Turning poison into palatable hooch isn’t exactly a new concept. Distilleries have been doing that for centuries, often with alarming success. But on Tuesday’s Moonshiners, the stakes are a little higher and the quality control potentially a little…looser, as Mark and Digger task Amanda and Kelly with the dubious challenge of wrangling a batch of poisonous berries into something vaguely drinkable. One imagines the waiver they signed was quite extensive.
Meanwhile, Tickle’s tinkering with a contraption known as a “dead man’s still” which, given the name, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Is this an innovative technique passed down through generations or a recipe for disaster? We’ll see. And because one potential calamity isn’t enough, Mark and Huck are off on a bootlegging expedition down a river described only as “uncharted.” That could mean anything from minor navigational hiccups to encountering a previously undiscovered species of aggressive river otter.
It’s all in a day’s work for these backwoods brewers, who continue to ply their trade in the shadows, forever one step ahead (hopefully) of the law. This episode, another entry in the show’s hefty 14-season run, offers a glimpse into the enduring allure of Appalachian moonshining, even when said allure involves potentially lethal berries.
Moonshiners airs Tuesday, January 7, 2024, at 8:00 PM on Discovery.
