166. Tim Smith - Original Discovery Moonshiner

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

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Hey, this is Big Chief from the Bourbon Road. And I'm definitely on the road today. I came to Virginia to see my in-laws without Jim. And I just had to drive west to the Appalachian Mountains, just in the foothills. And there's this guy out here. You know, he might not be wearing a shirt sometimes. He's a military veteran. He's a volunteer firefighter. But what most people know him for is the Discovery Channel's moonshine and his moonshine. We got Mr. Tim Smith, the legendary moonshiner, on with us. Tim, welcome to the Bourbon Road. Yes, sir. How you doing, mate? I'm living. Yeah, yeah. This is living out here, right?

Yeah, this is country. It's about the countries you can get, you know. So welcome to the big town of Climax.

Yeah, it's humongous out here.

Yeah, yeah.

You didn't see any stoplights, did you? No, I didn't. I seen a stop sign and it said turn left.

Stop sign. Well, you didn't see any law enforcement nowhere, did you? I didn't.

I watched the whole way here.

Well, that's good. You might have saw a John Deere tractor, maybe.

A couple of them, just a couple.

Yeah, we got a lot of them old green tractors running around.

Yeah, it's kind of woods. We're sitting in a log cabin here, which I would expect. I didn't hear no banjos playing when I pulled up, no coon dogs or nothing.

We can go get some.

We could, yeah. But I did see, we are really in the foothills, the Appalachian mountains. You can see the mountains from right here on your back.

Especially up at the fire department. You can really see it at the fire department.

Yeah. Well, you've been on moonshiners for eight or nine seasons now. 10 seasons, 10 seasons. You were the original OG moonshiner on there.

I am, I am the founder. It started right here in Climax, Virginia is where it started right in the back door here.

And before, really before that you were just selling hooch on the side of the road with watermelons.

Well, I don't know whether it back started a raid, but let's say in the dark. In the dark. Yeah, let's say in the dark because no one knew who Tim was until the show kind of got hot and came out. And it kind of, it was something different than Discovery ever did. I never had did a reality TV show and I had did some documentaries and stuff prior to that, but it never really hit home until we got reality and we came out and kind of told the truth that this is what it is.

So I come in here and you got some, some whiskey moonshine. You got some cinnamon moonshine laid out for some rye whiskey, but what are we going to start out? We're going to start out with some moonshine first, right?

Yeah. I think you ought to start out with the climax moonshine in the beginning. Cause this is where it all got started. And that's, that's my dad's recipe. And we didn't do anything to it, tweak it, change it, anything other than we started paying taxes. That's about all we did. We started paying tax and put it in a bottle.

So you're going to pay taxes. The store's going to pay taxes, then I'm going to pay taxes.

Everyone has to pay taxes. Yep. So by the time everyone gets done paying taxes, the government suddenly got rich and I'm still working. You're still living in a cabin. I'm still working. Well, what's the, what's the proof on this? The proof is 90 proof. Now, what was the proof on what you would sell back in the day or what you would give away in a mason jar? Well, back in the day, it would still vary between 90 to 100 proofs, maybe 105 at the most, depending on what day you got it, when you got it. You know, we didn't have a hydrometer and we didn't have a label on a jug. So, you know, it really wasn't looked at. It was all about the taste of it. If it tastes good, then people would buy it. So we never did sell it on proof.

And that's a misconception when some people write that myth that moonshine has to be 160. It's high proof and stuff.

It is definitely misled. I don't know where it came from. I don't know where people got off saying it has to be 150 proof. If it burns clean, I understand. If you light it up, it looks good. It's all about if it smells good, it tastes good, then it must be good.

Well, I've drank some 160 proof liquor before a couple of times in my life, and it doesn't taste too good.

No, it doesn't taste too good. You know, my preference is under 120. I've seen some 120 tastes just as good as 80. So it's all about the process of making it. It's not all about the proof. Now, where's this made at right here? This bar right here that you're tasting is made in Culpepper, Virginia, which is about 160 miles north of us right now.

Right up by Fredericksburg, Virginia. That is right.

That is right. South of DC there a little bit. Well, this definitely has that corn. This has got corn in it? It does have corn in it.

Now, you're not going to tell me how much though, because that's your daddy's recipe, right?

Now, I can tell you how much is in it. It's 70% corn. What else do you cook? What else do you do? And it's got 15% rye and 15% Monterboilie. All right. And like I said, that's basically the recipe. And once you go legal, that's a documented, that's copyright, and that is it what it is. Now, the process, that's a different story.

Ain't nothing wrong with that. Keeping your process secret and stuff. I understand that because you don't want nobody to try to make Tim Smith's moonshine, right?

Well, it's probably difficult even if I told you how to do it.

I figure it out.

I just have to get out in the woods and do it. I've had a lot of people do it. Well, you know, we're looking at probably about 40 to 50 years of practice going into that bottle now.

So you better step up your game. I probably really couldn't do it. Just, just Josh and the other, because here's the deal is I don't get paid to make moonshine or whiskey. I get paid to drink it, you know, and taste it. And, you know, that's my, my tongue is my, that's my craft right there. And I guess my lips for jacking my jaw a little bit, you know? Well, you do what you do best, right? Well, that's what they say, you know, and I guess I'm a master of that. My shirt says it right. The bourbon bullshitter, we're not experts at it, but I'll tell you this. I can smell that corn sweetness on it. That white dog is the most people would call it. That's really moonshines, white dog, white light, whatever you want to call it. I can't smell that rye too much in this. That's 15%. You got 70% corn is overpowering it. That's about all I get from this. A little bit of a little bit of candied apple maybe, but not a whole lot.

Yeah. Well, you'll probably get it on a backend on a taste. I'll say cheers to you.

Now that's a very sweet, got corn sweetness to it. You know, this ain't aged or nothing, so. kind of sticky, sticky sweet for, especially for nine proof. It's just, you know, that stickiness, that thickness of it, sweetness of it.

And it should just go away and maybe call for another taste.

Maybe just a little bit of, a little bit of pepper there, white pepper maybe, not too spicy on it. I think that's your rye there. Yeah. It's probably just a little bit of that rye in there, kicking around.

I haven't even been told it's like a little butter almond. That's what Jim always says, my co-host, he always says it's a butter popcorn.

I could get a buttered almond. That's very good. I could probably sit around and drink that whole bottle of that. I might not be standing at the end of the day.

No, you won't be standing.

You'll be relaxed. Maybe comatose. But it's pretty dang good. Now, how long did it take you to go from just being a moonshiner to being a distiller?

Well, it took a few years, actually, because I had to learn a few steps to dos and don'ts there. And it's hard to get all of that skill when you was raised up illegally all your life. And then you turn around and say, let's document everything you do. And that's what it's all about. When you go legal, it's about documentation, writing everything down, what you put in, what you're doing, what you're taking out, and accountability of it for taxation, really. And it took a little bit. It took a little bit and, you know, I didn't take any formal training and I thought I didn't go to a university to learn how to be a distiller. I mean, I figured that I already knew how to make it, but now legally and documentation, it's all about the paperwork. And that's one of the hard parts for me, you know, getting that paperwork done.

But you traveled around to different distilleries to kind of, they opened their doors to you, right? Sure they did. And kind of showed you the ropes.

Well, we try to do this. We try to share a little bit of knowledge on both ends. You know, I share some knowledge on how, you know, process has been done to make a good whiskey taste. And sometimes they learn a little bit from me and they showed me some of the documentation of what needs to be done to account for it. So I learned a little bit on that end too. So yeah, as the years went by and I traveled around different distilleries and worked with some of them, you know, free labor. So I was free knowledge for them and free labor also. So it's kind of a good trade off. So hard work has paid off. Hard work has paid off and it's still hard work too. Even though going legal, you think you don't have to worry about ducking the law and someone chasing you. They still looking at you. So it's still out there. You still got to make sure you do what you do and you know, dot the I's cross the T's.

Cause they want more money from you. They want money. It's all about the revenue.

You know, illegally or legally, it's all about the revenue.

Yeah, it's when it boils down to it. I can understand the part where they don't want bad liquor because there's bad liquor out there, right? Sure it is.

There's plenty of people out there experimenting that have no idea what they're doing. And now today that we have the internet, see, I'm before the internet, but today that you have internet, there's people out there all the time creating something. And is it right or wrong? I don't know. It's more of an experiment.

Yeah. I think you saw the latest, uh, bad batches of alcohol or like down in Mexico and people going down to resorts and they were filling up empty bottles with hooch and it was making tourists sick down there. And that's kind of how it was happening before here in the United States.

Well, it's happening in a whole lot of countries, not just Mexico or the United States, but it's different periods of time and all of a sudden it's like a rush. People get into it and this is a controlled substance like any other drug out there. Once it gets into the wrong hands and misused, it can put a bad taste in your mouth. Yeah. Well, I've been down that road a time or two in my life.

I think we all have.

Yeah, and I've run into a lot of people who make moonshine, and a lot of them make good moonshine, and I've run into some that didn't make such a good moonshine. And for them, they don't know. They don't know. No one's actually stood up to them and told them, hey, this is not good. This is not right. They just keep making it and sending it out the door. Because people think they're getting their original moonshine. And sometimes stronger is not actually better.

Yeah, we know, we definitely know that. Now I like, I love Cast Strength. Cast Strength whiskey to me is really good. But it a certain proof, you know, about about 136 for me, then you're pushing that limit of it's too hot to drink, especially in the middle of the summer. Yeah, I'm about 120. So, but this right here would be perfect in the summertime. Heck, I'd put that on a little bit of lemonade, sit on my front porch and drink it.

It's good. Lemonade, sweet tea is good. Now, the next thing you have for us is your Climax Fire Number 32. Yes, sir. Now, why is that Fire Number 32? Now, Fire 32 is named after the fire department here in Climax, which is Station 32. So that's the call number for this fire department in this area is 32. And we wanted to do something other for the fire department. We put a Maltese cross on it there and we put fire 32. And, you know, at the time I was the chief of the fire department. So, you know, a lot of people call it chief 32 or 32. So it all has some representation there. If you look inside the bottle, you'll see my picture. If you turn that label around, you'll see my picture in there with my fire gear and chief helmet on and all of these bottles you'll see me inside. So the first bottle me illegally with my dad in the woods. Without a shirt on. Without a shirt on. Well it gets hot when you distill it.

It just gets hot in the summertime. It gets hot in the summertime. I've been known to wear a pair of overalls once in a while. You don't even have to wear no britches underneath them.

Well, it's a one-piece suit. You know, it's kind of like when you was a kid, you grew up, you had your onesie on. So I'm still into onesies.

Well, you go up to Canada, they wear, they call it a Canadian tuxedo. They have Carhartt overalls on bit, you know, they're insulated and they'll have a jacket on, but they might be buck naked underneath there.

Well, you know, most of us all. And that's going to have a big red chewing gum type flavor profile. That is just a little touch that we've added to it. A lot of the firefighters came to me and we did a little survey. You know, what is the most popular drink that you drank? And they talked about that cinnamon flavor alcohol. And I said, well, we don't want to change anything. We're going to keep it clear, just like it is original moonshine. And we just dropped some sticks of chewing gum in it. And we came up with that taste profile.

Well, you hit it now on the head with big red chewing gum. A lot of people don't even know what that is anymore.

Yeah, they talk about like the fireball flavor sometimes to candies, but it looks like the chewing gum and that cinnamon combination was a little tweak that no one else had did.

I'd say if you remember those cinnamon toothpicks back in the day, that's what I get off that right there.

Very good.

If you wanted to sit around and sip something sweet after dinner, this would be it right here. Sit around a campfire. This would be perfect.

Well, this tends to go towards the ladies. You know, it is 80 proof. It's a little bit lighter. Not too sweet now, not too light. 80 proof is still up there, but that taste profile kind of drowns out the moonshine. So you don't really taste the moonshine.

Well, that's all Jim Beam is is 80 proof. So this would fit right with it, right? That's it. You don't have to have hot whiskey, like we've been talking about it. You don't have to have hot whiskey to enjoy it and stuff. Sometimes it makes it unjoyable. So when you came to this, you're probably the biggest celebrity. I was looking for a science at home with Tam Smith driving into Climax.

Not yet.

I didn't see that, but I did.

We're driving in. Well, I tell you, if you do, if you Google it, if you Google climax, the Wikipedia, it does say home with Tim Smith on the Wikipedia on the, on the internet.

But I did have to look up how to get here. And I told you which way I came. I came to the Northern route through Richmond and kind of the interstate, but then once you get off past Richmond, we're long ways from the interstate.

Yeah.

Ooh, I ain't no interstate here, but I've taken 58 across Virginia to cut all the way across.

Yeah.

to go down through Knoxville, Tennessee and stuff. And I should have came that way through South Boston, which is, they got a baloney sandwich there. It's pretty damn good. I should have went there. That's what I'm going to do right there is stop and get me a baloney sandwich.

Yeah, you should go that way.

Don't go up north. To stay down that close to the North Carolina line. Yeah. Well, that's, it's, you know, talking about, they talk about flower states and I really don't like the Eastern part of Virginia, but this part of Virginia, when I'm driving over here, it reminded me what I miss about Virginia is the mountains. Yeah.

You getting close to the trees.

The people out here and you see logging trucks, you see real people out here that are hard working. I'm not saying people in the cities aren't real people, but.

Right. It is different.

I pulled into a gas station, got a drink and the little girl said, yes, sir. And I knew I was like, well, this is my people out here.

That's right. That's right. You probably had to go inside and pay for it too. I did. Yeah. They don't have a little credit card machine.

Well, that was good. I'd like to get back to kind of my roots and not that I'm from Virginia, but I spent 10 years here in the service. And it was just nice. We'd come up to the mountains and come up to this area so much that, uh, I really love it out here. And I'm glad that you're getting showcased is a Virginia product. Um, you know, you can walk into any ABC liquor store here in Virginia because they have it. They got it controlled here, right? Yep.

Yep. It's all control.

And I thought about that on the drive over here. I was like, you know, I kind of liked that because in Kentucky, in some States, guys were going there and buy all the good stuff up. Right. And then there's nothing left for the guy.

Yeah, that's it. Uncontrolled or out of control state, which is what you want to call it.

Out of control, you know, because some of them stores are charging four or five, six.

Yeah, the price can go up and down depending on the location, geographic, you know.

But here in Virginia, the price is what it is.

It is what it is. We ship to Richmond, Virginia, and the state controls that they actually have, the state employee has to hand it to you, and you buy and you walk out the store. So it is a little bit different in Virginia and North Carolina, both are controlled states. Now, if you go to Georgia or say, Kentucky, Total different. You got private enterprise there and you got distributors that's distributing product and wholesalers. And I guess you got, what, liquor barns and stuff like that. You know, so.

So how long has your family been making shine?

Well, as far as I can know, we over 100 years easy. You know, I've been in it for 45 years myself and my dad was in it about 70 years, his self before he had died. And then it went on to, I'm gonna say at least 130 years and it may even be longer than that. But I have not researched it back because my roots kind of zigzag around. Instead of a straight line tree, it kind of went out on a limb and fell off and then went somewhere else.

So if you've got a straight line tree in your family, there's probably something wrong with your family. That's what I'm saying.

So, you know, we are Virginia.

So, you know, it is what it is. Well, I got, I'm going to drink one more on this, this half right here before we take a break listeners. And it's his first really Southern reserve whiskey. That was your wood fired, right?

Yes. That's it. Wood fire came in and you're getting ready to taste a signature series there. Now this is 90 proof. Now what's the, can you tell me the match bill on this? Well, the mass build on this is going to be same as the moonshine. The difference is again, the process. It's all about the process of how did we make it brown like that? And you're going to have a hint of white oak and also a hint of maple in that. So there's a combination of two woods. So you're going to have five, five different taste profiles coming at you there. Cause you still got corn ball and wheat in there. Now this says, corn ball and rye, excuse me. It says age 24 hours. Yeah. And if the moon shines away, we do it overnight. Fast as we can. Fast as you can. Gotta get it out the door.

It's no use having dust sitting on the bottle. Get it in the 34 Ford and get it down the road.

Get your money in your hand.

You know, talking about it don't mean anything. Now what's your family now think about, about everything, you know, the show and going legal and.

Well, I still get that look sometimes when I go home, you know, what are you doing there and why are you doing it? I still get that look. So it's still a question mark out there. And I got, I got a t-shirt for that too. Are we, would you consider this the Bible belt right here? It is, yeah. And I think it has a lot to do with the rules and regulations of producing and selling alcohol. You cannot have a steel in this state. You cannot make alcohol in this state. And you cannot sell alcohol in this state. The state can sell it. You can't. So there's still a lot of laws that we're still working on since 1933, actually. The Commonwealth of Virginia. Commonwealth of Virginia. They don't look at it that way. It's changed a little bit in the last 10 years. I've been in this legally in 10 years. You now can say moonshine publicly. It used to be a bad word.

I never thought it was a bad word. I always thought it was a good word.

Well, you're from the Kentucky state. Well, Texas.

Texas, they think a little bit different. They got dry counties there like everywhere else. I remember having to drive about 90 miles to go get some beer for my stepdad. 90 miles to pretty Texas and we would have to go over there on a flatbed truck. He'd load up about I don't know, 15, 20 cases of beer of Coors Original.

Wow. Well, you see, you'd be stopped here because you'd be looked at as maybe you're distributing that, you know, because you can only care what you can drink. Well, you can drink it. Well, you're not going to drink 10 cases at one time.

He didn't sure try. So he'd say, Hey, I need you to throw all that beer on, on the flat bed back there and make sure you tie it down. Strap down good. He said, throw one up between us and you're going to drive home. I think I was 12 or 13 years old. Yeah. Well, I, I hold a lot of liquor when I was 12 and 13 years old. I was hauling liquor inside a man. He was just suddenly drinking those, you know, I don't even know what they call them, little small boy Coors light bottles, banquet beers. And he'd be just chunking them out the window.

Oh, and he used to have a little mill of ponies when I was growing up.

This has just that, you know, like you said on it. I can get still that corn on it though.

That's one of the best brown lookers that we make. Now we do have bourbon and rye, but my self-preference is that whiskey because it has a combination of stuff. It's a blend of a lot of different things in there between the oak, the maple, the toasted wood that we put in it, and the three grains that's in it also. And our process, you know, we can just about make it age taste profile what we want it. So we can make it four years old or we can make it eight years old.

Really? Well, let me give this thing a taste. Cheers. Real oily. I get the oak from it. I'm surprised I get that much oak out of it. You would think this is in Kentucky to be a three to four-year-old looking whiskey. Maybe five-year-old. Definitely Jim Beam or something like that.

Well, like I say, you know, the difference in the toast of the wood can change the color. And then the process, the time factor that we use our process, we can change that taste profile. Tremendous. I mean, we can we can make it three year old or we can make it six year old. Just push a button. Just running it out the door. Let's push a button. Again, it's my heritage. It's the way I was brought up. When you made the moonshine, you want to get rid of it as fast as possible because you're sitting on money and you're also sitting on time and time you can't get back. You can pull your time. If you get caught, but you can't make up for that time. So we was always hurry up, make it, sell it, distribute it, get rid of it. And we're doing the same thing with a whiskey. We want to make it. We want to sell it. We want you to taste it.

Sure. Is there a time of the season for, for moonshiners up here right now? It's now the springtime is when they start breaking out stuff and there's tree coverage. Well, yes and no.

You are correct. Outside, if the leaves are falling off the trees and stuff, you don't have any cover. But then you can go to your evergreens. You can go to your cedars and your pine trees. But you have to just depend on the weather. If it gets really, really hot, if it gets too hot, then you have a problem with your fermentation. If it gets really, really, really cold, freezing temperatures, then you've got a problem with your fermentation. So any time you're dealing with outside elements, you have to work with it. That's something we learned to do too. Over the years, I don't know if you've seen me on the show or not, but we use those submarine pot steels. And those steels, we can manage those temperature in the wintertime especially. We can heat them up and we can use heat because we ferment in the steel. We don't ferment outside of the steel so we can maintain that temperature that we need. And when it's ready, you can run it even with ice on the ground. And a lot of the other type moonshine steels, you can't do that.

So where's that big learning curve from going to what's the submarine pot steels? How big are those? 800 gallons. 800 gallons. And what's the largest you're at right now? Four thousand. Four thousand. There's got to be somewhat of a learning curve there. Well, it's just bigger. A lot of piping. More propane gas. More propane gas. Bigger pipe. A bigger propane bill.

Yeah. Bigger bill. Bigger truck comes in and loads it. More corn. More corn.

Yeah. More water. And you're buying everything. You don't have to look around your shoulder.

Everything's legally bought and you're paying taxes again. You're paying tax on stuff that you buy.

Now, when you did moonshine though, you know, where do you go to buy? You know, cause I saw you before you'd buy sugar and you're buying corn.

Well, you know, most of all that stuff is run through a middleman somewhere because you don't want a direct lead back to the steel site or the owner of that steel operation. So there's always a. stop shops store somewhere, a farmer's market, or even a farmer. You don't want to get it into the system. Sure. And that's the thing. If you're buying grains and stuff, you buy it directly from the farmer and you don't go to a commercial outlet somewhere. You're saving money. Also, you're making money back into your community too. The farmer's got to sell it somewhere.

That's the God's honest truth right there. I bet you money that they can make more money with a shiner than they would with taking it to market.

Well, one thing about when you're working with a shiner, it's guaranteed. You're guaranteed you can get your money. Normally, my days of growing up, it was always paid ahead of time. So you always paid for your alcohol that was sold and you always paid for your grain that you're buying. So it's always pay ahead. You pay ahead because if you got caught, you lose everything. So you don't want to be caught. And if you get caught, you don't want to owe anybody because you may have to call on them to get you out.

Well, that's definitely true.

So, you know, that's that's I mean, just being honest with you, that's the way it works. Because if you get caught and you owe someone five thousand dollars and you in jail, how are you going to pay them back? Now you need five thousand dollars to get out of jail. Now you're ten thousand dollars. So it's best to pay ahead. So, you know, growing up, that was that was the rule. You always paid ahead. You pay everything ahead. Everything's paid for.

Right. That to me, that seems like we should stayed with that right there. Pay a head for everything. No credit or anything like that. I was in, I don't know if they have rule Kings here in Virginia, but, uh, we got away, but we got away here. We got one right down the road and I was in there last spring and they had pallets of sugar, 50 pound bags of it. And, uh, This little boy, he's loading that sugar up. And that's all I could think about as I was like, man, I bet he's running some shine somewhere.

Maybe, or someone else is. Maybe not him. He may be just picking it up. Maybe he's making a dollar bag. I don't know.

He turned around and looked at it and see who I was though. He's like, you're that big chief guy, aren't you? And I was like, yeah. He just smiled real big.

Well, I'm still warning myself. We just met a few minutes ago. Yeah.

You, uh, you wouldn't bring you right here. You may even meet you at the, at the, uh, fire department. I was like, well, it's a neutral location. Might be a, he's thinking I'm a cop or something, but I definitely, you know, probably are. No, heck no. Heck no. We're not going to say anything to incriminate ourselves anyway. Nah, heck no. We're not. Well, listeners hang with us. We'll be right back. When we come back, we're going to drink some of their Southern Reserve rye whiskey. And then we're going to drink some of their bourbon to finish the show. We'll be right back.

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All right, listeners, we're back and we are with Mr. Tim Smith and we're drinking through his Climax Moonshine and then Tim Smith Southern Reserve Rye Whiskey and his Southern Reserve Bourbon. So, Tim, you were probably on a road constantly for your brand and for the TV show, right?

Always, because, you know, you got different shoots that you got to do for the show. You know, the show is not always in one spot sometimes. Maybe when you're looking at the show, it may look like it's in the same spot, but No, it's almost like we're illegally making a show because we're moving around a whole lot of times and it is what it is. It's not that we're trying to get away with something or break the law or nothing like that and not trying to get caught or nothing. It's just we need certain different backdrops. We need certain energy to come to the show in different locations and it makes it interesting too. It's got a vibe with the show and it builds itself around it and it is reality. It's no script to the show. And last year they started a new show, right? We started a new, well, actually two years ago, we started a master distiller, which is like a game show. Uh, we started that. And then, um, prior to that, I had the whiskey business show. The whiskey business was going around a different distilleries and trying to, uh, you know, help the guys out and revamp a little bit and, and actually give them some national attention too.

Kind of like what we do with our craft distillery Mondays when we review a craft distillery, trying to raise that. We always say like rising tides raise all ships.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, I know there's a show bar rescue out there, you know, and we're kind of maybe just somewhat same thing as a distillery rescue in a way, because most of the distilleries are small distilleries, craft distilleries. They kind of knew they get started in the business and they kind of get upside down real quickly. You can get upside down in this business.

And did you run across some issues with those people at those distilleries?

Well, I've run across a lot of issues because you know how it is. It's your way or the highway kind of attitude sometimes. And my way is a little bit different sometimes than their way. And I do use a little bit of backwards terminology and maybe some of my words doesn't come out as clearly as theirs.

I understand everything you're saying just probably because we're cut from the same cloth. Sure.

But I have been told, what did you say?

What was that? My wife still says that. Well, I got in my glass right now. I got some of your Southern Reserve whiskey. Tell me about this.

Well, it's the same process. Again, it's all about the process. Yes, it is rye. It meets the requirements. I have over 51% rye in it. But it's about this wood-fired process that we're using this. And you can see on the bottle also that it's a 24-hour concept. Now, it may be a little bit more than 24 hours, but we just put that on and make it look good. We want you to know that we can do this rapidly. And that's what we call it rapid age. It's a rapid age process. Man, there'd be some people would be like, man, I don't know about it. You know, those old timers that... Well, you know, I started my moonshine business in Kentucky. I started in Marion County, Kentucky there. Everyone talks about putting everything in that container, in that oak container and letting it sit. Got my fingers crossed. I hope the season goes good. I hope the weather treats it right. And in four years or five or whatever, I'm going to open it up. Well, we figured it out, you know, between little research and also the new technology. We found out that we can make it taste what we want it to make. We can make it. We don't have to sit around with our fingers crossed and hope that it rains and dampness and the season and humidity changes it and makes it that taste profile after so many months, years of sitting. So I think we've got a pretty, you taste it, you tell me. I think we've pretty much figured it out.

I wondered and wondered and wondered how people do that. And I don't, you know, I try to wrap my head around it, whether you're using pressure to kind of squeeze the alcohol through the wood and it's still getting that wood flavor. If you didn't tell me the process on that. I'd say this right here is a three to four-year-old rye whiskey.

Well, again, it's all based off of the way I was brought up. You make something good, you make it taste good, then it will sell good. It's kind of like that magazine with the pretty woman on the outside. Yeah, it grabs and it sells. But what's inside of it? Yeah, that's true. What's inside of it. So it's all about what's inside this bottle right here. And once you taste that, I think you agree that it is good and it's sellable and you're going to tell someone else.

What's the, what's the match bill on this? It's 95%, right? So more of a Marylander eye, right? Not a Kentucky, right?

And we got multi-ball in it. All the products have multi-ball. Small amount.

Now this does have that sweet sticky rye smell to it.

It's got a little bite to it.

Floral. Maybe just a little bit of licorice to it, but hey, let's give it a taste. I got to tell you, that's pretty good. I've drank a lot of rye whiskey in my life. And if you didn't see the label on it, you wouldn't even know that it was rapid age. Like I said, I would think that bottle right there was a three to four year old rye whiskey that's been aged nice and good and stuff. And ryes are a little bit different. They'll age a little faster. They, they're just a little bit different. Some people don't understand rye whiskey. Now this would make a hell of a Manhattaner and old fashioned. It's got not a whole lot of bite to it to me. Just that. Well, it is difficult to make rye smooth. Some white, some, just a little bit of maybe that white pepper again. just to where it's not biting me or nothing. It's not like a black pepper or a hot sauce or nothing like that.

I think some of the techniques that we're using that's making a big difference is when you put whiskey in a burrow and it's a brand new oak shard burrow. You're letting it sit for four years, five years, whatever period of time. That wood is aging and also the alcohol is aging and absorbing the wood and working in and out. We know the aging process. We're actually aging the wood. and putting it into the alcohol. So now we're using aged wood into it. So I think that's actually some penetration there is a little bit different than it is sitting inside of that closed container. And then we're also getting some air in there, some air is making that difference. And I think that's smoothing it out. So what's the price on this?

What's the price point on this rye whiskey right here?

It's around $30 depending on where you buy it, you know, what state, you know, I would like to see it about a 70. I would think about a 70 because we've put a lot of money into that bottle. A lot of labor, a lot of technologists went into it to make it taste that way. Even though, no, it hasn't sit on a shelf for seven years before you tasted it. It's just a lot of energy has been put into it. But I average all of this product here is I average about $30 a bottle across the country.

But that makes it affordable for everybody. Yes. For your working man, for your firefighter, for your police officer, for your soldier, sailor, airman, whoever wants to buy it, they can afford it. Well, it's tough out there to go buy $100 bottles.

It's just tough, you know, but that's another league, you know, that's another league you get into.

Well, some people, as you get older, as you realize, you know, your wallet gets a little bit thicker and you can afford nicer things in life sometimes. And not to say this ain't nice, but it's still nice to go and be able to purchase something that tastes good for $30.

Well, I like this with people to see that you can buy something that tastes good and you don't have to pay $200 a bottle for it. And you would be helping out just a good old boy from Virginia.

That's it. Good old boy. That's nothing wrong with that. I think, Hey, you're, you're Americana as it gets to me. Um, and you're just trying to make, you see where I'm at.

I mean, you in my hometown, I'm born and raised right here.

Driving a, probably an 85 Chevy pickup.

Uh, yeah, that's pretty close to it. Yeah.

Yeah. What are your models? 86, 86, 86. They don't even have tags on them.

Yeah. Well, they're good. You can switch them and nobody knows what it is, you know, It's harder to look up a farm you stay. Well, it sure is. What farm does it belong to?

Everything's farm around here. Farming something. I actually haven't seen that truck on the show. You had some other trucks.

That truck's been on the show one or two little episodes, but we've got a lot of vehicles. We try to move them around, try to keep the batteries charged.

You had a suburban for a while.

Well, say, uh, my excursion excursion. Yeah, I'm still driving. Is that your daily driver? Yeah, that's the daily driver. That's the interstate truck. That's the interstate. Yeah. We want to get on the interstate. We get on that one. That's got a diesel in it. That's diesel 7.3 diesel. Well, runoff moonshine and runoff anything you can. Well, you go by the, uh, Kentucky fried chicken, you get that grease and you put that in and it really smells good.

I know something about Kentucky fried chicken, because we have Claudia Sanders fried chicken in our hometown. That's Colonel Sanders.

It's from Kentucky.

I've been to the first KFC. The first one? Yeah, I've been to the first one. Was it a letdown?

Well, it was different, you know, I didn't know that there was like a little repair shop, you know, when it first started, you know, there was a little repair shop going on there was working on calls and stuff. And that's what happened. You know, they were layover and get to working on the calls because it may take a couple of days to fix the call back in the day. So they fed him this chicken and that became famous.

That recipe became famous. That man, he was broken. became rich again all over a couple of times later in his life too. I think he has 68 when he founded.

Well, I'm hoping when I get 68, I can get rich again. You know, I've put all my money in this right here on the table. So I hope it comes back.

Well, you're, you're probably rich in life though, right?

I'm doing great in life. Yeah. Enjoying every minute.

Well, Tim, I gotta say, this is some good rye whiskey. Um, I'd buy a bottle of it for sure. Sure. I sell it to you. You sell it to me? Sure.

I mean, you won't.

I want to make sure you leave with a bottle anyway. Well, I'm going to sip on this. So what's the future of Climax and Tim Smith's brand? What's that look like? Do you know?

Well, I think it's still unlimited at the time. We don't want to box ourself in. And again, I come from the backwoods. We always, if we need to expand, we just cut down some more trees. We just keep expanding out. And I think that's what we're doing now. We're still looking, researching different avenues and looking at different ways to market ourself out there, even locally and nationally too.

All my poor, the final one we got here is yours. Tim Smith's Southern Reserve Bourbon. Now this is a 90 proof and I probably have the most questions about this one right here. So let me pour some. I probably had a less answer. That corks, that thing's in there. Hopefully right here that thing pop. Now he didn't, he didn't pull no special bottles from anything. He's pulled them out of box. Just pulled them out of box. I hope it's a good one.

No number on that bottle, so I don't know. There's no numbers. There's no numbers on it. No number? Nah, no number on it. So you may have got the best bottle out of the best batch ever made right there. I did autograph that bottle. So in case you may like it, we might have to add a little bit for the autograph. I mean, it smells like bourbon. Smells like bourbon, looks like bourbon. Must be bourbon. Must be bourbon? Well, if you got taste today. Now, does this the meat, the national rules for a bourbon now? It meets the match bill because we do have 51% corn in there and we did the steel under 160 because it is pot to steel. We cannot just steel above 160. It is a wheated bourbon. We have wheat in this. So instead of the rye going into this, like the whiskey had, it has a wheat in it. And what's the percentage on that? The same percentage as the corn or? No, it's 51% corn with about four to five percent multi-ball and the rest of it's wheat. So you're going to get a little dryness in there, I think.

Now listeners, I don't think Tim knows that I am the weeded king of Kentucky. Okay. I love some weeded bourbon like no other man alive, I think.

You just got the best bourbon in your hand you ever tasted.

This right here is the best weeded bourbon I've ever had in my hand. Man, listeners out there, I sure hope Tim's right. Let's give this a nose.

Well, I've been blind tasted against the best.

I don't know, man, that moonshine must've done killed my senses. I get some floral notes on it for sure. Being a wheat, you know, almost like you ever walked down a back country road and smelled honeysuckle. Oh yeah. That's what I get on it. I can probably take you outside and show you one. I actually get a little apple on this one too. Maybe some sour apple, like candies or something. Heck, let's taste this thing. I'm excited. You said it was a weeded bourbon. That's a weeded bourbon. My hair on back of my neck stood up a little bit.

Well, again, we trying to go with the flow. You know, everyone out there talks about a lot of weeded bourbons being at the top. So we want to be at the top too. Well, that is true. A lot of people talk about the top brands out there. So we want to get up there with the top ones. You want to be up there. I want to be out there one day. One day. One, one good thing about me. I'm still walking and talking. I can autograph that bottle. I can sit here and I can drink with you. Some of those other top brands is out there. That guy's not here no more. Well, we can only talk about him. Well, that's true.

The godfather of, really of weeded whiskey, weeded bourbon, William Rueller. He's the man that started it all. He's the guy that had that idea. Let me bake some bread and figure out what tastes better. And he did it. And from his bourbon came Pappy Van Winkle, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Weeded bourbon, you name it, if it's a weeded bourbon, more than likely, even Maker's Mark, all those came from that right there, from that one man. And then even from Maker's Mark, Dave Pickerel, the godfather of craft distilleries in America, a lot of craft distilleries because of that man, one man. do weeded bourbon. And I think that, you know, you think back to that one man, he's not here. You're right. He's not here anymore to autograph his bottle, but Tim Smith's here. I'm here, you know, so taste that thing. Let's see what you're talking about here. It's very smooth. I still get a little bit of that, like a spiced candy apple. You know, you ever had them sliced up before in a little jar? My grandma ever make those up. That's old school right there. You can't see those no more. I get a little bit of that. Maybe our listeners have heard us say whore hound candy before. I get a little bit of whore hound candy on this.

I use whore hound all the time.

That's some good stuff, right?

Yeah. What's whore hound? Like you'll use the whore hound candy? I use the candy. Yeah. The old fashioned candy. It's almost like a sassafras. It's like a cough drop.

Yep.

Yeah. It's an old fashioned cough drop.

Where do you buy that?

Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel.

Yeah.

I'm a Cracker Barrel man.

I got a Cracker Barrel all the time. We usually find them at either Tractor Supply or Rule King or Cracker Barrel. You can get them at stuff.

My son's a Rule King guy. So you get along good with him. I think he goes Rule King every day. He knows everything in a Rule King store. He knows everything. He ought to be an employee of Rule King. One stop shopping. I'm telling you. And when I asked him about something, he goes, I bet he got a Rule King.

The only thing I don't think they sell there is audible bills yet.

Yeah, I know they got car batteries and lights and they got lawnmower stuff and guns.

Tracker, guns, food, chicken feed. They got popcorn.

You come in the door. They got a pretty good marketing strategy going on. You get a windmill out there and put it in your yard. Yeah. You get a big windmill out there full-size water with it.

They got tractors. Yeah. You get everything plants there. We just, me and my wife just started our garden. Sounds like a Royal King commercial. Maybe they should sponsor both of us, Tim. I gotta say, uh, Innovation is the key to everything, right? You're always trying to figure out the next process and stuff. And even the big boys, even the big boys, Jim Beam is trying to innovate and come up with some new stuff. And in the past, I was kind of against that. I was like, I don't like it because I don't want to change my ways.

Well, my dad was one of those that we're not going to reinvent the wheel. We just want to grease it a little bit. We want to make it run a little bit faster. And I think that's what we're doing here too. We're just trying to make it run a little bit faster. We're not changing nothing. We're not changing from our recipe, pot distilling, the same method that we always did in the backwoods, even though we went legal and we're inside of a structure now, not out on a creek bank. We're just still trying to make things better. You're not getting ticks all over you. Trying that tick. I tell you, you go out in these woods of Virginia, you're going to get a tick. Same thing in Kentucky. You put all that tick stuff you want to put on you, you're still going to get it. I think it attracts them.

I don't know if it does or not. I had gotten a tick on me earlier in the season. Moen and my wife got one on her. We got a big yellow lab named Woodrow, the whiskey dog, and he don't got no ticks on him. Well, he gets his shot, but I guess it does it. Every once in a while you'll find a dead one on him.

Well, I found out that less clothes you have on the better off you are. I don't, people don't want to see me without my clothes on. What I'm just saying, you know, loose, loose fitting clothes, loose fitting clothes, what I'm saying, that is better because if you have, you know, tight clothes on, a lot of clothes, people try to put on all kinds of stuff. Those ticks will find a way to get in there and that's where they'll get. Yeah.

Usually they'll drop inside your collar from a tree or something like that. Yeah.

They, they, they flying through the air, you know, and you just walk through the woods and they'll just jump on you. And then next thing I know you start feeling it. Been on that a couple of days and then take about two weeks to get rid of it.

Well, that's what we come in from outside. We always check each other for ticks and that might seem strange. Checking each other for ticks. Well, usually when you check for ticks on each other, your husband or wife, that leaves the other stuff.

Well, that's done good. Speaking of climax, Virginia. Yeah. It is a catchy name. A lot of people talk about that. I go to different trade shows and different events and they ask, how did you come up with that name? Well, this is where I'm from. And it is a location which you can see it. I have put it on a map. Now, prior to me becoming on TV, it was not on the map. But now you can Google it and it is a unincorporated community.

And what's the story behind the name, the town's name?

I have no idea. You don't know? It was before me.

Well, that's like, uh, Pennsylvania and Amish country, right?

And of course, Pennsylvania kind of makes you wonder a little bit. Well, this whole region here has a long story, you know, just, just to give you a little bit. Uh, if you go south of here, it's called tight squeeze, tight squeeze. And, and, and now you're in the heart of climax. And if you go north of here, about 10 miles, then it's called hurt. So, uh, climax is in between tight squeeze and hurt Virginia. Are you messing with me? I am not. I am telling you on his truth here.

Thank you. You drive two, two hours north of here. probably just go up and over the mountains. There's a place up there called a Devil's Backbone.

It is, it is, it is.

So I understand some of those names and stuff. You got Crabtree Falls, not too far from here, our old friend, Randy Minnick, the old co-host, he lives up there in the mountains now. Probably sitting up there buck naked on a mountain top drinking coffee and whiskey.

He's got his guitar. He's just playing away.

Now I think he's, he, I think he's got coon dogs. That's what he has and horses, mountain horses now. Well, Tim, man, I appreciate you letting me come in today, trying all your whiskey. Um, if you're out there, you're in the store. make sure you're picking up a bottle, supporting this good old country boy right here. American made, American bread here. Virginia whiskey. You want to get some in your hands. Tim, what states can you find us in?

Well, I would say 42 of the 50 states out there in the United States right now. And if you go to a store or if you're in a state possibly that they don't have it, maybe go online, timsmithspirits.com and you can actually order it online and you can have it shipped to your house if your state allows it. Now, some states do not allow shipment of alcohol in the state, but most do. So always go there, go to the website and then also go to your store and just request it. asked them, you know, can you get this? And a lot of times they can get it. They just don't have it on a shelf at that time. And what about your shows? When's the show air? Well, the show normally is in December. It starts in December to April. So we just went off for the season 10. And, you know, we're looking forward to another season, another season, 10 years, 11 years. That's great. More work for you, though. More work. More money. More work, more shine, more money. How about that? More people happy. More people happy. That's all that matters.

Where can our listeners find you on social media?

Well, you can go to climaxmoonshine.com and then also, you know, Facebook and Twitter also, and Tim Smith Spirits. And on Instagram. And Instagram. Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Yeah. And also don't forget Discovery Channel. Discovery Channel out there. And we also got Discovery Plus now. Discovery Plus just recently came out this year, which kind of boosted my viewers. I went from 900,000 to 24 million in the last four months. So that's been incredible. If you get Discovery Plus, you can actually see all 200 episodes that I've been in. So you can start at the beginning and go to the end.

24 million people.

Yes, sir. That's incredible. I think at my top about six years ago, I was about three million. Well, how do we get 24 million people to buy your whiskey though? It would be great, wouldn't it?

If I got a dollar off of each bottle, I could just take a vacation. Then you can send me a penny off each bottle. I'll take that. That'd be fine with me. Well, that's a deal.

We'll make a deal. I'll meet you somewhere in Kentucky on the Ohio River over there. I'll make you, yeah, I know a little bit of something about the Ohio River.

I'll make you some ribs at my farm. You get me to Woodrow. Okay. We'll drink some whiskey set back.

I used to have a hound dog named Woodrow. Yeah.

Yeah, sure it is. Was his name off of, was off Lonesome Dove? I don't know. My granddad had just called him Woodrow. That's why he called him Woodrow. My dog, he's off of the place I got him was Lonesome Dove Kennels from the mini series and his dad's name was Gus and his mom's name is Clara and now he's Woodrow. But now everybody knows him as Woodrow the Whiskey Dog because he loves to sit down when we're doing a whiskey episode and likes to listen, I guess. He likes country music and likes me to talk about whiskey to him. So sounds good. Well, Tim, thank you once again for having us in listeners. You could find us on social media. You can find us on tick tock. We don't have no videos on there right now. We can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Whatever else is out there, we try to be on there. We have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. We're 1700 strong in there right now. You got to be 21. You got to like Bourbon and you got to agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness in there. We want everybody to post something in there and say, hey, this is the whiskey I'm drinking today and not get beat up on it, not get trolled on. We want them to share their stories, their birthdays, their celebrations, their life. We want them to share there. So go in there, check that out. You can also, if you're a bourbon roadie, you get 10% off our swag. We have our bourbon bullshitter t-shirt, our glasses and our hat. You want to check that out on our website. You can find our reviews on there. You can find our blogs on there, articles. It's not always about what the show is about. It's about what I'm thinking about that week, whether it be how Tim Smith's making his whiskey or innovation in the culture, something about whiskey though. So go and check our website out. You can reach us on there, leave comments. If you're listening to this right now, You know, you want to go up there so you can figure this out and you can always hear us up there and hit that subscribe button and then scroll on down, hit that five-star review, leave us a review. That's how we get into these places like interview and Tim Smith. We do two shows a week. We do a craft distillery Mondays where we will review whiskey. We'll sit down with it, tear it apart, talk about it, write that review for you, tell you all about it. That way you can go in the store, understand what you're buying. And then we do a long show like today's show hour long. I'm gonna check those out. You can find Jim at jshanna63 on Instagram. You can find me at one big chief and we'll see you on down the bourbon road.