MAN: This is how we make the moonshine.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
This is where you and Popcorn Sutton made his last run.
I never thought we'd be up here thinking
about making our own liquor.
[BANJO MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: In Haywood County, North Carolina,
JB is leading Mark and Digger to the site where
their friend and mentor, Popcorn Sutton,
made his infamous last run.
Tennessee is home to us.
If we're going to run liquor, I'd
rather run it in my back door.
But right now that's not an option, because the police
are back out in full force.
They are on their A-game right now.
20 years, been 20 years right now, come July.
Yep.
This July, it'll be 20 years.
JB, this is sacred ground.
You're damn right it is.
If they's a Holy Grail of moonshine, it's right here.
Wow.
DIGGER: This is where the rage of moonshine began.
This is where Popcorn Sutton did his video, "The Last Run."
What little liquor comes off this,
right people'll pay you $100 a gallon for it.
Popcorn, he was the outlaw moonshiner.
POPCORN SUTTON: I'm just doing this
so people could see how rough an old moonshiner's life was.
JB: He kept telling me, wished we could do a video the way
my granddaddy and daddy done.
He said, we're going to keep the moonshine tradition going.
POPCORN SUTTON: This is the last damn run
of liquor I'm gonna ever make.
I guess them revenue officers'll be glad of that,
'cause they won't have to watch me no damn more.
JB: He done it out in the open too much.
That's the reason he got caught, because he got too bold.
If I hadn't quit when I did, I'd have went to the pen.
Cold chills running over my arm.
That's why it's just--
JB: You're darn right.
His spirit's here.
MARK: Oh, yeah, so something will go wrong.
That's exactly what was a-going through my mind.
Boys, we ain't going to disturb none of this stuff.
JB: No, hell no.
That'd be like jumping on the Statue of Liberty
and cutting her ear off.
MARK: Boy, that's a fine stream.
JB: Yeah, that's good water.
Is this far enough back from the law?
I think it ought to do it.
If this ain't fair enough out of the dadgum way,
we deserve to be caught.
(LAUGHING) Caught.
You're damn right.
With the fact that law enforcement's on our trail,
we need to exercise all caution.
And right now, we're just going to hang out over
here in North Carolina a while.
I tell you what, Raider.
Yeah?
Seeing how you drug us in here, this first run,
it's going to be yours.
You tell us how you want it, we'll do whatever you dictate.
OK.
You got anything in mind you want to do?
Well, Popcorn always said something about making
some pure corn, no sugar.
But he ain't ever did do it.
JB tells us that Popcorn always
promised him that they would do an all-grain corn run--
no sugar.
I want just pure corn, 'cause he always
said it was so damn good.
It didn't produce much.
Don't make a lot of it.
No.
It gets you about a half a run, that sugar would.
Yeah.
Pure corn.
About 103 proof.
You know, we always knew Popcorn wanted
to make an all grain run.
He always talked about it.
But thing about it is, Popcorn didn't have the patience.
Let's get down here and get us a plan ciphered out.
Yeah.
We gotta round up some materials.
47 miles to get back out and get something.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well, Jerry, it looks like we've made
it over the mountain, buddy.
Look at these valleys.
Look at these mountains on both sides.
Yeah, bud, it's beautiful over here.
NARRATOR: On the North Carolina-Tennessee border,
after a police raid cleaned out a season's cache of moonshine,
Mike and Jerry are slipping across the state line
where they can operate as relative unknowns.
The heat's been on me and Jerry for a while.
So we just crossed over into North Carolina.
We need to be in a place we know we'll be safe
and can evade the law or any other human
coming in and finding us.
Over in Tennessee, people know exactly who me and Jerry is.
You know, here in North Carolina,
we're just two regular guys.
It makes me feel a little more comfortable, a little more hid.
It's kind of under the radar.
That's some good-looking water right
down through here coming out.
This is where the infamous Popcorn Sutton is from.
He made a lot of liquor over here
and he's got a big name over here.
And I respect that, but it's mine and Jerry's turn now.
We up on a mountain up here, ain't we, brother?
It's a pretty place, I guarantee.
And look at the waterfall in there.
I say that right there won't never dry up, will it?
That ought to give us all the water we need.
You know I don't want to haul that rig and everything
across the mountain over here. - No.
You take a chance on getting caught with it,
so we've got to do something.
I don't want to get caught crossing
down state lines with something illegal in the back
of my truck.
That's a federal offense then.
So we've got to build something new.
Well, what's your thoughts on what
we're going to run this year?
I ain't got no damn clue, really.
From what I've been hearing through the grapevine,
you know, people's getting some money back in their pocket now.
They're buying high-end alcohol, a lot
of barrel-aged, good, high-end whiskeys and stuff,
is what they're, they're buying.
Everybody that I've talked to are
wanting high-end, barrel-aged whiskey,
and they don't mind paying for it.
Now that stuff takes time.
That's something we don't have, is a lot of time.
We definitely don't have time to start filling up barrels,
because we've got to start making money,
because we have none.
What if we had the best of both worlds?
What if we actually ran our liquor in a wooden barrel?
[BANJO MUSIC PLAYING]
Run liquor out of a wooden barrel?
Yeah!
A charred, white oak barrel?
Yeah.
How in the hell are we going to do that?
It's wood!
We're gonna split a core through it.
Still, it's going to get hot!
It'll get hot, but it'll-- all we're doing
is heating the stims.
We can mash right in the barrel.
I'll just have to draw it up and show you.
But I've come up with an idea I just don't
think nobody's ever tried.
I mean, who's gonna try to make a moonshine
still out of a wooden barrel?
Let's see what we got here.
Here's our barrel, right?
MIKE: Right.
JERRY: We come in here and we cut us in a copper core.
Then we'll put heat to it, and all the heat'll
come just up this flu.
We're going to try to put that barrel aged aroma
and taste into it in the beginning
while we're doing our mash.
What we'll do is we'll stop us a couple
of pieces of pipe on top, so the core itself
becomes part of the flue.
Wood's soaking all that mash in.
And then as we run it off, we're going to have something that's
going to be essentially a charred taste,
but it's going to be clear.
I think it's going to give us a flavor like none
other when this thing heats up.
Oh, it definitely will.
Usually, we get that wood charred flavor,
you've got to let, you know, your alcohol
sit for two to four years.
That should give us the best of both worlds.
But our goal was to make an un-aged aged alcohol.
I'm ready to rock and roll with it, brother.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
DIGGER: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
It's lit good.
You want to get that water kind of rolling a little bit,
before we add that corn?
Oh, yeah. MARK: Corn!
Corn.
The recipe that JB wants is all corn and no sugar.
DIGGER: Coarse ground white cornmeal.
MARK: When you do all grains, you
have to use quadruple the amount of grain
in order to generate enough starch and natural sugars
to produce any volume at all.
Let things settle down.
DIGGER: Yeah.
It ain't going down none too fast
but it might again when we get this bucket down in there.
Once it starts releasing the starches
and comes into a clump, that's when it'll burn.
So, uh, when we dump all that corn in here, we go flame out.
MARK: We got to keep stirring.
We don't need no lumps.
We let this sit here from the 210
degree temperature it's at right now until it
gets down to about 160.
Then we'll put our magic dust in there and let it do its work.
Here, you want to do what I'm doing?
For a while there, it reminds you of being a teenager again.
[LAUGHTER]
This is JB's run.
He came up with this, and Digger has learned me
something here so special I volunteered
to do all the bucket and over.
Don't splash it on your leg.
No.
It'd be hot.
You talk about doing that thump keg walk.
You'll be doing the burnt sack boogie.
[LAUGHTER]
(LAUGHING) Burnt sack boogie.
Damn don't hit me.
[LAUGHTER]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let's see if we can get this barrel off, get a core in it.
What do you think?
Something like that, Bubba.
Me and Jerry, we're making a still out of a wooden barrel.
You got it?
Oh, yeah.
Usually, it's done been mashed in even before we got a still
completed, because we got all these barrels
that laid out in the woods.
In this case, we're going to be mashing it inside the still.
I'm just ready to get this damn thing built
and get in the woods.
I'm ready to get a run done.
Heard that.
Basically, what we're trying to do
is we're going to try to use an American white oak
barrel to mash in and run.
And how we're going to do that is we're
going to put a core to the center of this thing.
With this metal core, we can heat it from the inside out.
We can't just put a fire out under the barrel--
it'll burn the barrel up.
[GASPS]
Well, that's whiskey!
Well, let's get to rolling this core
and get her soldered up.
And we got to put this right in that damn hole right there,
and it's got to fit.
Yeah, I know.
We're making a 4-inch core by 36 inches long.
just stick straight through the middle of this barrel.
[INAUDIBLE], baby.
You know, the most important thing about this whole entire
build here is getting this core slam
through the center, nice and tight,
where nothing's going to leak.
That's my biggest concern with this whole rig,
that we're going to sit here and leak our mash out before we
ever get a chance to run.
There it is, right there.
That looks pretty good, Mike.
Now that we've got the core through the barrel,
all we got to do is flange one in to where
I can just hammer it as we go.
That way it's a perfect fit.
Get the flange to it.
Let's see what it looks like.
I am super excited to get this thing in the woods.
You know, to my knowledge, I have never seen
anything like this done before.
And if it works out good, it could
be a whole new stepping stone for the moonshine industry.
Looks good, don't it?
My only concern, I think I need to solder
this thing a little bit more.
These flanges should be air- and water-tight.
You can see it right there.
But what I tell you, about to come on up with that a little.
And I noticed my solder joint soldered good all the way up,
but I want to put just a little more solder, come ease on
up with it up toward that wood.
Just look.
Right.
I'm going to solder it from the inside.
[FIRE ROARS]
[YELLS]
Damn!
Oh, God!
[MOANS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]