- 1). Buy the biggest copper pot with a lid that you can find. How much alcohol you can get out of a batch of mash can vary with the grain recipe, but a good predictor is only 3 quarts of 40 percent alcohol whiskey per 5 gallons of mash. To make a substantial amount of whiskey, you will need the biggest pot you can get.
- 2). Use the drill and reciprocating saw to cut a hole in the lid big enough to fit the rubber stopper. This stopper needs to be big enough so that it can accomodate both a thermometer and the copper tubing that will be added later.
- 3). Solder the lid to the pot, so that it is permanently attached and completely sealed. You can test this by fitting the stopper, boiling some water in the pot, and seeing if any steam escapes through the seals. This is now your "kettle."
- 4). Take the copper tubing and bend the central three feet into a coil. A handy way of doing this is to use a clamp for better grip, and bend it around an old glass soda bottle. The extra foot and a half on either end are needed for insertion into the kettle and a water carboy. The tubing can be longer if need be, but consider six feet a minimum.
- 5). Use the drill and a pocket knife to cut openings in the rubber stopper for the thermometer and the copper tubing, and then insert these parts. Both need to go through the rubber stopper, extending out to the other side, but the fit will need to be very tight so that as much of a seal forms around these parts as possible. If you cut too much away, you can shore up the seal by caulking the outsides of the openings around the tubing and thermometer. Do not caulk the inside.
- 6). Cut a hole in the lid or cap of the water carboy to fit the other end of the copper tubing. Unlike the kettle, this fit need not be a perfect seal, but it should not be so loose that the tube will slide out.
- 7). Set the kettle outdoors and on a campfire stand.
- 8). Bend the copper tubing down, and insert it into the water carboy. The whiskey still is now complete.
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