Making Whiskey from scratch is not as difficult as it sounds, but there is the slight problem that it is illegal in the USA and Canada. If you’re interested in legally making whiskey (with quality equal to better than Jack Daniel’s) but don’t care about distilling the alcohol yourself I suggest you read my article: How to Make Homemade Whiskey. This article is presented only for educational purposes and it is strongly recommended that you check with the BATF or your local government about acquiring the legal permits necessary for distilling alcohol.
So here’s what you’re going to need to make whiskey:
Malt and Brewers Yeast OR Cheap Malt Liquor
A Crockpot
1 Gallon Glass Jug (Jug wine anyone?)
A Rubber or Cork Stopper
6 Feet 1/4″ copper tubing
A Food Thermometer
Charred Strips of Oak (More on this later….)
If you aren’t experienced with making beer, I suggest you start with cheap malt liquor. If you’re experienced mix enough malt and water to make 2 gallons of 10% ABV beer without any hops and pitch yeast, ferment and secondary ferment as usual-no need to rack to bottles.
When choosing an appropriate cheap malt liquor, look for something without hops (or as little as possible) that you like the taste of. Most of the taste will be gone, but there may still be a hint of it in your whiskey so just something you like. You’re going to need two gallons of it or about 6 40oz bottles. Pour 1 gallon into the glass jug.
Drill or poke two holes in the rubber or cork stopper. One hole should be just large enough that the sensor or the thermometer fits tightly in it, the other hold should be just large enough for the copper tubing to fit tightly in it. When I say tight, I really mean it needs to be tight. Insert the thermometer and the tubing through the stopper so they can stick 1/2 inch into the glass jug. Stopper the jug and place it in the crockpot.
Carefully wind the copper coil around the crockpot. There must be no kinks and it must always be going at a downward slope. You need to set this up in such a way that the alcohol will drip from the coil end into a container. Setting the crock pot on a couple books and just using a glass jar to collect the distilled alcohol would likely work.
Turn on the crockpot and set it to a low temperature. You will need to check it frequently at first to see the temperature of the thermometer. Ideally you want the thermometer a few degrees below boiling (100 C or 212 F) 95 C is a good temp.
You will start to see lots of condensation in the jug and liquid will eventually start dripping out of the coil. VERY IMPORTANT: THROW AWAY THE FIRST 1/4 CUP OF DISTILLED ALCOHOL THAT COMES OUT. This is called the “heads” and it contains small amounts of methanol (which is poisonous) as well as other volatile compounds. Although 1 gallon of malt liquor doesn’t contain enough methanol to make you go blind or seriously hurt you, it will hurt the taste-not to mention seriously intensify your hangover if you should drink too much whiskey.
After throwing away the first 1/4 cup continue distilling until you have enough whisky to fill a wine bottle a little under half full. Dump out the jug and refill it with the rest of the malt liquor. Repeat the process above and you should have a wine bottle nearly full with distilled alcohol. If your temperature was constant you will have a quite strong alcohol. You may or may not want to consider diluting it, but I advise just leaving the whiskey strong.
Now you need to make charred oak strips unless you happen to have a charred oak barrel laying around. This process is well explained in my other article: How to Make Homemade Whiskey. Follow the procedure for making the oak planks and then drop 1-3 in your bottle of whiskey.
The whiskey will need to be aged for quite a long time with the oak planks in it. After 1 month it will have an appropriate color of whiskey, but will taste like charcoal. The charcoal taste will slowly fade away and the familiar taste of whisky will become more prevalent. Ideally you should wait at least a year before drinking it, but it will certainly be drinkable after 6 months. Give the bottles a turn every couple weeks. It’s best to store them in a cool shady spot, laying on their side with a wooden cork.
Have fun and drink responsibly!
