I recently had the opportunity to chat with Pete Prevost, President of BriarWorks International, about the inception of the BriarWorks brand, Moonshine pipes, the upcoming release of Moonshine's Hillbilly pipes, the Muletown Pipe Show, and much more.

[Shane Ireland]: Welcome to another episode of "All Pipes Considered." I have a very special guest with me today, Pete Prevost, President of BriarWorks International. First, do you have dates for the Muletown Pipe Show?

[Pete Prevost]: Yes. It's the weekend of March 14th-16th. A little bit later in the fall we're going to actually put out the official announcement and tickets up for sale, along with the tables that will be there.

[SI]: It's such a great show.

[PP]: It's grown into a party show because we've got the bar and everything, so it's such a fun hang.

[SI]: And Columbia's such a cool town. It's a really awesome place to have a show. It's the only show that I can think of that is in a place where everybody stays really close by and kind of just walks over and can see everyone. It's not like in a convention hall or any of that kind of stuff. It's a totally different vibe.

[PP]: Yeah, and we have our lounge, which is already open seven days a week, late at night anyways, so it's a perfect little gathering spot after the show.

Inception of BriarWorks

[SI]: Definitely. Let's get into some of the pipe stuff. Take us back to the beginning real quick and the inception of BriarWorks.

[PP]: We first started up in Nashville in 2013. At that time, I was still a touring musician coming off the road, looking to do something else. I had already been making artisan pipes and working out of the shop with Todd Johnson. So when I was home from the road, I would go over there and make pipes. And it was actually Todd's brainchild about the idea of starting a factory of American-made pipes.

I started working with him on that. It was actually a perfect opportunity for me to get off the road, be home with family more, and then we dove in and got a couple investors involved and started BriarWorks up in Nashville. I think it was about three years that we were up there in Nashville. And at that point, it was a little bit different. BriarWorks was our factory name, but we had Icarus, Neptune, and a couple other brands that we had initially launched. At that time, we didn't have a BriarWorks-branded pipe. Then, we started thinking about how we should do a classic shapes line. That's how the BriarWorks name got introduced to the actual branding.

[SI]: Yeah, you realized that BriarWorks was your brand.

[PP]: It wasn't just the factory name, and it worked really well. During that time, we also got involved with Moonshine pipes. There was a carver up in Virginia, Jonathan, that was making handmades under the brand Moonshine and was starting to really get into the idea of having some factory production. And so he actually reached out to me and said, "Would you guys be willing to do a factory version of Moonshine?" So we started doing that around 2015, 2016, and then Jonathan decided to step back and move on to something else. That's when we ended up buying Moonshine and taking it over.

And it made perfect sense. People don't really understand how particularly connected we were to those shapes because what happened was initially, Jonathan said, "Hey, you should make this shape." And we ended up designing some shapes and all that. So we had both brands, and then with BriarWorks we moved down to Columbia in 2018. And Columbia is such a cool little city. I loved the idea of getting us out of Nashville. Plus, I really wanted to open the retail store and lounge. It just didn't make sense to stay in the part of Nashville where we were located.

[SI]: Of course. In the area that you guys were in, it was a little more industrial.

[PP]: That location would not have worked at all. During that time, I was already thinking about doing Muletown. Not by name, but I thought we should do our own pipe show. We wanted to get in a space where we could have our own pipe show someday. When we had moved to Columbia, at that point Todd had kind of gone back to really focusing on handmade pipes. I had taken over running the company on the day-to-day level. And that's where we have been ever since.

BriarWorks' Branding & Production Process

[SI]: If you had to summarize the approach to BriarWorks as a brand, what would it be?

[PP]: I think the foundation of the brand is classic shapes blended with unique artisan shapes. Our main line is the Classic line.

[SI]: And when you say the artisan shape, you're referring to the Original series?

[PP]: Yeah, the Original series or the Signature Calabash. It's kind of a two-sided thing. It's good, classic shapes, but then the process and how we finish it is similar to our artisan process. Unlike some other factories, we're the guys making pipes that are fully handmade and have been doing it for years. Although, like a lot of factories, we do start our bowls for the factory pipes on a machine. We rough out the shape and drill it and everything.

[SI]: Of course.

[PP]: At that point, you get the machine part and then it gets handed off to one pipe maker who fits it to a stem, sands it, and then they do the whole finishing process, bowl coating, and stamping. It's all done by one pipe maker.

[SI]: Yeah, it's not an assembly line.

[PP]: The process is very similar to artisan-made pipes, but it's affordable and it's practical. I want it to be good quality and to have that signature, artisan look.

[SI]: When I think of BriarWorks, I think of impeccable classic shapes, and the aesthetic overall. You offer a lot of different stem choices, a lot of colorful options, and the finishes all look very modern. So it's this really cool juxtaposition of staying true to the design language started by the Anglo-French but modern in terms of the finishes, color combinations, and overall quality. There's just nothing else like it in the world.

[PP]: No, and I especially like some of our smooth finishes. Without even knowing the brand, you can spot it, you know? If you really follow pipes and you see the contrast of how our smooths look and more of a classic traditional-looking shape, you're like, oh... that's BriarWorks.

[SI]: Before we move on, what's your favorite BriarWorks Classic model?

[PP]: I've always leaned toward the straight Classics. For smoking, honestly, I love our straight Bulldog and straight Apple. I have a smooth straight Apple that I made for myself as the prototype that I smoke all the time. I have it on this trip with me. I love the C13 for the look of it. It's actually a scaled-down version of our C12, which is a larger Billiard. But I love a good petite shape in a Classic. And it's funny how a little bit longer of a stem, as opposed to the C12 with a little bit more of a bend to it changes it from the aesthetic of an English classic to a French classic.

[SI]: If I recall correctly, was the C81 designed by Bill?

[PP]: Actually, no, that was one of mine. But I bet you're thinking of the C91, the bent Apple, by Bill Shalosky. I will also say that outside of my normal smoking preferences, the C111, I think, was a lot more common in English shape charts back in the day. But not a lot of people produce those shapes now. I feel like when we launched it, it sort of brought it back to life.

Moonshine Pipes

[SI]: It felt fresh. So you all took complete control of Moonshine around 2017?

[PP]: Yeah, I think it was that.

[SI]: Moonshine is one of the more interesting serially produced pipe brands that we've seen in the last 10 years. The reason I say that is because most brands have been around forever, way longer than we have been in this business, or their approach is totally different, with small workshops that might have a handful of carvers, but it's not really a true serial production of pipes. And the other thing about Moonshine that I find so interesting is the design language. And I want to talk about that a little bit. If you had to explain and summarize Moonshine as a brand, what would you say?

[PP]: Moonshine is definitely a very modern take on classics. It's playful, a little more tongue-in-cheek, and it's more fun than traditional. It's a little bit disjointed, but there's definitely more of a cohesive storyline with it in terms of the names and the branding and all of that.

[SI]: I feel like you guys have really honed in on a unique design language. Most pipes, particularly factory-made, serially produced pipes are still after like 150 years or more, nearly 200 years, still influenced so much by the original briar pipe designs from France and England back in the day. There's not a lot of new, fresh design language going on there.

Of course, in handmade pipes, we see that a little bit, but it's usually in a fanciful way that is literally impossible to produce in a factory setting, or nearly impossible. I guess you guys have done it a couple of times. Maybe that's another topic. But yeah, so that's one thing that I appreciate about Moonshine is that there are recognizable design elements, and almost all of it is a super fresh take on either stuff that's never existed or stuff that has existed in a very different iteration.

[PP]: Yeah, and for example, this is the long-stem version of the Devil Anse shape, but that started getting popular because of the Hatfield McCoy series and Kevin Costner. So we decided that Jonathan would do a Devil Anse shape. I definitely wanted to get it as close as I could to what you see him smoking on, like the front porch in the picture everybody references. And so we definitely looked at a lot of pictures of that and tried to zoom in and get the same size and proportions about right. That one took off immediately. It was huge.

[SI]: Is it still one of the most popular?

[PP]: Yeah, definitely. Another one, too, though, that I think is really unique because no one was doing it is the Devil Dog. It's that combination of a Rhodesian and a Bulldog, but with that cant of the Devil Anse. It looks a little bit like the Cutty. And I think that's a really cool, unique shape. That was kind of original to the Moonshine lineup. We've got the Stoker, which is the shorter version of our Patriot Poker. I think that Moonshine has been really good for pushing the boundaries a little bit.

[SI]: Yeah, I feel like you guys have been able to successfully integrate some of the design elements that we think of with American artisan carvers. Some of the buzzwords that get thrown around when you're talking about American artisan-made pipes are these muscular aesthetics, like the industrial design elements to them, with some exaggerated proportions and stuff, but not in the same way as the Neoclassic Italians did it. For example, the domed saddle has origins in Danish pipe making, post Sixten Ivarsson. You guys produce a number of shapes that have domed saddles. What was the first pipe in the Moonshine lineup? The Pot Still?

[PP]: Yeah. We did the Icarus Neptune stuff, and some domed saddles on some pieces like the Horn and a few others, but the Pot Still was probably the first. We might have done it with that bent Egg, the MS07. We've done different versions of that. Back then, we did more of a flared saddle. We've switched to the domed saddle with the bent Egg because It just looked really good with it.

[SI]: It's cool to see the flexibility that you guys have, because these are all made one by one. You have different stem options, shapes of the saddle, and finishes to collect. But yeah, the Pot Still, I think, was another extremely unique and distinctively American design. And then there was the Cannonball.

Moonshine's Cannonball and Grapeshot Pipes

[PP]: I think the Cannonball was a game-changer for Moonshine. At that point, we didn't have any BriarWorks Classics that were very large or had a bigger bowl that was muscular like that. Moonshine was more known for compact, petite, and smaller pipes.

[SI]: I don't think you were doing the long stem Anses at that point.

[PP]: No, we weren't. Everything was more compact. So when we launched the Cannonball, which was one that I designed out, it just took off, man. It's the best-selling Moonshine shape, for sure.

[SI]: That doesn't surprise me.

[PP]: It's one of those pipes that, when you look at it, has that modern artisan look to it but kind of nods to classic Peterson with the muscular transition. It has an iconic look to it now, which I think is really cool. I think we just wanted to introduce something that was bent and larger for that crowd, and it really took off. I didn't know that it was going to be the biggest thing we'd ever done for Moonshine, but it has been.

[SI]: That is another pipe that, from across the room, looks super modern with the black sandblast and the black stem compared to most of the other serially produced pipes out there.

[PP]: And then obviously we did the Grapeshot, which is the latest thing, and that brought back the more compact, petite design of Moonshine. We had a collector of our pipes and a customer come up to us at the Chicago pipe show and ask us, "Have you guys ever thought about doing a small version of this and calling it a Grapeshot?" We had talked about doing a smaller version, but we never thought about using the grapeshot reference in conjunction with Cannonball. So my response was, "Yeah, and I'm going to send you the first one we make." And I did.

[SI]: Yeah, that's awesome.

[PP]: I sent him one and, of course, had to give him props for that. And even when we put out the marketing materials for it, and when we initially launched it, we definitely talked about him helping us with that idea.

[SI]: I love that you guys were able to continue to release new models, not just in BriarWorks, but Moonshine specifically that do have that life. I think there are a lot of pipe smokers out there over the last 10 years, maybe a little bit more, that had gotten into the hobby at a time when this renaissance of pipes, pipe making, and tobacco was picking back up.

Moonshine's Influence On Newcomers

[SI]: Historically, in the face of the cigar boom, particularly in the '90s and up until the early 2000s, cigars had gained so much popularity in premium tobacco that pipes weren't getting a ton of love or innovation, and we've seen that change dramatically over the past two decades.

I think Moonshine's been a really interesting part of that. I think we can absolutely credit Moonshine with bringing a lot of new smokers to the hobby, especially in the mid '20 teens. In your early days, there were a lot of people who got into this because they saw something fresh.

[PP]: I appreciate you saying that. I do think that this brand has a different reach, you know? You've got your traditional smokers, classic pipe smokers, and newcomers. Crediting Jonathan with the early marketing and everything, he was really good at bringing in people. And then we kind of continued that and added more shapes to the brand. It has a more modern and youthful branding that is a lot of fun, and I think it probably brings a lot of people into the hobby.

[SI]: It did bring a lot of people into the hobby. I think the most important part is that if you're drawn to Moonshine because of the design language, the fresh look, and novel shapes that you don't really find anywhere else, the quality is also such that the people who get into it through a pipe like Moonshine will stay in the hobby. They're going to get a good smoke right out. Honestly, for those of us who started with basket pipes and stuff like that, you're getting so much better of a first impression with Moonshine pipes.

[PP]: A lot of people drop out of pipes immediately because they have such a horrible experience.

[SI]: We owe a lot to the Moonshine brand as a hobby because it has been able to ring in and retain a lot of people who may not otherwise have been stoked about whatever classic pipe they saw.

Moonshine's New Release: Hillbilly Pipes

[SI]: I'm curious because it's been a little while since Grapeshot came out. What do you guys have coming soon, anything?

[PP]: Actually, I have a little tease. So the pipe that I'm smoking right now is one I actually made for myself. I've been smoking this for a few years now. I take it everywhere. And people often will ask me, "Oh, what is that?" And I say, "Well it's one I kind of made from our factory stuff and put together. It's just a little hodge-podge Petite Straight Billiard." It's my size, my style. They're like, "Man, I wish you guys would make that a factory pipe because I want one. It's really cool."

The next Moonshine pipe that we're actually working on and getting ready to start producing and put out there is going to be this shape. It's a little Petite Straight Billiard and it's going to be called the Moonshine Hillbilly, available on Saturday, September 21.

[SI]: That's amazing. The proportions are so cool. It's the perfect size to keep in your pocket or bag on-the-go.

[PP]: I always have it when I'm traveling.

[SI]: I need to get a Hillbilly too.

[PP]: Let me tell you a quick story about the name that's kind of funny. The guys at the shop love to make fun of me for this. They will always comment on how I stumble upon an idea and I just light up and get really excited about it.

[SI]: It's the first Billiard in the Moonshine line, right?

[PP]: Yes. We have a lot of bent pipes or pipes with a little bit of a curve. And even the ones that are all straight, they're all canted. We were discussing it and saying, "You know what, yeah, it should definitely be a Moonshine pipe. That makes the most sense, it should be a Moonshine." And then I go, "Moonshine Hillbilly." It's a little Petite Billiard. And Bill was like, "Yes, that's it. That is absolutely it." I got so excited.

[SI]: I'm so excited about it, too; it's going to be awesome. Pete, thank you so much for coming. Good to see you, brother.

[PP]: So good to see you.

[SI]: And yeah, keep doing what you guys are doing. For everybody out there, mark your calendars around March 14-16, 2025, for the Muletown Pipe Show in Columbia, Tennessee. You cannot miss it. If you do one pipe show all year, that's the one. Come out and see us.

[PP]: It's going to be a great time. We've got lots of other carvers that'll be there, and if you're a collector, there will be lots of great stuff to look at if you want to add to your collection. Of course there will also be good food and drinks, so it'll be a great time.

[SI]: The show for many years has been super close to my birthday. This year. It's on my birthday. We're going to go hard. See you there.