When the reality TV show Moonshiners debuted in 2011, it became an immediate pop culture sensation. It now spans 13 seasons and more than 260 episodes. Watching folks like Popcorn Sutton distill illegal moonshine as they evade the law in the mountains of Appalachia is one of the guiltiest of television pleasures, and it’s produced a countless number of enduring, meme-worthy moments.
It seems inevitable that someone along the way asked: What if we turned this into a game show?
That someone is Matt Ostrom, owner of Magilla Entertainment, which produces Moonshiners and, now, its more law-abiding game-show spinoff, named Moonshiners: Master Distiller. “Weirdly, it felt like a natural progression,” says Ostrom. “We knew from the Moonshiners fans and social media that there was this community of people forming around the craft of amateur distilling. So we thought, let’s try making it into a competition.”
So Ostrom approached Ned Vickers, president of Sugarlands Distilling Company in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which has been a partner of Moonshiners pretty much since its founding in 2014. Says Ostrom, “We had this big meeting with Ned and said, ‘What if we did this show and we built it on your property? And we kind of need your liquor license to do this, too?’ And he said, “All right, sure, why not? We’ll give it a shot.”
If you haven’t seen the show, the concept is simple. Three people — usually a mix of home distilling hobbyists, wild-looking mountain men, and professionals from the craft spirits world — compete in a challenge to create a spirit from scratch. That could be anything from vodka to mezcal to moonshine that tastes like a loaded baked potato. Serving as its overalls-clad judges are Mark Ramsey and Eric “Digger” Manes of Sugarlands Distilling, along with Tim Smith, self-described as “America’s Most Wanted Moonshiner.”
Challenges vary from building a still from scratch to determining what botanicals to use in a run of gin, but each episode always ends with firing up a tiny still and dribbling liquor into a Mason jar for the judges to pass back and forth. Once a winner is chosen, they receive the title of “master distiller” and, as a more tangible prize, get to have their winning spirit produced by Sugarlands Distilling and sold to the public as a limited-release product. A five percent royalty awaits.
“I’ve been producing TV for almost 25 years,” says showrunner Cristin Cricco, “and it’s definitely the absolute favorite gig that I’ve ever had.”
A Magnificent Obsession at Hillbilly Summer Camp
Now wrapping its fifth season, the show has become something of a crash course in home distilling for anyone who sees it. Six episodes are typically shot simultaneously on two adjacent sets over the course of two weeks. While most competitive shows (such as cooking competitions) can be produced in a day, Master Distiller requires extra time because fermentation is done on the set. “It’s kind of this huge Jenga puzzle to get people’s mash to the right point” in time to shoot the distillation portion of the episode, which is where most of the competition takes place, says Ostrom. For the bulk of the two-week shoot, competitors spend their time waiting it out in a hotel.
For the competitors, the waiting might just be the best part. “Sometimes the competitors would be in a hotel for five days straight, waiting for their mash to ferment,” says Ostrom. “And every night they would sit around the fire and share jars of each other’s moonshine, talk craft, and get to know each other. And then it would be time for them to be on the show.”
As the show has evolved, so has the diversity of its cast. “I think that that’s the secret sauce of the show,” says Cricco, “having such a wide variety of people who are all really interested in the same thing no matter whether they’re from the backwoods or they went to Heriot-Watt in Scotland and are working at a craft distillery. All of them nerd out on the biology and chemistry and physics of distilling.”
When each show wraps, contestants leave with a richer understanding of the business of distilling, whether they win or not, says Cricco:
“Traditionally there’s sort of a schism between the backwoods distiller and the craft distiller who’s legal, and I think that both sides come to Master Distiller with some assumptions about the other side. But once they start talking to each other, they realize they can learn from each other. You have craft distillers who go home with backwoods techniques, and you’ve got backwoods distillers going home with techniques that they’ve learned from craft distillers. There’s just something special about bringing people who are all obsessed with a craft together and having them share it.”
Many of the dozen-plus contestants I spoke with — both winners and losers — described it as “Hillbilly Summer Camp.” Virtually everyone I spoke to said they have remained close friends with multiple other competitors on the show.
From the Small Screen to the Big Time
Of course, an appearance on Master Distiller isn’t just fun and games. It can also open up professional doors that might not have been previously accessible.
While many contestants come from the industry, others were less established at the time they were recruited (often via social media). Fan favorite Kelley Tennille was about as green as they come when she was recruited for an episode on distilling grappa. “I learned how to distill off YouTube and books from the Lexington Public Library,” she says. “Learning how to distill is not a Mr. Miyagi thing anymore.”
The Kentucky resident had worked briefly at a distillery during the pandemic, then “got burned out, quit, and went to work at a tree farm to just commune with nature,” she says. “When Master Distiller called, I was like, ‘What the hell? What else am I doing?’ And going on the show really changed the trajectory of my life.” During the shoot, Tennille had to drive the three hours back to Kentucky to work nights at the bar she was tending, then return the following morning to shoot her episode. Her grappa won the competition and she was invited back for a season four champions reunion. After her win on the show, doors opened up. “It got me a distilling job,” she says. She is currently running a still at Kentucky’s Whiskey Thief Distillery, a position the company created for her.
Hyde Buchanan was a home distillation hobbyist working as an electrician before appearing on the show twice. After his first appearance, he got a job offer from a local brewery and distillery in Georgia, an opportunity he jumped at. He’s been the head distiller at NoFo Brew Co for about a year and half. “Being on the show swayed my application a little,” he says, “and it brought a little bit of ‘star power’ to the team.” Today he is producing a number of spirits — including the peach pie liquor he created on his second episode — and couldn’t be happier. “I definitely credit Master Distiller for being able to get out of the trade world and into the world I love,” he says.
Tony Gugino says being on the show inspired him to leave his job at a craft distillery and ultimately start his own operation, Eighth District Distilling Company. His episode was filmed in 2022 but didn’t air until January 2024, when he won a foraging-focused competition with his Connecticut-inspired gin. In the intervening years, while working for other distillers, Gugino says he thought, “You know what, just do it yourself. Why wait? That’s the only way you’re going to be in this industry doing what you want to do, when you want to do it. The show definitely gave me that oomph to do it myself.”
The biggest post-show career jump may belong to Lorenzo Alvarado, who had been working at the small Fox Trail Distillery in Arkansas for six years before his appearance on the show. After his appearance (he lost the George Washington Rye challenge to a hobbyist) he was tapped for the general manager job at the well-regarded Kentucky Owl distillery in Bardstown. “Now I’m trying to help these guys build a $300-million vision for this distillery experience destination,” he says. “It’s been a heck of a ride.”
Fabulous Cash and Prizes
The funny thing about the prize on Master Distiller is, well, there really isn’t one. There’s not even a trophy. But winners are supposed to have a micro-run of their winning recipe distilled by Sugarlands, bottled with their picture on it, and sold to the masses for a small cut of profits.
Most winners are still waiting for that to happen.
North Carolina-based Mena Killough won a season two absinthe competition and also competed in a follow-up championship series. Her deep knowledge of bitter herbs, developed as part of her work as a bartender with an avant-garde herb-based cocktail program, helped her to design her winning, but complex, spirit. Four years later, she’s still waiting for her recipe’s time in the shine-light.
“I submitted my absinthe recipe to Sugarlands,” Killough says, “but it hasn’t happened. I really don’t know how they are going to produce what I did anyway. Their facility is great for making moonshine, but…” she trails off, suggesting her recipe is just too complicated. Nevertheless, Killough harbors no ill will toward Magilla despite the fact that her spirit isn’t in stores, noting that she did at least receive a signed Popcorn Sutton book.
Ohio’s Shawn Rigsby, who won a season two vodka challenge, did get his spirit produced by Sugarlands — about three years after his episode was produced. “I went to Sugarlands in June 2023 to make the mash,” he says, “then went back in July to distill it.” Rigsby says 1,100 Mason jars of Shawn’s Bloodline Berry Infused Moonshine were produced, and it sold out within two months.
“I made $697,” Rigsby says. “I did get a jar with my picture on it. That don’t make it taste any better, though.”
West Virginia-based Dustin Croy — a telephone lineman by trade — also had his Cowboy’s Banana Rum produced at Sugarlands and says it took a year for the product to hit the market. “I sent them the recipe, they scaled it, then they mass-produced it. It was the fastest seller so far,” he says, selling out in just three weeks.” Croy says he made about $1,600 in royalties.
Like most competitors, Croy doesn’t really seem to care that financial largesse has not come his way, saying that he “had a blast” on the show and “made a lot of good friends.” He’s also now a bit of a local celebrity. “Sometimes I’m recognized three times a day,” he says.
But other distillers who do want to earn a buck off their products have taken matters into their own hands. Tired of waiting for his turn at Sugarlands, 2022 winner “Big” Nick Calo took his peanut butter banana moonshine recipe to South Mountain Distilling Company in his home state of North Carolina to get it on the shelves. The Elvis-inspired product launched in November 2023.
“I pitched Sugarlands that this was more than just a limited-run product,” says Calo, “but they wanted to keep things fair with the other contestants. They said if I wanted to pursue something with another distillery, I had their 100% support.” Calo approached more than 100 distilleries before settling on South Mountain as his partner because they were aligned with him on seeing the product grow. The company distills 300 gallons at a time and has gone through several production runs, with Calo getting a royalty for each bottle sold.
“My goal is to sell a million jars,” says Calo, “but it’s not something I can quit my day job over yet.” Calo still works for an airline at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. After hours, he says, “I stop at a different liquor store every day to sign jars and take pictures. I’m constantly pushing the product.”
Several other winners have also gone the indie route with their recipes. Darrell Flack took his Uncle Dum-Dum’s Swamp Juice commercial himself after winning an “ultra high-proof” challenge on the show. And Alfredo “The Cuban Cowboy” Peña’s Everglades White Lightning is now being distributed throughout Florida. It’s even available in Total Wine.
All of this is a testament to the skills of the competitors, says Magilla’s Ostrom. “The stuff they make on the show is so good,” he says, with those Mason jars regularly passed around amongst the crew for liberal sampling. “Everyone became a judge of the spirits after hours,” echoes Cricco.
“It’s very impressive how they come to the table,” says judge and co-host Tim Smith. “These guys are all very competitive and they want to win. Yeah, it’s not like they’re going to get a hundred thousand dollars, but they’re getting a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of national face time. That’s worth a lot.”
Smith says the enthusiastic reception to the show has been global in nature and that he’d love to see an international version of the program go into production in the future.
As for the present, does he have any favorite spirits or favorite moments from the last five seasons?
“Nah,” Smith says. “It’s always good.”
