NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tim Smith, the clandestine star of Discovery's unexpected reality hit "Moonshiners," doesn't have anything against the growing legion of legal distillers who are plying their brands at your local liquor store.
He just doesn't want to drink their stuff.
"Mine is just a real smooth moonshine," Smith said. "That's the only way I can explain it. I've tasted some of the other brands trying to figure out what they're making and stuff like that. I'm not trying to put down nobody, don't get me wrong. Everybody's got their own business. But everybody I taste, that's about what I throw away."
Smith's Climax Moonshine is the latest entry in the big bang-like moonshine trade where new legal brands are being introduced every few months it seems. Former outlaws like Smith and the descendants of larger-than-life figures like Popcorn Sutton or Jack "Mimm" McClure — as well as corporate titans like Jack Daniels and Jim Beam — are all attempting to cash in on the growing trend.
"It has just come from out of nowhere in the past few years. There are just so many distillers popping up," says Andrew Faulkner, vice president of trade group The American Distilling Institute. But hard number are difficult to find, in part because the definition of moonshine is a bit murky. Anything from corn whiskey to flavored neutral spirits might be marketed as moonshine.
As fans of "Moonshiners" — which drew an average of 3.25 million fans to make the show the Wednesday night cable leader — know, Smith's been having a hard time getting in the legal game after two decades of plying his trade in shadowy ways in the hills around Climax, Va.
His brand finally debuts in Georgia this week and he hopes to be on the shelves in South Carolina soon.
"South Carolina and Georgia right now is all that's stepped up to the plate," Smith said in a phone interview during filming of the show's third season, debuting this fall. "The other guys are a little bit unsure of what they want to do because I'm still listed as an outlaw."
