It was an overdue reality TV idea, and the core cast folks of Moonshiners, Digger Manes, Mark Ramsey, and Tim Smith, will sit judge and jury for three wanna-be master distillers.
It was only a matter of time until Discovery made sure one of their top series had a competition special spun out of the premise of their popular Moonshiners series, as they should with so many moonshiners operating around Appalachia and beyond.
Moonshiners TV legends and entrepreneurs Mark, Digger, and Tim — America’s top legal and outlaw shiners — are taking a play out of Tom Colicchio’s Top Chef book and judging the spirits while grading and watching the processes of three men who wish to claim the title of Master Distiller.
You know that Appellation will end up on the labels of their wide-mouth jars!
A subculture of distillers across America are out there y’all, and they are proud of their backwoods tradition of moonshining. It’s lucrative, too, and it’s never going away. Booze is as American as apple pie; in fact, there’s Apple Pie moonshine.
We have an exclusive clip where Mark, Digger, and Tim are lining the contestants up and then delivering commentary as they take the immature mash and turn it into white lightning — or something of that potable ilk.
The show aims to cross the country to find a handful of amateur distillers who are heirs to a centuries-old tradition. Some operate on the legal side as others practice their craft beyond the reach of the law, the adrenaline of flying under the taxman’s radar too appealing to give up.
In Moonshiners: Master Distiller, they face off in America’s liquor making legacy, mostly regionally centered in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States.
These legendary moonshiners have a lifetime of experience and charisma to navigate these murky “is it legal or not” waters. They not only judge but bust out hilarious comments and left-handed compliments as they suss the master from the pack.
Who will finesse the alcohol the best?
The three contestants go head-to-head in a series of challenges which will bring us to the place where they determine who has what it takes to have bragging rights to say they are the tops for quality moonshiner distilling.
We see in the clip that to be named master distiller you shouldn’t lick the jar in front of the judges, don’t spill mash all over the floor, and don’t laugh too hard when one judge mistakes Kahunas for cojones to make your mark.
Make sure to tune in to see which man will be the last distiller standing:
Moonshiners is a docuseries for Discovery Channel that focuses on the illegal and the legal moonshine makers of the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The action centers on their liquor production efforts, law-evading techniques, and the legal aspects too. Virginia authorities stated the people depicted in the show produced no illegal liquor.
Moonshiners: Master Distillers airs on Tuesday (July 9th) at 10 pm on Discovery.