Original subtitles

- [Henry] There we go. - Oh, bam.

[narrator] This time on "Moonshiners"--

That's your first illegal run in, like, 14 years, Tim.

I had four weeks to get 1,000 gallons made.

I say we get to unloading.

Being just paranoid anyway in moonshining is one thing.

I mean, why are you scaring me, man?

But, you know, in my shoes, this is the next level.

All right, Puss. This is a point of no return.

- [Digger] See what we got. - [Mark] Oh, yeah.

That's damn moonshine corn liquor at its best.

You know, y'all been out of it a while, and I had to

find me some. - Where in the world are

you getting it at for that price?

We've got to find out where this cheap liquor is

coming from. Our livelihood depends on it.

- Digger, this is Josh. - [man, on radio] Josh, who?

I'm concerned. Something ain't right.

Digger ain't never acted like that before.

Don't have anything at the same spot.

Find you someplace totally away from you to get rid of

your liquor. - It's that serious?

- [snap] - [theme music plays]

[Big Chuk] This is how we make the moonshine.

[Tickle] So where are we going now, Tim?

We're going to church. That's where we're going.

In Culpeper County, Virginia, after 12 years paying taxes,

making legal liquor, a first-ever order from Canada

pulled Tim back to the outlaw side.

You sure you want to do this thing, Tim?

[Tickle] You got a lot to lose.

Skirting Canadian tariffs on American whiskey, Tim stands

to pocket most of the $40,000 deal.

How does it feel, Tim, to be out here with the salt

and the sugar? - [Tim] It's nice.

A little bit stressful.

But after a teetotaling preacher threatened him with

more than hellfire and brimstone...

- [Tickle] The pot's empty. - [Tim] What do you mean the pot's empty?

- [Tickle] Your pot is empty. - [Henry] What the hell is this?

- [Henry] Yeah. - [Tickle] Like somebody done shot it.

We don't drink no moonshine, though.

That stuff is from the devil, man.

...Tim finds himself answering to a higher law.

If he's down there and he's the one that's punching holes

in the still, then, you know, that whole area there

has been compromised, you know, because,

you know, he may change his mind from hunting turkeys

to hunting us.

In the back of my mind, I think we got to get clear with this

preacher, because if the preacher's on us

this close, he'll still be on us on the next one.

We could upset this guy, and he might go straight to

the law if he ain't already.

Well, I hope he ain't got no guns in the church.

I've dealt with the law enforcement before.

You know, you know what you're working with

when they come after you.

Other moonshiners, sometimes territory,

stepping on toes, you know, I can work with that, too.

But, I mean, this is uncharted territory.

It'd be better to go see the preacher than the judge.

You're right about that. He might--

He might go talk to the judge after you talk to him.

[Tim] Yeah, well, just be quiet, [indistinct].

Be quiet.

I think so. Man, he playing the guitar now.

Hello.

- Hey. - [Tim] Uh-oh.

- [Tim] He playing the guitar. - [preacher] Yeah.

[ominous music plays]

So what's going on?

Well, we went back down there in the woods after we saw

you the next day.

And we saw where we was working at.

Some things got disturbed, and stuff down there.

We saw a bible verse written. We were just thinking,

maybe you may know something about it.

Kind of fits.

Hey, Bible verses, preacher in the woods,

you know, one and one equals two, right?

There's a lot of people against you.

I'm against you. I don't like it.

Lawman gets a hold to you.

It might be too late then.

Henry knows all about that.

Y'all come see me on a Sunday morning.

Let's worship the Lord.

[Tim] I never faced a threat like this before.

When a preacher comes after you and he brings God down

on you, I mean, what are you gonna do about that?

Can we go and find a still site, please?

This is a big game here.

- [Big Chuk] Smell alcohol. - The cap fell.

She's deader than a doornail. She's good to go.

Ready to run.

Bitter, ain't it?

I smell it.

In Polk County, North Carolina.

[Josh] The faster we get her pumped in there,

the faster we get the liquor.

After landing a 20 gallon order for the cherry rye

moonshine that made his family famous,

Josh made a risky choice.

[Josh] Man, that baby pumps.

Holy crap.

Swapping in blackberries when the farmer's market came up

short on cherries.

That's some good stuff.

I can smell the blackberries and everything.

- I can smell it's bitter. - [Big Chuk] Yeah.

The Owenses are known for making cherry moonshine.

But right this very second, there just are no cherries.

I'm gonna put some fire to it.

Yeah, yeah.

[music plays]

[whoosh]

To be a moonshiner, you got to adapt and overcome.

I'm not gonna not fulfill my order just because the cherries

aren't here right now. - A little bit more than that.

Golly, I can smell the alcohol in there.

The way I see it, some moonshine is better than

no moonshine, so we're gonna make some blackberry,

and I guarantee you he's going to love it.

Them little blackberry seeds is micro-sized, too.

Walk around smelling like mash all day.

Oh, you've smelled like worse, I promise you.

[Big Chuk] Blackberry Rye.

This is an old-school setup, no thumpers,

so everything's pretty simple.

Yeah, I see it starting to steam, we can get the cap.

[Josh] Yeah, we ain't far from capping it.

Once the mash goes in there and you fire it up, it starts

steaming, you cap it off.

All we got to do now is just heat it up,

let it rock and roll, and make moonshine.

[Josh] It's just a matter of time now before we got liquor, buddy.

Oh, yeah.

- Damn, you smell that? - [Big Chuk] I do, I do.

It don't matter how many times I do that, I still love it.

I hope this old boy loves it as much as we do.

Looky there. Got a little drip.

I don't know if that's condensation or liquor.

Oh, yeah. It's on, big dog.

Keep running, boy.

This thing's running great.

It's pumping out the liquor like you can't believe.

Ready to try this thing out?

Fingers crossed.

[Big Chuk] Can't complain about that.

It's good and clear.

She's holding a good bead. Still got a bead.

Got a blackberry. Boy, it calmed it down.

A chef's got to taste his food, Mr. Josh.

I'm gonna tell you, tasting that right there,

we didn't go wrong with switching to blackberries.

But my only concern is, down here, I don't know

how picky people are.

You sure this fella ain't gonna have a problem?

Are you crazy? Did you taste this?

This right here is good.

- Here, take you another swallow. - Yeah, I'll take me one more.

- Hold on, take you another swallow. - You don't got to ask me twice.

Let's get these buckets filled, get this [bleep] done,

and get the hell out of here. - Yes, sir, I'm with you.

We got a whole bunch of moonshine here, and we're going

to make some money.

Our first sale of the season, and I'm excited.

[Mark] Well, Puss, this is where it's fixing to get real.

[Digger] Yep.

In Cocke County, Tennessee, fearing prison after

a close call with the law, Mark and Digger were forced to

dismantle their statewide illegal empire.

[Mark] Go left of that tree there, Digger.

Now, with no crews left to run shine, they have to revive

their once-thriving corn liquor operation with their own

bare hands.

[Mark] We've got this tote of corn mash working off.

Once we tote Big Sloppy back in there and set her down,

that opens up the illegal world all over again, and that's when

we're back in harm's way.

Let's check this mash.

[Digger] See if we've made mash or buttermilk.

Oh yeah, it's petering out.

We stir it, that's just gas left in the grain bed.

Caps fell.

Woo.

Made a little bit of liquor in it.

Well, it's made alcohol. I guess it's up to us

and Big Sloppy to make the liquor.

I'll carry my end if Big Sloppy can carry hers.

Yep.

We're going back to making liquor the way we were taught,

just an old, single pot, all by ourselves.

We make enough money to keep our families provided for.

That's the only safe way to do business.

[Mark] I don't remember...

[two thuds]

...ever liking this part of it.

- [Digger] What, building a furnace? - [Mark] Yeah.

[Digger] No, it ain't the most joyful and rewarding part of it.

There's a couple of different ways of building furnaces.

Amanda was good at this.

I wish it was her working on it, if that's any consolation.

[Mark] Once all these rocks and stones around it gets worn, it keeps

it up to temperature longer and easier, quicker,

because even out in the woods, a little bit of wind blowing

will cool the pot down.

I'm gonna take and call that it, as far as I'm concerned.

[Digger] Well, yeah, it'll make liquor.

Big Sloppy, she's what we call a copper pot still.

You know, it's what we used in the Smoky Mountains for years.

She's solid copper. Thump keg is copper.

Condenser is all copper.

I mean, it's copper to the core.

[Digger] That's close enough for government work.

[suspenseful music plays]

All right, Puss.

This is the point of no return when you light it up.

Here we go.

- [whoosh] - [bluegrass music plays]

This is where the rubber meets the road, Hattie boy.

Or the wrist meets the handcuffs.

You make the pick.

[Digger] We're steaming a little bit.

Let's go ahead and get that cap on there.

I'll go get us a little agua and build us a paste.

[Mark] OK.

[thuds]

Damn, here we are, back to the bar room again, I guess.

We're gonna do a run of corn liquor right off the bat.

It's always in demand.

Our customers have always wanted it.

It's just the gold standard of the liquor world,

as far as we're concerned. - [Digger] Look yonder.

[Mark] Oh, hell. Damn, we're in trouble now.

We're illegal now, Puss.

Yeah, we're a little uneasy, but they wasn't a man that

walked in these woods in this county that made liquor that

wasn't uneasy when they were either walking in

or walking out.

I'm gonna dump these heads out, Puss.

All right.

I'm gonna look around more than I did in the past couple

or three years and do our due diligence

where security comes into play.

Hattie, we ought to be getting into some hearts

right about there. - [Mark] Well, I don't know.

[Mark] It ought to be calming down a little bit.

[Digger] It ought to be about 120 or so right now.

Boy, look at that right there.

[Digger] Boy, that is diamond clear.

[Mark] That's what we want, ain't it?

Oh [bleep].

It's that good? Hoard it all up.

Oh, yeah.

That's damn moonshine corn liquor at its best.

- Boy. - [Mark] That's a damn fine jar

of liquor right there, boss.

Tasting this corn liquor, it's very familiar.

You know, it's familiar.

I'm not gonna say it's the best liquor we've ever made.

I promise you, it's the best liquor we've made

in six months.

Damn, people's gonna be champing at the bits to get

ahold of that.

That's about 30 gallons.

Digger and I are not planning on using a bootlegger

anytime soon.

We're simply gonna rely on our customers of old.

Just take one more liability out of our equation.

You know what sucks the biggest right here, Hattie?

We gotta carry that son of a bitch out of here.

Yeah, we ain't got nobody here to carry us out of here.

[Mark] The more people you have involved with you,

the better chance you have of getting caught.

So, if we get in trouble this time, it's going to be on Mark

and Digger 100%, no one else.

Tell you what do.

Let's just get it where it needs to be, split it 50-50.

You go in one direction, I'll go in the other.

We get it sold like that.

And that way, if one of us does get caught, at least

the other one's safe.

Hmm, I like the way you do business.

So Digger and I decide we'll just split this run equally

amongst us, and we'll take it out on our own and sell it.

- [grunts] - Damn, that's heavy.

We have to be extra cautious, because the law knows

who we are, and all they got to do is come glance in the window,

and we're done for.

I really want to build a permanent structure,

and that's why we got the trailer and some wood,

because it looks good today. Next week, it could be raining.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

And I can't miss that opportunity.

I can't miss it.

So I can't take the risk of just setting up out

in the woods and being open.

I talked to the preacher.

That first site, you know, it's kind

of compromised. It ain't gonna work.

We can't go back there and set up no moonshine still.

So, I actually found another spot, a little bit farther away.

You know, no one's gonna find this.

[Howard] So let me get this straight.

You went from illegal to legal, and now you're going back

illegal, trying to get some of that dirty money.

I made a deal with a guy.

He needed like 1,000 gallons of moonshine.

1,000 gallons?

[Tim] I got 1,000 gallons of moonshine to make for this

buyer in Canada because he's trying to avoid the tariff tax.

I mean, I've never smuggled no moonshine across the border.

I mean, I went across state lines, but going across

the border to another country, this is something else.

You may have outdone yourself this time, Tim.

Well, who's back in here, man?

But that's a problem for another day.

We've got to run it first.

God almighty.

So I just called Howard, got Henry, I got Tickle.

Hey, we're gonna put this thing together.

Now, we're not building a house, but I want to

build a shelter. - [Henry] Wind blowing up under it.

You know how the wind gets to blowing sometimes.

Well, that's what I'm saying.

This right here blocks everything, it blocks the light.

It blocks the air.

All we got to do is protect this front.

I think this is one hell of a spot, Tim.

So all we got to do is build some structure, try to protect

it from the sides that's gonna be viewed.

Because we need to really get these big stills in here

and get them set up.

I mean, I'm done playing around.

Get a hammer. Let's put this post up.

[Tickle] You're not gonna put it in the ground?

[Tim] No, what do you need to put it in the ground for?

To help hold the base of it a little bit.

We're gonna brace it up on top.

I understand that this thing has got one job to do.

It's got to be put up, keep the weather off of us,

and it's got to be put up quick.

Did I do good or what? All you got to do is nail it.

Is that right?

[chuckling]

Me, been a carpenter most all my life, you know, and kind of

reached very up high there with my carpentry skills.

I would not climb in any one of y'all's tree houses.

- Let's get this up. - [Tickle] You see?

We're building a tree house in the woods.

[Tickle] There's your post on the outside, like

you always want. - [Tim] Genius.

We're not building a house to be here for 30, 40,

50 years or whatever.

It's hitting that nail in there.

We're just putting something up, a little bit of protection,

as visibility, a little bit from the weather, and also put

the stills in.

[thuds]

What do you reckon? Time to go get some pots

and bring them in? - Let's roll.

[Big Chuk] We're getting pretty close, ain't we?

What did he say, just meet him up here somewhere?

Supposed to meet down here at this rental place down here,

but it's supposed to be on this road.

We're on the way to meet my customer's brother, Whit.

We got a whole bunch of moonshine here, and we're going

to make some money, our first sale of the season,

and I'm excited.

When he tastes this blackberry rye, he's gonna forget

all about the cherry rye.

I don't think this fella will be disappointed with

the big switch up.

Oh, my god.

[suspenseful music plays]

- [indistinct talking] - [Big Chuk] What happened?

[Josh] I don't know what happened.

All I know, I can't turn this [bleep].

Golly. Are you kidding me?

Power steering breaks.

This is the worst possible time something like this could

possibly happen.

Ah [bleep].

The belt's toast.

You got a belt in there?

[Josh] I don't know, bro.

I luckily have an extra belt behind the seat.

All right.

Well, the last thing that one wants to happen when you got

20 gallons of untaxed alcohol in the back of your truck is to be

broke down. - Come on, Chuk.

We got to get this [bleep] thing done, bro.

- We're gonna go to jail. - Yeah, no [bleep].

Hey.

Not only to be broke down, but be broke down

on an access road right beside a major highway system

where you got 100 cars a minute coming by you.

Will you draw that back for me, buddy?

Yeah, this is an ordeal here.

We have anything put over them barrels?

I wish we'd have put a tarp or something in there.

- No, we ain't got nothing. - Oh.

I can't sit here knowing we got moonshine in the back of

the truck that if the law pulls up and sees it, we're cooked.

- Son of a bitch. - [Big Chuk] Oh, my god.

Chuk, do me a favor.

Hold that slack the hell out of the way for me there.

Changing the belt on a vehicle is not the hardest thing

you can do.

Oh, hellfire.

But the vehicle's scalding hot.

You're on the side of the road,

and you got a truckload of liquor.

It's kind of easy to start panicking your way out of it.

- [Josh] All right. - All right.

[grunting]

- Get it? - [Josh] Yeah.

You want to start it up?

Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

Well, Josh finally wrestles this thing on, gets the belt

back on, turns her over...

starts.

Any time you're running with Josh, you tend to lose

a little minutes and seconds off your life every day

in pounds from sweat.

Whew!

We've done eat up some time, and we're supposed to have done

met this new customer.

I got to go.

We're here, Chuk.

[Big Chuk] He say where he's gonna be parked at?

[Josh] He said he'd be parked around the back here.

Meeting a new customer and selling somebody liquor

you don't know, that's kind of already outside the box.

The second thing is, we're not showing up with what

they asked for. They asked for some cherry.

We're showing up with blackberry.

And we're gonna show up late.

Not good.

All right.

[Big Chuk] Good Lord have mercy. Looky there.

Huh?

Damn, it's bigfoot.

[Big Chuk] God almighty, I'll let you do the talking.

Soon as we pull in, you would not believe

what a mountain of a man steps out of this truck.

Holy crap.

How you doing today?

[man speaking]

The closer I get, the bigger he gets.

Check that out.

And now I got to tell him I don't have any

dang cherry rye, but I got some really, really super good

blackberry rye.

- [Josh] You ordered some cherry? - [man talking]

[Josh] But cherries ain't in for a couple more weeks.

I couldn't get cherries, but I substituted

with blackberries.

I hope you don't mind too much, but...

- What do you think? - [man speaking]

It is.

[man speaking]

Take that right there.

You and all whoever you're gonna share that with

is gonna love it. And enjoy it.

And come back in a couple weeks.

- I'll make you some cherry. - [man talking]

Just because it's not cherry, it's blackberry,

who gives a [bleep], it's still great whiskey.

God, dog! You serious?

[Big Chuk] Well, I ain't gonna argue with him.

You ever heard the phrase, "Don't poke a bear?"

Hot dang.

So, being a moonshiner is a job, just like any other

business, man, and you're gonna have obstacles.

You're gonna have hurdles. You're gonna have to improvise.

You're gonna have to think outside the box.

Stuff's gonna break down. You got to fix stuff.

Damn, big aggressive sucker, boy.

I made some really great whiskey.

We broke down.

We've had to drive to hell and half of Georgia and back to

get this whiskey to you.

And now you don't think you want it?

Oh, hell no. That don't even make no sense.

It's as good as the cherry would be.

I don't see what the problem is.

[Big Chuk] Man, he knows damn good and well that liquor tastes

just as good as any liquor he done put up there.

He wouldn't even have known if we hadn't have said nothing.

I'm gonna have to go find another buyer.

What a waste of a damn day.

[Tim] I mean, everything in here got to come out.

[Howard] You ain't got much time to get this done.

No, we're less than four weeks already.

We started with the first site, and we got compromised.

We had to get out of town and move.

I got another site that's on down the road on the side of this mountain.

[Henry] Right, Tim, we're gonna put them up against this block.

So it's a whole lot better that we can build a shelter,

because this has got to be it.

It's gonna be the permanent location.

[Henry] Let's get the still set.

[Tickle] Yeah, back her on in there, get her close.

[Tim] All right, here we go.

This is a big job.

Not only do I got to make 1,000 gallons of moonshine,

I've got to transport this stuff 600 miles across

the international border to Canada.

That's like 8,000 pounds.

Looking good, boss.

And I thought for sure we had a good plan with the little

smaller stills, set them up.

But right now, we've got to make up some time.

[Tickle] Keep them coming.

Since we're so far behind, Henry's got these big stills,

real big stills, like 1,000 gallon stills.

- So I'm thinking, "This is great." - [Tickle] OK.

Hold on here, we've got a little tree navigating us.

[Tim] We've got to get them into this new location and get them set

up so we can catch up and make this order, because I already

got half the money. - [Henry] Come on this way.

I already got $20,000 for 1,000 gallons.

Holy [bleep], that's a lot like work.

Well, I mean, you figure we're gonna get 100 gallons out of

the run, maybe. - Per pot.

You're gonna have to run them five times.

What are we going to do with all the liquor when we run it, fellas?

I mean, where are we gonna put it?

[Henry] I already checked in the place.

I know some guys up in the mountain.

We pay them a few dollars. We can keep it there.

- Nice stash house. - [Henry] It's safer than being in here.

I think we'll get this thing going or not.

- There we go. - Ooh, bam, baby.

It's like a goddang champagne bottle.

- You see that? - [Henry] I saw that.

- Now she's picking up. - Well, we're doing what we do.

We got to heat up this water to cook this grain in.

Tell you what, we're well on our way right now.

Here, Tickle, you'll light this.

- [Tim] Get that burner going, Henry. - [Henry] Oh, yeah, buddy.

- Sure. - [Tim] Watch out for that water hose.

[Tim] I don't know what's going on with that water hose.

- [Tim] Howard, can you put it down? - God damn it, son.

What the [bleep] did you turn it on for?

- God damn, Tickle. - [Tickle] It was already on.

- [Henry] No it wasn't on either. - I hadn't moved the knob.

Tickle got ahead of himself.

And when I stuck that fire down there, that gas had already

built up underneath that still, I was engulfed with flames,

man, engulfed with flames. I'm very lucky.

All the hair's burned off. You can see it shining.

- You'll feel that tomorrow. - Hell, he's feeling it now.

[Howard] He burned a chunk of his hair.

Yeah, you got a good haircut on this side.

When we light it again, turn your head the other way,

so we can even your haircut out.

You know what you all can do?

Don't force me to come through that door right there.

[laughing]

Oh, my good buddy.

I survived, moonshiners buckle up and get the job done.

Hey, kid.

Tickle's lost his job working the propane tank.

I'm gonna get that water hot.

I'm gonna put that grain in there.

Uh-huh. She's getting the steam on.

Right now, we got both of these stills mashed in.

I think it's gonna work off good.

We heated them up, got our grains added,

got our sugar added. - [Howard] Uh-huh.

That's where you're gonna get the alcohol right there.

A couple of days, we'll be back and we'll run it with every

little bit of sugar and grain in the pot.

Anything else that wants to go with it, a little dirt

don't hurt. - Hopefully, nothing else happens.

Well, all we can do is come back in a couple of days

and check this out and hope ain't no holes in the pot

and hope everything worked off right.

Hope for the best.

[Josh] You know what, man?

I can't believe after all we went through to make some

cherry rye, we ended up having to make blackberry rye.

Old boy didn't want it. That don't make any sense.

Making somebody a brand new customer, which is outside

the box, a special run of liquor, going the extra mile,

and then they don't take it?

That just straight pisses me the hell off.

The problem is, is now we got to drive down the road

with it again. - Yeah.

The problem is, is we've done earned that money.

Now we're gonna have to double earn it.

We got to find somebody else to buy it.

I went to work with Henry, Kenny, and Tickle

up in Virginia.

I left a lot of people hanging around here.

By doing so, I lost a lot of business.

[ringback tone]

Right now, I got a truckload of liquor I need to get

the heck rid of.

So I can call my buddy, Digger, to put the word out.

[ringback tone]

- Go ahead. - Digger, this is Josh.

- What are you doing, buddy? - [Digger] Josh who?

[Josh] Yeah, right.

You know who the heck this is.

Man, you ain't gonna believe the crap that I'm going

through, Digger. I dang made a special order

of some rye for somebody,

and then son-of-a-guns gave me the biggest runaround after.

You wouldn't believe it.

[Digger] Josh, you didn't answer my question yet.

I asked you a question.

Look, you know who I am. You're on the road.

I can tell by the way the sound's going.

You bring your ass over here and look and talk to me

about that.

OK.

[Digger] All right, I'll see you in however long

it takes you to get here. I ain't going nowhere today.

OK.

[Digger] All right, man, be careful.

Weird.

Acts like he don't know who I am.

Then he wants to hang up on me.

Something ain't right.

I've known Digger a long time.

We've been good friends a long time.

He ain't never sounded like that.

What do you think of it?

Man, turn this thing around. We need to go to Tennessee.

Here's the gas station right here.

There's a road right there at it.

[Big Chuk] Yeah.

[Josh] Right now, me and Chuk are on our way to Tennessee.

I'm concerned. Something ain't right.

Digger ain't never acted like that before.

When I was on the phone with him, he acted like

he didn't know who I was.

Told me if I knew who he was to come and find him.

[Josh] Yeah, take a left here. Go.

[Big Chuk] Yeah, this is sure enough off the beaten path here.

- Golly. - There he is.

[Josh] He's just sitting in the back of the truck.

- [Josh] What's up, boss? - [Big Chuk] Howdy, howdy.

What? Thought you was coming alone.

I had him in the truck with me.

That's a good place for you to sit, son.

- Go get in the truck. - Yes, sir.

Well, I really didn't expect when me and Chuk got out of

the truck that Digger would start tripping out about Chuk

being there. But he did.

Sent him right back to the truck and told him

he was not welcome.

I didn't mean to bring nobody with me.

I should have called you and told you, I guess.

But you hung up on me.

Well, you got to understand where we're at right now, Josh.

Me and Mark got put in handcuffs last year.

What'd they bust you for?

Well, we had a still in the back of the truck.

We ain't really talked about it.

Well, I ain't talking about anything on the telephone,

and I'm not gonna talk about anything else on the telephone.

Serious?

Josh knows damn good and well that we got put in handcuffs

last year, and if there's anything I'm certain of,

it's that the law is still watching us.

What I've got to get through to Josh's head is if it can happen

to us, it can damn sure happen to him, because he's way more

reckless than we are.

Don't have anything at the same spot, find you someplace

totally away from you to get rid of your liquor,

and don't make any more than you can't sell in the course of

a day or two.

You that serious?

- [snap] - Merry Christmas.

I don't want it, I want you to take it, somewhere on

the interstate and throw it out.

Digger's always been a voice of reason for me.

He's always kind of been in the background, giving me

good advice.

And if he's telling me that the heat's coming down,

we're all connected. We're all in this together.

We're all, like, a big family.

And he's telling me I better watch my p's and q's.

We better listen.

Now, I'll text you another number that you'll be able

to call me. And don't you say a damn word

about liquor or anything illegal.

I don't even want to mention a speeding ticket on my phone.

I understand. I understand.

Exercise caution, son.

- Love you, bro. - I love you, man.

Get in that truck and be safe.

Ain't got to tell me but once.

[music plays]

- There you go. - It ain't light.

No.

It's been a long time since I've run an illegal still

in the woods.

- That's your first illegal run in, like, 14 years, Tim. - I know.

But I've committed to making this moonshine,

you know, smuggling cross to another country, and I got

law enforcement on both sides.

- [Howard] Back where it started. - [Tickle] Back where we started.

When you're young, you know, you got your whole life

ahead of you, you're not really afraid of taking

these risks, but when you get a little bit older,

you think about how life is short.

[Howard] That damn cap done dropped.

Oh, yeah. She's good and bitter.

She gonna pour the liquor.

[Tickle] All right, y'all ready to light this thing?

[Henry] Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

- Oh, come on, Henry. - Not you, Tickle.

You know, you engulf a guy in flames one darn time,

and then he won't let you near the propane tank again.

What's up with that?

All right.

There she goes.

Look at it. See, I'm fine, Henry.

Nothing to worry about.

We've got two 1,000-gallon pots.

All right, still got water.

We're gonna run one pot, proof it, jug it up, then we're

gonna switch over, and we're gonna start running

the other 1,000 gallon pot.

Do the water hose limbo.

[Henry] Baby's getting hot, y'all.

- I'm gonna give you the honors. - Hot damn.

- [thuds] - [chuckling]

[Henry] It's like you've been doing all your life.

- [Henry] Paste all the way around it. - [Howard] All right.

- Oh, getting hot? - She's hot, baby.

Ooh.

See, you hear that little roll in the thunder?

It doesn't bother us now. Look at this shelter we got.

Yeah, I know.

- Hey, hey, look. - Something's coming out.

- Uh-oh. - [Howard] Something's coming out.

- [indistinct] under. - [Tickle] Tim.

- [Tim] Huh? - [Tickle] You got to do the honors.

Go ahead and figure it out. See what it tastes like.

Your first illegal run in 14 years.

- See what she's like. - He's all excited.

[suspenseful chord strike]

- How is it? - Nothing wrong with it.

[Tickle] Oh yeah, nothing wrong with it, ain't it?

[Howard] He even got a smile on his face.

This is the first moonshine that's coming out of this worm.

I mean, it's nothing like it.

Even though it does have a little different taste

profile than the legal stuff that comes out of

my distillery, but it is really good.

- Made in the woods. - Fresh air.

You can't beat that. Thump in it,

made, distilled, everything right here.

I think just the hard work makes it taste good.

Don't spill it, whatever you do.

- I'm trying. - [Tim] That's some money right there.

Look at that, look at that, look at that.

Oh, yeah.

That's all of the run gets collected into the barrel.

Money right there, buddy.

Hey, that's some pretty looking liquor, too.

Strong, too.

We're gonna be in a happy 90 proof.

Wow. What proof you got?

Really blending in, good. That's a little bit high.

Now, when we draw it out of the proofing barrel and put it

in a jug, every jug will have the same proof.

- Yeah. - Jug them up, baby.

[Tim] Let's jug it up, man. Money, honey.

Tim filling up his first jug.

You know, it'll take 14 years to get back in the woods,

and now it's gonna take 999 more to get out.

- [laughing] - It might.

We're gonna leave Howard and Henry here.

They're gonna re cap the other still and get it going.

Woo. Let's cap this baby.

While me and Tickle take this first load to the stash house.

- [Tim] There you go, Tickle. - [Tickle] All right.

Start getting her loaded up.

Make sure it's all safe, then we're gonna return back,

finish up the second one.

This is what it's all about, being illegal.

By the end of the night, we should have at least

200 gallons in the stash house. - [Henry] Be careful, man.

Y'all be safe out there, boys, for real, man.

- This is where it gets serious. - [Tim] Step one of 1,000 gallons.

All we need is about nine more loads.

[Henry] I wonder where that beaver dam's at.

The dam right there. All the wood's piled up right there.

Yeah, I thought it was supposed to be in the water, though.

He's a dry land beaver. That's the dam,

that's his house right there. - [Tickle] Yeah, that's just his house.

So he ain't making no dam.

He just got his house right there.

Uh-huh. He's coming underneath it.

- [Tickle] I'll help him out. - [Tim] Get him.

[Tim] Get him. Get him. - [Tickle] Get him, Henry, get him.

[Henry] I thought I saw him jump out of there, man.

[Tim] Look at that thing.

That's what you call a beaver cut.

- [Henry] See that? - [Tim] Tickle, you're a carpenter.

It's about a 45 degree angle on that feller, too, ain't it?

- Look at that. - [Henry] This right here will

make a nice little mash fork.

[Tim] You keep messing around, he's gonna come out of

there in a minute.

Ain't gonna say, "Stop messing with my house."

He ain't gonna come out.

If y'all see that beaver, let me know.

I'm gonna hit him in the head with this stick right here.

[Henry] You can't eat him, can you?

[Tickle] You can eat anything you put in your mouth and chew, Henry.

I've been known to eat a beaver or two myself.

[Henry] I didn't want to go there. I don't even want to go there.

[Tickle] We got what? What do we got back there?

90 gallons in the back.

Yeah, 90 gallons.

We just got to do that about 10 more times.

- 10, 11 more times. - [Tim] We finally got our first run.

We made about 90 gallons. We got it on the truck.

Me and Tickle, we're gonna go to the staff site.

You're driving like you normally do.

You don't speed.

You stop at the stop signs. Stop at the stop light.

Cautious, careful.

I mean, this is, like, back in the day, man.

I mean, you're just riding.

- It's like back in the day, - Watching the speed limit.

We run into the law right now and they want to search

your car, we're gonna wind up in some trouble.

[Tim] Yeah.

You know, this probably is

one of the most dangerous parts.

[Tickle] Hauling it?

[Tim] I mean, running the still, that's one thing.

You know, that's the crime right there,

manufacturing alcohol without the license.

But hauling it down the road now, there's more chance of

getting caught, something happening.

You know, what if a truck breaks down?

What if, in an accident, some nut runs into you?

[Tickle] More eyes on you, more chances, easier to

get caught.

There's a stash house right on top of that mountain.

It's on the left side.

[Tim] It's the first time Tickle has seen this stash site.

I mean, it's kind of off the beaten path.

You can't see it.

It's well hidden by all the overgrowth and the bushes.

Nobody's been here for years.

- [Tim] This is it. - [Tickle] All right.

Well, I say we get to unloading.

[Tim] Uh-huh.

There we go.

Right now, you know, I really got a whole lot on the line.

Oh, yeah. I think we start in the back.

- Yeah. - And then work our way back to the front.

Work our way up to the front. Yeah, that'd be the way to go.

Being just paranoid anyway in moonshining is one thing.

But, you know, in my shoes, this is the next level.

All right.

We'll sit this thing right here.

Yeah.

And that ought to do what we want.

I mean, why are you scaring me?

[Tickle] Try not to look in the mirror, Tim.

[ominous music plays]

[Tickle] We got to get in and out of here.

I know, but I got another plan, Tickle.

- [Tickle] What's that? - [Tim] I bought some cameras.

[Tim] Putting, you know, all of this moonshine in one location,

you know, it is a high risk.

You know, the next month, I've got to continue to do this

all the time. So I've got some game cameras,

and I want to put them in different locations.

- [Tim] Yeah, so it's pointing towards them jugs. - Yeah.

We got to be very cautious about it.

Well, I mean, that's 90 gallon.

[Tickle] We got 10 more trips just like that.

I say, we get out of here before somebody sees this truck

out here. - [Tim] What I say.

These 90 jugs sitting up in this stash house,

boy, they sure do look good.

All right, let's get out of here.

Let's head on out.

But you know what's gonna be a beautiful sight?

Seeing 1,000 of them sitting in here.

[music plays]

[Mark] You know, we didn't make a tremendous amount of liquor

on our first corn run.

We're trying to generate a little revenue and just get

back to the basics.

You know, I'm on my way right now to one of our oldest,

dearest customers.

He's always wanted our corn liquor.

We ain't made a sale of liquor in six months.

And, you know, I'm really excited.

What're you doin', you old fart?

[man] Where you been hiding?

Damn, I been laying low for six months.

That's for sure, I ain't seen hide nor hair of you.

It ain't been by choice, but I got you something here.

Man, look at that.

Well, I've been missing some of y'all's good stuff now.

Hopefully, it'll be familiar to you.

Same old stuff. Good stuff.

- Yeah, try it out there. - Let's see here.

[Mark] Well, I ain't gonna sell a man no pig in a poke.

That's familiar, ain't it?

Yeah, that's as good as I remember.

That's it. That's good stuff right there.

Price is still the same, $25, $100 a gallon.

Well, I hate to, but y'all been out of it a while,

and I had to find me some.

And I found some pretty good stuff.

I've been paying $15 a jar for it.

Jesus, God, $15 a quart? Hell, that's 40% less.

I don't know how anybody's making them any money at that.

I don't either, but you can't blame a feller for picking that

up at that price. - [Mark] No, it ain't your fault.

It's just my problem.

I mean, that just knocks me for a loop.

What in the world are you getting it at for that price?

Now look, how many years have we been doing business?

- A long time. - You know I can't tell that.

I get it.

Well, that's just the way moonshiners' codes work.

You don't reveal your sources.

I mean, I'm getting it from a bootlegger.

And you know how that goes.

We've got to find out where this cheap liquor is

coming from.

And more importantly, how in the world are they able to

produce it and sell it for $15?

Our livelihood depends 100% on it.

[Josh] Ah [bleep].

[Big Chuk] Told you, slow down.

[Josh] Man, you didn't say [bleep] about slowing down.

What the hell are you talking about?

I can't give a jar of liquor away.

I didn't have no luck either.

If somebody else is trying to choke us out of business,

then we got to choke back a little bit.

All we need to do is just get up off the water a little bit,

and I'll be golden.

We've got to find a way then to pump freaking water

up the bank.

- [bleep]. - [yelling]

Ah, damn.

Well, I'm all wet, and the dag-gone wheel

ain't turning, Jerry. - [Josh] Chuk.

- [Josh] You hear? - [Big Chuk] Four-wheelers.

[Josh] You hear that?

We got to get the hell out of here.