flavor and the smoky flavor.
So it's not the strong wood flavor.
It's agave and the wood combination
-And slow with the heat. -Exactly. Exactly.
I understand no spanish,
But I understand when oscar speak
-Then you listen. -[oscar chuckling]
[xaime] yeah.
With oscar, we have a common denominator here.
We're both carrying on our heritage and tradition of making our product.
The love and passion he's put into that product
To make sure it tastes really good
From what his father had taught him how to make it..
I did the same thing with moonshine.
-The mountain is built. -It's already built.
So it's gonna stay there for four days.
Well, you know, looking at this whole process,
They build a fire in the ground in a big hole
And then they put these volcano lava rocks.
They grab some of the fiber and they put the agave pina on top of it,
And they close it up with tarps and dirt.
When they get done with it, it looks like a mound.
-This is secret. No one knows what's under there. -Nope.
-No one knows. -Only the neighbors.
-Only the neighbor. -[xaime chuckling]
So, are we finished here? Is it okay?
Yeah, we're all, like... It's done.
-Is this mescal time? -Yes.
[oscar speaking spanish]
-I'm with you, oscar. -Vamos.
-You're the boss. -[oscar speaking spanish]
[mike] go in here and see what they got.
I heard they got some good variety of stuff in here.
[mike] I reckon.
We found a local co-op that we can go to
And they're pretty much known for having more spices and botanicals
Than anywhere on the east coast.
You're not gonna get a bag of dadgum tater chips and chewing gum
And a damn candy bar. That's for sure.
But they'll have all the damn spices to go in this quinoa gin.
-What do you think? -That smells like damn...
Live crickets.
[laughs]
Oh, my god.
Shoo!
-Here we go. Butterfly pee. -[mike chuckling]
[mike] I ain't never seen so much stuff in my damn life, jerry.
-No. We're not... Uh-uh. -[jerry chuckling]
A lot of this stuff, it's not...
Don't have a good nose at all.
That smells like...
Moldy damn pocket lint or something.
And hell, it looks like it, too.
It smells nasty or either bland or like a dirty sock
Or somebody's jockstrap, so to speak.
I mean, this is bad stuff. A lot of it is.
What in the hell are people eating around here?
Golly.
Overall, the flavor profile that I'm looking to seek here with the gin
Is, uh, something peppery.
We're getting uptown with me now.
Cayenne pepper.
Something, uh, on the citrus note.
Mango green.
Oh, my god. Smell that.
That smells like gin.
I wanted to strike that complex flavor
That nobody's ever tasted before.
Licorice.
That's it exactly. Oh, yeah, boy.
We'll have some of that for sure.
We've got a lot of ingredien on the table that we picked out to use for our gin,
But the most important ingredient here is
The juniper berry that we've got to try to find.
-Jerry. -Yeah.
Are you kidding me?
I mean, can we make gin without juniper berries?
Not that I know of.
This ain't good. We need to find juniper berries.
We got every other ingredient that it can take to make a gin,
Except for juniper berries.
You wouldn't happen to have any juniper berries, would you?
We don't. We're out.
Sorry about that.
These people have got everything.
I mean, there's hardly any spice they haven't got.
If this co-op don't have juniper berries,
We're not gonna be able to find them anywhere.
-[mill owner] what's going on, huck? -This is amanda.
She's the one that's got this corn she needs ground.
-Hi. -Glad to meet you, ma'am.
This corn is a cherokee white eagle corn.
This was carried with the indians
And it sustained them and it fed them.
They actually carried this strain of corn over the trail of tears.
I did reserve about half of the corn.
It doesn't all have to be malted,
So we're going to grind the rest of it into cornmeal
It's special, so we want to make sure that we grind it up the right way
And, you know, we get the best flavor out of it.
[mill owner] yeah, come on in. We'll take a look at the mill here.
All right. Thank you so much.
-I can carry it for you. -Sure.
-What a gentleman. -[chuckling]
Now, this is the mill here.
So, two round stones
And now that's got grooves in it
And that's what crushes the corn.
[amanda] okay. Interesting.
-[huck] you can adjust it though. -Oh, yeah.
How would you want that ground?
-[mark] I'd make it a little coarse. -Yeah.
What are you gonna use this for?
That way we'll know more about how to grind it.
[amanda] well...
We like a good thick cake of cornbread, I like to eat.
-Yeah. -[laughing]
Huck, you can grind me a piece of that cornbread when you get it made.
Yeah, I'll save you a slice.
-Hey, huck, I guess I'll get you to engage it. -Uh-huh.
Go ahead and get up there, huck, and crank that thing up.
[mill owner] put your corn in, it starts feeding it.
Then you've got your adjustment over here.
Then when it comes out on this end,
It's your final product.
-[mark] watch it working! -[laughing]
[mill owner] is that going to be fine enough?
Looks good to me, man.
That's pretty cool, huh, huck?
Something really rewarding about bringing the corn back to north carolina
And putting it through an old stone mill.
Literally using an old tract to grind up the corn.
It's really neat to come back to basics
And just do things the old-school way.
Yeah that's got it there, huck.
-[amanda] that's the way it should be ground, I think. -Yep.
[mark] I think amanda's happ with the corn that we ground
It's ground perfect.
What do we owe you for this?
-A piece of cornbread when you get it fixed. -That'll work. [laughs]
-[amanda] thank you so much. -[mill owner] you're very much welcome. [chuckles]
[jerry] hello? You had any luck?
[mike on phone]
[bleep] no, man. The one guy told me
He could probably have them here in two or three weeks.
I'm like, "I ain't got that kind of time, man."
You know, juniper berries is what makes gin a gin.
It gives it that rich, pine, sappy taste to it.
Juniper berry's in the conifer family, so it's almost like a pine cone.
So it should have a pine taste to it.
I mean, peoples always substitute flavors.
If you can't find something, they always try to substitute.
[jerry] all pines and stuff around here, ya know,
Are safe to eat, so, I mean, if we can eat 'em, why can't we put 'em in a drink?
So, all we got to do is get in the woods and find something to replace it with.
Let's hit the woods and see what we can find.
What?
Well, I tell you what, dude, you've covered enough for me and my health and everything.
You just kick back and take it easy,
And I'll hit the woods and go cut us a bunch of different kinds of pine.
We'll sit and taste stuff and see if we figure out what'll work.
[jerry] I should have no problems finding some pine up in here, for sure.
You know, moonshiners, they tend to go in the woods for whatever they need.
If they needed some kind of flavor,
It's bound to be in nature.
Down here more. Gonna check this out.
A good smell to it.
That's a spruce tree there.
You know, back in the day, uh, old-timers, they'd take these spruce tips right here,
Where it's good and tender, put them in salads, and all kinds of stuff.
You know, we'll clip off a handful, just to be able to take back to mike.
We got a nice little buffet to choose from.
You know, right now I got four samples to choose from.
I'm gonna take them over by mike's house and see what he thinks.
You know, we'll go with the one that best fits the bill.
-What's up, bubba? -What's going on, man?
-Oh, man... -How ya feeling?
-Ow, my fingers. -Oh, yeah. [chuckles]
I feel like crap, son.
This dadgum leg of mine is giving me all hell.
Well, here, have you little hop on this little stool and see what I got for you.
Well, jerry, he's got four different kind of evergreens here.
You know, we got a fir, a white pine, a hemlock,
And we got a spruce right here.
One of these has got to hit close to the note.
-I've got a few juniper berries... -Mmm-hmm.
...That we used to help cook with and stuff.
You know, I've got a, just a few, a handful of juniper berries in a jar.
I'm gonna use those to compare to the evergreens
[mike spitting] like a pine tree.
Pine sap is what it tastes like.
[mike] that's exactly what it tastes like.
-[jerry] well, this right here is the fir. -Clean.
-That got a pretty good taste to it, don't it? -It does. Yeah, that's real...
-Junipery. Right? -Yeah.
[mike] fir tree has got that taste to it,
But it's not as loud and strong as the juniper berry.
Whoo! The white pine's got more of a sappy taste to it to me.
I think it's gonna be kind a like an off-flavor from what we're looking for.
The hemlock's got more of a damn cedar-y taste to it.
-It does, don't it? -Mmm-hmm.
-This is a spruce. Yeah. -Spruces.
That's pretty close to the money right there.
[chuckles] I mean, you can't tell a damn difference in it.
If you close your eyes and tasted the spruce and the juniper berry,
You can't tell the difference.
[mike] so, we'll take that, man.
We can't sell this as a gin if it does not work.
I mean, we got a lot of money on the line. We need it to work.
But we'll never know until we run it.
[jerry] big money run. Better get 'er done.
[mike] we'll see ya in a day or two.
[xaime] we want to show you some of the production over here.
So now that you know the agave is done. It's been four days.
It's cooked down. Right now, it's time for the next step.
What we got here?
Well, as soon as I walk into that building, the first thing I see
Is a horse turning around and squeezing the agave.
[tim] the horse is working too.
[xaime laughs]
-[oscar speaking spanish] -[tim] yeah.
[xaime] both of them are working today.
-[tim] I see this. -[xaime] yeah.
And this is agave from the field.
[xaime] yeah, this is, uh, already cooked agave.
[xaime] and you can actually... Ah, yes.
Mmm.
It's good, right?
-[tim] yeah. -[xaime] we cook it, you crush it,
Then you ferment the agave.
[speaking spanish]
[xaime] and then you distill.
This is the only crusher you have?
Well...
We have two horses.
-[tim] and they work for food. -[xaime] yeah. Sometimes, she even gets to
-Taste some delicious agave-- -I see she's eatin' up all the profit.
[xaime chuckles]
[xaime] right now, we don't ferment juice, we ferment with fibers.
That's one of the big differences
That you're going to see in tequila and mezcal.
-Once it's all shred, like this. -[tim] uh-huh.
-[xaime] then you know that it's good, so basically... -[tim] that's good.
-[xaime] this is how you put it over here. -[tim] mmm-hmm.
-[xaime] like the whole pieces. -Mmm-hmm.
[xaime] and then it's going to end up like this.
-[tim] it's like a fiber. -Yeah. Come on over here.
[xaime] you want to see something incredible?
This is how we build our distillery.
With all the leftovers of our agave fibers, you make adobe.
This is something that oscar has been doing 35 years ago,
-And it's still up. -Wow.
So the remaining fibers of this process can actually build you a house.
[tim] it's like a mud.
-It's clay with agave fibers... -Rocks and fibers.
...And then cement in between.
-So, he had to make this and, like, heat it? -Just sun dry.
-It's just the sun. -Agave has a lots, lots of value.
Textile, alcohol, food...
-House. -...And construction.
[tim] xaime and oscar, they remind me of
American moonshiners, right here.
Ya know, moonshiners, we're very resourceful.
We can turn anything into something that we can use.
[xaime] and now we're going to take it to the fermentation tanks.
[tim] get this?
[xaime] yeah, all that needs to go over there.
[tim grunts] oh. Good stuff.
-So, basically we're just taking whatever is ready. -Mmm-hmm.
And then gaviota still has some more work to do.
[tim] I'm ready.
And then I just put it in?
Yes.
I mean, right now, you're just putting like 20 kilos,
And you need 1,000 kilos.
-So, now I understand why we start before sun up. -Oh, yeah.
Xaime and oscar, they still doing it the old-fashioned, traditional way.
They still got the horse running around,
Ya know, squishing it up.
They still keeping those family traditions.
-[oscar speaking spanish] -[tim] yeah.
[speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]
Oscar is inviting you to go to a place
Where he usually don't take anyone,
Where his great-grandad started making mezcal, in the mountains.
-Mountains, I'm ready! -Yeah.
This gotta be, like, the illegal version of mezcal.
-Oh, yeah. For sure. -Now you're talkin' my language.
-Exactly. -You talkin' my language.
Now, oscar is going to take me up into the mountains
To where his family had
A illegal operation distillery.
We can go now?
-Vamos. -Vamonos.
This is an honor. I mean, it would be just like
If I took you back to where my dad or grandfather was making moonshine in the woods.
-[tim] you driving? -[xaime] you're driving.
-[tim laughing] I'm driving. -[xaime] you're driving.
[amanda] think we can check that malt?
[mark] about time.
[huck] see what it's done.
We've come back after a few days to check the process of the malts
With the trail of tears corn
Oh, yeah.
-[mark] sproutin'. -[huck] yeah, it is, ain't it.
-[huck] let me get them little long shoots on it. -[amanda] yeah.
Check on this malt.
It looks ready. It's got some pretty good shoots on it, you know.
That right there, that would be your roots.
-This right here would be the plant. -[amanda] yeah.
This is my first time malting a corn.
I have bought malted corn and I've used it to distill with.
But I've never malted it myself.
-That's how you know... -Mmm-hmm.
...Right when it's done.
There are little stems and roots on every grain.
Smells different, it looks different.
You wanna stop it before it turns green
'cause that'll make it have a weird taste.
Start wanting to eat it instead of drink it.
-Yeah. -[laughing]
-We don't want that. -Yup.
I believe it's time to dry.
I've got a dehydrator in here, works good.
Once it sprouts and everything,
You dry it, and then grind it up and put it in your mash.
It just gives your corn liquor a much better flavor.
If you grind it wet, it makes it taste funny don't it, mark?
You want it as dry as you can get it.
[amanda] and from what I read about malting,
Right at this point where we stop it,
Is where the enzymes are at their highest.
And that's why I really wanted your help
To know right when the perfect time was.
Yeah, this is why amanda came to us anyway
'cause she didn't know anything about malting corn.
Just put as much of it on there as you can get.
To dry, I just use a dehydrator.
You just start layering it up, you know,
Just stacking it up like a cake.
We're trying to use as much in there as we can get in there to dry.
You know, I'll just put it o right under 100 degrees.
You know, like 95 or something.
Here we go.
You're workin'.
-This isn't gonna burn it or anything, right? -No.
It's just really special corn.
This corn, when you're dryin' it,
You don't wanna put a lot of heat on it.
-You can feel this air, it ain't gonna burn. -Oh, yeah.
And it just blows like a fan, basically, so it blows warm air.
Don't worry, we know this is special.
-We ain't gonna do anything to hurt it. -Yeah.
[amanda] and how long do you usually let this dehydrate for?
Yeah, I just go on and go to bed and wake up and take it out.
Every little step that we do
May seem like it takes a long time,
But I don't do this to make a lot of money,
I really do this to make a great product.
And that's my goal every time.
-[taps container] -that's it.
[amanda] and I'm pretty excited to see what we can make with it.
[mike] we need to check her out, see what it looks like, brother, that's for sure.
[jerry] ah, look there.
-[mike] it's flatter than a damn pancake, ain't it? -Flat, flat.
Ooh, the alcohol is there.
God almighty dog, son.
You know, we need this run to be a success, uh, we're going all in on this quinoa.
I'm really nervous we are lackin'
The main damn ingredient and that is juniper berries.
Oh, my god, this smells so good.
[mike] yeah, you damn right, buddy.
But we have found some spruc and they're slam-full of sap
And bitterness and citrus notes.
And it tastes just like damn juniper, don't it?
Yeah, I think it'll add that hidden note that we're lookin' for.
With the citrus and everything
I believe it's gonna come out really nice for us.
We got to have that evergreen flavor come in with this gin.
The only thing I can think of now,
Just wrap up a bunch of spruce needles in cheesecloth.
Get on that little hook.
-You got it? -Got it.
We got us a gin basket, baby.
[jerry] let's get her back up there.
We're gonna hang it right in the last bit
Of vapor trail, right before it goes into the pipe.
Every drop of steam has to pass through these spruce needles.
All right, man.
Get these dad-gummed jars filled up and this stuff
Pumped over, we're ready to run.
We've bottled over 20-something spices.
We've got all kinds of leave twigs, weeds,
Stuff that we've never even heard about before, but has a good fragrance.
Think that would go with this damn star anise, down here, some peppercorn.
Now, good gin's got varieties of different types of spices
And botanicals and stuff.
And this is our mango.
Jalapeno flakes.
We wanna bring those flavors over in this,
We don't wanna taste just one ingredient.
First jar bein' installed.
When you're tryin' to induce flavors, you can't get those
Weaker flavors towards the bottom.
The jar likes to kind of strip it out as you go.
Got a little rosemary, a little peppercorn here.
The real strong, pungent flavors we will put lower down to the bottom,
So they will continue to carry through all the jars.
Oh, yeah, the mango.
[jerry] those weaker, citrus-type flavors, we wann put them up closer to the to
We just wanna make sure that these things blend and carry all the way through,
So that we have all the flavors in combination.
-[mike] phew, well... -[jerry] that's it.
You ready to get her pumped over?
[jerry] let's do it.
We've got all of our damn jars screwed in.
[jerry] here she comes.
[mike] it's on now.
There she flies.
The quinoa mash that we got,
It's gonna steam up through each and every one of these columns and jars,
Pickin' up the flavor from the botanicals and the spices that we've go
And that's how we gonna have our flavorful gin.
I'm gettin' a damn crick in my neck lookin' up at it.
[jerry] I'm a little bit concerned with this jar
-That's got our orange root in it. -[mike] uh-huh.
[jerry] it's got to that one and it's kind of coming to a standstill.
That stuff that's in it is just so fine,
-It's pushed that stuff in that pipe. -[mike] okay.
Get her pulled down.
[mike] come on, hurry up.
I'm tryin'.
This system, it's like a heart valve.
Don't let it blow it out of your hand, jerry.
If that thing gets blocked up, somethin' breaks down, somethin' explodes.
Uh, I'm probably gonna need your help here.
[mike] we're gonna lose the whole dang run.
[amanda] this is your deer? [laughs]
[mark] yeah, he belongs to the neighborhood.
-And what's his name? -[mark] bubba.
-[amanda] hi, bubba. Oh, my god. -[mark laughs]
Every time I come to visit mark and huck, it's definitely an adventure.
-He's got a sweet spot right there. -Oh, does he?
Bubba was kind of confused and thought he was a dog.
Ah, he loves everybody.
And so pretty. Old bubba, that's the best deer in the world.
[laughing]
[mark] I wouldn't shoot him for nothin'.
[laughing] I wouldn't.
If that son of a bitch is clogged up, it's gonna blow up.
I tell you what, you know, this block is goin' on,
We know we got some pressure mounting on us.
Get ready to dump this one out.
-Maybe give us a little bit less on that. -[mike] yeah.
I think we had too much in this one particular jar,
But soon as you take a jar off, it starts steamin' off alcohol vapors.
So we've gotta try to do this in a hurry.
We can't afford to lose all that steam,
Or we won't have no alcohol we'll have flavored water.
We've gotta stick it back on there and keep the run goin'.
-[jerry] you good? -[mike] yeah.
I think we got it back together.
I just hope it makes it on up the chain now.
[jerry] heck, we're gettin' bubbles in the top of her now.
[mike] tell you what, you don't never forget how pretty this column stil
Is when it's runnin', but it's always nice
To bring it back out and watch it shine one more time.
Come on, you son of a bitch, run!
But it's goin' through there the arm's gettin' hot.
We fixin' to have alcohol.
-[jerry] there she roll. -[mike] whoa.
That smells like a christmas tree farm right there, buddy.
You can smell each and every damn botanical in this stuff,
It's exactly what we was lookin' for.
Get rid of them old heads there, we'll get us a taste of it.
Just hope it ain't too damn much.
Let's see here.
-[jerry] wow. -Whoo!
[jerry] that's it, son, right there.
Damn almighty, son.
Hell, I'm as happy as a puppy with two damn peckers. We've got some fine damn gin.
And all the other flavors are subtle.
They comin' through, but we got the dry evergreen taste.
Quinoa gin, baby.
Yeah, anybody with a lot of money's gonna pay for this gin,
When they hear it's made from quinoa.
They gonna like it and they for sure will buy it.
I tell you what, man, this couldn't have went no damn better.
We got 15 good gallons of uncut gin here
That we can cut down into drinking proof.
Let's get her shut down and get out of here.
Get the hell gone.
We've got a lot of alcohol to sell
And we gonna make some good money on this.
There we roll, baby.
[man 1 speaking spanish]
This is where all his mezcal family started to make it.
[tim] he was making mezcal illegally here.
[man 2] this is 150 years ago,
When they stopped doing mezcal in this beautiful place.
[tim] that's the holes for the fermentation?
[man 1 speaking spanish]
[man 2] so, yeah, this was the fermentation tanks.
They actually chopped them from in the mountains.
You see ruins over here.
So, this was the distillery.
There were clay pot stills over there.
The water was coming from over there
And then the water was going back to the river.
So they were not holding the water.
-[tim] I don't think nobody'd find you. -[man 2] no.
No, you're here in the middle of the dessert.
[tim] yeah, middle of nowhere.
[man 2] you know, it was illegal to produce mezcal,
So people was going to the mountains to produce,
Then take to the cities, to the small towns, to sell it.
Same as moonshiners and bootleggers, yeah.
-[man 2] yeah? -[tim] yeah.
Where I'm from, the moonshiners, the men, make the moonshine
And the women bootleg it into the--
It was exactly...
Nip joints, they call them.
And we call it, over here, mezcaleras.
[tim] at first, it's a little bit, uh, different,
Because I'm in a different world.
You know, I'm a fish out of water here,
But once we start talking, it all goes together.
Distilling is always hot and it's hard work
And they doin' the same thing here.
You know, you think it's rou until you get here.
This is very rugged territory.
Uh-huh, I see, this is where the water come, down the trough here.
[man 2] so the water was coming from there. They hold it in this pool.
This was for storing the water.
-[tim] store the water. -[man 2] there were storing the water over here.
And then the water went to the distillery.
And then after the distillery, it went back to the river.
All the water from this comes from inside the mountains.
This is how everything started.
His great grandfather, he was basically doing this just for personal use.
-[tim] yup. -[man 2] mmm-hmm.
[man 1 speaking spanish]
Over here, their ancestors started to make mezcal.
And we're gonna honor them in the altar of dia de los muertos.
So you're gonna able to know more about them.
[tim] this is a special, sacred time period for them
And this is when they honor everyone from the past.
And he asked me to come to his mother's house
To celebrate and go to the altar with him.
And, I mean, this is, like, it's on top of the world.