Bartender Ashley Jobes mixes a cocktail in the Prohibition Bar at the Copper Shot Distillery in Bastrop. The bar uses pre-Prohibition era recipes to mix with the distillery’s whiskey, moonshine, and rum. The main bar that faces Main Street is in an 1836 building that served as the town’s first firehouse. The Cigar Lounge is in the building that housed the fire department’s horses with the firemen sleeping upstairs. The original fireman’s pole is now the footrest on the bar back in the main bar. Credit: GERALD E. McLEOD

Copper Shot Distillery harvests every drop of rain it can to make its smooth Texas whiskey and moonshine. This year the Bastrop craft distillery turns 10 years old. 

The groundwater is too hard to make whiskey, says Steve Todee, who runs the distillery with his wife Cheri. Instead, they catch the rain off the roofs of the buildings that make up the bar, cigar lounge, stillhouse, and an outdoor porch. 

The bar facing Main Street is a cozy drinking establishment in Bastrop’s first firehouse. Teardrop-shaped glass containers holding aging spirits hang from the ceiling. The white oak barrels of aging whiskey sit on the pet-friendly covered porch.

Steve says the barrels, which come from a cooperage in Blanco, are stacked end-to-end instead of on their sides to reduce the angel’s share. In the hot, humid Texas climate, evaporation claims a greater share than at northern distilleries. The flip side is Texas whiskeys mature faster.

Off the backyard shaded by a 250-year-old pecan tree is the C&S Cigar Lounge. This is a man cave extraordinaire with a large humidor and overstuffed chairs. 

The covered patio behind the Copper Shot Distillery’s main bar doubles as the barrelhouse. The whiskey ages in barrels made at Standard Cooperage in Blanco. The distillery uses local ingredients as much as possible. The Honey Whiskey is made with honey from a local beekeeper, and the Pecan Whiskey is flavored with nuts from the distillery’s own 250-year-old pecan tree. Credit: GERALD E. McLEOD

The Prohibition Bar in the Cigar Lounge makes top-shelf cocktails with recipes from the 1920s. The old-fashioned Old Fashioneds are a little more expensive, but you can taste the difference.  

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Steve came to distilling from the oil refinery business. The challenging part, he says, was learning the fermentation process. After nine years of making “bathtub” whiskey at home, he went professional. 

His small-batch moonshine, an unaged corn whiskey, is a 100-proof clear liquid without the burn of straight white lightning. His whiskey is 100-proof amber liquid gold. With the addition of local honey, both become deliciously medicinal. 

Copper Shot Distillery is at 809 Main Street in Bastrop. The bar and cigar lounge are open daily. The distillery hosts free live music on weekends.

Steve Todee began making whiskey at home nearly 20 years ago. A former engineer with an oil refinery, he built his own stills. That was the easy part, he says; learning the fermentation process was the real challenge. Copper Shot Distillery is one of the few craft distilleries that goes from grain to glass rather than flavoring alcohol someone else made. Credit: GERALD E. McLEOD

1,831st in a series. Everywhere is a day trip from somewhere. Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/day-trips.

This article appears in November 6 • 2026.

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Gerald E. McLeod joined the Chronicle staff in November 1980 as a graphic designer. In April 1991 he began writing the “Day Trips” column. Besides the weekly travel column, he contributed “101 Swimming Holes,” “Guide to Central Texas Barbecue,” and “Guide to the Texas Hill Country.” His first 200 columns have been published in Day Trips Vol. I and Day Trips Vol. II.