[Smith] Welcome to Master Distiller.
Today we're gonna be making a Civil War era shine
that was almost lost in time.
Jimmy Red corn.
We've had a lot of competitions over the years,
but you've never seen anything like this.
[narrator] America loves its corn,
but nothing tastes like Jimmy Red.
[Jones] If it has that robust, nutty, earthy flavor...
Ooh!
...we know we're tasting Jimmy Red corn.
[narrator] Three outlaw shiners
take on one of America's rarest breeds.
[Daniel] Taking all my grains, are you?
No, I'm not taking-- I left you plenty.
[narrator] Born of the ashes of the Civil War...
It's that red in that Jimmy Red going.
[Smith] Look at that. Look at that.
...and almost lost to history.
It's really important to bring something like this back.
Don't screw it up.
[narrator] They'll compete to capture its unparalleled flavor...
It's like a butter biscuit with a lot of butter on it.
...in their own whiskey recipe.
-Wow. -It is Jimmy Red all the way.
Hey, guys, I'm Tim Jones, international spirits judge.
In the industry, there's not a lot of Jimmy Red corn on the shelf.
But it's a really important part
of American moonshine history.
[narrator] As the ravages of the Civil War and reconstruction
limited access to raw ingredients across the South,
moonshiners from Saint James Island, South Carolina,
began cultivating and distilling an unusual strain
of magenta hued, peanuty-flavored corn
believed to originate from Appalachia.
Jimmy Red moonshine proliferated across the Lowcountry until 1920,
when national prohibition turned distillers
to cheaper industrial varieties of corn
to meet the boom in moonshine demand.
By the time the last bootlegger to grow it passed away,
only two cobs of Jimmy Red corn survived.
But thankfully, the seeds were saved.
That corn was pretty much saved from extinction by farmers and distillers.
So it is an American comeback story.
I had actually never heard of Jimmy Red corn.
I have heard of Jimmy Red, but I never worked with it.
[Daniel] Only one time before I had worked with Jimmy Red corn.
I had plenty of difficulties.
And probably the worst thing I've ever made.
Tim and I have had the pleasure
of making a Jimmy Red moonshine
just like they did back in the 1800s.
We gotta find out about this Jimmy Red moonshine.
I ain't never heard of Jimmy Red corn.
I've never seen a corn have so much oil as this.
[man] It just adds a real good viscosity to the whiskey.
A quarter century ago, only bootleggers had it.
Got a little seed from everybody and started growing it.
And now, it's growing exponentially
because the hooch is so good.
-[Smith] Put it in there. -[Tickle] Looks good. All right.
Now, there you go.
[man] So y'all wanna create 1900 and earlier style moonshine,
you gotta hand-crank it.
[Smith] Yeah, I got a whole bucket full there.
Today is the day for us to run this Jimmy Red moonshine.
I think we've got some drops coming out.
Look at it.
Just like it was made during the Civil War.
[Tickle] That is good right there.
There's more corn flavoring than any other liquor I have ever tasted.
I'll have to say this is one of the rarest corns I've ever used.
Please be careful.
And don't outshine this corn.
Now, first off, all of y'all are gonna create your own Jimmy Red corn mash.
Then we're going to test that mash
to see what your alcohol by volume is.
Now, the winner of that will get first pick at their stills
to run their signature run of liquor.
[Smith] The winner of this competition
not only will get bragging rights,
but you'll get your own limited run
of Jimmy Red corn spirit
at Two Trees Distilling Company.
But right now, we want you to get a taste
of how it was to prepare their corn back in the 1800s.
[Tickle] Behind you,
you will see three hand-cranked grain mills.
You got a Mason jar sitting on your box behind you.
Your task is to get that jar full.
You cannot light your fires or start heating any water
until you have ground all of your corn.
[Jones] You can use other grains.
But don't screw it up.
Jimmy Red corn has a great mouth feel, big nutty flavor,
and I want to make sure I still taste
the Jimmy Red corn.
All right, you got one hour. Time starts now.
[Daniel] Being able to work with a heritage corn like Jimmy Red,
it's an honor, really, and a privilege.
Look at that. Daniel, he's pretty fast now.
But it makes me extremely nervous for this competition.
That is not easy.
This is a workout.
My name is Daniel Stevens. I'm 47 years old.
I'm from Bennett, North Carolina.
Hi, baby.
I have a 150-acre farm where we commercially raise chickens and cattle.
These are my chickens.
I got 140,000 of these.
I'm a farmer, but I'm also a moonshiner.
I've been distilling for ten years.
I usually run on my 20 gallon copper pot still.
I'm a self-taught distiller. I learned it all on my own.
I didn't want to ask questions.
I didn't want nobody knowing what I did.
My family history mostly is bootlegging and drinking it.
I was the first one in my family to actually start distilling.
I'm competing to get my name out there
and expand my platform
so I can teach the younger generation how to distill
so we don't lose this.
All right. Now, Julia is losing more than she's capturing.
Yeah. She's got it going all over the place.
I'm Julia Register. I'm 48.
And I'm from Hickory, North Carolina.
I am a former worship administrator at a church.
And I am a musician.
I love singing.
And I love hanging out with my family and my friends.
But my secret passion is moonshining.
I built this brew room. That's what we call it.
I've just pitched the yeast in here, which is a corn mash.
My husband and I have brewed beer for 12 years.
And messing around with different mash bills for my beer,
that next step is just take that beer and don't put hops in it,
and distill it.
This was actually a cab sav wine,
uh, that I distilled and then rapid aged it
to make it, kind of, a cognac style, and it's really good.
I'm excited to work with Jimmy Red corn.
I think it's very important
to maintain heritage ingredients
just because we need to preserve that legacy.
[Smith] Anthony, so he's getting the entire thing out.
He's gonna tear that handle pulling off that thing.
My name is Anthony Deon Jefferson,
and I'm from Henderson, North Carolina.
I've been distilling a little bit over ten years.
Self-taught.
This is the poor man's Pappy Van Winkle.
It's at 125 proof.
Barrel ready. Ready to go.
After running liquor for a couple of years,
I come to find out that my grandparents were bootleggers.
What I love about distilling is the science,
the knowledge that you have to know.
This is a peach brandy. It started out clear.
If you had Smell-O-Vision, that smells so damn good.
It would mean the world to me
to be the next Master Distiller
to open up doors that have not been opened ever in my family.
So I think this will give me the opportunity to do so.
Five minutes in. You got 55 to go.
There we go. Daniel has got a jar already.
All right, Daniel, go to work.
[Tickle] All right. You can go to work.
-All right. -[Smith] There you go, Anthony.
[Tickle] There you go, Anthony.
-[Smith] Julia, she's got-- -[Jones] All right. Julia has a full jar.
-All right, Julia. -[Smith] Go to work.
Daniel's got his lit.
Anthony's lighting.
[Jones] They were all given the same amount of Jimmy Red.
Twenty-five pounds.
-[Jones] Twenty-five pounds. -Yeah.
Now, wait a minute. He's putting his grain in already.
He just put the water in, putting the grain in.
You don't want to put that grain in that water.
You use that pot to just heat your water,
and you use that barrel to mash in.
-That's right. You can't scorch nothing that way. -Yeah.
Anthony, we noticed you're the only one
that started with water and grain.
[Anthony] Normally, I let my water warm up.
But in this case, we only have an hour.
I'm actually doing my process a little bit different
than my other competitors.
Because I'm staying on the fire, and I'm cooking it.
Just making sure it don't scorch.
-Julia. -[Julia] Yup.
You're making some decisions already?
[Julia] I am making decisions already.
I ended up picking some of the Southern Select and the Base Camp,
which are both two-row barleys.
And also I used Crystal malt
because I know that's got a nice honey flavor to it.
And I wanted to bring out that sweetness.
Taking all my grains, are you?
No, I'm not taking-- I left you plenty.
[Daniel] I go up to the grain bin,
and I pick up Hickory King White corn,
Cumberland corn and Crystal malt.
Because I thought with the Jimmy Red
that it would give it sweeter notes on the front, middle and back.
And the barley would help get fermented in five days.
A little goes a long way.
Bloody butcher.
I choose Bloody Butcher,
Crystal, southern select and basecamp.
I was looking for the crystal to come through
with a sweet flavor profile
to add towards the bloody butcher.
I hope that they complement the jimmy red corn.
[Jones] Not one person did a 100% jimmy red.
They're complementing it with other grains.
[Tim] That can get the jimmy red corn
the base they're working with confused.
-Yeah. -If you start getting something else,
[Tickle] I Want to make sure I still taste the jimmy red corn.
All right, guys, you got five minutes left.
[Anthony] Work fast, work fast.
Jimmy red has more oils in it,
which I was a little bit nervous about.
Ooh...
Not sure my mash will give me the alcohol
and the flavor that I wanted out of it.
[Daniel] I'm hoping that I get a good conversion.
Plenty of alcohol and a new flavor
that nobody's tried before.
[Anthony] When I dumped my pot into the bucket,
I was kind of nervous about scorch.
Oh, looks good.
Walking away from my mash.
I really hope that it sets in within the next five days.
[Tim] Everybody's done, everybody's in?
-We're done. -We're done
Man, y'all did a whole lot in one hour, I tell you that.
We'll give you a mash.
Five days to work off.
Head on out, then
2 It's been five days since you mashed
in your jimmy red corn.
Today we're gonna measure your alcohol by volume.
Each one of you are gonna bring us one jar
of your mash from your jimmy red corn,
and we're gonna calculate
who got the most the alcohol out of your mash.
That will determine the order that you get to pick
your stills for your first run.
[Tim] All right, guys, you're gonna have two minutes
to bring us the jar of mash out of your barrel.
Your time starts now.
[sniffs]
[Julia] When I opened the lid on my mash,
I saw the color and I knew
that it had done what I wanted it to do.
I'm very happy with how it turned out.
I know my mash could have worked off a couple more days.
But I'm ready to give it a chance
and see what it do.
All right. One minute in. You got one minute left.
Danny ain't messing around.
[Jones] Wow, it's almost like a grapefruit juice.
[Daniel] Coming back after five days,
I thought the mash would be really pink,
but it was a little more white pink.
Which made me interested in
what flavor would come out of that.
[Jones] Julia's is different.
Look at hers.
[Tickle] It's that red in that jimmy red.
-I know. -Look at that. Look at that.
All right, guys, you got 10 seconds.
Make sure you got your name on your jar.
Five, four three, two one.
[Tim] Outstanding.
Three different colors of mash.
-Three different things going on here. -[Tickle] Mmm-hmm.
[Tim] All right, guys, we're going to do
a alcohol by volume calculation on it.
We're gonna find out how much of your sugars
has convert over to alcohol
and rank you one, two, three.
So we start with Daniel.
-[Tickle] Somewhere around there. -[Tim] Yeah.
Let's just see what's gonna happen here.
[Daniel] I was thinking with my ABV
I would land somewhere around like a 78% alcohol.
[Tickle] All right. Let's just see what Anthony got going on here.
I can smell it.
[Anthony] The pick of the still will determine this competition
and just a couple of stills that I got my eyes on.
[Tickle] Let's see what Julia's got.
Mmm.
[Julia] I'm thinking that I might be in the middle,
possibly even in the bottom, with my ABV.
But I think my flavors are gonna be great.
[Tim] All right, guys,
we did some calculations here and there.
Anthony?
You came in third with 6.0.
Uh, but we have a problem.
We have a tie between first place
Daniel, you've got 8.29
and then Julia, you have an 8.29
Best way to solve a dispute like this
is an old fashioned coin flip.
Julia, do you want to call it?
-Sure. -[Jones] All right.
[Julia] Heads.
-[Tim] It's heads. -[Jones] It's heads. Hey.
-All right. -[Jones] Let's go.
So, Julia, you win the corn toss.
Julia, no two stills are alike.
The first still pot with a thumper.
It's great for upping your proofing, your flavor.
Now second, we have a classic steel pot
with a condenser.
Lastly, we have a pot still with a diamond cap,
condenser and parrot attachment.
Which one you picked?
I want the one with the thumper.
[Tim] Going with the thumper, old fashioned.
All right, Daniel, which one you pick?
I'll take the straight pots still.
Straight pots still. with the condenser.
No thumper.
All right. Anthony, which one you gonna pick?
[Anthony] I'm taking the one with the parrot.
I'm trying to bring up my alcohol volume, so that will help.
[Tim] All right, guys.
You've selected your stills.
You've got four hours to make this jimmy red corn.
But unfortunately,
only two of you is gonna move on to the next challenge.
Jimmy red corn, it's got an amazing history.
It's really important to bring something like this back.
We're also looking for that big nutty flavor.
Great mouthfeel in that jar.
So I'm really excited to see what the outcome is.
Time starts now.
That still big as that.
Anthony ain't playing around. He got fire going.
I'm starting my process a little bit different than the competitors.
It takes about three hours from a still to run a parrot.
So I'm really pressed for time.
So, Julia, in the beginning, we talked about
how important it is to showcase jimmy red.
How are you going to do that?
I saved some jimmy red that was not in the mash.
It's just straight jimmy red, I'm gonna put it in there with
some of my mash to get even more of that good corn flavor.
I'm putting jimmy red raw cracked corn.
The stuff that I made from the cracking challenge
at the very beginning in my thumper,
along with some of my mash in there to get extra flavor.
So she's going to get a big second kick of that jimmy red corn.
Mmm-hmm.
Well, this is gonna be tough.
[Julia] Oh, yeah!
Well, it looks like everybody has got fire under their pots.
How much of y'all's mash did you put in
About fifteen sixteen?
I put about 15 gallons of mash into my pot.
Because I don't want to overflow the pot.
And I think that will still give me plenty of alcohol.
Two hours in, two hours ago.
Man, come on, bro. Come on.
I need mine to come on out.
Oh, look, we got alcohol.
We got a drip.
That stuff tastes great.
[Julia] Oh, oh.
[Anthony] You got your liquor going?
I got liquor.
[Anthony] I just hope mine won't be too far behind.
The other contenders today are running
are starting before mine,
so I'm actually getting nervous.
Come on up here.
That's the only thing I didn't like about that one
is the time it takes to do it.
[Julia] Because it has so much reflux before--
[Daniel] It has so much reflux.
Better to get your ABV up if you ain't on a four hour time limit.
-It's awesome. -Yeah, come on, baby.
Let's make some liquor.
[Julia] I'm already getting the mouthfeel that I wanted to get.
It's coating my mouth more than other corn mashes will do.
And so I'm very excited on how it's turning out.
[Daniel] Not as much jimmy red as I would hoped in the first few jars
and getting into the hearts I was really concerned
because the flavor wasn't coming through like I liked it.
You ain't the only one got drip.
Whoo-hoo! We got drip.
Let's go.
My run starts, but I'm pretty nervous
about my flavors coming through.
I'm really pressed for time.
[Julia] I'm in tails.
Just taste it a little bit
and you're gonna get a lot of sweet notes in it.
I've been tasting the sweet, yeah.
I took a couple of my favorite jars
from the middle of the run.
I put just a little bit of the nice, clear,
sweet part of the tails.
To give it more flavor, and then I ended up having
to put a little water in it because it was still too hot.
Last little sploosh.
But now I have a perfect jar at 90 proof.
Yeah, we're done in five minutes.
You put the name on the lid and screw it on the top.
All right, first jar.
Here you go. Best jar I've ever made of jimmy red corn.
It's clean, it's clear.
And I hope the judges will love it as much as I do.
[Anthony] How you looking over there, bro?
[Daniel] I'm looking good. How are you looking?
[Anthony] I'm looking great. Yes, sir.
[Daniel] During the run, I actually got a 90-proof jar,
which helped a lot, it brought 130 proof jars down
to help blend them.
That's it.
Daniel's coming in.
Best I can do, fellas.
The flavor was there,
so I thought it was a perfect jar to turn in.
[Tim] Anthony, you need to start tightening up over there.
Yes, sir.
You got two minutes left.
[Anthony] The crystal was coming through with a sweeter note
kind of enhanced the bloody butcher.
But the other characters were fighting with jimmy red,
I had to do some-- Some tweaking a little bit.
Don't overthink it, Anthony.
You got this.
I'm really pressed for time
and you know it's nerve racking.
Anthony, you need to get that top lid on that jar.
[Anthony] Okay. Just give me one second. Okay.
[whispers] You got this? You got this.
You got this. You got this. You got this
2 [whispers] You got this? You got this. You got this.
Anthony might run out of time.
[Anthony] I was looking for my jimmy red corn to come through.
I don't know what's going on over there.
[Anthony] I had to do some some tweaking a little bit.
[Tim] We want a nice clean jar,
but don't take the flavor out now.
[Anthony] No, sir.
I did use a lot of my tales.
And the jimmy red came proved more prominent
than any other grain that I had in there.
[Tim] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five.
Yes, sir.
We're gonna go and do some tasting myself,
and we'll be back with our verdict.
This is a jimmy red corn challenge.
They had to have 51% jimmy red corn.
If it has that robust, nutty, earthy flavor,
We know we're tasting a jimmy red corn.
Let's try Daniel.
Yeah, I would say that's a nice pretty jar.
[Tickle] Mmm-hmm.
I mean, really, look at that.
-It is really. -[Tickle] Mmm-hmm.
[Tim] And I would say it's high proof.
[Daniel] With the jimmy red
-mine could have used just a little bit more of it. -[Julia] Yeah.
[Daniel] It was right there.
-It's got that sweet, buttery finish. -[Tickle] Mmm.
Just like jimmy red should have.
It's like a butter biscuit with a lot of butter on it.
I'm not pulling out the earthy notes I think
is normally there with jimmy red,
but everything else is there.
It's almost perfect.
Let's see what we've got here.
Yeah, and that tastes like jimmy red to me, too.
But it may have been wise to let that hickory king out
-because jimmy red has such a bold flavor. -Yeah.
You really want it to stand out?
I think if it was proof down just a little bit,
maybe that jimmy red
or some of those flavor profiles
would have stood out a little bit more.
Let's look at Anthony.
-It is not clear, clear. But yeah pretty. -Yeah.
It's going away pretty fast too.
Just getting it to run. It took me a very long time.
You guys were already running.
Just hope that the liquor speaks for itself.
I don't know what that is, but-- It's got jimmy red.
But there's something else there.
[Tickle] He's got different kinds of barley in here
that could compete with the jimmy red.
It tastes really good,
but I think he's got too much going on in that jar.
[Jones] There is a distinct flavor profile on this.
-[Tim] Yeah. -[Jones] And it is very earthy.
It is very funky.
You know, I'm with Tim.
I think his mash got too busy.
-Julia, that's a very clean job. -[Jones] Very clean.
They brought it.
Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't think above 80.
I was afraid of overdoing it.
-[Daniel] Yeah, but-- -So I didn't put a ton in there.
But 120 proof tasted like-- like 40 proof.
I mean, it really did.
I think we all have been challenged here today.
It's a little bit lighter than other guys.
[Tickle] Hmm.
Now, definitely jimmy red.
-Now hers has got alcohol all the way through. -[Tickle] Hmm.
It's a little bit on the front and all the way to the end.
I think she's using more jimmy red corn
than the rest of them.
Yeah, well, you know, she added jimmy red grain to the doubler.
-[Tickle] To the doubler. She sure did. -She did.
-Raw grains not cook mash. -Yeah.
I'm curious if that's where some of the spices come from, Tim.
Yeah, you're gonna see. There's some spice in there.
Even though it's still in the 90-proof range.
See, I love-- I think this is jimmy red forward.
-Even on the nose. -Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I enjoyed that one.
We've got a competition.
It's a much stronger jimmy red four forward I think.
[Tickle] Mmm, you know there's a fine line between
proof and flavor, and I think she hit that mark.
Jimmy red corn is there on all three jars.
There's just one that fell a little short.
-[Tim] All right. Let's go. -All right.
We had three really good jars.
Unfortunately, this is a competition,
and it was not an easy decision to make.
Two of you is gonna move ahead to the next challenge.
One of you will be going home today.
[Jones] Julia, I was intrigued by your mash,
and I was excited to taste your distillate.
On the nose it was jimmy red forward.
We could smell it, and on the taste I could taste it,
but it was still a little crowded.
But you did get the mouthfeel we were looking for.
Julia, we've seen people put all kinds of stuff in the thumper,
but you put grain in it.
That was something different, and it did add to the flavor.
I think it added a little spicy note to it.
Really good.
Anthony, jimmy red corn,
it's there on the nose,
and it's there on the flavor palette.
You brought a whole lot of extra grains
to the table today, bold move.
And so when you bring multiple ingredients together,
it's hard to balance out.
I always like to say this much over just enough is too much.
On the nose for me it was there.
There was jimmy red right there.
But it wasn't mingling.
It wasn't playing well with the other grains,
so the balance was probably a little off
Overall that's a really nice try.
Daniel, you created some high proof stuff.
But you have a good mouth feel
that jimmy red really overpowers it.
It always has that buttery taste,
and that's what you want.
Daniel you told us you was gonna deliver a high proof jar.
You said you sell alcohol, not flavors.
Yeah.
But yet it still had plenty of jimmy red corn in there.
Good job.
All three of you. Great job.
And it was very difficult for us to make a decision
because all three of you great distillers,
all three of you, brought us a good product.
Unfortunately, one of you will have to go home today
and the other two will move forward in the next challenge.
Anthony that jar there brought you a ticket home.
It's quite all right.
I was expecting what I heard.
My spirits were very complex,
and I believe that's really what hurt me a little bit.
Good job and good to meet you.
[Anthony] Even though I'm going home,
I'm still taking home a jar
where I can be able to work on that recipe.
You haven't seen the last of me.
All right, guys, we're gonna take this jimmy red corn
and turn it into a whiskey.
But now you're gonna have opportunity to really bring out
that jimmy red flavor and another run.
But at the end of the four hours,
you're gonna have to age it.
You'll be running on identical pot stills
with a thumper.
[Jones] This round is to really showcase
all your decision making
with your distillate mash and what chips you choose.
[Tim] Now we have got 18 different wood chips over there.
You can use your previous run.
You can use your mash,
whatever you want to experiment with.
But within four hours we need a jar on the table with the chips in it,
And we're gonna let them rest overnight.
We really want to see this jimmy red showcase.
All right, four hours starts now.
No turning back now.
I go up to the chips and I grab the amburana for sure
because I have had that before.
Gives a nice sweet note.
[Tim] I hope you remember what you're getting.
[Julia] Yeah, that's why I'm putting them in different spots.
Okay.
All right, Daniel.
I'm like a kid in a candy store.
I'm grabbing anything I can,
even though if I ain't gonna use it,
I want to try it a little bit.
I'm just gonna try them in different jars
to see which one works best for me.
This is the first time that we give them chips during the run.
It's gonna come down to who makes
the right choice on these wood chips.
If they don't have the right combination of these chips.
We're gonna lose jimmy red.
2 They're gonna take this jimmy red
that they're gonna clean it up
and they're gonna put it on chips.
Well, we've got both pots literally.
[Daniel] For this run, I put about five gallons of original mash
in some spared jimmy red grains,
and I put almost all the alcohol
from the first run in.
My strategy is to clean it up,
bring a little more jimmy red flavor.
Just get a better profile,
[Jones] He's breaking down that
and put distillate and the corn.
He's got distillate and jimmy red.
Daniel, what are you putting in your thumper?
I'm putting uh, some grains I didn't use in the mash.
-And then I'm uh, little bit of the old mash, too. -Yeah.
[Daniel] Try to put a little cooked corn in it,
maybe bit of jimmy red.
It'll bring that flavor over.
For this runoff I've got Thumper, and I really think
it's gonna help bring jimmy red forward.
I've charged thumpers before, but this is the first time
I've ever used raw grains in a thumper.
That should carry over great.
You see, they're not putting that much in the still
because they-- they don't have that much neither.
[Julia] I went ahead and filled my pot
with all the rest of the liquor
that came off the previous run.
Along with some mash that I had already strained off and reserved.
And just a little bit of water so that
it wasn't totally overtaken with alcohol.
Julius got some distilling going over into her doubler.
All right.
[Julia] My thumper. I poured my perfect jar of tails
because that also brings more flavor.
Then I poured mash from the barrel that had grain in it
because I wanted to get more grain flavor.
I kept my one good jar
-that I had turned in last time. -Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And my plan is to get that one started aging now.
Yeah.
While the res t of this is running,
She's taking a risk of putting chips in her jar already.
[Daniel] Oh, I'm running.
[Julia] Nice.
Whoo-hoo!
I got liquor.
Liking it?
[Daniel] Lot more from jimmy red on the front.
Well, the first couple of jars had me worried.
They weren't tasting like I thought they should.
They were sweet. They were a little hot.
They were high proof.
But then it started calming down
and the jars got better each one.
I tried several different chip combinations
and char combinations on each jar
just to see what each one does tomorrow.
And for a final blend in the final jar,
[Tim] How you doing, Julia?
[Julia] Doing pretty good.
-Looks like a clean, clear jar there. -[Julia] Yeah.
What's going on in your run here?
[Julia] I've already got some blends started.
-All right. -[Julia] Um, that's some of my really good hearts jars,
and that's where I'm gonna mix my different chips in
to get the different flavors that I want.
That's all the damage I can do.
All in all, I think it was a good blend.
I did the best I could and with what I had and just hope for the best.
[Tim] All right, guys, It looks like you're all done.
I think you can head on out
Tomorrow we'll come back, get that one perfect jar.
[Tim] Up until this point, you've been making this
jimmy red corn shine.
Today we're gonna get the taste of jimmy red corn whiskey.
The jimmy red category is small,
so if you bring us something that's complex
but still highlights jimmy red corn,
it's a great opportunity.
[Tim] Now the last challenge.
You'll have 30 minutes to strain and clean your jar.
Present it back to us as a whisky,
and we'll do some tasting.
The winner of this competition,
we're gonna name the next Master Distiller.
You'll have 30 min.
Your time starts now.
Well, it looks like they had a plan.
And now I see some jars really, really dark.
That could be really, really good
or that could be really, really not so good.
She's gonna filter each one of the jars
and separate that wood.
[Julia] My strategy for the final blend
I want to make sure that I get everything filtered first,
then I'll start blending together
what I think tastes best.
How did the amburana come out?
-Good, Good -[Daniel] Good?
-I just tasted it. -[Daniel] I tasted yesterday.
I'd like to have a jar of it just by itself.
[Julia] Oh, my gosh, it's amazing.
Amburana has a little nutty quality to it.
It's almost-- It's almost like toasted almonds or something.
Daniel, how are you doing it?
It actually had more color than I thought it was gonna have.
-A lot more. -[Julia] Uh, mine too.
Mine, too.
So I guess it's time to taste a little and see how it tastes.
Jimmy red is traditional Carolinas,
so I just want to stay traditional American with it.
[Tickle] Daniel went with more traditional woods
with lighter tones.
And we know where it's proven
-that that does work with jimmy red corn. -Yeah.
[Daniel] I used a French American
light toasted and American medium toast.
Hopefully I can do jimmy red justice.
All right, guys, you've got 13 min left.
When I started blending,
I used a good bit of the amburana, actually
because it turned out softer than I expected it to.
In another jar I had a pecan.
And then I had heavy toast,
mainly for that oak flavor and the color.
And then I had a blend of the vanilla oak and amburana
Julia, are you happy with the jar that you blended?
I am.
I feel like it really brings out the sweetness of the corn.
I hope y'all getting close.
You got two minutes.
All right.
I'm good.
I was so nervous, but at the same time,
so relieved that I was done.
I'm very happy with my jar.
It tastes amazing. And I can't wait to see what they say.
Best jar of jimmy red I've ever made.
[Tim] Yeah, Julia.
Well Daniel, you're down to 20 sec over here, buddy.
[Daniel] If I had more time, I would have blended
a little differently, maybe to please the judges,
but I was trying to balance the flavor
and the alcohol content.
[Tim] Five, four,
three, two and there's Daniel.
Outstanding, Daniel. You made it.
All right. Head on back to your stations.
[Jones] Good luck to the both of you,
and I'm really excited to try both these jars.
2 We all know that most of the corn
that's used for distillations
bred or grown for alcohol.
-[Tim] Mostly yellow corn. -Mostly yellow corn.
There's not a ton of flavor in it.
[Tickle] The thing that's interesting about this jimmy red,
not only can you make alcohol out of it, but you can eat it, too.
[Tickle] So all of this is made with jimmy red?
[man] Every single one.
That oil it shines through.
It just-- it raises the dish.
[woman] You're in Charleston,
so you have to have shrimp and grits.
These are cornmeal pancakes with some fried chicken on top.
Corndogs.
Jimmy red, sugar cookies.
Your jimmy red cornbread.
Mmm.
[Tickle] If we can extract the same amount
of flavor in this cornbread
over into our alcohol,
we're really gonna have something.
There's a great flavor to it.
Most corn for distillation, you don't want to eat.
2 Well, guys, you know, this is jimmy red corn.
[Tickle] Now their very first run
they maybe overpowered the jimmy red
just a little bit and lost it.
But with this second distillation,
hopefully, they were able to bring
the jimmy red out a little bit more, pronounced.
That's Julia.
-Real nice dark jar. -Yeah.
Mmm-hmm
It's a good read.
Around a 100
I'm getting a nice, nice, sweet vanilla.
Maybe a little cinnamon
Spicy up front.
Uh, it mellows out really good.
What you smell is what you're gonna taste.
It's nice caramel vanilla finish.
The jimmy red is clearly there.
It did not cover it up.
I would say very much complimented.
That's a good jar.
[chuckles]
That's delicious.
It's got a big graham cracker taste to it,
but I think she did a good job.
Highlighting jimmy red,
but bringing something new to the table.
-Yeah. -[Tickle] All right.
Y'all made this jar sound wonderful.
-[chuckles] It is. -It is good.
Oh, wow!
The nose on that is great.
I'm getting jimmy red.
But all of these other sweet notes
that y'all are talking about
caramel, vanilla,
[sniffs]
-even cinnamon. -Marshmallow.
-cinnamon, marshmallow. -I mean, it's all there
[Tim] Hey, you almost want to just drink that jar?
Yeah, it's a dangerous jar.
Wow.
That is smooth.
That's good.
Daniel, he's calling this unfiltered, uncut.
Mmm.
Interesting.
Okay.
He was going to lower our proof down to about 100.
Let's see if he did it.
-I'd give him 90. -[Tickle] Mmm-hmm
-But that's a nice gold color. -It is.
[Jones] I expect the big jimmy red mouthfeel
and flavor out of that jar.
Let's hope so.
I think he was really targeted.
Smooth butter finish.
Really nice.
There's a lot of jimmy red there.
On the nose.
It's definitely jimmy red.
There's nothing covering it up.
It's definitely there on the flavor.
It's complemented really well with the wood.
But it's got that little rye spice
that jimmy red brings to the table, too.
Yeah.
Not nearly as complex as Julia's.
Mmm-hmm.
but I think he pretty much hit the target.
That's g-o-o-d good.
Wow.
That's almost like a buttered ear
-of jimmy red corn in a glass. -[chuckles]
Mmm. Mmm.
We've got a real ,tough decision on our hands.
[Tickle] One is more traditional, and we've got another
that's trying something new.
Mmm-mmm.
And we have one that's really above the other
Yeah, there's one jar on this table that I could sell
and it would fly off the shelves.
Let's go ahead and tell them which one it is.
-All right. -All right, let's do it.
Hi, guys.
Someone's gonna go home.
Someone's gonna become a master distiller.
You made it hard on us.
Both of you made a perfect jar.
Daniel you stay traditional
and your jar is a little bit light on proof,
but unless you taste profile comes in.
We asked you to bring jimmy red corn back.
And forward.
You highlighted it.
You didn't overpower it,
and you didn't overcomplicate it.
And Daniel, I think going down that traditional path,
there was a risk there.
I think you took the assignment
and you delivered.
You not only showcased what jimmy red corn is,
but you showcased what jimmy red corn can be.
Julia you have an exceptional palate for good spirits.
The other thing is, your blending skills are just as exceptional.
Really good job on that.
Your blending skills and your aging skills.
You showcased them extremely well today.
Both of these jars are very marketable,
but I can only put jimmy red corn on one of them.
Both of you know what you're doing.
You should be proud of yourself.
[sighs] And you know, there comes a time when
someone has to be named Master Distiller.
And Daniel, you're the next Master Distiller.
[Julia] Congratulations.
[Daniel] I feel happy. I'm relieved.
It's an honor just to be here.
And even more of an honor to win it.
Julia is a tough competitor.
It could have gone either way,
and if we did it again tomorrow, she might win.
Good job, sir.
-Thank you. -Outstanding.
Next up for me is a limited run of my liquor in a store.
One of the very few times
I wish we could have named
-two Master Distillers. -[Tim] Yeah.