Richmond distiller to star in Moonshiners: Master Distiller

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Richmond-based distiller Kristine Hui received the email in 2021, when she had just returned from a work stint in the UK.

The graduate of BC Arts University and Kwantlen Brewery and Brewing Operations had cold contact distilleries overseas, looking to put her passion for producing spirits to work.

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He spent months honing his skills while crafting whiskey, gin, rum and more at distilleries in Scotland, Wales and England. Now, a producer was asking if he wanted to audition for a reality TV show about how to make moonshine, the primitive backwoods drink that is the precursor to modern American whiskey.

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“At first I thought it was a scam,” laughs Hui, who says she was discovered on her Instagram account. @little.miss.brewbird. “But we had a brief meeting and they asked me to send an audition tape.”

Hui has created a library of original brewing and distilling tutorials on YouTube at his expense. @MissBrewbird avatar, sent a video and then completed a recorded Zoom interview, without giving much thought to the novel opportunity.

More than a year later, she was surprised to receive a call inviting her to participate in the filming in Kentucky. In less than two weeks. Late in a persistent global COVID-19 pandemic.

“Do you still want to do it?”

After more than a dozen seasons chronicling the exploits of amateur distillers in the woods on the popular show Moonshiners, Discovery has most recently created Moonshiners: Master Distiller. Three expert distillers judge the effort of professionally crafted spirits, created under limited conditions that emulate amateur moonshine.

Hui was given the broad mandate to create a tea-based spirit for his challenge.

“You had to buy your own supplies and I was in a mad scramble to watch the show, come up with a recipe and get everything,” she says.

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A lychee tea was her key ingredient, along with grains she got to pick near the filming location.

In November 2022 he flew to Tennessee to film, another mad scramble to pack by candlelight: “I lost power at home the night before, remember,” flight and luggage delays, and an unexpected call urgent.

“They’re flying in a lot of people and filming a lot of episodes at the same time. Someone didn’t make their flight, so I woke up to someone banging on my room door at 6 a.m., calling me to film that day,” says Hui, who quickly learned the ins and outs of reality TV.

For example, he had to wear the same clothes for several days of filming, to maintain continuity.

“If I had known that, I would have chosen something different,” he says now.

He became accustomed to producers listening in on conversations, even when the cameras weren’t rolling.

“When I make videos for YouTube it’s just me. On set, you look behind the camera and there are 15 people looking at you. I think I felt intimidated and did some stupid things,” she laughs.

Among their group of contestants was a distiller from Indiana who practiced backwoods-style moonshine distillation.

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“That was all very foreign to me,” says Hui, who is completing the Diploma in Distilling from the internationally renowned International Institute of Brewing and Distilling. “It did a lot of interesting things I’d never seen before.”

Oatmeal was part of the supplied kit, and Hui learned how to make it into a paste used to seal parts of the still and to make into snacks.

“We made these oatmeal cakes in the still, placing them on top of the hot hammer (distillation equipment) to cook them,” Hui says.

While Hui can’t reveal any spoilers about her episode, she says she had a hard time “reading the bill,” moonshine slang for the ability to judge the alcohol level of a spirit without modern tools, simply by shaking it and observing how bubbles form and dissipate. .

Hui hopes that after his episode airs, some Discovery viewers will be able to watch his videos and his online distilling course, or that BC fans will even be able to try his spirits.

“I’ve been working with a local distillery,” says Hui, who hopes to launch a lychee and longan (or dragon’s eye) flavored gin, inspired by the experience of his Moonshiners.

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Regardless of the outcome, she could now be an honorary decanter.

“It was very different from any other distillation I had done before,” Hui says. “I definitely learned a lot.”

Moonshiners: Master Distiller is scheduled to air April 2 on Discovery.

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