$4,500 in ONE Run? Moonshiners B3t Big on Wild Spring Flavors and the Results Left Them Grinning

It’s getting clear?  Yes, it is.  Clear, clear.  It smells like banana in there.  Smells like bananas, man.  You want to taste it?  Open up. Get you a snort.  Wow.  Oh, yeah. It’s going to warm you up. One  You can taste You can still taste Yeah, it’s warm. It’s really refreshing.

You can taste the strawberries, the bananas. It’s light. It’s crisp. It’s perfect for summer. I think you’ll be impressed. That much thing.  Y’all my nose running.  This is how we make the moonshine.  Tell you what, if this blueberry tastes as good as that rye did, man, we ain’t got no trouble getting rid of it.  If this blueberry brandy turns out the way I expect it to, me and Jerry, we stand to make a lot of d@mn money.

But, we’ve never run any brandy in this new rig. You never know how new recipes going to turn out until you taste it out the money pot. You never know what you’re going to get. This may be a a bust or a fail. Butch, don’t take this liquor for payment. We owe him some money one way or another. We got us a few more barrels.

And by God, these things things are heavy. Woo! Hey, you ready to cut some holes?  Let’s do it to it.  You don’t want to mash inside the actual pot itself, but you know, we’ve got 600 lb of blueberries here. If you don’t hurry up and get it fermenting the way it needs to be, they’ll spoil on you, then you can’t use them.

These additional barrels and some white oak charred barrels, cut the lids out of them and mash them in. It’ll give the same concept as what we’re doing in the pot itself. We got to mash these blueberries up just like anything else. So, I’ve got a fruit press, a manual one. We just throw these blueberries in there and turn the knob.

Two different set of gears in there that just sucks that fruit down in there and crushes it and throws it right in the barrel for you. We put our hot water in on it, steep it in, and it’s good to go. And putting this on it right here, we’re going to have something r.i.pe and ready. Oh, that’s going to make some blueberry Kool Aid right there, baby.

When you mash in a fruit mash, you’re turning it into wine first. You distill it off and make a brandy out of it. This is a little bit longer process, but everybody in America wants something different. All right, buddy. We’ll get this and blueberry it up and in. They want something new. They love to see the times change and that’s what me and Jerry’s doing now.

It’s going to be a lot of money, son, if all this works out. Five barrels of mash sitting here and after the rye run that we made here and putting berries in on top of that, man, it’s going to be good, brother. We’re putting about 20 gallons of blueberries per barrel. These white oak charred barrels, this going to give a really great deep and bold flavor to this mash. This is a beautiful sight.

It smells so good out here in these woods. I believe it’s going to be one of the best runs we’ve ever done. I can drink that just like that as it’s d@mn good, son. We’re running our fingers down in there tasting this mash. It’s phenomenal. I could have these strained out of them barrels and bottled right now.

You can taste the char from the barrel, the whole nine yards. Cuz when you get high for this taste, out the other end of the world, we’re going to be on to something.  All right, man. If you want to start trying to see if you can get a fire started, I’m going to get this thing capped off and connect it up.  All righty.

The unique thing about our setup is going out of a white oak American charred barrel, fusing that flavor lightly through a clear brandy. Well, you know, the big question is if it’s going to work. We’ll soon find out.  All right.  I say you want to be getting close.  Yeah, it started to look like it’s getting a little lucky there.

Wow.  Yeah.  We got it, don’t we?  Look at that stream, son.  We got alkyhol, don’t we?  Smell that those notes in there.  Yeah, the notes of them blueberries for sure.  And the char and char is in there really good. It’s got a good rich smell to it. That blueberry is coming through.  You can smell those notes from the charred barrel, from the blueberries coming through.

We’re going to wait till it kind of tempers itself down getting them hearts. We’re going to take us a swallow.  Now we’re the business end of it right now.  That’s what we’re looking for.  The business end.  You know, I’m ready to taste this brandy right now. I’m getting nervous on how it’s going to taste. I can smell those good notes coming from the barrel and the blueberries, but it’s time to take us a swallow and see see really what me and Jerry’s done here today.

Looks like we about need another jug, brother.  We on it. Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t spill don’t spill don’t spill it.  Give me a horn of that.  We got to try it, though.  I’m super excited about this right here. How we good?  I’m smelling the blueberries a lot better than I was before.

Wow.  That’s blueberry d@mn brandy right there, buddy.  The notes of the the the charcoal and the charred there.  I’m really I’m loving this. This stuff tastes amazing. I mean, one of the best runs we’ve ever made. It tastes like blueberries, but not coated in d@mn sugar.  Yeah.  I like it. It’s good.

I believe it’ll sell. I’m tickled with it. It’s got the wood charred notes in it. It’s got the blueberry coming through it just right. I believe this stuff’s going to sell like cr4zy. It’s perfect. I mean, don’t touch it. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke. This stuff is great. That’s about it, ain’t it, Bubba?  Yeah, but we’re we’re pushing it down there in the bottom of the tails, so  Yep.

We don’t need to push it no more.  All righty.  Let’s get this stuff loaded up. Get it out of here.  I reckon it’s about that d@mn time, ain’t it?  Sure is. Say, is it easy to carry in the buckets, too, but  Hell yeah. Dang it. Blueberry brandy, though, baby. We have done it, son.  This is our favorite old site, these.

I love it here. We’re going back to our old still site. There’s no evidence that it’s ever been burned. Nobody around. Nobody’s been here that we can tell.  Well, it’s a pain getting back here for one thing.  I mean, really, is your wife worth it?  Yeah, her credit score, man, is way up there.

I got to treat her right.  You know, Killer Bee’s, he’s all time up to something and he’s trying to make a special shine for Terry, who is his wife’s birthday. Going to have him, we’re excited about it and we’ll get mash down with his version of what he calls Ambrosia.  This is actually kind of fun. So, we’re going to be using scuppernongs, bananas, figs, kiwi fruit, and peaches.

Just so you know,  Yeah.  when you make liquor out of fruit,  Yes.  it’s a time consuming project. Let me see here. Dang. What’d you get into, P.S.A.?  Uh yeah, uh  Oh, we’re in a yellow jacket’s nest. Oh. Crap.  They’re protective as h3ll of their domain, ain’t they?  You getting ready to black out or anything?  No, but I’m going to walk up to the truck and see I want to look at this  Shortcut right through here.

I know this path. I’ll get lost and then I’ll d1e.  Poor son of a It’s kind of ironic that a yellow jacket would sting somebody named Killer Bee’s. Well, do they know that they’re trespa.ssing on our still site? Go over and tell them.  You got to get really close. Yellow jacket right here.  No,  eyes, not good ears.

Well, Bee’s, he’s he’s he’s incapacitated at this point.  Damn it.  So, it’s up to me and Mark to go on a recon mission and slip in behind the enemy lines and get this mash out.  Well, let’s get this down mash made.  This is just like you getting stung. That’s the pits.  Such a wordsmith.

I tell you what, guys, Terry is to love this.  Well, what do you think we’re all doing to Terry? I mean, she’s got to be nominated for sainthood. Hell, she lives and puts up with you. Quit eating the d@mn naners, Edd1e. It ain’t going to have no naner flavor if you eat all of them.  You begrudge me one bite of one little banana.

One bite? Hell, boy, you look like Debbie Does Dallas when you took that bite. I’ve got all the peaches. I reckon that’s all of it.  Excellent. Oh, wait, wait, wait. The scuppernongs.  Oh, that’s your secret ingred1ent.  Yes, it is.  All right, let’s get her Let’s get her something to cook.  They’ve got a k1ller flavor.

They taste like a grape that has allspice or something in it. So, this is kind of my major ingred1ent for this was scoring the scuppernongs.  to be the dominant flavor.  Maybe. I’ve never run this before.  We’ve never made no liquor with them, have we, Dig?  We have not.  Who’s to say that that wouldn’t make a stand alone liquor?  Well,  Kind of what I’m a thinking.

Let’s see how the flavor comes through on them on this little run.  But, one thing I’m certain of, you got to have a little pectin enzyme. It will break down this fruit and liquefy it a little more. Basically, what it’s doing is pre chewing up the carbohydrates and proteins in here. It’ll make everything break down like the amylase enzyme does the does the corn.

And we’re using corn syrup instead of granulated cane sugar.  We brought corn syrup into this mash simply because it’s 100% fermentable. And anybody that’s made corn liquor knows that corn flavor is sweet in liquor. So, we’re not just getting sugar liquor, we’re getting corn sugar liquor.  All that needs right now, baby man, is yeast.

No, you need way more than that. We want to kick off quick. We want it to work off fast.  You know, this is a complicated mash we’re doing here. This Let’s go. I like all the fruit that’s in it, but when you combine all these, who knows what you’re going to develop, what kind of taste profile you’re going to get.

Get your cooler here, Digger.  Oh, what is that?  I mean I mean these.  Swap them jars. Hell, you’re wasting liquor. It’s the clear, ain’t it?  Yes, it is, brother.  That ought to be full of flavor. Whoa, scuppernongs.  Pimp nines.  Cut nines.  There’s always the moment of truth when you taste the run. Holy mackerel kingfish.

What stands out most to me is the taste of the scuppernongs seem to outrun the other fruits, which is really a good flavor.  Man, that’s outstanding.  Wow.  That grape wild grape scuppernong flavor, it’s in there through and through. Oh, front to back, it’s great.  Think Terry is going to absolutely love this moonshine.

She is going to be so surprised.  Really amazes me that no more of the peach comes through. I mean, I taste them scuppernongs scuppernong more than anything. I mean, really, that’s the d@mn That’s the dominant flavor, even though they didn’t weren’t the most volume.  Right, right.  They would make a dandy wine, wouldn’t they?  I’m sure.

They would They’d make dandy, and that’s brandy. A cognac. Cognac.  Okay, we don’t have water.  What?  No water.  Back in the Bluegra.ss State, it’s an uphill battle as Chico and Sandra struggle to get water up to their mash barrels.  Every time we do something to make it easier on us through the course of the year, seems like I always bite off more than I can chew.

It must have a clog in it somewhere in this pipe. Blow in it and see what happens. Do it again. Yeah. All right. You got water?  No. I got air.  It’s pushing air out?  Yeah.  Suck on it. What about water?  Yeah, yeah. We got water.  All right. Start filling barrels.  I’m like super excited.

Our water’s good. We got this thing built. We get to mash in today.  All right. Go get strawberries.  We’re going to start this season off with strawberry banana brandy.  Please don’t fall.  I have been getting phone calls for weeks now, and I have orders to fill. Last year, Chico and I opened up to this customer base that’s been untapped, and that’s the women market.

We had such great success with the watermelon crawl last year and the fall crawl. This year, we want to kind of keep that train going.  How do I get h00ked into this part?  Cuz you love me.  Yeah. All right. You want to put it together?  Yeah.  This is Sandra’s wheelhouse. She’s the boss when it comes to what we need to put into our mash.

She’s got a better eye than I do. I mean, her liquor brain’s smoother than mine. Everybody’s got their own way of doing this. I’ve got the way that works for me. The water temperature’s got to be above 90° to break down sugar. The water temperature has to be below 90, or it k1lls my yeast. I heat up my water and break down my sugar in small batches.

I dump it on top of cool water in the mash barrels to get it down to the temperature where the yeast will start. Last barrel. I finally got my mash started. I finally got to use my still. Look at the heat on that one.  I know.  I finally got to hear yeast working, you know? I still just cannot wait till I get that first jar liquor.

What are you going to do while we wait?  I’m going home. What you doing?  It is so quiet back here. This is the first run of the season. We have a 20 gallon order to fill, so we’re going to have to make more than just one run. This will get our new flavor out there, the strawberry banana, and we’re ready to start making money.

All right.  I’m ready.  You know you’re not going to siphon with it.  I really don’t want to. I’ve had bad experiences with that.  Hand it up. Here you go. All right, good. Your hair shiny?  Shut your mouth right now.  The strawberry banana is a little bit out of the box for me. The watermelon is on point.

Can’t nobody even compete with that. But, Sandra throws these unorthodox plans at me, and I pull them off. I’m going to go down, check the pump. Tension just a little bit more. Listen to that pump. That worked now. First run. Not everything’s perfect, right, tomorrow morning, huh? Say when it runs.  It’s getting awful cold. Yes. Yes, it’s on. Yeah, the water works.

You got it started?  Yes, it’s started.  Then you hold it. I’ll do it.  I’m ready.  This is the inlet, the cold water. This goes on to the bottom, so you pump the cold water from bottom to top. So, it gradually cools it, just like a worm box. That’s what makes my still so much more efficient.  Combining all the elements of a traditional pot still, in Chico’s set up, the pot, cap, and cap are replaced by a pot that narrows into a metal collar.

A second chamber sitting above the collar functions as the doubler. The pipe extending away from the still contains a copper tube that’s surrounded by cold flowing water and serves as the condenser. With its small footprint, high efficiency, and ease of mobility, it’s a legal shiner’s dream come true.  Hey. Look. That’s heads. We need to catch that.

That’s perfect.  First of year.  It’s clean, too.  Ugh, it’s my favorite part. Here, let me dump those. My heads. Best feeling in the world. First run of the year. This is my favorite part every year. You know, we spent so much time getting here. Now we just need to fill these jars, draft tonight, and we’ll be good.

It’s clean, clear.  Yes, it is.  Clear, clear.  He’s not a banana in there.  Yes, man.  You want to taste it?  Open up and get you a snort.  Wow.  Oh, yeah. It’s going to warm you up. One.  You can taste it. You can still taste it. Yeah, it’s smooth. It’s really refreshing.

You can taste the strawberries, the bananas. It’s light. It’s crisp. It’s perfect for summer. I think you’ll be impressed. That’s what I think.  Yeah, my nose running.  Yeah, it’s good, mama. You do it again. You put it on paper and I put it in jars. It’ll be like 120. We still prove it back.

That’s enough proof knock man’s legs out from under. You know, it’s good for production to have high proof. You know, we can prove it down and maybe scale a few more jars out of a run. Wow.  Chico and Sandra’s first run of their premium strawberry banana brandy will yield 30 gallons, netting the couple $4,500. Not bad for a hard day’s night.

There we go.  If we going to get our customers back, we going to have to step our game up. Today, we’re going to mash in our elderberry, ginger, and honey recipe. I’m sure this is going to kick a.ss and be better than anything Richard Landry has ever made.  What you going to get to all this stuff, man?  You only as old as you d@mn feel, brother.

I know, but I feel old sometimes.  Me, too. Set it around with that one.  There we go.  We’ll shave a little of that ginger and let it cook in with this water so it’ll release all that ginger flavor into the berries.  You’re the cook around here.  You know I use ginger for a lot of things. I cook with it.

I put it in teas. It’s very good for the stomach’s sake. And it tastes good when it’s blended into foods or drinks or what have you. So, I’m going to use this stuff with this recipe with the elderberry and honey. I believe it’s going to make a good drink.  Is there ginger in ginger ale?  That’s all it’s made of.  Really? Well, that makes sense now.

You like ginger ale?  I love ginger ale.  Okay.  Back when I was a kid, when you got sick, you know, the first thing you I was telling you go get some ginger ale.  Yep. Ginger ale?  That’s the only thing we could keep on our stomachs.  Yep. Feel like a d@mn hornet doing the two step on you, son.  That’s what you like, ain’t it?  I believe that’ll be a d@mn nurse.

We got to be very, very careful with the ginger because it can overpower something. It takes just a little bit, you know, to flavor something with ginger. So, we don’t want to do that. All right. Good old elderberries, brother.  What was that for picking these things? Mike said this stuff’s poisonous or it really make you sick.

You tell me all this stuff’s poisonous and we got to cook it down so much. Are you sure we’re all right?  It’s just like a lot of these wild things out in the woods. Once you cook them down, they’re good to go.  Although raw elderberries are poisonous to humans and should never be consumed, Cooking the berries breaks down the toxins to where they’re considered safe to eat.

Due to their uniquely tart and slightly sweet flavor, they’ve been used across Appalachia for centuries to make jams, pies, and wine.  Woah! Hold back and heat that a little bit. Just rolling out poison. Smells delicious.  Is that not pretty or what?  That’s what we’re looking for.  It’s all good, brother.

Ooh, beautiful.  With this stainless steel, we can’t scorch anything. So, we can put the berries, the sugar, everything right in our pot, stir it in, let it work off, and be good good to go and ready to run.  Good old black black honey.  Look at there. Look at there.  Good to the last drop. You know, as I’m sitting here with this mash, I’m thinking this stuff is going to be awesome.

Well, I’ll tell you what, the temperature’s down there low, and then we can pitch the yeast now.  Oh, yeah.  You want to stir that in, partner?  Sure. I can get her stirred in. Ooh, it’ll look a little quicker.  Well, h3ll yeah. This mash It smells amazing. I’m real confident that we’re going to gain our customers back.

Hopefully, Richard and Craig is on their way back to Louisiana. Me and Jerry can get back to doing what we’ve always done, selling our good liquor.  In Spartanburg, South Carolina,  Oh, good.  for Josh, a successful run of cherry bounce will take the sting out of his split with Bill.  That’s hard not to fr3ak out.  the corner.

But, the bees have different plans.  Oh god. Damn it. They stung my a.ss up right on the forehead.  Did it get you?  Hey, kick. Now, I must have did something they didn’t like cuz one of them stung me right in the fr3aking top of the eyelid right there. But, uh you know, it’s just a bee thing. I didn’t think it was going to be so bad, but that baby has swelled up.

But, I’m ready to make this cherry bounce. Now, we ain’t going to let them bees stop me from carrying on a family tradition. Wow, look at that.  It has no preservatives, no nothing in it.  That’s awesome.  Slide it down here in the extractor.  All my life, I’ve had a fascination for moonshine.

Once you get moonshine on your boots, you won’t never get it off. I come from a long line of moonshiners. My name is Sutton’s, was the most notorious, most famous moonshiner in North Carolina history. Too many of those old timers went to the grave with all their secrets. And, you know, now I’ve got this cherry bounce recipe. I don’t even know how to really put it into words, to tell you the truth.

It just it just feels right. That’s some of the best honey I’ve ever tasted.  It’s very good.  It is. It’s so sweet.  Commercially, they have to process honey, and they they they heat it. And that takes a lot of the good taste out of it.  That’s incredible. Been a lot of work, but I’m glad we’re done. I’m going to say it, my liquor’s better than most people’s liquor around.

I can’t believe you ain’t offered to help me carry none of these.  You’re younger than I am.  I’m not saying that I’m the very best, but I am one of the best because I make sure I got the best ingred1ents. See, man. My plan now is going to make as much mash as I can. I am going to take it to another level, and I’m going to make a lot of money doing it.

Come on. I cut my cast off 2 weeks early. And this guy do what you got to do. Well, right now we’re making some honey cherry bounce. I ain’t never made it before, but I’m looking forward to it cuz a family tradition.  On the Piedmont Plateau of South Carolina, facing the possibility of becoming solo acts, Josh and Bill are adjusting their plans for the season.

I’m just so far behind this year, you know, for what I projected to how much liquor and how much money I was going to make. You know, I’ve I’ve definitely had to downsize. But I I’m just trying to make up for lost time, trying to make up for lost revenue.  Right now, we’re just steeping our grains. I cook my corn for about uh 35 to 40 minutes in order to get those starches broke down. Put my barley in there.

That’s where our flavor’s at right there. Since it’s malted, it’s it already started to uh to sprout just a little bit, and that adds more enzymes in there that kind of act like the yeast. It helps the process of breaking the rest of the starches and the sugars down. Last step of my cook, I’m going to add and add some sugar.

Too much sugar in your mash going to make the whiskey a little a little sharper, a little meaner. I got just enough in there to increase my alcohol content, but I but not enough where it’s going to ruin my batch.  We’re just doing a little bit, just enough to put in that still. First time we’ve ever tried it. I want to get my process down before I make a whole bunch of it at one time.

That gets expensive.  Josh’s cherry bounce liquor will be a secret blend of local mountain cherries, sweet cut corn, and fresh sourwood honey.  I’ve been kind of staying firm on just quality ingred1ents. Now, I’m sticking with your process of making a quality product.  This is the honey we got from over with put.

And a lot of people they they want a bunch of flavorings on it. They’ll put fruit on it. They’ll put in hot peppers on it. You believe I got all this honey without wearing a bee suit? Bill’s all about just corn whiskey. But, these are modern times. So, h3ll yes, I make the different flavors. We’ll go ahead and mash these doggone cherries up.

Looks like uh everything’s probably back down to temperature. So, I’m going to go ahead and add my yeast to it. Josh wanted to make more money, you know, by cutting it half with fruit juice and making it more palatable, where the lad1es can enjoy it a little bit more. Enzymes in the malted barley here, that’s going to help speed my yeast up.

But, uh I’m going to try to stay strong in my principles and I just keep on making the best clear corn and and barley product I possibly can. We’re going to let this steep in there with it. Mhm, that smells good.