[narrator] this time on master distiller...
This competition, it's gonna be nuts.
[narrator] nut liquor, born of medieval magic,
still brewed in the darkest corners of the backwoods.
-We got the kukui nuts. -Turkish hazelnuts.
You gonna make liquor or you gonna make pecan pie?
Little bit of both.
[narrator] and when it comes to nuts,
no one has more on the line than judges mark and digger.
You know, mark and I both love a good hazelnut rum.
[narrator] 'cause going nuts with spirits
can crack even the toughest distiller.
I'll be damned.
This is insane.
[narrator] across the country,
a handful of amateur distillers
are heirs to a centuries-old tradition.
Some operate on the legal side.
Others practice their craft beyond the reach of the law.
Now they'll face off to earn their place
in america's liquor-making legacy.
Judged by three legendary moonshiners...
Oh, it's got a smell.
So does a damn skunk.
...They'll go head-to-head in a series of challenges...
[frank] ooh! We got liquor running over here, guys.
That's off the chain.
...To determine who has what it takes...
Who needs a nutcracker?
...To be named master distiller.
We have tasted some of the best liquor
in the history of this show.
Guys, I wanna welcome y'all to master distiller.
What you got at stake here is your bragging rights
and you're gonna get a limited run of your liquor
in a major distillery.
[mark] this is nut liquor.
This is one that's... It's near and dear to my heart.
Digger and I make hazelnut rum,
that's one of our favorites.
We need to bust on some nuts, don't we?
I've been itching to bust a nut.
Hazelnut rum, it's one of our most sought-after recipes.
[mark] well, we'll get all that goodness out of there.
Nut-based spirits have been around for a long, long time.
Tickle, tell us all about it.
You know, people started drinking
nut-based drinks in ancient times.
The ancient celts,
they would use it in pagan rituals
and even as a health tonic.
Roman soldiers brought that tradition
back to rome with them from britain.
Medieval monks started using it as medicine.
And soon distillers from all over europe
were adding regional nuts to their liquors.
Hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios.
In the 1970s, bartenders discovered
how great these spirits were in cocktails.
And the market for them exploded.
They've stayed popular ever since, and sipping this, I can see why.
Mmm! Nutty.
Wishing y'all luck.
This competition, it's gonna be nuts.
Mark, I'm glad you said that, not me.
Yeah, I know, timmy.
[digger] now it's time for y'all to build your mash.
You got one hour and your time starts now.
[digger] good luck, guys.
When you're making any nut-based spirit,
as many nuts as there are and ways to do it, your imagination is the limit.
There's millions of combinations.
[digger] we know all too well, if you use anything over
a handful of nuts, you're busting yourself to death with a little hammer.
My name is amanda bryant and I'm from
the pocono mountains of pennsylvania.
This is one of my still sites I have
out in the woods, in the mountains here.
I am a roofer and a stonemason.
But as a hobby, I'm a self-taught home distiller.
[man 1] there's an old grizzly bear.
It's a real grizzly bear. Isn't that cool?
Anything that I learned, you know,
I learned from literature that I find myself.
This is a 1903 sniper rifle
that was used in world war ii.
I'm kind of a nerd and I love science,
so my friends call me the professor.
Making a beautiful spirit in the end
is sharing the knowledge that I learned with other people,
because I work hard to learn everything.
This is 95 proof peach brandy.
I make clean base spirits, corn liquor.
I've done, you know, nut-infused spirits.
My ultimate goal is to learn as much as I can
and pass that knowledge on and hopefully inspire people
because we can all learn something from one another.
So, I'm making like a hazelnut light rum.
I'm using turkish hazelnuts and ones from oregon,
because they almost, they taste a little bit different.
Yeah, they all have a different flavor.
You've done some vanilla bean as well?
Yes.
Brown sugar and hazelnut milk to top it off.
I love making hazelnut-infused rums
because my family is from poland,
and it's a big thing there.
Our hazelnut, yeah, it's our bread and butter,
and I'm fascinated with anything
if I bring something else to the table.
Hope you guys will like it.
[digger] frank, tell us about what you're building over there.
[frank] I got some roasted texas pecans, honey, yeast.
I'm old school. I just believe in keeping it simple.
My name is frank hicks.
I'm from the piney woods in northeast texas.
My granddaddy used to talk about his granddaddy
making liquor, some of my very earliest memories
are of my dad making liquor.
This bayou here, there was bootleggers,
pirates, moonshiners all up and down through here.
I make good liquor.
If nothing else, I make really good liquor.
My pecan brandy.
Man, this stuff right here is so damn good,
even makes me wanna drink.
A limited run of my brandy
would just, that would be the icing on the cake,
the coup de grace, the "ha!" of my life.
To win this all and go legal,
I would be the first legal distiller in my family.
Now, I don't know how my dad and granddad
would actually feel about me going legal,
because we've been an outlaw family for generations now.
But, I have three sons and I would like to eventually
let them take over the family business.
Frank, is this pecans or pea cans?
[frank] no pea cans, all pecans.
Vanilla bean, crooked creek honey.
Because of the ingredients that I use
in my pecan brandy recipe,
it's very expensive to run.
The finished product has to be good,
because it has to sell at a premium dollar.
Otherwise, you are going broke
and I can't afford to go broke.
Who needs a nut cracker?
My name is jonathan bremer. I'm a distiller.
I actually split my time between bakersfield and hawaii
where we have our distillery.
I've been distilling since I was about 14 years old.
I first came out to hawaii,
I met my partner steve, with lanikai brewing.
Literally, just brought him some jars of stuff to try
and next thing you know, we became friends
and then it became, well, maybe we should
get a still and make a distillery.
Where else do you come to work at nine o'clock in the morning
to start drinking and say it's part of your job?
As a veteran and a strength sports competitor,
I feel like I'm always ready to take it to that next level.
So, I feel like I'm gonna win this
because I have the ability to kind of go outside of the box and the norm.
So I'm essentially making what would be a kukui nut amaretto.
Kukui nuts are a part of hawaiian history and culture.
The tourist leis that you see
with the big black beads on them,
those are actually kukui nuts.
I want to keep it simple, traditional.
I'm using kukui nut from hawaii.
I got the vanilla bean from one of the other islands,
same with the cocoa.
Everything came from the islands.
Island liquor in tennessee?
-[jonathan]yeah. -That's all right.
[jonathan] I'm actually excited bringing something
to digger, mark, and tim that they've never had before.
-Wanna try? Come on, be brave. -I ain't afraid of it.
Kind of tastes like a brazil nut,
little bit different flavor though.
Yeah, it's different and it's pretty strong flavor.
Yeah, it don't take much.
Thirty minutes, y'all.
[mark] all three of them going in different directions, ain't they?
[tim] yeah, lots of different nuts.
-[digger] hello, amanda. -How are you?
You know, mark and I both love a good hazelnut rum.
So, that's a good thing and it can be a bad thing
-'cause we're gonna be hard-- -when you said that, I was like, "oh, boy."
so much more nervous, but I'll do my best.
Winning and losing ain't the whole thing here, it's learning some stuff.
Yeah, I'm probably newer to this game
than like everybody here, I'm probably like the newest newbie,
-but I am like a total nerd. -Yeah.
So, I read, and I read, and I read and I read.
If you see anything you think we need to know, you call it to our attention.
-Okay. Yes, sir. -All right. Good luck.
Thank you.
Jonathan, how about that lei mash up you got going on?
What I got in here is couple of different malts.
I got two-row malted barley
and crystal malt and then threw in some vanilla bean.
And we got the kukui nuts as well.
Well, carry on, brother, and good luck.
-Thank you, sir. -[digger] frank,
you gonna make liquor
or you gonna make pecan pies?
-Little bit of both. -[digger] atta boy.
[frank] at least it tastes like pecan pie when I'm done with it.
It's a recipe that I developed with the way I was taught.
You'd have to sell a quart of this for $80
to make ends meet after you use all that honey.
-It sells really good though. -Good deal.
Well, carry on, frank, good luck.
Thank you, sir.
Guys, you're down to ten minutes.
Better be putting buttons on all this.
We don't need any scaldings here.
One minute, y'all.
-Thanks, appreciate that. -No problem.
[digger] five, four, three, two, one, you're done.
Step away from your barrels.
Your mash is gonna sit here for five days,
ready or not, it's got to be run.
-Good luck to all of you. -Thank you very much.
Welcome back, guys.
Today is y'all's run, your signature run,
your mash, hopefully, it's worked out.
[tim] pennsylvania hazelnut, some hawaiian kukui
and some texas pecans.
We want some of the best tasting nut-based spirit we've ever witnessed.
You all have the same basic still set up here.
You know, this is about as simple a setup as it gets.
The winner of this round gets first choice
in the still house to pick parts.
Your four hours starts now.
You can pretty well count on if it tastes all right and smells all right,
it's gonna make liquor and it's going to make pretty good liquor.
You're in good shape.
[jonathan] oh, my mash didn't make nothing.
It didn't work off the way it should have.
I was really worried with the amount of alcohol my mash produced.
Not the most amount of alcohol, not the greatest proof.
[bleep]
I was really worried with the amount of alcohol
-my mash produced. -What happened?
I think it could have been
-the yeast that I used. -Very well might be.
I counted more for warmer weather yeast
and the nights down here drop down into the 70s.
Hey, now we're not in hawaii.
[jonathan] I'm hoping that I can still pull out
good tasting 100 proof liquor.
Let's see what happens.
Frank, how're you feeling about your mash, buddy?
It's starting to go bitter.
There's some alcohol in it.
I think I'll be able... Be all right.
I am very happy with the mash.
I'm feeling great.
Well, if it comes out right, it'd be like
drinking a slice of grandma's pecan pie.
Amanda, do you feel all right about your mash?
I do. I think it tastes good, has some good alcohol in there.
It's kind of mild. It's not really, really hazelnutty.
No. It's not a heavy nutty flavor.
Hazelnuts' almost like a subtle flavor,
and you have to really work with it to bring it out.
I'm hoping just to like, predominantly
let the hazelnut shine.
Folks, y'all got three hours left.
-Where are you at? -190-189.
Whoo!
We got liquor running over here, guys.
-[amanda] all right, frank. -[frank] got heads running over here.
-[amanda] yeah. -[jonathan] yeah.
Oh, you're already running the filter in yours.
Oh, yeah. I always filter. With something.
Put some, like, roasted pecans in my filter
with a little bit of charred oak.
Figured I'd give it just a little more flavor.
I mean, yeah, it's a lot like the 11 herbs and spices.
[amanda] you're on to something, frank.
Watch your water, frank. Looks like it's already been aged.
[frank] too bad I can't hand that in because that is pretty.
And we're off. I am right behind you.
[amanda] you're in it? Yes.
[jonathan] that does smell nutty.
I couldn't smell it in the mash, it's coming out.
Oh, yeah.
Getting into the heads.
Running at the pace I'm running,
I'm gonna need three more hours.
[amanda] mine's getting higher now.
[tim] now, you realize those still pots have got a hook--
I know, I saw that now.
Nuts are really interesting to work with
because over time they impart more flavors, butteriness.
They become more complex and nutty.
-Have you got it hooked inside? -Yeah.
Definitely a challenge to work with.
-Looking good. -Okay.
Thank you, sir!
But it's a rewarding end result.
What flavors are you planning on pulling out of that?
There's a little bit of vanilla in the bag
and cacao nib for smoothness and fermented hazelnuts.
It'll even raise my abv a little bit
and grab on to a little bit of those flavors as it comes out.
That's what I'm hoping for.
It'd be awful to make them hazelnut liquor come out
tasting like cantaloupe, wouldn't it?
That would be awful.
One hour left, guys.
Didn't produce as much as I thought or I hoped I would.
I'd be lucky like a jar, jar and a half-ish.
[digger] yeah, we're not judging quantity, we want quality.
Of course, the more you can get
I'm sure that'll help you for your next challenge.
You didn't use all your mash.
I still got about a gallon and a half.
Now, I think I'm gonna save some.
I'm saving some from my thumper.
-Yeah. -That's what,
that's what's all that's going into the thumper.
-Guys, you got 30 minutes left. -[jonathan] damn.
Trying to run through some tails.
[mark] your flavor is in the tails.
[tim] amanda's got a line of jars over there.
Yep, she's making finite cuts.
Yup, I'm just about done.
[digger] frank, good looking jars.
[frank] thank you, sir. I was able to get a good run out of 'em.
See, I ended up with six jars.
Ten minutes, guys.
I'm pretty sure we're going to get
three different complete tastes.
[tim] mmm-hmm.
I hope so.
I bet it's gonna have a nutty flavor.
You think?
[amanda] I hope so.
[jonathan] it's lower proof than I'd like.
I think I have a little bit less alcohol
than I was expecting to get out of mine, too.
It seems a little bit lower than what I'm used to.
I ain't got much.
We only need one.
-There it is, guys. -[mark] that it, frank?
That's it.
-Here you go, guys. -All right, amanda.
Beggars can't be choosers.
Ain't the fullest one.
All right, buddy.
-Thank you. -Good luck.
[digger] let's start with frank.
Leave you to it.
-Now, frank's the pecan. -Nice, pretty, clear jar.
That is outstanding looking.
-[tim] and... -[digger] frank's got some proofy.
[tim] yeah.
Got a pretty good nose on it.
-I've a pretty good nose on it. -Got a wonderful nose on it.
Like a bakery smell is what I'm getting.
While I was proofing down,
uh, I didn't proof it down too daggone much because I like it hot.
Wow, that's got some power in it.
Son of a biscuit.
Damn, that's good.
Never tasted nothing like that before.
[mark] that is good.
No. But I'd like to have me a hundred gallons of it.
Man pulling something out like that,
he ought to be nicknamed houdini.
[mark] all right, amanda.
-[digger] bully. -[mark] hmm.
[tim] bingo.
Hundred proof hazelnut.
As long as I give it at least 100 and still make it taste good,
I'm happy with... With what I turned in.
-Oh-- -are you [bleep] me?
That's got a fruity smell. Sweet, fruity smell.
Damn, that smells good.
Oh, boy. Y'all are in trouble.
The hazelnut boys are in trouble. I can see that right now.
You're damn right. I'll take it, too.
When it's good, I'll tip my hat.
Looks good, smells good, tastes good.
-Let's try jonathan's. -[tim]all right.
I mean, he didn't make much.
I don't know whether kukuis didn't put out enough or what...
The kukui nut don't put out a whole lot.
I mean, I'm looking at a whole lot of jar here,
not a lot of liquid.
I bet money it ain't over 70 proof.
Yeah. It may be, it may be 60 proof.
-[mark] it smells liquory though. -Well, it's got a smell.
So does a damn skunk.
[jonathan] think I produced low-volume alcohol,
whereas using yeast that I normally use in hawaii,
and we don't really have the cold temperature at night,
I think that might have stalled me out.
Wow. It ain't a bad taste.
Nothing wrong with the flavor.
...Smooth peanut butter flavor.
Good smell, good taste profile,
he just forgot to put the alcohol in it.
If that was 100 proof, it'd be top notch.
Nature is as nature does,
-and nature is a mother. -Yep.
This is the first step, and where they're gonna end up,
if it gets any better than that,
I may have to go see a marriage counselor.
If it gets any better, I don't know if I can stand it.
-All right, boys, think I'm gonna go fetch them. -[tim] yeah.
Good.
[digger] welcome back, guys.
We have tasted some of the best liquor
to date in the history of this show.
I'll start with you, amanda.
Super good job.
Flavor set well on the tongue. Good proof.
[digger] you were in the neighborhood of 100 proof.
We're hard to sell on hazelnut liquor.
Matter of fact, we might feel a tiny bit threatened.
Jonathan, flavor like we'd never tasted before.
The flavor is killer good.
Them kukui nuts, I don't know
that I've ever even seen one in my life,
but yours is the lowest proof of the three.
Frank, pecan, terrific job, frank.
The liquor was so tasty, smooth,
lot of that nut flavor came through.
And, frank, I've seen a little pecan liquor,
but you took the cake on it.
Little higher on the proof would have been
what we were looking for.
It was still damn fine.
Congratulations to each and every one of you.
All right, we're gonna give you the pecking order
that everybody is going to the still house in.
Frank, you're first.
Amanda, you're second.
Unfortunately, your low proof
puts you back of the bus, jonathan.
We are gonna summon your tour guide.
Oh, lord.
Tickle.
All right.
[tim] they need to enhance their distilling process.
You can see they got the basic set up.
So, have you got some extra parts out there to help them out?
-I've got a few of them. -Get to it then.
All right. Y'all, come on.
-[mark] good luck, guys. -[amanda] thank you.
[tickle] y'all are here to pick your still parts.
You're each gonna have five minutes to get all the parts you need.
Frank, I believe you're up first.
[frank] since I've got first pick,
I'm gonna get what I need,
but I'm not gonna go in and just raid everything
and try to take parts so that they have to scramble.
I don't want to play dirty.
I want the best competition I can have against me.
That makes the win so much sweeter.
All right. Have you found what you want?
-Or are you done? -I'm done.
[tickle] amanda, you've got five minutes.
Starting now.
All right.
[amanda] I'm gonna look for the thumper
in the still parts house
and incorporate that into my pot.
And my plan is to use the thumper to frame it with hazelnuts.
We're down to two minutes, though, amanda.
Two minutes, it's coming down to it now.
All right.
Have you found everything you need?
I think so. Yes.
-Jonathan, it comes down to you. -All right.
[tickle] you got five minutes, starting now.
Don't break any of my stuff in there big guy.
-I'll do what can. -[tickle] all right?
[jonathan] I'm going last in the pick of the still parts.
I've ran just about
every piece of equipment out there.
[tickle] you got a minute and a half left
to get it all out here.
-[jonathan] alrighty. -All right.
[jonathan] do I know exactly how it's gonna run?
Do I know exactly what my still is gonna look like?
No.
But I'm just gonna take all the years of experience I have
and see what we can make work.
[tickle] all right.
Well, now that everybody's got all their parts,
it's time to get back in here and put these stills together
and see what we can't do with them. All right?
[narrator] coming up...
[tim] he's got a gauge up there in the head of the still
instead of on the side of the still.
-It's hotter than a [bleep] in a forest fire. -[digger] yeah.
Somebody has to be cut.
[digger] still build time.
Better hope you got all your parts,
your one hour starts now.
[mark] get busy.
Some of this stuff I ain't never saw before.
One man's ceiling is another man's floor, ain't it?
What do you think, tim?
What's frank coming up with down there?
[tim] well, he's got a gauge up there
in the head of the still
instead of on the side of the still.
I figure it'll make whiskey. What the hey.
[mark] I figure you're right, frank.
Jonathan is ready to work.
Man, he's got the little column in place there.
I'm gonna run it pretty much like a gin basket almost.
Bring the proof up.
Bring some of the flavor over towards the top.
[mark] amanda's is basic pot still thumper condenser.
-Is that the set up you're used to, amanda? -[amanda] yeah.
It's not time to experiment right now.
Just do what I do best.
We're going straight into your run.
You got everything you need right there.
You got four hours.
Bring us your best jar and have it on the table.
Your four hours starts now.
-Good luck to all of you guys. -[amanda] thank you.
[frank] thank you, sir.
All of them brought back some mash.
-They did. -[tim] even though amanda had a lot of jars,
she still went back and got some of that hazelnut mash.
It looks like all of them are in it to win it.
Amanda, what's your game plan?
I'm trying to infuse the hazelnut flavor
in every little nook and cranny that I can.
I have homemade hazelnut butter that I made last night,
some hazelnut milk,
-some crushed roasted hazelnuts. -[digger] mmm-hmm.
[amanda] trying to like hit all the bases with the hazelnuts.
So, I'm using a hazelnut tincture
to concentrate that flavor,
putting everything in my thumper.
And then I'm gonna add, like, finishing flavors of coffee,
-cacao nib and vanilla bean. -Wow.
[jonathan] I'm about to add more mash in.
Jonathan, I don't think you had
three full jars on your previous run.
I probably had about three and a half jars,
so I dumped some mash in there,
but I still had leftovers.
Try to pull something out of it [bleep].
So, now it's just gonna be bring the proof up.
In the military, it's improvise, adapt and overcome.
With copper scrubber,
the vapor goes up and then,
once it hits that copper mesh,
the heavier water falls back down.
Might up the proof a little bit.
[digger] but it strips flavor.
Frank, it looks like you is adding
-a lot to your thumper there? -Yes, sir.
I took some of the pecans from the mash
and steeped them to try to bring out more of the essence.
-Wow. -[tim] frank is adding so much pecans in there,
I think we're gonna have a pecan pie.
Folks, y'all got three hours left.
Gotta be finally getting up there
because we're starting to work out to a drip.
[amanda] slow drip is better than no drip, right?
[jonathan] slow drip is beautiful.
Hell, yeah.
-Low and slow. -[frank] mmm-hmm.
[amanda] something smells amazing.
I think I smell, like, the cinnamon
and everything coming from yours right now.
[jonathan] yeah, it smells like a cinnamon roll
-with like nuts and everything. -[amanda] it does.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I was just hoping that the profiles I chose would come through,
and luckily they did.
You're only getting a drop every 17 seconds.
Yeah, I had to run it extremely slow,
which would be able to pull out a decent proof.
Pretty much had to drip the whole time.
[frank] guys, I hate to tell you this.
This is coming out better than I thought it would.
Oh, yeah. You got a nice one going.
-You taste the comeback on it? -Yeah. That's good, frank.
-[jonathan] good proof? -I can't really tell on the proof yet.
Guys, two hours left.
[digger] well, amanda, you had a complex mixture
you put in your thumper. Satisfied with what's coming out?
So far, yeah.
Got a good line up of jars over there.
Yeah, I think that my sweet spot is gonna be
-between number five and six right now. -Excellent.
-So, when I get this one, I'm gonna start blending. -Carry on.
-Thank you. -[digger] you're welcome.
Where, you don't have any more jars?
You're looking at it.
You... You kind of had a little,
a little bit of a handicap from the get go.
Well, even though you don't have a lot of volume, where's your proof at?
Actually better than I thought.
I'd say between 80, 85, and then up about 120-ish.
-Carry on. -Thank you, sir.
[digger] frank, tell me about that thumb.
Did you lose it because of liquor?
Well...
All I can say is you wrestle enough alligators,
eventually, you're gonna get bit.
[digger] tell me about your run. How's it going?
[frank] um, I'm just about done with it.
I've got about all I need.
Cool off, finish out and do my cuts, and my blends.
Carry on, my friend.
Forty-five minutes, folks.
[amanda] I feel good about it, so I'm not gonna change anything.
All right.
It is what it is.
[digger] pretty clear jar of liquor.
[mark] yeah, looks so from here.
-Guys... That's the one. -Is that the one?
-Jonathan? -I actually ended up with more than I had the first time.
-Wow, you almost got a half a jar. That's a good thing. -I know.
All right, guys. I did the best I could.
-I hope you enjoy it. -[tim] all right.
[digger] good luck!
Frank.
You can't even tell there's anything in that jar it's so clear.
[tim] it is awful clear.
Now, that's a bead.
[tim] 100, 105.
That's makes my mouth water just smelling it.
Oh, I was gonna say, it done got me slobbering.
-I think mine's hot 'cause I always temper it down. -Right.
And anything I'm missing, I'll get on the next step,
if I make it to the next step.
-Nutty? -It's not quite as smooth
as it was on the first one.
-It's not. -No. No, it's not.
He changed it up by putting all those pecans in the doubler.
So, he enhanced a little dryness flavor in there.
I'm a little bit disappointed.
I don't like this one as good as I did the first one.
Jonathan, a half clear jar.
But it's clear.
I would say on proof I'm pretty close to 100.
I'd put him above 115 proof probably.
-Well, we can't say he didn't raise alcohol. -[digger] no, no.
He's got plenty of alcohol.
-Man, that smells delicious. -[tim] great nose.
-Well, I'm smelling some hawaiian kukui. -Kukui nut.
-Kukui. -I'm not finding no kukui in there anywhere.
The alcohol flash across your tongue and then you're done.
He put some copper wire in that, didn't he?
-It's hotter than a [bleep] in a forest fire. -Yeah.
-Holy moly. -At least he brought it up.
-The proof is there. -[digger] blending it down
might have helped it a little bit.
Let's move on to some hazelnut.
Pretty clean jar.
-And a pretty bead. -Oh, yeah.
-[tim] it's probably 105 proof. -[digger] yeah.
I was waiting for the hazelnut and it did come out.
Then the other flavors trickled out separately.
So, I tried to just blend the best jar that I could.
-Man, that smells delicious. -Great nose.
Wait till you run it across your tongue.
-Wow. -This is nutty.
Just a very, very light bite on that.
This is off the hook.
I don't know if I'm more nervous about
what they're gonna think about what I put on the table.
Or the fact that just one of us is gonna go home.
We're all rock solid. I'm gonna go fetch them.
You ain't gonna change your mind on us, tim?
-No. No. -You sure?
Texas, outstanding job.
Kept your proof right there where you need to be, 100, 105.
Kept it clear for us.
When you put the stuff in there,
in the doubler there, the thumper,
for me, it made it a little dry.
You took away the smoothness of it.
I don't think you had as good a flavor on this second distillation
quite as you did the first one.
Now then, amanda, you did a fantastic job
getting that hazelnut out of there.
Good, smooth, buttery middle on that thing, that hazelnut just pops.
-It was front to back outstanding job. -Thank you.
[mark] jonathan.
You done an outstanding job bringing that proof up.
I ran low and slow.
You brought your proof up.
Unfortunately, we didn't find the flavor in there we wanted.
And I think maybe, if you brought a little more distillate out,
you may have it.
You know, all in all, my hats are off to all you guys.
[digger] unfortunately,
it comes the time that somebody has to be cut.
Well, guys, somebody has to be cut.
Frank, amanda, y'all are safe.
Jonathan, I'm awful sorry, that jar bought you a ticket home, ol' buddy.
-Thank you, sir. -Did a good job.
[jonathan] the flavor was lacking.
And looking back on it, I may have put too much copper in there
-to bring over the proof... -See y'all later.
...But it's been a great experience.
All right, guys.
Time to infuse your liquor.
It's your final leg in this journey.
This is what's gonna separate the two of you.
It's gonna be what makes the next master distiller.
You're gonna have 30 minutes now.
Get your liquor ready to infuse.
We'll let it sit overnight. We'll come back tomorrow.
You'll get an additional 30 minutes to get it straightened up,
ready to go.
Your time starts now.
Good luck, guys.
[frank] they weren't as happy with my liquor
as they were the first time,
'cause the flavor profile wasn't quite
what they were looking for,
but finishing liquor, that's where I really shine.
Normal brandy has to sit for a year to age,
and I don't have that time.
I'm using every trick I can, to infuse as much pecan flavor
in the short period of time that I have.
[mark] he's pouring clear liquor in. It's coming out brown.
Frank, you're getting all that color
just pouring that clear liquor over them roasted pecans?
Happens every time.
-[mark] really? -It's beautiful, isn't it?
[mark] it looks pretty.
[amanda] hazelnuts are really hard to impart the flavor.
They're really hard to work with, it's a labor of love.
That could take me a week for the alcohol to penetrate
something hard, like a nut.
So coming here, I had to figure out a way to
get my flavor in the time
without really sacrificing anything.
That's a whipped cream machine.
[amanda] so I'm using a whipped cream maker,
which uses nitrous oxide to pressurize solids and liquids.
If I can get the alcohol to penetrate my hazelnuts
and the whipped cream condenser under pressure,
then I'm just going to let it steep overnight,
and then tomorrow I'm gonna extract my... My spirit from that.
Every time I pressurize it,
that forces the liquid into the solid,
the solid into the liquid
so that the alcohol can permeate to get the flavor.
So, then, once I do this,
I'll let it steep overnight, so it can impart more flavor,
hopefully, by tomorrow.
[mark] amanda is a mad scientist over here.
[digger] I'm telling you.
You're giving bill nye the science guy a run for his money.
I'm not usually this messy.
Ten minutes left, boys and girls.
[mark] he ain't gonna let us see
what's going on under that bucket, is he?
[digger] well, good poker man always keeps one card close to his vest.
[frank] I can only tell you so much about what I'm doing.
It is a secret family trick that my granddaddy taught me
when I was about four years old.
It's old school, against new school,
and I'm confident that I can pull it out.
[amanda] all right, I'm done.
With a minute and half to spare.
[mark] if you're done, you head on out.
We'll let it sit there overnight.
-Yes, sir. -We'll see you tomorrow.
Welcome back, guys.
You let your liquor sit overnight.
Now it's time to do your magic.
Bring us your finished product.
We're looking forward to tasting it.
Unfortunately, it's in the cards
that one of you has to lose and one has to win.
Amanda, yours don't look good.
[amanda] I know.
-[tim] so, I hope it tastes better than it looks. -[digger] it does to me.
I have something specifically for you, tim,
that I'm gonna do so that you're not offended by what I present to you.
Good. Thank you.
Frank, I don't know what you're hiding under that bucket.
That's some magic of my own.
I think a little trickery is going on over there.
The professor brought out something new,
I had to bring up something old.
Every magician has a trick,
every trick, it's got a reveal.
-I'll be damned. -My granddaddy taught me this.
He was using it back in 1947.
It's just a simple trickle charger.
-It's just generating current. -[frank] yes.
Just some dc current, low amperage.
You'd be surprised, how much it will age some liquor overnight.
I tell you this is... Wow. This is insane.
[digger] well, guys, time to get busy.
You got 30 minutes and it starts now.
Good luck, guys.
-Good luck, professor. -Good luck, mr. Wizard.
[amanda] I struggled with filtering
and achieving clarity for a long time.
And I knew that when I made my hazelnut fusion,
it was gonna be cloudy.
Spent nights trying to figure out a way
that I could steep my hazelnuts,
and all of my flavors,
and get all the flavor profile that I wanted,
but somehow clean that up in a short period of time,
to get clarity that they could also be impressed by.
By god, that right there is amazing.
It's like a thousand micron filter for drinking water.
It's not meant for this right here,
but it's working damn fine for her.
-Taking out the solids. -Taking all the cloud out of it. Damn.
I didn't wanna sacrifice flavor for clarity,
or clarity for flavor,
and everyone told me I had to pick one or the other.
But when you say I can't do something,
I have to find a way to do it.
So, this was my solution.
Well, you have done it.
It looks like clear apple juice.
[frank] my grandfather made his first machine, I believe,
it was an old welding machine that he had converted.
He would take liquor, you know, right out the condenser,
a week later, he's got 20-year-old bourbon.
Look at that pretty jar of liquor sitting on frank's table.
Frank, if you're done, you can turn your jar in.
I'd rather sit here and see what the professor is doing.
-[amanda chuckles] -[digger] I'm with you.
I'm sitting here in awe right now.
[tim] I mean I see that she's cleaning it up.
It looks good. It's going through a filter,
but she could be taking all the taste out.
You know, it had a good hazelnut taste.
[digger] it's not easy pushing it through that filter,
-is it, amanda? -No, it's not.
But nothing in life worth having comes easy.
No truer words have ever been spoken.
[frank] she's pitched that to get her some really dark sunglasses.
That future's bright over there.
-Yep. -Yep.
-Good luck. -Same to you.
Well, guys, that was just awesome for us to witness.
[mark] we're gonna get to tasting, we'll deliberate.
We'll come and fetch you with a decision.
-[amanda] thank you. -Thank you.
[digger] good luck!
[narrator] coming up...
[digger] I think you both know you're both winners,
but unfortunately, we can't have two masters distillers.
[frank] the moonshiner's rule number ten
is murphy's first law,
anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Just be ready for it.
Murphy's law is my rule number two.
Rule number one, always carry a knife.
[frank] that's a good rule for life.
'cause I always have one.
If I've got my pants on, I got a pocket knife.
But rules for life, and rules for shining,
-they're a little bit different. -Oh, yeah, yeah.
-I meant my rules for life. -Yeah.
That's what I meant. That's what I was referring to.
When I refer to the rules,
normally, I'm referring to the rules of shining.
Yeah, I have... See, I haven't got there yet, but I'm learning.
-I'm learning. -Learn on.
Get with it. This one... That one first.
-[tim] and it's probably 105 proof. -[mark] yeah.
I can't believe she cleared that jar up like that,
[digger] with something that simple.
-Yeah, I mean, this is from hiking gear. -Right.
Stuff you buy in a camping store.
It was a struggle to get clarity and flavor.
You know, how do you achieve both?
Damn.
It's like hazelnut butter and it's just melting all over it,
there's no fire, there's no burn anywhere.
The bite has been taken away.
I can't find a negative in that drink.
Color profile, I think could be a little bit different.
If it was the color of frank's...
-Yeah. -I mean, the color of it,
if you didn't know what it was,
would speak immature aged liquor.
But I'm telling you, you taste of it,
and it takes anything you might think
-bad away from it. -It does.
Let's try frank's.
He did a whole new thing here, too,
that I've never seen in my life.
There's two things took place here today, boys,
that mark ramsey has never ever seen before.
Electrolysis. It made my job real simple.
Because all I had to do was plug it up
and let it do its magic and then, try to proof it out.
-Still a magician to me, I think you make magic. -Well, thank you.
Wow...
-Damn it, man. -[mark] that's good.
-Never tasted nothing like that before. -[digger] that is good.
But did you notice that frank tempered in it with spraying water?
He put a splash in there.
I don't know why, there was good proof.
It's an extremely, extremely great taste,
but it's a little light on fruit.
Very difficult situation that we have here.
[frank] this is something I'll never forget.
It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
-And I'm just honored to share it with you. -Agreed.
-Well, boys, I'm... I'm where I'm at. -I'm where I'm at.
I'm good.
Welcome back, guys.
We can't have two master distillers out of one flat.
But neither one of y'all are a loser at this point.
It's a tough decision.
We didn't really want to have to make it,
but unfortunately, we did.
Amanda,
the hazelnut, the buttery notes, the creamy notes.
It's wonderful.
Uh, amanda...
Crazy!
-What you did-- -I didn't wanna scare you guys, so...
You were scaring me because in the beginning, what you had in that jar,
it looked like muddy water.
But with your process of filtration there,
you gave us some education.
And it tastes really good.
And your proof is right on the money.
The downfall for me now, the color
didn't exactly come out the way I would like it.
I was hoping it would be a little bit more amber as well.
[mark] frank, the little thing you did with the copper, so cool.
Pecan in yours was outstanding flavor.
Color on it is beautiful.
I mean, that's a good marketable jar.
-I'm so proud of what you did. -Thank you.
Frank, this jar here, the flavors are there
end to end. Drink holds up
from the front of your tongue to the back.
Comes off strong with that good pecan flavor
and finishes off with a little buttery note.
Nothing wrong with it, whatsoever,
except your proof.
You've tempered it down a little bit more than what we like.
It's still a marketable jar right there.
Put that in any liquor store in the world,
somebody tries it, they'll come back and buy another jar.
Fantastic job.
I think the honor is mine just to be able to be here
presenting this to you guys.
[digger] I think you both know you're both winners,
but unfortunately, we can't have two master distillers.
Amanda is the next master distiller. I'm awful sorry, buddy.
I was kind of disappointed in myself
that I did proof my liquor down as much as I did.
But if I had to lose to anybody,
I'm glad it was amanda.
[amanda] right now, I feel amazing.
To hear them validate my effort, and my hard work
was unreal.
I still almost believe like this is a dream
that I'm gonna wake up from.
This one right here, she deserves it way more than...
I'll work with this one right here any time
and teach her everything I know.
Thank you.
Damn!