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Home Brewing Is Legal, And Home Distilling Should Be Too
The Federalist ^ | 09/06/2017 | C. Jarrett Dieterle

Posted on 09/06/2017 8:19:52 PM PDT by ForYourChildren

Treating home distilling as illegal makes little sense, given that homebrewing and wine making have been legal at the federal level since 1978.

In the aftermath of its failure to pass a health-care overhaul, Congress appears poised to turn to tax reform. While income and corporate tax rates will likely garner most of the attention, alcohol producers are also hoping for changes to booze taxes. Specifically, brewer, vintners, and distillers have been pushing on Capitol Hill for the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which would lower federal excise taxes on alcohol.

Despite attracting nearly 300 co-sponsors in the House and more than 50 in the Senate, the bill has failed to get a vote in recent sessions of Congress. There’s renewed hope for the act this year—perhaps as part of a larger tax overhaul—but the current version of the bill is missing a key feature of previous iterations: the legalization of home distilling. Whereas the 2015 version of the act included a provision that would have permitted distillation of up to 24 proof gallons per year for personal consumption, that provision has been stripped from the new version of the bill.

Americans Can Already Brew Some Kinds of Alcohol

Treating home distilling as illegal makes little sense, given that homebrewing and wine making have been legal at the federal level since 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed legislation allowing Americans to produce limited amounts of beer and wine for personal consumption. Nearly 40 years later, many beer industry analysts have argued that Carter’s home brewing reform was a key factor in the meteoric rise of the craft beer movement.

{..snip..}

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: breweries; deregulation; distilleries; homebrewing; revenuers
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To: TexasGator

Maybe I’ll start breeding and training seeing eye dogs for the blind drunks.


21 posted on 09/06/2017 8:51:15 PM PDT by gundog (Hail to the Chief, bitches.)
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To: ForYourChildren
I love the economics of the old time moonshiners. Get 69¢/bushel for shelled corn or turn it into shine and get $3.50/bushel.
22 posted on 09/06/2017 8:51:27 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Boomer

Deer corn is 5 bucks for 30 pounds at WalMart. Just satin’.


23 posted on 09/06/2017 8:54:06 PM PDT by gundog (Hail to the Chief, bitches.)
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To: ForYourChildren

As long as you get a federal permit it is legal to distill large amounts of alcohol for fuel IF your state allows it. I doubt that they can catch you if you skim a little off the top for your personal consumption.


24 posted on 09/06/2017 8:59:47 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: Karl Spooner

“As long as you get a federal permit..”

A what?!??!


25 posted on 09/06/2017 9:03:07 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: Karl Spooner

“As long as you get a federal permit..”

That is illegal.

It is a violation of constitutional law - the constitution.


26 posted on 09/06/2017 9:04:18 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: ForYourChildren

IIRC, you just need to discard the heads and tails and it’s safe to drink the rest. Methanol poisoning was more prevalent during prohibition era when unscrupulous distillers would sell anything and call it booze. you can also distill wine into high proof booze at home by putting the wine in a stainless steel stock pot with a stainless steel mixing bowl floating in it it and another stainless steel mixing bowl filled with ice sitting on top of the stock pot as a lid. as you gently heat the wine up on the oven, the alcohol condenses on the bottom of the ice filled bowl and drips into the floating mixing bowl. you then remove the ice filled “lid” every so often and pour the alcohol into a sealable jar or bottle. you end up with a clear spirit of around 90 proof. you discard the heads and tails. this technique is nice because there is no actual still to get you in trouble and you can easily make a gallon of 90 proof in an evening. it takes lots of ice though.


27 posted on 09/06/2017 9:08:08 PM PDT by RC one (The 2nd Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances)
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To: ForYourChildren

McConnell, (R)KY; lots of Bourbon distilleries in KY. Hmmm.


28 posted on 09/06/2017 9:15:04 PM PDT by libertylover (Inhabitants of Earth with any freedom probably have the USA to thank.)
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To: RC one

Bkmk


29 posted on 09/06/2017 9:18:36 PM PDT by Mama Shawna
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To: ForYourChildren

I think George Washington imposed a tax on distilling alcohol. Whiskey Rebellion or something like that. I would imagine that involved some sort of permit, too.


30 posted on 09/06/2017 9:19:08 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: RC one

“discard the heads and tails”

How do you know how much to discard? 1/2 the batch? 1/4 the batch? 2 tablespoons?

How do you know?


31 posted on 09/06/2017 9:20:31 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: ForYourChildren

Well Gooolly!!
took 40 years but we finally found sumthin carter did right


32 posted on 09/06/2017 9:21:09 PM PDT by aumrl (let's keep it real Conservatives)
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To: Karl Spooner

“I think George Washington imposed a tax on distilling alcohol. Whiskey Rebellion or something like that. I would imagine that involved some sort of permit, too.”

That is for amounts that they were going to sell. Not personal consumption.


33 posted on 09/06/2017 9:21:25 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: Bullish

They also don’t want people poisoning themselves. The first 10% or so of distillation is seriously not good for you.

Regulating & heavily taxing hard liquors was practically the first such laws in this country. Look up “Whiskey Rebellion”; we’ve been arguing over this for centuries.


34 posted on 09/06/2017 9:22:40 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (It's not "white privilege", it's "Puritan work ethic". Behavior begets consequences.)
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To: ctdonath2

“Regulating & heavily taxing hard liquors was practically the first such laws in this country. Look up “Whiskey Rebellion”; we’ve been arguing over this for centuries.”

for selling - not personal consumption!


35 posted on 09/06/2017 9:23:40 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: ForYourChildren

If you want to make your own guns, you can.

But, using the same principle that people want to use here, then all the feds have to do is put some sort of tax on guns, which would make your ownership illegal.


36 posted on 09/06/2017 9:25:21 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: ForYourChildren

With the yeasts they got today there really no need to distill, imo. Just treat it like wine in clearing and you got pretty good 40 proof liquor.


37 posted on 09/06/2017 9:34:04 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: Boomer

“Then I thought about all the sugar it would require and realized the sugar would probably be even more valuable as a bartering item.”

Ethanol can be made from many more things other than sugar.


38 posted on 09/06/2017 9:44:11 PM PDT by varyouga
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To: ForYourChildren
It would depend on how much you're making. definitely not half the batch or even a quarter of the batch.

A simple rule of thumb for this is to throw away the first 50 mL (reflux still) you collect (per 20 L mash There are books that give more details. I haven't thought about it in a long time personally.

39 posted on 09/06/2017 9:53:31 PM PDT by RC one (The 2nd Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances)
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To: ForYourChildren
That is for amounts that they were going to sell. Not personal consumption

Not exactly. Not much has changed. Good luck.

Whiskey Rebellion:
"Hence many farmers and small-businessmen found themselves taxed on the capacity of their stills, which included the amounts of whiskey they consumed personally,"

https://dailyreckoning.com/the-whiskey-rebellion-whiskey-taxes-the-real-thing/

40 posted on 09/06/2017 9:53:34 PM PDT by Karl Spooner
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