Alaska tanks hold six bottles of poit?n way up north perhaps (8)

'bottles of poit?n way up north perhaps' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'alaska tanks hold six' is the wordplay.
'alaska' becomes 'ak' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'tanks' becomes 'vats' (I've seen this before).
'hold' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'six' becomes 'vi' ('vi' can be a synonym of 'six').
'vats' enclosing 'vi' is 'vavits'.
'ak'+'vavits'='AKVAVITS'

Can you help me to learn more?