Original subtitles

Chuk, you hear? Four-wheelers.

This time on "Moonshiners"--

You hear that?

We got to get the hell out of here.

So if he leaves right now, we just got to follow him.

If we can't figure out what's going on with all this

cheap liquor, Digger and I are out of business.

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.

Mike, this right here will work.

Well, it rolls easy, don't it?

[bleep].

Oh, damn.

Well, I'm all wet, and the dadgum wheel ain't turning, Jerry.

Ah, [bleep].

I don't know how they do it up here,

but I'm gonna tell you right now, in Arkansas,

you'd be hooked and booked.

Have you been drinking or anything?

This is how we make the moonshine.

There you are.

Well, I hope you've had as much luck selling your liquor

as I have, I can't give a jar of liquor away.

I didn't have no luck either.

If somebody out there is selling liquor

at damn rock bottom prices, we need to find out who,

and how, and why, and where and when.

Yeah, but if somebody else is trying to choke us

out of business, then we've got to choke back a little bit.

In Cocke County, Tennessee,

after downsizing their statewide operation

to focus solely on long time customers...

Boy.

People's gonna be champing at the bits

to get a hold of that.

...Mark and Digger discover there's an unknown competitor

vastly undercutting their prices.

You know, we don't know who it is.

We don't know if it's one person, 100 people,

if it's somebody that's figured out how to make liquor cheaper,

or they're stealing liquor somewhere.

You know, I'm not sure of a lot of things, but I am certain of

one thing-- we can't continue on doing business like this.

We'll be out of business.

Pretty simple. I mean, we got one guy

out there, and ain't nobody got

a temperature in the market any better than Beaz.

- He's learned a lot in 10 years, ain't he? - Yep.

He may have already run into some of this.

He may understand a little more than we think he does

what the problem is in our particular market.

I know that Beaz is on tour, and I know he always sells

liquor while he's on tour. - Yeah.

Killer Beaz, he's a stand-up comedian,

and in between his gigs, he sold a lot of liquor for us.

He knows the liquor business.

Probably better than anyone, as far as when it comes to

bootlegging and selling liquor, not only around our region here,

but all the way around the southeast.

So, we can't risk calling him. We won't call him.

Let's just look up his tour schedule and see

if we can find him. Let's just surprise him.

Me and Mark need to go run him down.

We need to see if he knows anything about this

cheap priced liquor that's coming into our world.

If we can't figure out what's going on with all this

cheap liquor, Digger and I are out of business.

Well, here's the old, familiar spot, buddy.

Yep, made a good bit of money here, for sure.

In Maggie Valley, North Carolina,

Moonshiner pariah Mike and his inventive partner Jerry

prepare to ramp up production at their creekside still site,

despite last year's largely unprofitable season.

We can set the pot right back up in the same location, man.

I believe it'll do good.

I tell you what, man, you know what I'm thinking?

- What's that? - I'm thinking Hurricane Helene.

After rival shiner Mark Rogers

blew up their $4,000 copper still to get them off

his turf, floodwaters from Hurricane Helene

swept away its replacement, forcing Mike and Jerry

to scramble just to break even on the season.

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.

We'll build some kind of pump we can put in

the creek or something.

You know, our still site right now is only like less than

a foot above the water level, but after going through what

we went through last season, it's like it put fear

in my mind. Like, can this happen again?

Well, you ain't gonna change your mind about it, are you?

By God, where do you want to set up at, Jerry?

Heck, that up there'd be plenty high enough.

Let's go up there and see if we can find a spot.

Let's go look, at least it ain't 20 miles down the road.

- Whoa. - You all right?

Yeah. I'm good.

[bleep], I'm wet now.

Not only have we got to find a brand new still site,

now we're gonna have to pump water uphill.

And it's gonna set us back several days and take money out

of our pocket. This is a lot of work.

Look at that little flat spot right there.

- It looks good. - Not much to clean out either.

No, it's a lot flatter than even right here behind us.

I mean, how the heck are we gonna get all that water

down there up here?

I know a gas pump's gonna be too loud, but I'll tell you

what will work, and it's got a lot of power,

is if we can harness that power with a water wheel.

You just want to freaking build something else,

ain't you? - You know that's who I am.

Let's build us about a six-foot diameter water wheel.

- A water wheel? - Yeah, six pistons on it.

Should give us ample water up here to the still site.

You know, we've got an unlimited source of water

coming down the hill with a lot of power.

So all we need to do is just build a water wheel

and we can power our water pump.

Well, I tell you what, let's get the still up here

and get it set and let's get back to the shop and we'll

start putting this water wheel together.

We got all that liquor in them buckets back there, Chuk.

- It's got to go. - Yeah, yeah, I'm with you.

100 miles southeast in Polk County, North Carolina,

after getting a warning from Digger about

law enforcement operations targeting moonshiners...

Me and Mark got put in handcuffs last year.

Don't have anything at the same spot and don't make any more

than you can't sell in the course of a day or two.

You that serious?

...Josh and Chuk pick a remote site

in the Blue Ridge Mountains to meet a potential buyer

for their unsold Blackberry Rye Moonshine.

We're about to unload this 25 gallons, bro, we're here.

After listening to Digger, knowing the heat's coming down,

got to be watching what we're doing and keep a low profile.

And it don't get much more out in the woods than this

right here. We out in the sticks.

Turkey.

After everything I've been hearing,

I ain't taking any chances.

I had him meet us deep in the woods.

Here he comes right here.

This guy's been one of my best customers for years.

He always takes large quantities and always pays a fair price.

- What's going on, big dog? - Hey, how you doing?

- How you doing, buddy? - Doing good, man.

Good to see you, man. Hey, this is Chuk.

- Hey, Chuk. - Nice to meet you, brother.

- Nice to meet you. - Hey, you're gonna love this.

What do you got here?

Some special stuff right there. Put a lot of love in it.

What am I tasting? There's something in there.

That right there is Carolina Blackberry Rye.

Yeah.

- What do you think? - I like it.

It's good. How much you got of it?

We brought five five-gallon buckets, 100 bucks a gallon.

I could get more than that for it,

but I ain't asking no more for it than that for it.

- $2,500? - Yeah.

All right, I think I can do that.

- You want the whole thing? - Let's do it.

- Nice. - Taking all my money.

Well, you're getting all my liquor.

This has been a good customer of mine.

When he said, "OK, I'll take it,"

honestly, it was like a burden was lifted off my shoulders,

because I was so ready to get rid of it,

I'd just about give it to him.

All right, man, we're good.

- See ya. - Now that we got the cash

and the liquor's out the back of the truck,

it's time to go make some more.

That's what I'm talking about $2,500 in the damn bank.

All right, now.

You in a hurry to get home or something?

I'm always in a hurry, big dog.

- Got a million things to do. - You're telling me.

So, when you're riding with Josh, you don't ever really

know how fast you're going.

You just know you're going fast.

Pretty reckless. Unnecessary risk that

some outlaws don't normally want to do.

You hear that big whistle going?

That means you're going too fast.

Ah, [bleep].

Oh, man.

I told you to slow down.

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

What the hell are you talking about?

I'm always telling you to slow down, you just drive

too damn fast. You're stupid.

It's a good thing we ain't got no liquor in the back

of the truck. - Well, I wouldn't have been [bleep] speeding like that

if I had liquor in there.

For one, I probably wouldn't have done that.

But two, you're right.

Here he comes right here. Put your cameras down.

Hey there, go ahead and shut off the truck for me.

- You know why I pulled you over? - No, not really.

You were going 67 in a 35.

There's a park right back there.

You know, school's getting ready to let out.

I don't know if you could have picked the worst place to be

speeding like that. - Well, I apologize.

I didn't mean to-- I'm just apologizing.

You got your license, registration,

proof of insurance? - Yeah.

- You been drinking or anything? - No, I don't drink man.

All right.

- There you go. - All right.

Go ahead and hang tight for me, all right?

All right.

Now, hopefully, they don't get you with 30 over, 67 in a 35.

I don't know how they do it up here, but I'm gonna tell

you right now, in Arkansas, we'd be hooked and booked.

You mean he could take me to jail right now?

Absolutely, man.

Man, I ain't believing this [bleep].

At least we ain't got damn buckets in the back.

Me, speeding through town,

bringing unnecessary heat down...

Here he comes.

"Yes," or, "No, sir," Josh.

...sticking out like a sore thumb, not too smart.

All right, Mr. Owens, you still live at

the current address on this? - Yes, sir.

- Columbus? - Yes, sir.

The speed you were going, I should be keeping that

license and taking you to jail.

I mean, that's just all there is to it.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna drop this down

to where it's gonna be this traffic ticket for you,

just a normal speeding ticket. - Thank you very much.

You were going 67. I dropped you down to a 50.

I do not want to see this truck in the future driving the way

you were earlier, OK? - OK, thank you.

- Thank you, sir. - Yeah.

Here's the license back. Please slow down, all right?

- Sorry about that. - Take care, man.

Y'all too.

Woo-wee.

Ticket, let me see that.

That definitely took some years off our lives.

I don't even know what to say.

How many times in your life do you ever get pulled over going

that fast and not get hammered?

Never. Not once.

Think of it like this--

what if a fella pulled you over, ran your tags,

realized they had something bigger cooking, and let us go

because of it? - I don't know.

Maybe I'm just paranoid by what Digger said.

You might be right, Chuk, but I hope you're not.

I mean, I hope like hell you're not.

I'll tell you what, Mike.

I believe we'll be able to find what we're looking for here.

I hope so.

One thing we've got to remember, this thing's got to

be real nice and quiet. - Oh, yeah.

Now, we've got to find a way to pump water uphill.

Jerry's got this idea to build a water wheel.

You know, we don't want to use no dadgum gas pump of no sort,

because it's loud and echoes through the woods.

That'll lead somebody straight to us.

Hey, Mike, how about this wheel right here, that ought to work.

Boy, you crazy.

Hey, that'd be big enough.

Yeah, it's big enough, all right.

Stick out like a sore thumb.

Jerry's idea of the water wheel is bigger, badder, and better,

you know, so it can create more torque

and pump more water.

Well, I would much rather be quiet and big than

little and loud. - Like me?

Yeah, like you.

Because, you know, he is right.

We got to pump this stuff uphill, and it's gonna take

a lot of torque.

But being discreet is always better, especially right now.

See why I want something like that right there?

We'll put some paddles or something on it.

Yeah, but you're talking about a lot of,

a lot of water and a lot of paddles to spin that thing.

Well, I know. I've got the perfect idea.

What's that? We'll build us a dad Jim

bike frame on it, put some pedals up there,

and you can sit there and you can pedal it to death

while I'm up out running liquor.

That ain't gonna be no quieter, I promise you that.

By the time I get to huffing and puffing...

...they'll hear me back clear in town.

You know, we've already got a big still set up

and a big still site, so putting a big water wheel in,

I don't really see what's gonna be the problem.

They're gonna see one, they're gonna see the other.

You know, pretty much me and Mike's just looking for

anything that's large diameter and round.

What's that right in there?

That looks like some kind of wheel, don't it?

That looks like a bunch of junk to me.

What are you talking about?

No, right yonder, that's a wheel in there, some type of wheel.

Oh, the part that's laying down flat there, huh?

I mean, I don't know if it's a work part, but it's

a something. - Dude, you know what that is?

- What is it? - It's one of them old spools,

like you use on, like, you know, road work and stuff,

the cables, underground lines, and stuff.

- Cable stuff, spools, yeah. - Dude, that would work.

I wonder how heavy this thing is.

- Can't be very heavy. - Let's see.

Let's check it out and see.

So from a distance, I'm seeing this round loop that looks

kind of like a metal hula hoop, so to speak.

Closer we get to it, it's two of them actually

bolted together.

Look at the size of that, Mike.

Now, that's what I'm talking about right there.

What? Ain't that too big?

Too big?

That looks like a freaking Ferris wheel at the fair.

We could rig this thing up at the house

and put toddler baskets in it and give people's

babies a ride for money. - Yeah.

You know, I'm seeing this thing out in the middle of

the woods, you know, with big, old paddles on it.

It's got a lot of weight, which would be a lot of kinetic

energy if you could get it rolling.

Mike, this right here will work.

Well, it rolls easy, don't it?

That's a good eye right there, son.

We don't need it nowhere near this wide.

We'll cut these things down and narrow them up.

- Shorten them down. - Make them a little

over a foot wide, about yay wide like that.

- Yeah. - And put us some paddles around through there.

I guess you're sold on it, ain't you?

Oh, man, absolutely.

I think there's a couple more of them things laying around

over there. - Let's just grab them, just for the heck of it.

This thing checks all the boxes.

It's sturdy. It's lightweight.

I think we can do something with this.

You know, somebody else might have thrown these wheels away,

but that right there is Mike and Jerry's treasure.

I don't know where this cheap ass liquor's coming from,

but the guy that drives that little car right down there is

the one that can help us.

You know, Killer Beaz, he's a stand-up comedian.

He's playing a venue in Tennessee, a couple hours away,

and in between his gigs, he moves a lot of liquor.

Oh, oh, oh, look here. There he is.

About time.

Before we approach him, we need to make sure he ain't

got no liquor in there, don't we?

I mean, I don't want to go to jail for my liquor,

let alone somebody else's.

We know that Beaz is out selling a little liquor.

That's none of our business, you know.

He's got to make a little extra money, too.

So if he leaves right now, we just got to follow him.

But we would like to know if he knows anything about this

inexpensive liquor hitting the market.

Here we go.

As bad as it seems, you know, we're just gonna

trail Beaz until we know he's out of liquor.

Boy, he's obeying all the traffic rules.

He ain't getting too fast at all.

If he gets pulled over and stopped right now

with liquor with him, then Beaz is on his own

because we're gonna drive on past.

Well, he might be playing it kind of--

oh, he's got a target up here. - Oh, yeah.

There, yeah. You're right.

There he goes. He's meeting his mark.

What about that little, sneaky bastard?

He's learned well.

The last thing we want to do is blow Beaz's cover.

I mean, he's got his route.

He likes keeping things under wraps.

And we're not gonna do anything to jeopardize that.

When this is done, when he leaves here,

I feel OK about approaching him, don't you?

Yeah, there's nothing there that's going to get

neither one of us in trouble.

Well, as far as we can tell, I think Beaz has

delivered his liquor.

Now, it's time we're gonna get his attention

and get him pulled over and speak with him.

Holy cow. What are you doing here?

- Hey, man. - Well, we've been following you.

You ain't got nothing you ain't supposed to have, have you?

Uh, nuh-uh.

Will you follow us a little ways?

We need to speak with you, pretty important.

OK.

We're probably the last people in the world that

Beaz expected to see.

And he looks very befuddled.

What are y'all doing over here?

We just, we've got some issues that we don't really know

how to deal with. - What's up?

Me and Digger made a little run of just everyday

corn liquor.

And we were under the impression that after we'd

been absent for six months, that people would be chomping

at the bit for it.

And we found out that wasn't the case.

We know you still bootleg liquor.

Is it worse in some parts than others?

I'll tell you what, West Tennessee, Memphis,

hot as a firecracker.

Nashville, hot as a firecracker.

You get to East Tennessee, our stomping ground,

there's a lot, a lot of cheap liquor.

You care to try to get a hold of a little of it,

maybe snoop around and see what you can find out about it?

I'd like to lay my hands on a jar of it just to see

what we're dealing with here.

If you could do that for us, we'd be forever in your debt.

I will try to track down a jar of that for you guys,

see what I can do.

We don't really know which direction to turn yet,

but we would like to taste the product

and see what we're up against.

I apologize for coming up on you bold as winter here,

but it's what we had to do. - Well, I'm glad it was y'all.

We want to see really and truly if it's

what our customers are saying that it is.

That confirms a lot, don't it?

I guess, just check on the still, make sure

it's all right. There ain't no need to worrying

about mashing nothing in, are they?

I'm just more worried about making sure

everything's still in place.

What's that yonder, did you leave a jar of liquor here?

I did not leave a jar of liquor here.

Digger and I, we're on our way to the still site,

and, you know, when we pull up, there's a jar of liquor sitting

on a damn piece of a log laying right here where we parked.

How did a damn jar of liquor get here?

I think a little bee brought it in.

- What? - A little bee brought it in.

That little fart.

There's a B drawn on the top of the lid.

We asked Beaz to help track down a little bit of this

cheap liquor that's been flooding the market.

So, with that jar sitting here, that tells me that

he came through for us.

Let's see what it smells like, see what it tastes like.

Not much on the nose.

I've drunk a whole lot worse. For $15, it'll do.

Honestly, it's not that bad of a liquor.

It's close enough that if I didn't have anything else,

hell yeah, I'd drink it.

You taste how sweet it is?

- Yeah. - That ain't no natural sweet.

Somebody's put glycerin in there.

Glycerin is an industrial food additive used

by some liquor brands to lend a sense of greater complexity

to cheaply produced liquor.

However, most traditional moonshiners make

their liquor naturally complex, with high-quality ingredients

and time-tested distilling techniques,

which come at a cost.

It ain't a bad $15 jar of liquor.

Damn, this really throws a damn wrench in our grinder.

You want to start building this base?

Yeah, let's get the base put together first.

You know, last season, we lost everything due to flooding.

We do not want that to happen ever again.

Our still site may be way above the flood line, but that's yet

another problem. You know, we gotta get water

up there now, and we gotta try to

force it up there.

Square 'em up, buddy.

Hold the top together, anyway.

You know, I came up with the idea of making

a water wheel, and I think it's our best solution.

We can use the power of the river to our advantage

and pump water uphill.

Building a big old hamster wheel so Jerry will have

something to play on.

We gotta have a big wheel to generate that power.

You know, you're talking about eight pounds a gallon of water

trying to go straight up. You got 30 feet, do the math.

Go ahead and hop up here, it'll hold you.

Turn me loose.

You ain't got far to roll, do you?

Stop me.

You couldn't step fast enough, did you?

I couldn't step fast enough with it.

Hold it, let me down. Yee haw.

Before I get broke.

Well, needless to say, Jerry, I believe we'll leave

the hamster wheels to the hamsters.

Now we gotta figure out how we gonna mount these things in there.

All these bars, we'll just drill straight through and bolt

them like that right there. - Yeah, why not?

- It's two bolt holes. - Boop, boop.

Basically, we gotta build our buckets.

The water's gonna catch in and make the wheels spin.

So we're just taking some six-inch PVC pipe...

cutting them about 16 inches long.

- Straight as a gun barrel. - Straight as a barrel.

...and splitting them right down the middle, making half moon cups.

- It's gonna hold a lot of water weight right there. - Yep.

Put some end caps on them and screw it to the wheel.

These son of guns holding one gallon of water per paddle.

It's gonna spin a wheel, ain't it?

When that water starts hitting them paddles,

we're fixing to have power.

Got your plunger ring there?

Yeah, it's just a little rubber over here to give us

a little bit of a seal. I'm kind of getting excited.

I want to give it a little test drive.

Test drive it, see if it's gonna suck and pull.

- Yep. - Jerry's come up with

a solution to build these piston arms and cylinders.

As this wheel turns, it'll move those cylinder arms and put

them on opposite strokes, have one pulling out,

one pushing up at the same time.

So one arm's pulling water in, the other arm's pushing

water out.

So that's pulling water right there, and here it comes.

It'll give you all the water I need up there.

We're gonna have eight of those when we're complete,

so it'll give us a continuous flow of water up on that hill.

- Let's try it out. - Fingers crossed.

Let's do it to it.

I can see the hose moving.

Oh, it's drawing it.

I can see the water going down.

Oh, looky there. Looky there.

We got water, baby.

As we're spinning it by hand, we can see that these round

pistons are actually doing their job.

They're pumping.

- We got water. - Heck, yeah.

Well, Jerry, you ready to get this thing loaded?

I'm gonna tell you what, man. We got to get her to the woods.

Let's hope and pray it gets water on top of that hill,

because I'm ready to put some money in old Mike's pocket.

Get it to them woods, son.

Get it to the woods and get us some water pumping.

Yee, yee.

Look at that wild turkey. Pow, pow.

It's been a crazy couple days. Went and met Digger.

Digger's telling me everything that's going on.

Come back home, sold my blackberry rye,

and then instantly get pulled over.

Thank goodness I done got rid of the liquor.

Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.

But right now, I'm counting my blessings, and it's time to

go get mashed in and get right back to work.

All right, so let's get up here and get this doggone mash made

and get this done, because I'm ready to get home.

I wanna go see my baby.

There's fresh tracks right here.

And it rained overnight.

- That ain't cool. - Four-wheeler tracks.

Somebody's been in here today.

I don't like this, man. I don't like this at all.

You and me both. That's weird.

Chuk, the tracks go straight back in the still site, bud.

- Let's go look at it. - Yeah.

Chuk,

there's a foot track right there.

Right there. Look, see it?

- That ain't yours? - I just got out of the truck.

It's rained like hell. They's one right there, too.

You sure you want to go any further?

Somebody knows we're here, regardless.

Mm mm mm.

There's foot tracks all around us this side.

Yeah, I don't got a good feeling about this.

There's foot tracks everywhere. Look at them.

They're all over.

We need to get out of here. Let's get [bleep],

get out of here.

Chuk, Chuk.

You hear that?

- You hear? - Four-wheelers.

Hey, hey, don't go all the way out there.

Stick out like a damn lighthouse.

You hear that?

We got to get the hell out of here.

- You hear that? - Yeah.

That's four-wheelers right there.

Yeah, they are.

They're on the ridge.

I was wondering where the heck they could be.

We got to get the hell out of here.

Get out of here. Do what you do best.

Go fast.

My worst nightmare is coming true right now.

Tracks in our still site, but then I hear some kind of

motor, some kind of engine traveling around.

I go running around the corner. There's a couple four-wheelers.

I know we're in trouble now.

If I could just get my stuff and get gone.

You see [bleep] like this,

you don't ask no questions.

You just get the hell out of there.

Oh, god. Someone's gonna bulldoze me.

All right, grab one end of it. I'll get the other.

- We got this. - Josh just grabbed this, grabbed that.

We try to get the worm.

It's waterlogged, weighs 1,000 pounds.

- All right, let's go. - We're trying to drag it up a hill.

But my mind's thinking, "Cops, cops, cops, cops."

One, two, three.

Oh [bleep].

All right, we need to make room for everything else.

- Let's go, man. - Let's go.

Should we cover the worm?

We'll cover it up at the bottom of the hill or something.

This ain't happening, Chuk.

Well, if somebody's really making liquor from scratch,

out in the woods somewhere,

they've discovered something that we ain't.

Thanks to Killer Beaz, Digger and I have ended up

with this $15 jar of corn liquor that's been flooding

our market everywhere.

The only way they're producing this liquor for $15 a jar

they got to be getting cheaper ingredients.

It's obviously whoever's making this flood of cheap liquor are

cutting a lot of corners, but that's the thing that

Digger and I don't know.

We don't know what corners they're cutting.

Let's get the cheapest ingredients that we can that

will still make us a corn liquor and figure it up,

break it down, price per jar, and see what we

come up with in it.

You know, the industry standard in these mountains is

just old, clear corn liquor.

That's what this old, backwoods liquor world cut its teeth on,

that's what we're gonna lose our teeth on.

I say we start with corn syrup.

It used to be a little bit cheaper than cane sugar.

We gotta try to make this so at least it won't tell us

who we're dealing with, but it'll tell us

what we're dealing with.

Man, I'm really hoping this wheel works out, man.

Yeah, me and you both, we spent a lot of time and money in doing it.

You know, we could so easily be on the creek right now running

liquor right beside the water, gravity feeding it down to

the still site, but no, we had to build this water wheel.

This thing better work.

We on our way to get her set up.

Watch them valves. Watch it now.

Don't fall.

We back into the creek here. We got a nice little flat spot.

Easy, OK?

We've got it set up and blocked up, got it

nice and level.

Now all we got to do is just pop our water to it.

- Pick up on it a little bit. - All right.

We're gonna take some PVC pipe, couple it along the way,

and get up the river at least 100 foot plus to be able to

harness the water that we need high enough to get this

wheel turning.

Reach it!

Let me grab a couple braces.

Dragging this pipe, putting everything together,

screwing pipe together, making saddles.

It's gonna be pretty rock solid right there.

This is a lot of work to try to force water uphill.

All right, here's the moment of truth.

Coming to you, Jerry.

We got water.

It's just a little too far forward.

That's all right. We can cut it off.

All we got to do is cut that pipe off a little bit,

and we'll be in business.

[bleep].

Ah, damn.

Oh, my god.

- I'm soaked now. - Oh, god.

Oh, hell.

Well, I'm all wet, and the dadgum wheel ain't

turning, Jerry.

I mean, it's working some, but it ain't enough to feed

the still site right now.

If this three inch pipe ain't enough to turn

this water wheel, we gonna have to tear something apart,

re-figure, and do this all over again.

Right there, it goes to a full pipe, it works.

And then it drops about three quarters of the pipe,

it overshoots it.

The water's hitting these paddles, but it's just like

it's just slinging it out everywhere.

I mean, they're not actually catching the water.

So, I think we cut that thing off about two inches.

Well, you actually got more water pressure when it

starts overshooting. - Right.

If you cut it off a little, it might help it, I don't know.

So Jerry comes up with the idea to cut it off some

and then put a 45 turning up on it so it can shower down on

these paddles.

Well, there's the water.

Mike, we got it turning, buddy.

Good job, man.

Just hose this up and get her up there.

Hell yeah, baby.

This thing's working.

It's rolling slow, but it's consistent.

We got water. Looky there.

We in business, ready to make liquor.

This is a really great still site, but it's got a few issues

as you're fixing to damn see.

Right now, I got to come up with a new plan

because my still on the mountain is definitely compromised.

Great still sites, very rare thing.

Sure, I can go right out here in the woods and just

find one somewhere, but I've already got one in mind.

After everything I've been hearing, I ain't taking

any chances.

I see the creek down there.

Yeah, the problem is there's cow pastures all up down through there.

I don't want to use that water, so I haul my water in.

And there's a ventilation problem here.

Ventilation problem? Where are we heading?

The best part about this whole thing is, to the naked eye,

there's nothing here.

Oh, a big rope to get down, I hear that.

All right now.

Wow, you built this?

You know, it's been a long time Puss since we've been

through here.

There is something special about this place, ain't they?

Yep. And look right yonder.

This sheet metal, you find remnants of

this everywhere. These are old silver cloud stills.

You know, supposedly, and I don't know that

it's true, but if it was a full moon, it kind of had

a glow to it off in the woods, you know.

That's how it got its name, I guess.

You know, they was pretty sharp to figure out that

they didn't have to have copper for the pot.

Every time they lost a still the revenuers, they lost money.

Yeah, they probably didn't cost half or even less than that to

build what a copper still was.

Now, they'd usually use copper somewhere in it, maybe a cap,

but definitely the worm.

Ain't no telling how many gallon liquor been running

right here in this little patch of woods.

Oh, hell yeah. Man, you built this?

You're damn right, I built it. Took me for damn ever, too, man.

It was a lot of work. I dug all this out with a mini draco.

Five seasons ago--

A lot of dirt, man. A lot of dirt.

Josh constructed a moonshine bunker to take

his illegal moonshine operation underground.

- I think it looks pretty good. - Perfect.

But before he could make it profitable,

ventilation problems confounded his plan.

You're gonna put your mash barrels in here with [bleep],

then you can breathe toxic.

If I don't have good airflow in this bunker, then we're

gonna probably die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Now, in need of a hidden still site to run liquor again,

ventilation is just one of Josh's many problems.

Weather's not gonna stop us, you know?

It's dry. I can work here around the clock.

It's a good, safe spot to work. It's good and hid.

Nobody's expecting you to be under the ground,

you know what I mean? - Mm-hmm.

Oh, that's a big monster in there, too.

How big is that still? Man,

I'm telling you right now, it looks like

a disaster in here. But I'm so proud of this.

This is really an amazing setup.

275-gallon copper pot right there.

- Yeah, that's a beast. - It's got a steel jacket around it.

That's the furnace.

That's fitting to make some liquor.

My problem here is we have a carbon monoxide problem.

We're in a hole.

And even though this whole face of it's open, all your exhaust,

your gas, and all your [bleep] got to go somewhere.

So I've got to come up with something or some way to get

some more air in here and get this air out.

There's a hole right there, and that's where the pipe goes

to let out all the exhaust, you know?

- OK. - We've got to figure out a way

to get that piped out. - OK.

So we've got fresh air all the time.

I decided, well, if I'm going back to this still site, I need

to do something better. So we're going back to the drawing board,

and hopefully we're gonna fix the ventilation problem.

Looks like we can make a ton of liquor out of here.

It goes with what Digger said, too.

We need to keep a low profile. We just went underground.

- Yeah. - Can't get much lower than that.

Can't get much lower than that.

Yeah.

You know, Hattie,

I ain't gonna spend no money trying to figure out how

they're making liquor. It's cheap, we got ingredients.

We know what they cost now.

Digger and I never cut corners on the quality of the products

we use in our liquor.

They figured out something that me and you ain't figured out

in decades.

But here we're trying to replicate to see what they're

doing to produce it for $15 a jar.

We've decided we're gonna make three different mash bills

here, and we've sourced three different types of

sugar, sweeteners, and different grains.

Well, let's get the water hot.

All right, Puss, we need to make this one first.

First mash, it's gonna be corn syrup, a little bit of cornmeal.

We know this yellow corn ain't gonna make the amount of

liquor that the white corn will.

- Right. - That's why we use corn syrup.

It's got a little bit more sugar to it.

But we still get the corn flavor.

- Yeah. - Price of good quality

white corn that we like to use,

it's very expensive now.

Oh yeah, I think that'd be plenty.

Honestly, white corn and yellow corn don't taste

that much difference.

It's just that white corn has higher carbohydrates

and starch content. - Well, Hattie...

Uh-huh.

...this corn syrup ain't gonna need that much cooking.

You know, we've never made any liquor out of any of these

ingredients whatsoever.

Corn syrup, yellow corn, they don't exist in our world.

Boy, look at that.

When it comes to corn syrup, it's used by industrial uses.

You know, mass quantities of sweet tea, soft drinks.

Oh, I ain't gonna hang it on for long, it's heavy.

Boy, it's pretty in there, look at that.

And it's sweet.

Oh, yeah, it's sweet enough to hurt your teeth.

You can get a cavity just smelling this.

And it's about, what, 40% cheaper than--

Yeah, it's almost half. Half as cheap.

Let's pour a little hot water in here and melt this up.

I don't know how good a liquor it'll make.

We're gonna see what it comes out.

Look yonder.

Yeah, boy.

The second mash, it's gonna be the scratch feed with

the liquid sugar, which we think is gonna be

equivalent to a 50-pound sack of sugar.

Just plain, old scratch feed.

All that is, it just ground up a little further than

cracked corn.

Damn, that'll cook it.

Like churning butter. Well, if this'll work, Hattie,

scratch corn's way cheaper than anything out there.

Yeah, it is.

- Liquid sugar, Digger. - It's a little bit cheaper than...

Yeah, it's right smart.

...cane sugar, but weighs a little bit more, don't it?

It's got all the sweet that we need, so we're gonna put

the liquid cane sugar with scratch feed.

Then that last mash we're gonna run, that's the sweet feed

with imitation day-old pancake syrup.

Pour it away, Mark.

Sweet feed is the lowest quality grain out there

because it has everything in it.

I think about half of it already powderized pretty good.

It has the cob. It's got the corn stalk.

You know, it's got it all.

Imitation Maple Syrup.

Here we go, dumping. This is way yonder thinner.

Yeah.

I say we top them off pitch yeast.

OK.

We've got all three of these test mashes running,

three totally different mashes.

And we're gonna get three totally different flavors.

Here we go on molasses.

At this point, we've done all we know how to do.

We've cut every corner that we know to cut.

Our expectations of it is not real high,

but stranger things have happened.

You know, who knows?

Like Jim Tom always told us, you don't ever know till

you cook it and see what you got.

We'll know here in a couple hours.

We've made damn liquor or buttermilk.

The market is totally flooded with cheap liquor.

I mean, there's no way we can sell ours.

It ain't horrible.

If we can't figure out a way to compete with this guy,

we're dead in the water.

You're full of [bleep]. That's terrible.

So you're needing some liquor, are you?

- Yeah. - First time buyer,

you know, really don't know him that well.

I'd hate to show up hundred gallon and have me set up,

or something, you know.

What's going on? Y'all broke down?

There's a vehicle, like, stopping in the road,

and it's, like, blinking the lights at me.

Y'all just ride up and down the road all the time,

stop people? - No, just you.

Something ain't right here.

Is that our stash house?

What?

Oh, no. God dang.

Tim.

The cops will be here in a minute.

- God almighty. - We gotta go.

[bleep].