Richmond distiller set to star on Moonshiners: Master Distiller show

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Richmond-based distiller Kristine Hui got the email in 2021, when she was just back from a stint working in the U.K.

The University of B.C. Arts and Kwantlen Brewery and Brewing Operations’ grad had cold-contacted distilleries overseas, looking to put her passion for producing spirits to work.

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She spent months honing her skills while making whisky, gin, rum and more at distilleries in Scotland, Wales and England. Now, a producer was asking if she wanted to audition for a reality TV show, making moonshine, the primitive backwoods booze that’s a precursor to modern American whisky.

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“At first I thought it was a scam,” laughs Hui, who says she was scouted from her Instagram feed @little.miss.brewbird. “But we had a short meeting and they asked me to submit an audition tape.”

Hui has made a library of original YouTube brewing and distilling tutorials under her @MissBrewbird avatar, and sent off a video and later completed a recorded Zoom interview, without giving the novel opportunity much thought.

More than a year later, she was shocked to get a call inviting her to participate in filming in Kentucky. In less than two weeks. Late into a lingering global COVID-19 pandemic.

“Do you still want to do it?”

After more than a dozen seasons chronicling backwoods amateur distiller exploits on the popular show Moonshiners, Discovery has more recently created Moonshiners: Master Distiller. Three expert distillers judge the effort of pro-made spirits, created under limited conditions that emulate amateur moonshining.

Hui was given the broad mandate of creating of a tea-based spirit for her 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 that she secured for pick-up close to the filming location.

In November 2022 she flew to Tennessee for filming, another mad scramble of packing by candlelight — “I lost power at home the night before, she recalls — delayed flights and luggage, and an unexpectedly urgent call time.

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

For instance, she had to wear the same clothes over multiple filming days, for continuity.

“If I’d known that, I would have chosen something different,” she says now.

She got used to producers eavesdropping conversations, even when the cameras weren’t rolling.

“When I make YouTube videos it’s just me. On-set, you see behind the camera and there’s 15 people looking back at you. I think I did get intimidated and do some stupid things,” she laughs.

Within her cohort of contestants was a distiller from Indiana who practised true backwoods, moonshine-style distilling.

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

Oats were part of the supplied kit, which Hui learned get made into a paste used to seal parts of the still — and to make into snacks.

“He made us these oat cakes on the still, putting them on top of the hot thumper (a piece of distilling equipment) to cook,” Hui says.

While Hui can’t reveal any spoilers about her episode, she says she struggled to “read the bead,” moonshiner slang for the skill of judging the alcohol level of a spirit without modern tools, just by shaking it and watching bubbles form and dissipate.

Hui hopes that after her episode airs, some Discovery viewers might check out her videos and online distilling course — or that B.C. fans might even seek a taste of her spirits.

“I’ve been working with a local distillery,” says Hui, who expects to release a gin flavoured with lychee and longan (or Dragon’s Eye) fruit, inspired by her Moonshiners’ experience.

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Regardless of the outcome, she might just be an honorary moonshiner now.

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

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

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